Model Railways

[Polarbear]

Does anyone know anything about serious model railways?

My eldest grandson and I have played with Tomy railways since he was knee high to a grasshopper but he's now old enough to not destroy things for the sake of it and loves railway sets and I'd like to keep the bond we have going. The one thing that seems a given. They aren't cheap.

Any pointers would be appreciated
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[pepperami]

I know fk-all about model railways.

But I know there’s a program on the Yesterday channel about model trains.
Might be worth a look??


Models and possibly train-sets are something I have considered as a hobby for when I’m old and can’t get out and about much.
Hopefully that won’t be for a while yet.

Also considered restoring Dinky/Corgi/Matchbox cars as a hobby for when I become less mobile.
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[t121anf]

My Dad's into them, only advise I think I can offer from him though is go small. I believe he uses N (smaller than your average Hornby), it allows you to have more railway in the same space.

[yen_powell]

[Keithy]

Newer stuff is very expensive. The program Pepparami refers to is Hornby: A model world. It’s on Yesterday at 8pm on a Thursday. If you watch that you will see why it is so costly.

Going N gauge does get you more kit in the available space but it is very fiddly, if I’m honest I don’t think it’s ideal for playing with, great if you are a rivet man (detail obsessed) and want to recreate stations etc. but less so for the 6 to 14 age group.

Be wary of controllers/transformers as there is (apparently) newer stuff that is chip controlled, no idea personally as it’s over 30 years since my layout was used and I don’t know what works with what. We have a bloke in the local market who deals, if you can find similar they may be able to advise.

Lots of gear on eBay too. For engines I’d go older, see if it is upgradable (rolling stock will be fine).

[Polarbear]

[Nobby the Bastard]

Chip controlled has been around since the 80s (I have one in the loft along with fuckloads of track and some engines) and are usually retrofittable to older stock.

The are 3 wires. The positive is removed from the motor and attached to chip and the chip is attached to the motor. Finally the third wire goes to the earth on the engine so the chip is permenantly energised and allows power to the motor when instructed.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[Polarbear]

[Nobby the Bastard]

Yes. The one I have can do 16 at the same time. but you need a fuck load of track space to do that. The rails stay energised permanantly and signals to the chip control the motors.

It's actually 4 wires, power in and out and two to the motor so it can do both directions. Forgot about that.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[stinkwheel]

I'd say whatever the system you go for, check the price of track. Or see if you can get cheap pattern stuff for it because you'll want plenty of track. I know very little about model railways but I do know my Dad was given a set of 0-gauge rolling stock, controllers etc. Then we tried to get track for it and even enough to make a circle to watch it go round and round would have made your eyes water!
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Nobby the Bastard]

Yeah, it is quite expensive these days.

I've probably got about £1500 worth in the loft if not more.

It is supposed to be basically permanantly installed.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[blurredman]

Used to love them as a kid.. Also a passover of my father's hobby when he was young.. The Tri-Ang stuff was very experimental with making the hobby more 'fun' and interactive (re mail carriages picking up and dropping mail bags off etc).

Hornby Tri-Ang 'Battlespace' was the most fun for me. Oh the possibilities! Even got the 'Turbo car'. The motor powers the fan at the back and not the wheels. So- no brakes... The speed that thing can turn! Not surprised they are difficult to get considering how much they probably got belted into walls coming off the tracks.

https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/360/0212/19/triang-battle-space-turbo-car-r752_360_b0e75377473a649ecd048120b0d736c9.jpg

Had a lot of the magazines that my father bought as a kid too. Lots of work went into those paintings/drawings. Later on we started buying American stuff. Still worked on the 00 gauge stuff we had. Good stuff. Would like to go back there again, and yes whilst I have all the trains and tracks etc still, I don't have the time or space.
But I've not messed with the model trains for about 15 years probably.

I also don't have the money Rod Stewart has.
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CBT: 12/06/10, Theory: 22/09/10, Module 1: 09/11/10, Module 2: 19/01/11
Past: 1991 Honda CG125BR-J, 1992 (1980) Honda XL125S, 1996 Kawasaki GPZ500S.
Current: 1981 Honda CX500B - 91k, 1987 MZ ETZ250 (bored to 295cc) - 38k, 1990 MZ ETZ251 - 49k, 1979 Suzuki TS185ER - 9k, 1972 MZ ES250/2 - 17k.

[Polarbear]

Lookin at N gauge it seems a little small for an 8 year old to appreciate. It's also even more expensive than 00

I suppose the easiest way is to buy a train set and then expand it rather than individual bits and bobs. Maybe this Harry Potter engine but even reduced is still a lot of money for something that goes round and round.

https://uk.hornby.com/products/scuffed-packaging-hogwarts-express-train-set-bunhhp13
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Nobby the Bastard]

Toured their factory in Margate back in about 1982...
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[hellkat]

Of all the things I would have put Nobster down as ... a model railway geekazoid would not have been on the list.


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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[stinkwheel]

Of course if he's into that kind of thing, you'll need to get yourself your grandson one of those working model traction engines.
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Polarbear]

[pepperami]

You’ll never fit that into a motorcycle frame .
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[Islander]

[stinkwheel]

I have a mate who makes miniature engines (both steam and otto-cycle) that run a small dynamo via a belt drive which in turn powers up a USB socket. He uses them to charge his mobile phone at bike rallies (and presumably at home).

He could leave the phone on silent because the increased power demand when a call or text was incoming makes the engine rev itself up as the governor takes up the extra load.

If that isn't the kind of thing that would inspire kiddies to get into engineering, I don't know what would.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[hellkat]

I mentioned this thread to the senior consort, to see his reaction.
He sounded interested but reckons his thing is more Scalectrix.
So I got a half an hour lecture on that instead.
Terribly interesting though!
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[trevor saxe-coburg-gotha]

suffice to say there's an absolute sh!tload of youtube content dedicated to this stuff - and it HAS to be better than the stuff you could watch on telly
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"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."

Mobylette Type 50 ---> Raleigh Grifter ---> Neval Minsk 125

[MilfHunter]

If he likes building things you'd be far better off buying him Lego the bugatti chiron 42083 is an excellent build.

https://i.ibb.co/LzqZxP9/Screenshot-20211218-132346-Gallery.jpg

Model railways are for Roy Croppers and old men.
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Post nut clarity reveals everything.

[Ste]

The Chiron is very excellent but where's your Liebherr and where's your big red?

[Kickstart]

Hiya

At 8 N gauge will be a bit small and fiddly. If you want really fiddling try T scale (~1/6th the size of OO!)

OO is easier. Plenty around, and priced roughly the same.

A lot of modern stuff is DCC (ie, chip controlled), rather than plain DC. With DCC the track has something like AC power all the time, but a digital signal is overlayed over this power. The chip picks up the signal and decides if the signal is for it, and if so responds, passing power to the motor - if not it just ignores it. Hence you can independently control multiple locos on the same track. Hornby had Zero 1 around 1980 which was similar in concept, but not compatible, but now plenty of DCC systems that are compatible with each other.

You can retrofit DCC chips to a lot of older locos. Some are very easy, some difficult (eg, the old Mainline / Bachmann split chassis locos, where in effect the 2 halves of the chassis are connected to the track on each side, and sandwich the motor making an electrical connection directly).

In theory DCC can control DC locomotives

Worth building a baseboard to lay the track on. Saves getting dust and much in the motors from running on carpet.

All the best

Katy
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