Model railroad
Different
kind of scales
It’s many different scales to choose
between, and you choose your scale based on which space you have and how much
money you want to spend.
Many different terms can be
confusing for beginners.
The most of the scales is
international. You can travel to any country you like, go to a model railroad
store and buy a wagon or a engine from that country.
The most frequent used scale is H0.
In
You also have narrow-gauge scales
and other scales you can’t buy everywhere. You only have to know the most
frequent used scales, as you can see in the box below.
The mostly frequent used scale is H0. You can find the
mostly accessories in H0. But if you
don’t have that space at home you can choose N instead, because you can get
much railroad on a small space. Now you have a little to choose between even if
you choose the N scale. Märklin have something they call “Mini Club”, it’s a
small railway in the Z scale.
The Z scale you can use if you want
to have a model railroad but haven’t the space, or want to have exactly the
same number of wagons as the real train. You must know a train in the Z scale
is very small, an engine is mostly a few centimetres long. That small engine
maybe can’t go further if you have steeply hills. And of course the human
beings you want to have all around your railway is very small. But of course
you can have fun even with the Z scale, I have seen a railway into a briefcase!
The N scale is to prefer if you
haven’t space to build up a H0 railroad. Choose always N scale before the Z
scale if you have the space. Even if you only have a chest of drawers or a
shelf, you can build your N scale railway there. You can also build your
railway on shelves around the walls.
Before you go to the hobby store you
must think about a few things. How much space do you have? Should you build your railway on a table, on
shelves around the walls or do you have
a room only for the railway?
Start with your railway
Begin with a start box. In that
start box you have all you need to get started. A round railway build as the
instruction in the box is fun to drive only a few weeks. When you have the money,
start to build your railway as you want to have it. You don’t have to build a
big railway with many tracks. You can have a little round railway with tracks
to goods depot and engine shed. Don’t forget tracks there you can put wagons.
Maybe you don’t need a engine shed, you can have a track where you put your
engines.
If you want to drive people traffic,
it’s most fun to have two or maybe more stations. You don’t need two big
stations if you don’t want to, one of the stations can just be one platform.
Don’t forget to gauge there
you want to have your railway, so you know how much space you have. In the
railway start box can you see how big the railway will be. Ask always about
that, so you don’t come home with a railway you can’t build.
In the most cases the manufactures
of start boxes have additional boxes to sell. In this additional boxes you get
some more tracks. In the start box can you see how the tracks look like with
one and two additional boxes. You can have a lot of fun with that if you build
a landscape around the tracks.
Don’t buy a lot of buildings in the
beginnings. You think you must have a train station, goods depot, engine shed
with timetable, diesel tank if you drive diesel engine … it’s no end of
everything you need. You probably also want to build a little village or a city
behind the tracks. All houses who look so nice at the pictures on the box, are
bigger than you thought. And you must have something who look like grass,
people, cars and so on, if you want to have it like the picture on the box.
Maybe it’s enough with a train
station to begin with. You can always buy other stuff later, when you have
founded out what you really need, want and have space to.
It’s best if you have your own idea
from the beginning, and hold on into it. Of course you must think on the house
box, but don’t buy for example a train station because ”they
don’t have anyone else in the hobby store, and I need a train station”. Wait,
look in different hobby stores and look on the net.
Start to build
your railroad
You must know what you want with
your railroad. Do you want to drive steam engines, diesel engines
or electric engines? Do you want to have passengers traffic, or do you want to
have goods traffic? How do you want the nature look like? Do you wan to copy a
real railway, or use your own imagination? Figure out from which country and
which time your engine and you wagons come from, and build the country in the
same style. But you can of course build which country you want, and buy new
engines and wagons when you have the money.
Do a real track plan on paper! Even
if you have everything in your head and think it’s easy to build, you should
sit down and draw up it on a paper. If you do it properly, you can count how
much tracks you need and of what sort. Don’t forget count with the train
station and other houses you need. You maybe don’t want to buy everything from
the beginning, but you must have some space to put the houses you buy.
It can be much easier to build with
tracks than it is to draw lines on a paper. When you build your tracks after
what you have drawn on you paper, you see much easier what you have space to.
Build up the whole railroad at one time and put the buildings on their right
spaces. You can see if you have thought right, and can change the tracks if
needed.
Build up your
railway
You can build up your railway in
different ways.
If you have just little space, for
example a table, to build your railway on you build it on a 12 mm chipboard or 9 mm plywood. Make holes and put
the cables from the bottom, so you don’t have any cables in your way.
If you are afraid of damage the
surface on your furniture, build four sides on the plywood so you get a box. You can make holes for the cables and
let them be in the box. The operating controls you can have on a little
sideboard, or on a shelf you put on your box.
Build the tracks as you want to have
it and put the houses all around. Look so you have space for every building you
want to have. When you are satisfied, you must screw or nail the track if you
want to drive your trains more permanent. If you screw or nail, you can move
the track if you want to build a bigger track (and you want to, sooner or
later).
Don’t use glue to put the houses
into the plywood. Put some Platignum (adhesive putty) under it. You can also use
double-sided tape. Then you can move your houses if you want to build a bigger
track or just change the nature.
Make things to
the railroad
Even if you want to make your
railway so authentic as possible, don’t
buy a lot of stuff from the beginning. Some of it you can do yourself.
If you want you can build your own
houses of paper or wood. But if you don’t want to, you can buy your houses. You
don’t have to live near a big hobby store, you can find some plastic buildings
in the next toy store.
