Hello everyone,
I didn't really know where to post this but I figures scale is a good area. I was wondering if anyone on RCU built model trains. I have been working on one since I was a kid and it is a very slow going winter project but I enjoy it . I am not real good at it either but people who come over enjoy looking and watching. Maybe throw up some pictures of your trains. Just starting a thread that is sort of connecting to RC but is not on here!

Thanks

Not quite relevant but since we're not being relevant anyway...

The bigger question here is whether the model trains are scratch-built, from a kit, or ARR (almost ready to roll). Also is there such as thing as a radio controlled train?

I had the HO stuff and knew some who had monster setups, but the most impressive was a friends dad who restored and built live steam that you ride on.

I was all trains until i found RC !!! No more living in the basement for me !!!! Sunshine and friends !!

Good point to remember for those builders among us, who only irregularly make it out to the field.

I've often wondered what influences caused me to be a "airplane geek" instead of a "train geek." Trains (and train spotting) is a huge hobby in Japan and there are more train magazines than airplane magazines. Objectively, there's just as much "cool technology" to appreciate (and collect info on) with trains as there is with airplanes. Both have interesting histories. Both present scale modeling challenges. And both strike non-hobbyists as unimaginably boring and nerdy. And both seem to appeal primarily to middle-age (and older) men.

I look at the train magazines and can't believe that anyone would seriously be interested in that. Then I pick up my copy of "RC Technique" and "Flying Scale Models" and can't put them down until I've soaked up every little detail.

Thinking of other hobbies, I haven't been interested in plastic models since I discovered Guillow's kits when I was 10. But occasionally I'll pick up an kit of an aircraft I'm interested in just to use as a possible reference later on. I found these kits of the Nakajima Ki-27 ("Nate") and the Mitsubishi Ki-15-I ("Babs") at a second-hand shop for about $7 each. Both would make great RC scale subjects.

WWII?? Abu, have you gone to the dark side?

I'm considering the Ziroli Stuka as my next project after completion of my Taylorcraft as I drift further and further away from WWI. (Actually, I went to the Dawn Patrol Fly-in yesterday in CT.)

Just to say something relevant to this irrelevant thread, I had an all metal American Flyer train set when I was a kid. Of course, like millions of others, my mother trashed the set (along with a shoe box full of '50's baseball cards) when I went away to college. []

There are (is?) a few model train forums on the net:

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/

PRE-WWII. I think if I were ever to do a non-WWI model it might be one of the "between the war" flyers. The the time WWII rolled around aeronautical engineers had already eliminated most of the "funky" stuff. That and with WWII scale you're also talking about $300+ smackeroos for scale struts.

But more than anything else, I'm not drawn to the standard WWII modeling techniques of SHEET, GLASS, PRIME, and DECORATE. If I did ever do a metal skinned aircraft you can be sure it would have actual metal sheeting.

I have an HO scale in my basement, it has been extremely slow progress since I started college and all of that business. It is a fun rainy day activity and stuff.

Many train mags here in the states; I think that what they have done is keep their fan base. RC mags and the industry went for the "new" modeler to expand and pretty much forgot the "old". If you read old rc mags. the stories are about airplane guts and building not about people hugging and shiny ARFs that never have a bad word written about them; the train stuff is still the same content.
I do hate passing the train section at the hobby shops; for one they have tons of stuff on hand and I really want an N scale steam engine set.
And we expect you to make your own struts from scratch.

Out of stuff from the local hardware shop, of course!

Regarding the content of modeling mags, I recently picked up a couple of old Model Airplane News issues on eBay, a couple from the 50's and one from 1932. What's amazing is how little the writing style has changed. The products were different and the old mags seem to talk more about "young men" and how they can prepare for careers as a aeronautics engineer but other than the rather quaint optimism towards a technologically brilliant future, the articles sound like they could have been written this year.

