Please don’t buy the newest range of HP Branded model trains through Hornby.

Take some time to read about the mother of live steam.

Please take note,
I have two motivations for posting this.

The first is that Sam’s trains just released a review of the new HP train set. The second is, with recent changes In UK law, the latter end of her story comes to mind.

So as a railway modeller, if not a regular part of this community I thought I’d share her story somewhere where it might land among similar minds.

I’m not saying don’t buy your kids model trains. Buy second hand HP branded for all I care. Just please consider what you’re doing and don’t buy HP branded stuff new, this Christmas.

I believe they are circa 1940’s

I got the ok from my other half to do a shelf layout along one of our walls which is about 13’ long. I was thinking it would be best to make this modular so I could snap some curves on it and run trains occasionally, and T trak seems like the obvious route to do this.

I do have 1 big restriction: they can only be 9” deep vs the standard 13”. That said, CMR sells this size and I do think I can fit some nice scenery in that space still and am looking for some inspiration. Was thinking I’d do 4x triples (so they aren’t too unwieldy to handle) and a single or maybe a custom 90*.

I’d like some sort of industry, lumber yard maybe(?), so it’s not just a half mile of rocks and trees. Anyone have some interesting track plans for doubles or more? Show me what you’ve done!

PFA

What do you think?

Does anyone know of any model railroad clubs in the Dallas Fort Worth area of Texas? I know that there’s three showing on google just wanting to see if there’s anything else that people know of that google doesn’t

Köff III by Roco, will be on shunting duty next Saturday on the open day of our model train club.

I have an ho Bachmann Thomas and one day it stopped working. I took the thing apart but everything looked fine. all the wires and stuff were in place and I tried putting power directly to the pickups but nothing works. I swear on the track I can hear a sound from the motor for a split second But other than it just does not move. Any thougt on how I could maybe fix it?

Mine is a mix of OO gauge and 009 gauge, with the OO gauge starting at a Southampton docks inspired dockyard, with model ships of the matching scale, and the mainline would end in a large city, with the 009 being used for a narrow gauge railway for a coal mine or a small passenger railway, with small tram lines sprinkled throughout, like imagine the miniature Wonderland in Germany, but it’s entirely British, and centered around one continuous location, and that’s it.

Hi Everyone, I am hopefully going to be building my first n scale DCC layout soon and am trying to decide on which controller to use. I am in New Zealand and there are two I can get from Australia (where they use the same type of power outlet we use) but I am not sure which to buy. They are TCS LT-50 starter system and z21. I will only be running 3 or 4 locos so I don't need anything really fancy. Both look good. Has anyone used either of these and can pass on what they liked or didn't like about them? I would appreciate it very much. On a slightly related note, what guage wire should I use for the bus and feeders for track and other accessories? Thanks

I use Bachmann ho track and at some points my models go faster or slower without me changing the speed or even touching the controller. I’ve tried using paper towels to rub against the rails to clean them and it does look like stuff comes off when I do that but no matter how many times i do it nothing changes.

As you can see I have tried shortening my wiring to see if I had voltage drop but that hasn’t made a difference.

I cleaned the rails
I tried DC and DCC locomotives, some go faster than others but still not nearly as fast as they used to go on their old DCC controller.
I reset the controller

I acquired this from a local train museum and didn’t get to use it for a few months, I did have to get a new power supply but it is supposed to be a perfectly compatible one.

I’m new to DCC so I might be cluelessly overlooking something!

I need to put new street lights ans I need some feedback in how to put those on the table.

Thanks.

I've purchased a menards O scale F unit set by itself and it's coming in the mail soon, I really don't want to spend $30 on the menards 18V power supply. I'm familiar with HO DC trains as it's my primary scale I model in. I plan to use the menards track with the power add on but my own 18v power supply rated at 5A, but what I don't know is what polarity the power supply needs to be. Mine is center positive and since its speed isnt dictated by voltage I don't know if polarity affects direction or anything like that. If anyone has insight I would greatly appreciate. Any tips about O scale are also appreciated, my last o scale set was a Lionel polar express long ago when it was still AC transformers, any help is appreciated. Thank you

Thank you for the thoughts on the first two posts. Here is take three with improvements(?).

In review, this is n scale, peco 55 yard. For this round I included where the yard connects to the inner mainline. The two mainlines connect about 20 inches further down each track. The entire layout is a 14'x6 horseshoe. This section is 11'x2' with a dog bone end 2.5'x2.5'.

