Budget modelling

[Kris]

If you want to keep your overall budget down but have a bit of money to start with purchasing a second hand layout can provided you with a lot for your money, but you do have to be careful that you don't get stung. 

 

Keep your eyes on small local auctions they can turn up some real gems for far less than many other places. 

[Nearholmer]

1 hour ago, SamThomas said:

Backscenes, especially town/urban - make your own, take pictures with your smartphone,

 

Paper, pencil and a box of children's watercolours. No smartphones or printers (for which the ink is shockingly expensive) need be involved.

[SamThomas]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Paper, pencil and a box of children's watercolours. No smartphones or printers (for which the ink is shockingly expensive) need be involved.

That's fine if you are artisic (or know someone who is).

 

Inkjet printer ink is expensive, I'm lucky enough to have a commercial laser - modellers could always get their "artwork" done on screen & then take the file to a copy shop.

Edited January 6, 2022 by SamThomas

[Nearholmer]

The point I was perhaps clumsily trying to make is that, in pursuit of cheapness, it’s possible to learn enough ‘artistry’ to create a back-scene by hand. It really is no harder than making a plastic kit, and really can be learned ‘by rote’.

[The Johnster]

I would advise a good deal of thinking before embarking on a layout as well, focussed on matters such as 'what do I want the layout to do for me?' or 'how will I use it?' as well as the more obvious 'what prototype/period?' and 'what sort of trains do I want to run'.  To illustrate what I mean by this, a very well known, experienced, and highly skilled modeller who is an acknowledged expert in his particular field and whose models command premium prices built a layout, chronicled on this site, a few years ago, a steam era passing station on a single track main line with a couple of goods sidings.  It was superb, a first class evocation of the prototype (which still exists on a preserved 'heritage' railway). 

 

Once it was completed, he expressed dissatisfaction with it because it did not provide sufficient operational interst to satisfy his needs, and it wouldn't have for me either.  I like to shunt, to break up trains and deliver wagons to the customers, then collect them and make them up into new trains, and Cwmdimbath's track plan reflects this.  It is a real place in South Wales, albeit one of the few valleys that never had a colliery, railway, or mining village (it did have at one time a tramroad servicing a forge).  It is a steep sided valley with a very restricted space at the bottom, so the track layout is restriced by the geography.  There are only two siding, but they are at opposite ends of the run around loop, and awkward to shunt.  One must be careful not to block oneself in, and as I work to a real time timetable, the work must be done before the signalman is blowing whistles at you and pointing at his watch because he has to clear the section for the next passenger train.  Such was the challenge of real railway work in such places.

 

It also has a kickback road to a colliery exchange siding, and this has recently been extended to the colliery (a new board and permission from The Squeeze to occupy more of our bedroom) (she's a keeper), which adds to the operation, a sort-of-but-not-quite 4-road extended Inglenook.  So, if shunting is my main purpose in building a layout, why didn't I just build an Inglenook; Inglenooks, btw, are very cost effective and need little space, track, or stock and only one locomotive.  Well, because I also wanted to run passenger trains and model the entire railway in a holistic way.  It isn't a train set, it's a real railway serving a real mining village in an isolated valley, only small and 70 years ago. It's worked as far as possible to the 1955 Rule Book, and consideration is given to it's place in the network of intensively worked single track branches that radiated from Tondu, north of Bridgend.  The railway had to have a back story, an imagined life of it's own, and a shunting puzzle doesn't quite cut that mustard.  But the colliery can be shunted as an Inglenook if I want.

 

It works for me; I'm 70 in a few weeks and expect it to satisfy my needs until I am myself withdrawn from service and sent to the great Swindon in the sky for dismantling.  Your needs may be very different, and you may prefer the challenge of construction as a serial layout builder (expensive, but the cost is spread over the layouts and materials can be re-used), or gain more enjoyment from watching the trains go by on a continous run of plain track, or prefer the to-ings and fro-ings of a busy loco shed or TMD (expensive, you need lots of locomotives), or industrial/dock layouts could be your 'bag, man' (yes, I'm an ageing hippie).  Or some combination of any or all of these ideas.

 

The point I'm laboriously trying to grind out is that my layout is a success for me because I spent a very long time thinking about it and what I wanted it to do before clearing the space in the bedroom for it, drawing sketch plans on scrap paper and shunting them out in my imagination, visualising the setting.  I already knew the area and period I wanted; it's always been 1950s South Wales for me, but played on scrap paper with docks and harbour layouts, coal sorting sidings in the Cardiff suburbs, and the Brecon Beacons watershed.  This was instrumental in preventing false starts and the wasted expense that comes with them. 