The future of RC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxSsr...eature=channel

Yes the vintage mags. have less stuff because a lot had not been invented or only in 1s and 2s and the word was getting out. Look for mags from the 70s- early90s. I still have most of mine from the late 70s-mid 80s and I look at them as they have real information. During that time frame RCM(my fav.)had 3 construction articles per issue, engine, radio, tequniques, product test without authors names so they could be honest; a different world. The AMA was similar but had from the the other sectors of the hobby, but it was about making models not about people and their models. The old guys spent a lot of time at the local hardware store and were not ashamed of it. RCM, Model Builder, AMA, Flying Models, Model AIrplane News are good ones.

Speaking of model trains and hardware stores, there is a small town near by and in the town square there is a "real" hardware store still. Upstairs there is a HO setup that goes through the attic of all the stores on that block; each attic has its own setting and style. From what I understand you have to have a yard master and a switchman before the engineer can drive one train and if you want to go the whole track it takes more than that.

I am a model railroader, also although I haven't touched the trains since I got back into R/C in 2005. Parts of my layout are finished, others are still in the roughed in stages. My trains all have decoders (receivers) in them and are run by what is called Digital Command Control or DCC. The signal is not sent through radio waves but is sent down the rails. I can control up to 3 trains at the same time. Each loco has a specific identity code that must be brought to the screen on the controller to control that loco.

The model trains hobby is even worse off then R/C, as far as kits being replaced by ready to run stuff! This is really stupid as a typical kit only took about 15 minutes to build. These kits, for the most part have been replaced by expensive RTR equipment.

There are some fantastic model railroad layouts! The hobby has as much depth and is as interesting as R/C in every way!

I have noticed as well, I usually walk by the train section in the LHS and they have all of these RTR cars for close to $30. You can get a typical "kit" car if you can call it that for half that price and it took 5-10 mins to put together.

lol
Do you have apic of your layout Mode One?

I have a simple L shape in the basement that is mid construction.

I have had model trains since the 60's, but when I could finally afford RC in 1983 I never looked back. Nowadays I still collect the occational model train "O", "HO" and "N", but am holding off building a layout due to space and time.. For now I'll keep flying my Helo's and aircraft . Someday!

Railroading is so darn fascinating! I'm a big steam fan but no steam down here (except Disney World) so it's CSX diesels. My name on a railroad forum is "trainchaser". Have done some model railroading but never graduated beyond the 4x8 plywood stage. Love the early engines and 4-4-0s of the Civil War and later. Still have my rolling stock but no track and no room for a layout.

Funny thing is that I should be interested in German railroads of the WWI era, since that's what hauled my favorite planes around!

I'll see what I can do about taking a couple photos and posting them. When I started my layout in the late 80s, I bought many Athearn freight cars for less then $3.00. MDC Roundhouse cars were around $5.00. I'm a transition era modeler, both steam and diesels. I love the steel 40 foot box car and I model Northern Pacific.

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For anyone with a passing interest in trains and scale models the following website should wet your appetite. It is probably the most magnificant Model Railroad ever built! http://www.horailroads.com/fsm/fsmlayout0.html

Take a look, the guy is a modeler's modeler!

One of my four hobbies.
(this is why I probably only build scale stuff!).
Having several hobbies allows my to use talents from one hobby to hone my skills in the another hobby.
For me, it also keeps me from getting 'burned out' on one hobby.
As a kid, I was into both trains and planes.
At the turn of the 20th century: men who thought 'big' were engineers and went into construction: bridges, sky scrapers, railroads, etc.
A hundred years ago, railroads were what the web is today: the leading edge and the place to be: it connected people and places.
The railroads turned a wilderness into a developed country.

And then the car was born and the US stopped developing! Seriously, I like the fact that trains are a daily part of life in Japan (and many other countries). I visited a railroad museum in York, England an it's hard not to be impressed with the mammoth trains that were the highest technology of the day (not airplanes).

BTW, I think it's curious that a large part of the "model railroad" hobby is actually modeling landscapes, rail yards, and buildings. Imagine is RC scale modelers spent as much of their time doing model aerodromes.

Samparfitt, G.N. huh! One of the Hill lines. That's interesting from someone from Ohio!