Obligatory New to Hobby Thread

ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.


Either on the drywall or on paper hung on the drywall. I prefer the paper. That way, should I prefer to do a new backdrop later I can just pull the paper down and put up some new paper and start the new backdrop.
 
The drywall is mainly to give you a nice flat surface as well as make the room look good. You can paint a simple back drop with some light blue toward the bottom of the layout and darker blue toward the top for a simple sky background. If you have the artistic skills, you can add some clouds, hills, and the like. There are also many backdrops printed on paper that can be applied to the wall, using wallpaper paste. As Jeffrey said, the advantage of a paper backdrop is that you can change it if you decide on a different theme for the layout. The main thing is having a flat dry surface for painting or pasting and drywall fills the bill.
 


More ignorant questions from yours truly. I'm looking at buying my first loco. I stumbled across a Milwaukee Road f7 but I don't know what the differences are. What is the first distinguishing five digit number (40593) and is #72 just the engine number?

Proto 2000 HO 40593 EMD F7A-B Set Standard, The Milwaukee Road #72A & 72B

Proto 2000 HO 47623 EMD F7A-B Set Standard, Milwaukee Road #71A & 71B

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Proto_2000_HO_EMD_F7A_B_Set_Standard_Milwauk_p/920-47623.htm

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Proto_2000_HO_40593_EMD_F7A_B_Set_Standard_Th_p/920-40593.htm
 
How would we know any better if a particular offering of used flextrack is a good buy? :p What condition would you accept as reasonable and still useful?

I don't know if I would be happy with used flextrack unless I had some assurances that it was free, or very close to free, from broken ties, missing ties (except one or two on each end), that the sections of flex were uncut (a full 3'), that no more than three spike heads were missing/broken per 3' length, and that the ties were not still covered in ballast or paint.

-Crandell
 
You are correct, the only difference in the F-7's you linked to are the road numbers. The five digit number is the Walthers part number. Higher end engines like the Proto 2000 usually offer several different road numbers so purchasers of multiple models don't end up with two engines with the same road number, which would look odd on your layout.

As Crandell said, used flex track can be really good to unuseable junk. You really need to be able to see the track in person. If it's clean and doen't look like it's seen much use, it may be a good buy. If it has a bunch of old ballast stuck to it and lots of missing ties, I'd give it a pass.
 
Anybody want to help me shop? I need one or two locos, dcc equipped or dcc ready, Milwaukee Road or Illinois Central. :)

I have a hard time shopping on some of these MRR sites, I don't have the patience to browse through 18 pages in one sitting.
 
Thanks Jim. I had looked on modeltrainstuff.com before but it looked like of the 200+ entries returned for F7 there were a couple Milwaukee Road diesels that were not dcc ready/equipped.

The hard part is going through every shop online through their 200 or more entries looking for one model with dcc. I guess I should stop by the hobby shop and talk to them, but their "train guy" is only in one day a week, everyone else can't even talk to it.
 


Time spent on recce is seldom wasted.

{recce means 'reconnaissance'}

It's an old Army saying. Substitute "shopping for deals", and you got 'er in this hobby.

look at trainworld.com (scroll down and click on the individual manufacturers' logos, and also look through their HO blowouts. Not to be missed!!

internet hobbiesl.com...not usually cheap, but they have good stuff in quantities and they are good at shipping.

toytrainheaven.com...never used them, but they get good ratings

dallasmodelworks....again, never used Craig's site, but he enjoys a very good reputation.

Broadway Limited Imports...find in the left sidebar "refurbished deals" or whatever the wording is. You get full warranty and great service...I don't know about the availability of what you are looking for, but it is worth 3 minutes of your time.

-Crandell
 
Part of using the web to purchase is learning the idiosyncrasies of each web site. Walthers search does a good job but you have to use the Advanced Seach option, not the search box shown at the top of the page. Modeltrainstuff works really well if you scroll down to the bottom of the page and use the Find by Roadname option. Click on that, choose MILW and HO, and you only get three pages, including all the locomotives by different manufacturers in MILW colors. 95% of all locomotives that are being sold new today are either DCC ready or DCC equipped so culling through the few that aren't isn't hard.

Just like models, every web site is different and has tricks that can make it easier to use. As Crandell said, you have to spend some time in recce and some of it will be unrewarding, but you'll get it for the four or five web sites you eventually end up using the most.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.




Affiliate Disclosure: We may receive a commision from some of the links and ads shown on this website (Learn More Here)

Back
Top