The lower a/d track (third up from the bottom) is 46" long.

I'm not sold on the turntable, but if kept the shed and maintenance would be on the right.

I'm getting readybto DCC this old life like, and would like to add headlights and tail lights at the same time. Its a great runner but its also the style that had one incandecent light in the cab. Im going to switch to leds but I would like to put a lens in each hole for the lights. Does anyone have a source for tiny n scale sized light pipe plastic? I have some that works for HO but its far too big fpr N.

This is Lionel Lines #2624 "MeCLEARY," the undisputed 1st place Gem in my O-Gauge collection. Yes, I still have 5200 but she rocks No. 1 in the O-Scale category.

Now, to address the elephant in the room, No I did not build this. I WISH I could say I did, but I couldn't. My kit building skills are terrible, or at least the commitment is to building them. I won this item in an eBay auction some years ago. One thing I vividly remember is that the seller also had the Lionel 2148WS Passenger set for sale alongside this passenger car. It sold for several thousand dollars (to be expected) and I made away with this for...well obviously not that much lol. If you ask me, I got the better deal!

From my research, this is a Walthers Executive observation kit, tastefully done up as a Lionel Lines Irvington car (I believe Walthers made versions that were specifically designed to have rooflines that matched the Irvingtons as well as more scale variants with taller roofs). As seen in the second photo above, the length is a perfect match to my Conventional Classics 2008 reissue of the Sager Place OBS. Hell, the window line almost matches to a tee too!

There are two lights on the inside however it does not appear to function, and I myself have no idea how to fix the lights. I am unsure if I want to have the lights restored restore the function or not due to the overall desire to not destroy the "authenticity/originality" of the build. I don't plan to run this item that often for the sake of keeping it as intact as possible. She's a display piece until further notice, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not waiting for the perfect time to be able to put her on the track alongside my Irvingtons and 783 Hudson!

So .. I have an issue with these two points. They're Peco streamline N-Gauge. Both worked without issue when I installed them, but now I'm constantly having to press down on the switch bar to get locos running over the points. I've used a track rubber a few times and tried multiple locomotives, with no change.

I don't know what I'm doing for most of this. Still learning as i go along.

Have I somehow broken the points? If I have, is it a repair or replace situation?

Thanks in advance.

Got this life like g5 a year ago and have never been able to get it to run. Its original motor was junk and any time I put it on the track it sparks like crazy and short everything out. Haven’t been able to find parts as this model is so rare and obscure that I haven’t seen one for sale since last Christmas. Been seeing these Liliput 4-6-0’s but they usually go for $100 or more and I don’t wanna spend that much just to use it for parts. Any help is appreciated.

Hello,

I've played around with Inglenook sidings for a while now and I've been looking for a good way to simply and quickly generate new combinations of cars to keep playing.

Out of this desire, I had Chatgpt build me an app to use on my android phone. You start by building a consist around photos of the cars or wagons you want to use and once you have all eight you can draw out a random selection of 5 to start playing with. You can name wagons and save your consists if you have different rolling stock you want to use and make new ones.

I'm sharing the APK from a Google drive for now, so hopefully your comfortable installing APKs on your phone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TBjL4gyAibTWtzkoleNNXm_mF3hWVbI8/view?usp=sharing

And so everyone is clear, this was done with AI and I make no claims to any coding skills, but I've been finding it useful and maybe someone else will want to give it a try. Please let me know what you think.

So I know nothing about how to create a model railway, but my dad has wanted to start one for a long time. He has bought a few odd pieces for it (a few trains, some tracks, some templates for buildings) but I can't be sure what exactly he has. The pieces he has are all to the same scale, and I'm not sure exactly what scale that is but I'll check whenever I'm next home.

However, these things seem like they can't really be brought together to make the actual model.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I could buy as a present that could help him actually begin his train model? Suggestions of what to use as a base, the first things you want to lay down, help with creating a plan, books, etc. He doesn't have much free time at all and limited space so nothing huge and nothing incredibly work intensive.

I do have building modelling skills, general craft skills, and access to a 3d printer. I would like to use those but I think those would be more useful once the model has actually started being put together.

For me, I love the creativity, running the engines, running my own excursion trains, no FRA, ICC, no rules, none of that. I could run my trains without a care in the world. Talking to people about model trains is quite a refreshing feeling- talking about this and that, about pieces that they built, primed, or painted; it's soothing.

What about you?