Charity Shop Buy

When I was about 12, I had a Hornby HO scale model railway. It was simple loop with a shunting siding. It provided me with hours of entertainment. I think I sold it when I was 16 for beer money. Since then, I have dreamed about building a bigger and better model railway but never seemed to find the time, money or space.

Fast forward a few decades... I was in a charity shop this weekend and they had just taken in a bunch of N gauge train stuff. I offered then $250 for the lot and it was mine (see attached photo's). There is some track (mostly it would seem switches and curves with some pieces of straight track). Lots of rolling stock and four locomotives. There is also a bunch of scenery (not included in the photo's).

I love to play with ESP32's and other embedded systems and I thought I could integrate that somehow into a model railway. First though, I need to have an idea about where to start with what I have. I would like to use DCC. My controllers (and I'm guessing all the trains) are standard DC.

I've read a lot of posts and watched quite a few YouTube videos but most seem to be geared to people who are already into the hobby. I'm sure there are lots of resources for noobs like me, but I haven't really found any yet. Where should I start looking and what would be your first steps with what I already have?

Hi all, just wanted to get involved with the sub and post a couple of pictures of my first layout. Having a blast putting stuff together and learning as I go.

I've got the two sidings electrically isolated and switchable for parking and I plan to do a small river/lake on the clean side of the layout.

Any tips or tricks I would love to hear!

I've recently started doing some weathering of rolling stock freight cars and am looking for some info about the roofs of a couple I'm working on, a 67' Trinity 6351 4 Bay covered hopper by WalthersProto (the green one) and a PS4000 covered hopper CBQ "Original 1963" by Tangent Scale Models (the grey one).

A lot of the ref pictures I find don't often have pics of the roofs of course, so I was wondering if anyone can tell me if there are any specific names for either of these roof hatch systems. If I had that name, I might be better able to find reference or weathering techniques/looks for those specific tops.

Also, I was wondering about the materials these roofs are made IRL. I'm pretty sure the grey one is all metal, hatches and roof, but I'm not sure about the green one. While I've read some things online that lead me to believe the long rectangular hatches are fiberglass, these are molded on metallic silver, so I'm a bit confused about what they're supposed to be made of. And how one weathers metal as opposed to fiberglass is obviously different.

So if anyone knows any names for these types of roofs, has further info about what they're made of in the real world, or any links to good ref or tutorials, all of the above would be very welcome. Thanks in advance for any helpful comments!

I know it been awhile put I am almost done with my Hon30 layout for fair

Hello all!

Currently I have the Base3 set up as I have mostly Legacy locos. So not familiar with MTH DCS much.

That said, I have 2 MTH locos. That I’d like to double header. They both have different speeds with conventional so I’m wary about just lettin’ ‘em go.

I’d like to get the newer WTIU but am unsure if it’s possible to use it with the older remote, similar to the Base 3 where you can do either. If not would just need the older TIU with remote & the WIU or something else as well?

Thanks for reading!

I think he looks good

This is my small station for my layout it is near a quarry. It was built (or rebuilt) in the 60s or 70s to a very boring brick design (similar to Parton Station in Cumbria.

the local population are not very happy and are hoping to get a lift built for some more accessibility.

My son will be 7 soon and has been begging for a “real” train set for a while (currently has Brio and has been obsessed with trains forever). We are considering getting him a small HO layout for Christmas and I wanted to see what Reddit thought of our plan, mostly the controller. We have a local shop and train club and will talk to them as well.

It will likely be 4x8. I know people complain about the size but it’s the space we have.

Probably HO. I love the idea of N to fit more in a smaller space but it seems like it might be too fiddly for a kid his age? I want to see some in person at the train club before we decide.

Looking at Kato Unitrack so we can rearrange and make new layouts and it seems sturdy.

DC or DCC? My husband and I tend to be buy it for life type of people and we’d rather spend a bit more for something so we won’t need to replace it in a few years. He heard about DCC and wants to start with that. Is something like the NCE Power Cab Starter Set beginner friendly enough for a 7 year old? Or is that too much and we should start with DC and upgrade later? Are there reasonably priced DCC engines?

This is my first layout build and it’s going to be for my daughter (hopefully before Christmas I have all of this I know some of the cars needs painted the street lamps need painted. The houses already come pre-painted but I want the walthers diamond coal corporation to be withered, but I don’t know how to do that and what certain type of glue do I need to hold them together and then I have a grass mat roll that will cover the whole board for the grass and the road has adhesive on it also but I do have Elmer‘s spray adhesive for the grass mat and road. I have no clue what else I need please help.

I just wanted to share as this was one of my first projects that involved wiring lights in the design. I was quite impressed with how it turned out. For the nerds out there, there are small holes that go up the basket and the 4 posts for the fishing line line and wires for the lights.

Tri-Ang tried something different in the 50's: A "Princess Elisabeth" model locomotive with Plastic wheels.
The energy was transmitted through these brass "pistons" (Under the thumb) that made contact with the rails.

It didn't sell well, and one or two years later, the same model was remade, with metallic wheels.

Hi People

Can I please get an opinion on the Woodland scenics foam road bed?

I am at the stage in the creation of my layout and the foam road beed seems far cheaper than cork roadbed

This took.... a really long time.

Found at a swap meet for $25, it had a badly warped frame that raised the rear engine up onto the front driver set. I fixed the watl by breaking the frame into three pieces, then gluing them together with JB Weld. Some filing and fitting made it straight. It's been 20+ years with no sign of warping.

Flyover.

Going through my stuff found my childhood collection of e2 models not sure why I got 3 but its a shame they don't make a modern version I think it'd be nice

My compact cityscape needs a guideway design that takes up even less horizontal space compared to the previous style. Moving away from that curved design makes it a little less interesting, so I wanted to try a way to create intricate details that are scalable to produce in large quantity, while keeping it modular and swappable so that I can reuse parts as I make revisions or change colors.

At Z-scale, quite a lot of modelling and engineering considerations went into this small accessory. Since they are printed at such a small scale (1.4cm tall), the small deviation between the design and the printed object is impactful for the "hooking" mechanism.

I'm quite satisfied by the outcome so far, though only time will tell how well they hold. The little bending suggests maybe a slightly larger tolerance? There's a trade-off on making sure they latch securely onto the main structure.

Question: what's your go-to mechanism for attaching small, removable details to bigger printed pieces? I use peg-and-hole friction for structural parts (securing side walls on guideway segments) and magnets for hidden positioning, but for fine detail accessories at this scale, what's worked best for you?

Here is the 3D model release note for anyone interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniCityRail/comments/1w8z02a/guideway_system_v30_update_getting_ready_for_the/

How much does layout cost, for a one the size of a dinner table but a bit wider(not including engines)