The BEST Item You've Invested in this Hobby that's under $50?

[cprfan]

dti406

My sprue nippers, greatest investment I ever made!

Don't need any optivisor!!

Rick Jesionowski

 

 

I used to tease my father about being old and needing an Optivisor. Now, I'm 55, he's passed on but I still have his Optivisor and use it constantly. He's laughing at me, I know he is. 

[FRRYKid]

Lastspikemike

The cost of this hobby sometimes makes me wonder how some afford to eat and play trains....

WIth me, I have a very good job that helps. The company I work for has a good profit sharing and had also paid a fair amount in lump sums to its employees.

I also try to limit what I buy to a card that I had a small part of my paycheck deposited to. (Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. As to the doesn't, a $60+ freight car I decided I needed and I also bought a boxcar via FB that I probably didn't need but could use. I have 200+ pieces of rolling stock and I have more rolling stock than I do track to put it on. As for the does, just had funds put on it yesterday and they are already gone for a package of styrene to finish a bridge and some Scultamold to landscape a new hill.)

[Trainman440]

[deleted]

[SeeYou190]

gmpullman

Shucks! Wish I would have known. I tossed three of them out a few weeks ago. Couldn't give 'em away.

I'm just banging my head again.

-Kevin

[Darth Santa Fe]

NWSL Puller.  So many of my projects would've gone nowhere without it!

[pt714]

IRONROOSTER

The two things I have used for my entire 50 years in the hobby are an xacto knife set and flat sided toothpicks.

All the other things listed in this thread are great also, and I have added most of them over the years.  In fact I have a Craftsman rolling tool cart with 5 drawers just for my hobby tools - not that they all fit 

But in a pinch, I could do the hobby with just the knife set and the toothpicks.

Paul 

 

 

This was the first thought that crossed my mind as well, the item I use every single day I am doing any modeling work is my Xacto with a fresh #11 blade. Less than $10 but I would not ever be without it, consider the other $40 spent on packs of fresh blades.

 

Phil

[gmpullman]

SeeYou190

I have been looking for one for many months,

Shucks! Wish I would have known. I tossed three of them out a few weeks ago 

Couldn't give 'em away.

Sorry, Ed

[SeeYou190]

IDRick

The best choice under $50 purchase for me...  Aristo-Craft Train Engineer, provided walk-around control of trains with a DC system. <SNIP> Sadly, they are only available on ebay these days...

I have been looking for one for many months, and they go for a lot more than $50.00 now!

-Kevin

[IDRick]

Not for everybody but was the best choice under $50 purchase for me...  Aristo-Craft Train Engineer, provided walk-around control of trains with a DC system.  As a solo operator with a small layout, it was the perfect choice for walk-around operation.  IMO, given the high cost of startup in model railroading, the AC Train Engineer (plus price of power pack) is an excellent choice for modelers on a budget versus a 5 to 10x higher investment in a dcc system.  Trains can be operated sooner on a small budget, important if kids are part of the equation, and not so expensive that it can't be set aside for newer technology as funds allow.  Sadly, they are only available on ebay these days...

[Trainman440]

Thanks for all the replies everyone! Some very interesting products I most definently need to check out.

My personal choice is the Kadee height gauge, for the longest time I didnt see the point in buying one, but now that all my cars have adjusted coupler heights, the elimination of accidental decoupling incidents now just makes the hobby that much more enjoyable!

[oldline1]

A great question and so many great answers. Every one is valid.

For me I have 2 indispensible items. One would be my full set of screwdrivers I picked up at a train show about 1974. Five sizes of Phillips, 5 straightslots and 3 each hex and Allen heads. I think it was about $8 back then.

My other vital item is my airbrush from Harbor Freight for $13. It's virtually a clone of the Badger 150 and so far has held up just as well for many dollars less.

oldline1

 

[SeeYou190]

ModelTrain

I have been using my special magnifying glasses a lot. I suggest to take a look to this product:

Hi Stef. It looks like you were trying to post a link, but it did not work.

Making clickable links work in here is a bit of a trick.

