New to N Scale


hi Guys

This is an old set but unused, are they any good as a starter set?

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=599818786

Ken

For a starter set it's good but not worth $100.00 at a swap-meet I'd say $50.00 tops.
N

It might have been good 30 or 40 years ago, but certainly not by today's standards. Old, likely poor running loco, ugly large flanged bright metal wheels, and Rapido couplers. I wouldn't buy anything with Rapido couplers today unless it was a particular locomotive or car that I wanted and that was the only way it came.

Personally, I wouldn't give $20 for that set, I just think you would be better off putting that money toward a better, more up to date set. I think the best bang for the buck are the Atlas Trainman sets. They seem to be out of them at modeltrainstuff.com but N Scale Supply(http://nscalesupply.com/ATL/ATL-TM-Train-Sets.html) and Wig Wag Trains(http://wig-wag-trains.com/Atlas Pages/Trainman/Trainman_Trainset-Main.htm) both appear to have some. There are also a few on ebay. If you don't want to spend that much, some of the newer Bachmann sets are pretty nice, but again, I would stay away from anything with Rapido couplers.
 
Ditto on the outmoded rapido couplers. Those are from the stone-age of N scale. Amazingly.....some folks seem to not notice or care, judging by the mass amounts of them still in use. Some have commented to me it's a european thing.....this inexplicable continued acceptance and production of rapido couplers.

The microtrains magnematic couplers are the best and work the best. Amazingly great product.
 
This was my first N scale set that I bought in 1978 and it still goes. I have recently gotten back into model trains now that I've retired and this set was the first one I tried out on my layout before I discovered DCC and converted it all over. I didn't convert the engine due to the age. A word of warning the little Red Caboose is very TOP heavy and will jump the rails if it detects even the smallest height difference in rail joins. The rest of the wagons run fine. You will find buying from Model Train Stuff in the US is very bad for your wallet/credit card, I've used mine 5 times so far and the web site keeps calling me back, just hope the Aussie dollar stays up for a little bit longer. On average delivery has been about 10 days from placement of order to arriving in my hot little hands..
 
Ken, I don't know what your prices are like across the ditch but over here they tend to be a bit over the top. A couple of years back I decided to get back into trains after about 20 yrs of moving the boxes and not doing anything only to find most of my track was knackered so went to my LHS and he had either Bachmann EZ or Kato with a little bit of Atlas so I decided to go with the Bachmann (silly me). I put together a list of what I would like and priced it all then went looking online after advise from my son's (I listened, they never did ;)) and found that MTS prices including $60 postage and handling came in at $257Aus lower than my local hobby store.

I made the mistake of buying an engine with DCC (my first) and it cost me $210Aus before I found out about buying online from the US, the same engine from the US turned out to be (including Postage) $100 cheaper. I have since bought 7 more engines and lots of other bits from the US. What I do is use the MTS wish list to build up a list of things that I would like and then compare pricing to Aust, add postage and see what savings I could make buying online. I try to make my shopping fit into a box that the US post use and the cost is about $40 to $60 US, MTS do pack very well and I have not suffered any damage in 5 orders so far. To avoid the customs duty I keep my purchases to under $1000Aus. If I'm in a hurry or just want one or two items then I shop locally but the pricing is the killer. I wanted a set of number drills but the best price I could find in Aust was $32, the same set cost me $12 from the MTS so I just put it on the wish list and when I had a number of items I moved them to the order list.
 
^ this is definitely the way to go. I'll still pick up the occasional reefer or boxcar from the LHS as the price difference there might only be a couple of bucks, but for engines shopping online is nearly always the way to go. The exceptions are for things I just can't find online, case in point- a Great Northern U25B in Big Sky Blue I snapped up at the LHS earlier this year. You've just gotta buy in bulk, never one car/engine at a time.
 



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