Cheap-Cheap! Chicken Little asks, "How much $$ do we really need?"

[tomikawaTT]

Shifting to the mechanical side:

• Under-layout switch machine linkage - paper clip, and a length of brass tube (originally used ball pen cartridges, now purchased.)
• Linkage from the above to the fascia-mounted manual throw - just about anything, including straightened coat hanger wire.
• Fascia-mounted manual throw - the cheapest larger-size DPDT slide switches I can find.

And the electrical:

• Wire for just about everything - salvaged communications cable, and odd lengths from contractor waste after wiring tract houses (acquired by asking.)
• Terminal strips and blocks - scrap pieces of plywood or Masonite, #8 machine screws, #8 nuts and appropriate washers.

Specialwork built from raw rail is so obvious I hesitate to mention it.  One sheet of hard balsa will produce enough ties to build a major terminal throat, with some left over for the coach yard ladder.  Believe it or not, the spikes used are almost as expensive as the rest of the turnout!

Ebenezer Scrooge, eat your heart out.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[Anonymous]

Sprues make pipes, chimneys, some flat ones cut down make decent feed sacks, cardstock makes siding, cut and glued in piles, it looks like plywood. paper clips work as downspouts, conduit, toilet paper for tar paper, small tubing cut up are good for piles of used tires, newspaper as newspaper.

[on30francisco]

Joe Fugate once told me that you can get model railroad equipment with 3 qualities.

Cheap

Fast

Good

But you can only pick two.

So I pick cheap and good. Let's talk about ways we can do this hobby cheap and good.

Personally, I watch for construction sites and at the end of the day, I go to the construction trailer find the boss and ask for the 2" foam scraps on the ground. I can usually fill my Explorer.

I've yet to buy a tree. I've found several different species of plants that when dried make good frames for trees.

For sale signs are an excellent source of styrene for scratching--and as some of you know. I use a lot of popsicle sticks. I must have used 200 out of the 1000 I paid $2 for.

What do you do to cut costs?

Cheap and great. I use those "for sale" signs for styrene which are sometimes free and much cheaper that the styrene at the LHS. I also buy a lot of my supplies at arts and craft shops such as artists acrylic paints (MUCH cheaper than dedicated model paints), brass, stripwood, glues, tools etc -  at a fraction of the cost the LHSs charge. Some of these stores are even starting to carry a few model railroading supplies - at a discount. I scavenge thrift and dollar stores, second-hand shops, flee markets, Wal-Mart, construction sites, and am always on the lookout for usable items. I usually shop online for the best prices as I'm allergic to MSRPs. I also scratch build and buy detail parts from either the online discount hobby suppliers or proprietary firms. I avoid purchasing from Walthers or any other place that charges MSRP.  

[easyaces]

Spacemouse has the right idea, but ya gotta be careful doing dumpster dives for usable stuff! About the only hard cash I usually spend is on glues or other things needed for projects I can't find for free.  

[MisterBeasley]

I download graphics from the Web, and print them on cardstock for signs, or on decal paper for signs that would be "painted" on a brick or wood wall.  I use coffee stirrers liberated from the coffee area at work.  I bought one tunnel portal and made a latex mold from it, and then cast more portals from that.  I did the same for a couple of sheets of "textured" styrene that I use for subway walls and platforms.  (The hydrocal takes paint and weathering better than styrene, too, and I could even bend it around a sharp corner if I waited until the hydrocal had almost, but not quite, hardend up.)

[CSX_road_slug]

I used various diameters of PVC pipe from Home Despot to scratchbuild my blast furnace.  Much cheeper than the equivalent sizes sold by Plastruct!

[Cox 47]

I use a lot of $ Store rattle cans for painting..Redish brown primers mach great brick for DPM buildings,Flat grey for concrete. Cheap craft paint from Wally World and Hobby lobby I have picked up some as cheap as .25 cents..I also look for "basket case" engines,Rolling stock,and Buildings then rehab them...One of the better running engines I have I got for paying the postage on Guy said it wouldn't run at all took the shell off someone had way over oiled it cleaned it and it runs great...never throw anything away I have a box of 10 to 15 engines that don't run for one reason or another that I can get parts from same for rolling stock and buildings..Cox 47

[WCfan]

For super detailing I find junk laying around. I use phone wire for radio entenias, and the gray insulation for air tanks. I also use thread for model electrical wires and some times air hoses.

[selector]

I gather armature material from fields and roadsides as I see it, and I gather stuff that falls from trees if it looks like flocking or fine ground foam.  I let it it sit and dry for a full year, then use it with sprays or whatever seems indicated for either fixing or colouring.

I used sifted garden soil and plaster for my yard surface.  Other than that, I have had to purchase everything.  Maybe I'll start looking for materials for scratch building this coming ...nope, we're not even into spring yet, so I won't use the W word.

[cacole]

Nearly all of the desert scenery on my home layout is real dirt from my back yard mixed with assorted shredded paper or aspen pet bedding, plaster, water-based paints, mortar, finely-ground tree bark, potting soil, or whatever I have left over from other projects.

[SpaceMouse]

Joe Fugate once told me that you can get model railroad equipment with 3 qualities.

Cheap

Fast

Good

But you can only pick two.

So I pick cheap and good. Let's talk about ways we can do this hobby cheap and good.

Personally, I watch for construction sites and at the end of the day, I go to the construction trailer find the boss and ask for the 2" foam scraps on the ground. I can usually fill my Explorer.

I've yet to buy a tree. I've found several different species of plants that when dried make good frames for trees.

For sale signs are an excellent source of styrene for scratching--and as some of you know. I use a lot of popsicle sticks. I must have used 200 out of the 1000 I paid $2 for.

What do you do to cut costs?