Fancii Illuminated Headband

-Kevin

[ModelTrain]

I am new to the hobby but in the last weeks, I have been using my special magnifying glasses a lot. I suggest to take a look to this product:

Fancii Headband LED Illuminated Head Magnifier Visor

[IRONROOSTER]

The two things I have used for my entire 50 years in the hobby are an xacto knife set and flat sided toothpicks.

All the other things listed in this thread are great also, and I have added most of them over the years.  In fact I have a Craftsman rolling tool cart with 5 drawers just for my hobby tools - not that they all fit 

But in a pinch, I could do the hobby with just the knife set and the toothpicks.

Paul 

[TheFlyingScotsman]

Very small very sharp very pointy Fiskars scissors and some of the other ones previously mentioned 

[FRRYKid]

richhotrain

What would be more interesting is the list of tools that you rely upon for certain tasks like laying track, wiring signals, installing decoders, installing locomotive lighting, building structures, etc.

Rich 

For the most part, it's still the same with a few additions.

• The tack hammer for the track.
• The clamps for building benchwork.
• The pliers for wiring.
• The hot knife for scenery.
• A blender used my making scenery components. (Ground foam and scenery base which is just ground up newsprint.) Not used for food at all.
• My Dremel tools. Normally those would be over the $50 threshold but my cordless one was under $50 new IMS and the corded one was like $25 as I got it when a local business was bought out by a statewide chain and they were cleaning out the backroom so to speak. (Early 90s IMS.) Full case, accesories and everything.
• Multiple sets of micro screwdrivers.
• 18V cordless drills and metal index of numbered drill bit #60 to #1.
• Hobby knives.
• Pencil cup full of paintbrushes as I don't own an airbrush.
• Foam cradle
• Probably a bunch more i've forgotten but you get the idea.

[richhotrain]

This is an interesting thread, but it is near impossible to identify the best item that you have invested in for under $50.

What would be more interesting is the list of tools that you rely upon for certain tasks like laying track, wiring signals, installing decoders, installing locomotive lighting, building structures, etc.

For me, just off the top of my head are Optivisor, foam cradle, rail snippers, set of hobby screwdrivers, soldering iron, heat shrink tubing, Kapton Tape, and on and on and on. In other words, what is your list, your tool box, of indispensable tools.

Rich

[micktropolis]

I'd say the NCE USB interface. Being able to program locomotives through JMRI has been a game changer for me. Now I can have some ability to change the functions of Soundtraxx, TCS, Paragon, etc to at least be somewhat similar (i.e. waterfill on function 11, grade crossing whistle at function 4). Trying to do that just through the CVs was incredibly time consuming. 

The best part is, I had some store credit from the shop I bought it from, so it only ended up costing around $10. 

[FRRYKid]

I actally have a few.

One: As I nail down my track, for me, it would be my tack hammer. The first one I has was a freebie from my now late maternal grandmother. The current one cost I think $10 or so.

Two: Either pair of my electrician's pliers. I can use them to cut and strip wires and crimp electrical connectors. (Although a good chuck of the time anymore I just use my teeth to strip wire.) As I have a sectional layout, I designed the wiring to be able to separate with quick disconnects if the sections need to move. (Hopefully they won't ever have to again as some of those sections have moved twice already.)

Three: These were a freebie as well but they were my late father's. A complete set of Craftsman framing clamps. Very nice when building rectangular benchwoork.

Four & Five: My hot knife and my hack saw. Handy when carving styrofoam when building hills. (Working on an extension to an existing hill for a removable staging/inerchange yard.)

[hon30critter]

This is probably a stupid answer, but the best investment I made in model railroading was actually free. It is a small slot screwdriver that I received decades ago as part of a promotion. It has a small magnet in the top of the handle which has come in handy many times, but the real reason that I am mentioning something so mundane is that I seem to use it almost every time I am at the workbench. It fits 2-56 screws nicely, but using it on screws is only a small part of its functionality. It it perfect for mixing and applying epoxy or applying solder flux, and it works great for spreading car bodies apart to remove the frames. I could go on and on.

Dave

[Little Timmy]

For me, I have to say my pin- vice.

( sorry, I had to hyphenate that word... stupid auto correct!!)

