Lady Trains wrote:I was wondering if anyone can tell me if you can purchase pre-fab benchwork? I'm not very good at working with wood and I don't have the tools and equipment to build my own.
You might try here: http://www.miannebenchwork.com/ . It comes pre-cut and is screwdriver assembly.
There's another place, too, but I can't recall its name.
Edit:
Just remembered. It's Sievers. Here's their website: http://www.sieversbenchwork.com/
Andre
welcome !! maybe you acan find someone off the site that lives close and woould be willing to give you a hand building bench work.
ray
There are some custom builders out there that will build your benchwork for you, but that can be pricey... A nice alternative is the Woodland Scenics Mod-U-Rail system. As far as I know (I haven't tried it myself), everything's pre-cut. You just need to put it together.
Good luck and welcome!
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
Lynda wrote: Hello, and welcome, Lady Trains!You've sure found a good place because I think all the model railroading knowledge and experience is vectored on this one place.I live in Omaha (UP country), but I'm a Pacific Northwest native; so, I'm a Great Northern freak - put a goat on it and I like it!Again, welcome, and don't be a stranger.Lynda
Hello, and welcome, Lady Trains!
You've sure found a good place because I think all the model railroading knowledge and experience is vectored on this one place.
I live in Omaha (UP country), but I'm a Pacific Northwest native; so, I'm a Great Northern freak - put a goat on it and I like it!
Again, welcome, and don't be a stranger.
Lynda
gear-jammer wrote: You will make a lot of friends with this addiction. I have found lots of help here on the forum. We started with steam era, but by modeling the 40's, we could add some diesels. My favorite sound locomotives are steam. Since we live in the Northwest, we are modeling mainly Northern Pacific. Have you determined your road name yet?How much space do you have for your layout? If you want some of those longer passenger cars, you will need room for larger radius curves.Lisap is at Whistle Stop.Sue
You will make a lot of friends with this addiction. I have found lots of help here on the forum.
We started with steam era, but by modeling the 40's, we could add some diesels. My favorite sound locomotives are steam. Since we live in the Northwest, we are modeling mainly Northern Pacific. Have you determined your road name yet?
How much space do you have for your layout? If you want some of those longer passenger cars, you will need room for larger radius curves.
Lisap is at Whistle Stop.
Sue
Texas Zepher wrote: Lady Trains wrote:I'm searching for any advise and information that I can get. My interest is HO scale, post ww2, passenger trains & freight.The limiting thing in this list is going to be the passenger trains.Passenger cars are often unique to a railroad. If nothing else the paint schemes are RR specific. This will either limit the location or area being modeled or the RR. Some places have several Railroads passenger equipment operating on it. I personally decided to start modeling the Great Northern Railroad just because of the color of their passenger equipment, but I can pull it with CB&Q (Burlington Route) locomotives because it ran that way between St. Paul and Chicago.Post WWII there was a boom of streamlined equipment that was mostly 85' long. Good models of these kinds of cars require larger curves to operate well. On the other hand there are some really nice cars being produced in plastic that used to be available only in brass (expensive). BLI company has cars for the California Zephyr. Walthers has made/is making cars for the Super Chief and Empire Builder.Also on the "good" side. Railroads operated the heavy weight equipment (pre WWII) into the early 1960's. The Santa Fe ran a mixed train daily from Wichita to Pratt Kansas that had an 1890's style coach assigned. So by choosing a location carefully passenger trains with short cars can still fit into the post WWII era.
Lady Trains wrote:I'm searching for any advise and information that I can get. My interest is HO scale, post ww2, passenger trains & freight.
Passenger cars are often unique to a railroad. If nothing else the paint schemes are RR specific. This will either limit the location or area being modeled or the RR. Some places have several Railroads passenger equipment operating on it. I personally decided to start modeling the Great Northern Railroad just because of the color of their passenger equipment, but I can pull it with CB&Q (Burlington Route) locomotives because it ran that way between St. Paul and Chicago.
Post WWII there was a boom of streamlined equipment that was mostly 85' long. Good models of these kinds of cars require larger curves to operate well. On the other hand there are some really nice cars being produced in plastic that used to be available only in brass (expensive). BLI company has cars for the California Zephyr. Walthers has made/is making cars for the Super Chief and Empire Builder.
Also on the "good" side. Railroads operated the heavy weight equipment (pre WWII) into the early 1960's. The Santa Fe ran a mixed train daily from Wichita to Pratt Kansas that had an 1890's style coach assigned. So by choosing a location carefully passenger trains with short cars can still fit into the post WWII era.
delta1 wrote: Welcome to the wonderful world of trains. I think I am in the same spot, i to have not done anything with trains in many many years, got the "bug" about a year ago and am now planning on getting things done. I am into the smaller stuff "N" gauge. Love it and yes there is more and more of it out there now, maybe just maybe it will over take "HO". Read up on what ever you can before you start out, I think that is one of the best advise anyone can give in this hobby. GOOD LUCK
DigitalGriffin wrote: Dear Lady, Any particular size layout or scale in mind? That will help determine if you will be doing a city layout or country layout. Smaller 4x8' layouts should be country layouts. City layouts, while beautiful, tend to involve complicated switch track layouts and use a lot of space.