 

By the time I started this layout, back in the spring of 2016, I had a fair idea of what I wanted and the space available for it.  I had long ago decided that any layout I built would be within the heated and ventilated living area of my home, saving the huge expense of loft conversion, garage insulation, or dedicated shed building that had to be heated and ventilated, following the destruction of my teenage loft layout by temperature variation.  I do not recoomend this as the best way to proceed, but my baseboards are skip-raided Ikea 'Lack' shelves as are the bracing timbers, and the supports are bedroom furniture including cheap plastic 4-drawer storage units, about £12 a pop from local Home Bargains.  A good bit of the wiring and switching is out of skips as well, as is a shelf unit that the stock lives on hung on the wall by the fiddle yard. 

 

Wiring is simple to the point of crudity, a desirable specifcation for someone of my soldering skill level but it's getting better over time; one strategically positioned feed, one isolating section with an on/off switch from a car one of my neighbours was using as a parts donor for one he was rebuilding (it's that sort of neighbourhood, in a posher area he'd be 'restoring' it), and bridging wires for the kickbacks.  Current is routed by the insulfrog turnouts, which work fine but need to be kept clean at the blade/stockrail interface, saving on wiring and switching for electrofrogs.  I live in a fairly deprived (and depraved) innercity area where most homes are rented, and this results in a vigorous turnover of population, with a lot of flat clearances and hence skips.  Construcion of the basic layout cost me the price of the track and some solder.

 

I've splashed out on a few luxuries since, notably Dapol working lit signals and their wiring and switches, but this has been subject to the budget and what I could afford at the time.  I have spent a lot more on locos and stock than I originally thought I would, but again have looked for good secondhand and discounted 'special offer' new.  Aware that prices were going to rise and continue to do so, I concentrated on buying the big ticket items as soon as I was able, thus not so much saving money as avoiding spending too much of it.  The budget was so tight that the delays to and price increases of the Bachmann 94xx became a cause celebre for me here, because not knowing when it would materialise affected my overall railway budgeting, but it all worked out in the end.

 

I still look at skips and assess what might be of use in them, it's a long-standing habit.  Most of my patio came from skips, actually, come to think of it, all of it did, and some of my furniture did as well, so it's not surprising that skip-raiding plays a big part in my layout building and modelling.

 

Thinking is not free, as you have to provide yourself with food and water for your brain to operate properly, but as you have to do this anyway the extra cost is minimal, and it can be extremely cost effective.  Or pretty wasteful if you do it wrong...

Edited January 6, 2022 by The Johnster

[Steamport Southport]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 

Paper, pencil and a box of children's watercolours. No smartphones or printers (for which the ink is shockingly expensive) need be involved.

 

Why limit yourself to children's paints?

 

You can get decent artists materials in places like The Works very cheaply.  Also things like quality paint brushes and cutting boards.

 

Oh look! They've got a sale on...  

 

https://www.theworks.co.uk/c/art-and-craft

[Nearholmer]

10 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

Why limit yourself to children's paints?

My daughter is a bit of an emerging amateur artist, so they are a free resource round here.

[Northmoor]

To build cheap requires a certain mindset; if you've always bought everything new, would never consider buying a secondhand car ("because they go wrong", as if new ones never do) and are not the sort of person who gets a little thrill from finding your evening meal with a yellow discount sticker in the supermarket, it is going to be a struggle analogous to the fashion victim, with a "Taste from Prada, budget of Primark".

 

As for using recovered materials, my part-built Western Region BLT uses:

• a frame made from a dismantled child's bed,
• my own off-cuts of Sundeala and some recovered hardboard from the neighbouring builder's skip,
• polystyrene formers for scenery are cut from retained packaging,
• the backscene is hand-painted (much better than photographic ones, which are too realistic IMO) on hardboard recovered from the back of some flat-pack shelves,
• base colours are from Wickes match pots purchased when conveniently, the right colours were on sale,
• track either recovered from a childhood layout or a small part of a very cheap eBay job lot.

Johnster makes an excellent point about not building something you'll quickly get bored of, unless you have the budget and enthusiasm for building layouts one after the other.  Remembering a book from my youth about modelling branch lines, it said don't model a branch line if they don't interest you.  I would apply this to any model railway; you must decide what you want to model first then decide how to fit it in the space available afterwards.  You might have to make serious compromises (which your budget will do, if nothing else) but if the subject doesn't inspire you, the layout will never get built.  However, building a small layout has the other advantage that if you change your mind and decided to wait until you have more space, the sunk cost is small.