If you buy houses, it’s mostly a set
of pre-painted plastic pieces you have to put together by yourself. If you
don’t like the colours, you can paint them so they get the colour you like
before you put them together.
Trees and other nature things you
can do yourself. Go out in the nature and take home knotty branches, moss and
small stones. It can be hard in the beginning to make trees who look like
trees, but just practice and learn. The material is without cost. Compare your
trees with something else on your railway, so the trees is in the same scale as
the rest. Of course you can buy trees and flowers, but it is expensive if you
want to have more than a few. You can save much money if you can do it by
yourself!
You can choose between different
kind of cars. You can choose trucks, passenger cars, busses and so on to get a
more realistic nature. Cars is often expensive, so don’t buy more than you
need.
You need people to see you railway
comes to life. Without people your railway becomes very lonely. It can be
passengers waiting for the train, workers, people who is shopping or sitting in
their gardens.
You can buy people pre-painted or
not painted at all. It’s always cheaper to buy a box with a lot of non-painted
people than buy small sets of maybe 5 pre-painted people. The people gets very
small, especially in N scale, so you need a very small paintbrush and have to
be stable in your hand. Remember practise make you paint better and better. Can
you paint your people by yourself you can save a lot of money.
You can buy coloured sand in hobby
stores, but why buy sand when you can get it from the nature? Go out and get
some. You don’t have to think on what sand you collect. When you come home, you
put away the biggest stones. They can be stones and rocks. Strain the sand with
a little strainer. That sand you have in the strainer you can put away if you
need it later. Put an old nylon stocking over a plastic box. Put some sand at a
time on the nylon stocking. Put away all sand you get on the nylon stocking.
The sand you put away from the nylon stocking you can have as macadam to your N
scale railway. The sand in the plastic box you can have beside a lake or a sea.
You can buy planks in the hobby
store, for example to your industry. You can make planks yourself, it’s easy.
If you work in H0 scale, you just
save that piece of wood you have left when you have eaten your ice cream. Cut
off them to the length you need.
Planks in N scale you make of
matches. Just cut off the sulphur and cut the match on the length into two
pieces. Put down the match and use a hobby knife to cut the match on the
length. Be careful when you cut! Cut from one side and to the middle, and then from
the other side.
How you build a
little railroad
If you don’t have a table where you
can build your railroad, or if you don’t have the space to have your railroad
on the floor, you can put shelves on a wall and build your railway there. Start
to find a wall there you want to have your railroad. Make the shelf 70-80 cm
deep and, if you have the space, 2-3 meters long. If you can, make the shelf as
long as your wall. It’s better to have too much space than too little. The deep
is very important if you want to you’re your tracks like a circle with some
buildings here and there, or if you want to have many tracks in a horizontal
line.
Go to the nearest store there you
can get chipboard/plywood. They can make exactly the pieces you need. Of course,
if you have some pieces at home you can put them together and let it be a part
of your shelf. Screw the plywood pieces into the wall.
Build your railway as you have drawn
in you track plan. You can see if you have bought enough track or if you have
to buy some more. Write down all track pieces you have forgot to buy. Put away
your track again.
Putty your shelf so it’s flat. Putty
very carefully in every joint. Choose a paint, ask the paint shop if you aren’t
sure of that type you need.
Put a paper on you wallpaper so you
don’t paint you wallpapers. Paint your shelf. It’s easier to paint big surfaces
with a little roller if you have one. Paint the shelves one or two times. Let
the paint dry before you paint again.
You can build your track on cork and
let the cork be embankment. Put sand and glue over the cork and between the
rails. You don’t have to build a embankment of cork. You can nail/screw the
track into the wood and put sand just between the rails.
Build up your landscape as you want
to have it. You can buy landscape parts to put your tracks on in the hobby
store, but you can also build that yourself. If you want you can have a flat
landscape with some painted fields and a few rocks. It’s up to you!
Checklist
This is a little checklist, the most
important things you must have in your mind.
Start to think out where you want to
have your model railroad. Gauge your space and choose a scale. Draw a track
plan. Count how much track you need. The buildings take a lot of space, so you
have to think on that when you draw the track plan.
Look for start boxes. A start box
contains all you need to get started. You don’t have to build as they
description says. Use the tracks to build your railway as you have drawn in
your track plan. Count and buy all tracks you need. Even if you don’t need all
things in the start box, it’s cheaper to buy the whole box instead of buying
all things separately.
Buy electric points from start, if
you don’t want to do everything manually. If you have manually points in your
start box, you can buy a little motor to make them electric. Points are
expensive, so just buy exactly so many you need. But you need more points than
you think!
Don’t forget to buy steering units!
You must have one steering unit for the points, one for uncoupling tracks and
so on.
Build your track as you have drawn
on your track plan and do all electric work. Change if needed, maybe
the curve is too sharp for the engine?
Think to build up your landscape you
want to have and screw/nail the track into it. Don’t make a flat landscape. You
can do embankment with sand and glue. Put the sand into the track and make
embankment in both sides if you want. Take away all sand who
isn’t in the glue. Be careful so you don’t get sand into the points and other
sensitive parts!
Build up a little bit nature at a
time. Build more when you get more money. You can buy a lot of big, nice
houses, and you want to have more than you can afford and have space to. Make
space for the buildings, and let the building takes time. When you wait, a few
big stones can be rocks and you can build trees and so on as described.
At last: Have fun! You can have a
lot of fun with a little railroad with a few tracks and some small houses. You
don’t need a big railroad with many tracks and a lot of details.