Dear Lady,
Any particular size layout or scale in mind? That will help determine if you will be doing a city layout or country layout. Smaller 4x8' layouts should be country layouts. City layouts, while beautiful, tend to involve complicated switch track layouts and use a lot of space.
forton wrote: Welcome, and above all else have fun! dj
Welcome,
and above all else have fun!
dj
ndbprr wrote:Eventually you will decide to model either a city that has trains from railroads you like stopping at their Union Station or a particular railroad. Then you need to decide what you can model in the space you have available which is never enough and a scale to do what you want. So my advice is to first start reading books and looking at pictures so you can develop what one of the late great model railroad planners John Armstrong called "givens and druthers". Givens are the things that must absolutely be included at all costs and the druthers are the areas you will want to compromise. Welcome to a great hobby.
Pathfinder wrote: I will add in my Welcome as well.All good advise above and do not worry about posting "stupid" questions, there are no "stupid" questions. All are valid and you will get a great response here to them.Best of luck!Oh, and to add one more to selctors 2 (or 3) good choices, you picked the right hobby
I will add in my Welcome as well.
All good advise above and do not worry about posting "stupid" questions, there are no "stupid" questions. All are valid and you will get a great response here to them.
Best of luck!
Oh, and to add one more to selctors 2 (or 3) good choices, you picked the right hobby
SpaceMouse wrote: Welcome.Along with Selector's recommendation to read Track Planning, I suggest reading my "Beginner's Guide" below in my signature before you buy anything. Most people buy something on impulse then find that what they bought doesn't fit their overall plan. I suggest getting an idea where you are going before you plop down the plastic.
Welcome.
Along with Selector's recommendation to read Track Planning, I suggest reading my "Beginner's Guide" below in my signature before you buy anything. Most people buy something on impulse then find that what they bought doesn't fit their overall plan. I suggest getting an idea where you are going before you plop down the plastic.
jblackwelljr wrote: I swear there's a train Cupid floating around that causes this affliction. It kind of hit me the same way.Anyway, there's so much to consider if you're going to get into this hobby for the long run. I think it starts with doing some research. It sounds like you're pretty open-minded about what you want to model, so doing some research will help you focus in on where you want to end up. From there you can start to formulate a vision of how to get there. Knowing you want to model post WWII is a good start. May I suggest you do some research by looking at old posts here - that will give you some ideas about what others are doing and also help fill in some gaps in your knowledge of railroading and modeling.As you can see by some early responses, forum members are always willing to lend their support and advice.Welcome to the forum. Good luck.
I swear there's a train Cupid floating around that causes this affliction. It kind of hit me the same way.
Anyway, there's so much to consider if you're going to get into this hobby for the long run. I think it starts with doing some research. It sounds like you're pretty open-minded about what you want to model, so doing some research will help you focus in on where you want to end up. From there you can start to formulate a vision of how to get there.
Knowing you want to model post WWII is a good start. May I suggest you do some research by looking at old posts here - that will give you some ideas about what others are doing and also help fill in some gaps in your knowledge of railroading and modeling.
As you can see by some early responses, forum members are always willing to lend their support and advice.
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
to the worlds greatest hobby. You have come to the right place for information and help. It's kind of hard to give you advice or information with such a broad question like that. HO is the most popular scale and has the most stuff but of course N (or iNvisiable) scale is growing fast. Do you have a particular railroad that you would like to model or are you thinking about a freelance layout? I guess the best advice I can give now is to look at the books, magazines, and catalogues to get an idea of what others are doing and what's available. I'm modeling a freelance iron ore hauling railroad in the upper peninsula of Michigan. The time period is 1955.
I'd like to invite you to drop into Elliott's Trackside Diner for a cup of coffee meet the gang there. If you have any questions that I can help with I'd be most happy to. Drop me a line or post here on the forums.
Again Welcome.
Let me welcome you, and congratulate you for your first two successes, three if you include your choice of HO scale. Your first two successes are in joining this fanastic forum and in realizing that you must do a lot of front-end reading before you spend a penny. This is an expensive hobby, all things considered, and wasting coin on misinformation and poor decisions is going to get tiresome really fast.
A good first source of planning information is available at Kalmbach, our hosts here, and it is the late John Armstrong's Track Planning for Realistic Operation. This will get you past wanting trains to run in loops until you get turned off them completely. If you create an interesting and involved track plan, you will enjoy your trains much, much more.
Lady Trains wrote: Greetings,I'm new to the sweet life of trains. I have a love for trains, that I myself can't even describe. I have not owned a train set for over 30 years, however after walking into a hobby shop with a huge Train display, I was hooked once again. I'm searching for any advise and information that I can get. My interest is HO scale, post ww2, passenger trains & freight. Any and all advise will be helpfull.Thanks,Lady Trains
Greetings,
I'm new to the sweet life of trains. I have a love for trains, that I myself can't even describe. I have not owned a train set for over 30 years, however after walking into a hobby shop with a huge Train display, I was hooked once again. I'm searching for any advise and information that I can get. My interest is HO scale, post ww2, passenger trains & freight. Any and all advise will be helpfull.
Thanks,
Lady Trains
Welcome to the forum. Would it be safe to assume by your screen name that it accurately portrays your gender? If so, you're not alone. There are at least 3 other women who frequent this place (Lynda, gear-jammer and lisap) and who are desperately trying to get us guys to put the seat back down when we're finished (metaphorically speaking, of course )
Got any particular railroad in mind?