[The Johnster]

Well, experience helps, even this old idiot learns eventually.  Cwmdimbath is by a considerable amount the most 'successful' layout I've ever built, in terms of operational interest, running reliability, and realism (though there was a surreality to many of the Tondu branches in terms of the extreme geography and intensity of the collieries and other industries. I even have a stretch of open line to watch the trains passing by on.  Despite the extended planning period, I stopped making detailed plans some time before skipraiding the baseboards and clearing the space for it, relying on rough sketches.  When I came to tracklaying, I used only one dimension, that of the longest locomotive ever likely to work the branch, a large prairie or 42xx.  It was essential that such a loco would fit on to the loco release headshunt for running around purposes. 

 

With that length of track, about 10 inches to give the driver a chance of stopping tidy without having to impact the block, laid and the release turnouts (smallest radius on the layout, Peco small) attached to it, the rest of the track was simply laid towards Glynogwr Juncion until I thought the loop was long enough, and everything else followed naturally from this. I made no particular effort to make the running lines straight and allowed the Streamline to sit the way it wanted, resulting in a pleasing gentle curve.  The fiddle yard has evolved over two extensions, and is currently a 4 roader, with the longest road capable of a 10-wagon annavan mineral trains, and the others can accommodate the branch's normal 2 coach passenger trains with a loco; I can make up a 3-coacher over the throat pointwork if I want. 

 

On a small layout, and larger ones for that matter, there are visual tricks that can be employed to make things look bigger than they are.  I would recommend making platforms and loops at least a coach length and more if possible longer than your longest train, realistic and prevents an overstocked and cramped feel.  If your platform is behind the trains from your viewing position, you can make them lower to increase the apparent width, and taper them to give an illusion of length, but this will be destroyed if the trains are long enough to occupy the entire platform.  Try to incorporate the impression of a space behind the railway between it and the backscene, ground falling away or a stream.  This is shown very well on RMWeb's 'Black Country Blues' layout, and I use it with a stream (Nant Lechyd) down behind my station and the colliery, from which the mountainside rises precipitously about 1,500 feet above the Nant Lechyd stream, 18" to 2' in reality on the model but perspective and the mountain dissappearing upwards out of sight when you are looking at the trains provide the illusion, along with 2mm scale sheep towards the top.  It is a bit overpowering and oppressive, and this is correct for a Mid-Glamorgan valley...

 

I'd like longer trains of course, and if I ever win the lottery will have the layout professionally rebuilt to accommodate 25 wagon minerals and longer colliery sidings, but this is real life and compromises have to be made and lived with.  The excuse is limited space at the colliery requiring frequent clearances of short trains (one pit in the Rhondda Fach was so stretched for space on the narrow valley floor that there were clearances every 30 minutes to keep the men at the face working, a single track branch does not automatically mean infrequent trains, most in South Wales were worked to capacity) and steep gradients further down the branch. again not unusual in the area.  The final pitch up to Nantymoel, next valley over, was 1 in 27!  Money has been saved by using  flexible track, cheaper per metre than setrack though the turnouts are more expensive, not using underlay or cork trackbed; my track is glued directly to the baseboards, pinned to hold it in place until the pva goes off, and making my own platform, essential to fit to the gentle curvature of the track. 

 

It is advisable not to 'box yourself in', and give consideration to possible future expansion of the layout without having to completely start again from scratch.  This is easier with a single track branch, you just move the scenic break to the fiddle yard further along, and more complex with the number of running lines and with a continuous run layout.  A major shift in thinking is often needed for newcomers to the hobby, whose idea of a model railway is a continuous circuit on a solid board, and the RTR companies publish booklets of track plans and trackmats that encourage this.  This helps sales of course. which is the intention, but many of the plans are expensive and not particularly realistic in the way that they attempt to recreate real railway practice, so as you 'progess' in your modelling and realise this, it all has to come up and you have to start again, spend spend  spend.  Consider your layout as occupying space on the walls around the room like a shelf rather than a table in the centre of it, liftout sections over the doorways if you want a continuous run, and you will automatically begin to recreate the linear nature of real railways and the way they were restricted in land use and geograph.  You will spend less money and have a more realistic and satisfying railway that can be extended more easily.