Anyways, I find this one tool INDISPENSABLE !!! 

( I now have 5 of them in various sizes, and, they sometimes do double duty because the different "chuck"  sizes can be fitted to my dremel as well.)

My 20 some  sets of tweezers run a close second .

 

[Track fiddler]

N Scale Train Boy

a pair of reverse-action tweezers. The tweezers I had never even thought of until I saw and bought them at a show, and now I use it so frequently I wouldn't know what to do without them! 

 

I used the wrong terminology in my post.  That was exactly what I was talking about Dennis.  I love my reverse action tweezers for many things.  But I have learned not to use them to hold tiny pieces while I'm detail painting them.  When one of those tiny pieces flip out of the tweezers, I've seen them fly as far as eight feet across the room and never find it again

 

 

 

 

 

 

TF

[Doug the Trainman]

richhotrain

 dti406

Don't need any optivisor!!

 Nearsightedness be damned! If you have never used an Optivisor, you simply don't know what you are missing.

 

Rich

 

 

If you are nearsighted, at least as much as I used to be, you don't need an optivisor. I was so nearsighted all my life that my focal distance was about 3" from my nose. I could take my glasses off and see everything up close in perfect detail. After I had cataract surgery a little bit more than a year ago I cannot do that anymore.The closest I can focus is about 3 feet. I use reading glasses with a 2 1/2 diopter correction for reading now. Even with that, I cannot focus on anything close up now, so now I do use the optivisor I bought many years ago. I also have a magnifying light mounted on my work bench, and a couple of jeweler's loups. These things all get used in one combination or another to see really close up detail.

[N Scale Train Boy]

Probably for me either a good, multi-brightness level headlamp or a pair of reverse-action tweezers. The tweezers I had never even thought of until I saw and bought them at a show, and now I use it so frequently I wouldn't know what to do without them! And the headlamp is vital to seeing all the details regardless of when/where I am working, with the brightness levels helping to adjust to different models and avoid glare! A close next would be a good set of X-Acto blades and handles.

[Paul3]

Sorry, can't pick just one:

Micro-Mark Coupler Gauge - Far superior to the Kadee couple height gauge.  Either the coupler fits between the bars or it doesn't.  No moving parts, you can drop it and not damage it, your cars/locos don't couple up to it, etc.  And it's just $11.

Micro-Mark Spring Grabber - The best darn knuckle and truck spring applicator in the hobby.  Way better than anything Kadee makes.  It's all-metal and the ball knob on the end that grabs the spring is a solid piece.  It's just $9.

Flex-I-File Touch-N-Flow Glue Applicator System - This has changed how I build models and the results are superb.  Before, I was never a big user of super-thin liquid glue; it just didn't hold well compared to the thicker glues I was used to, and getting it to flow where I wanted and not all over the model was a challenge.  The Touch-N-Flow is a glass tube with a blunt metal needle tip; you attach a plastic squeeze bottle to the glass, suck up the glue, detach the bottle, then you apply the glue to the model with it's ultra fine tip.  I have built a number of Red Caboose, InterMountain, and Branchline-level high-end kits with this system, and it works like a charm.  I have vastly reduced the gluing errors I made with the thicker glues.  And it is $22 with the applicator, squeeze bottle, and a bottle of liquid cement included.

Microbrushes - The disposable brushes are available in regular, fine, and ultrafine.  A pack of 25 brushes are just $6.

Sanding Sticks - Available in multiple grits, a 5-grit package with three sticks each are just $5.

[SeeYou190]

A bright work bench light.

Absolutely!

I miss my workbench.

-Kevin

[richhotrain]

dti406

Don't need any optivisor!!

Nearsightedness be damned! If you have never used an Optivisor, you simply don't know what you are missing.

Rich

[richhotrain]

tstage

If I were to go with one thing...it would be an Optivisor.   

That makes two of us.

Rich

[richhotrain]

trwroute

Dinner for my wife.  This allows me to spend more time in my train room. 

Wait!  You spent under $50 on dinner for your wife?  And, she still allows you to spend more time in your train room??  Shame on you. 

Rich