 

Cwmdimbath has 4 baseboards, and if necessary the layout can be split for storage by slitting disc-ing them apart to take it down.  The wisdom of this was proven when my landlord refurbished the flat and I had to occupy the one across the hall for two weeks in 2017, though there were only 2 boards then.  Nothing is fixed to the wall and the boards rest unfixed on the supports; this is in accordance with my tenancy agreement, and the sort of thing that has to be considered if you occupy rented accommodation.  My landlord is aware of my hobby and supportive so long as I keep to the rules, which is fair enough...

 

Don't beat yourself up if you don't get it perfectly right first time; none of us here did, and there are still things we are all learning.  The more research you can manage, into the prototype and into modelling and layout building, the less money you will spend and the better your layout will be.  The hardest thing at the beginning is to accept that you don't have room or cash for Clapham Juntion, and it is only later that you realise that you cannot operate it on your own and that the lack of room was just as well.

 

Railway modelling is to an extent about squeezing prototype quarts into scale pint pots, but you can't squeeze them into thimbles, and you can't squeeze gallons into pints. You can use visual and perpective tricks, but chances are your curves are too sharp and your signals too close to the junctions they are protecting, and that you stop your trains too close to them for the driver to see them without craning his neck.  We all do this; compromises made and lived with, but the degree to which you can do this without destroying the impression of realism, the suspension of disbelief, is very individual and what I get away might not do for you, or be obsessive.  Finding your own individual level of belief suspension early will also save you time, effort, and, most of all, your hard earned beer vouchers!

 

Edited January 7, 2022 by The Johnster

[Trainnoob]

I feel like Freelancers or budget modellers can look down at Prototype modellers as much the prototype modellers look down at them, it's also not about price, sometimes it's also the attitude of the community from both sides, both freelance and prototype.

Theres was a YouTube channel that encouraged DC operation to save money which is a very excellent advice, but in there official show they had a rule that layouts HAD to Be analogue, which is bit unfair considering some people have made DCC on a budget. Just because a layout doesn't look cheap doesn't mean it wasn't cheap. Some of the most realistic layouts I have seen where made with handmade buildings, Low budget DCC, and kitbashed rolling stock. I don't know about anyone else but I feel like Prototype modellers sometimes get alot of slack for this when it does exist in the other end of the model railway spectrum aswell. I'm saying this as person in the freelance spectrum.

 

 

I know this may seem unrelated to the thread but this subject is about the price of model Railways which is one of the things that buts people of, so I thought I would just make a point of this.

 

 

In whole though almost the entire community is awesome but I feel like both people with a limited budget and time and those with more time and money should be considered.

[cypherman]

Hi all,

One more thing you can save money on is point motors. If the layout is just for you why use point motors at all.  First digit movement is all that is needed and that is free. Or use wire coat hangers channelled under the boards with a push/pull action. Easy to do with a little bit of drilling.

[andyman7]

1 hour ago, cypherman said:

Hi all,

One more thing you can save money on is point motors. If the layout is just for you why use point motors at all.  First digit movement is all that is needed and that is free. Or use wire coat hangers channelled under the boards with a push/pull action. Easy to do with a little bit of drilling.

An excellent point (!). If the turnout is within reach then motorising just adds complexity. In real life quite a few sidings are worked beyond the main line connection by crank handles in any case. I have a small end-to-end layout with motorised turnouts and the wiring is like spaghetti. My main roundy layout just had all the turnouts within reach of the controller which saved a lot of time and effort and is remarkably reliable!

[RedGemAlchemist]

On 04/01/2022 at 10:32, andyman7 said:

With the latest price increases announced by a manufacturer have come more cries that railway modelling is a rich man's hobby; that people are being priced out; etc. 

 

More than 40 years ago, as a youngster who desperately wanted to have a model railway, I was 'priced out' of the hobby because we had no spare money as a family. I never got the shiny Hornby train set; instead at the age of 11, I slowly and painfully started to assemble the bits and pieces needed through secondhand and rummage bins, the cheapest imaginable used items, and attempts to build things myself. Fast forward to now and I am lucky enough to generally be able to buy the things I really want; but actually what gives me the most satisfaction is the ability to find or make great items for next to nothing. 

 

So I thought as an antidote to the narrative that the hobby is too expensive I would start a general thread where we can post our ideas and efforts for budget modelling activity. This is not to be confused with bargain hunters which has it's own thread, or for lucky finds; it's about helping frustrated fellow modellers find ways to enjoy a satisfying hobby without access to brand new out-of-the-box superdetail stuff.

 

To kick things off, I have listed a few fairly basic things that I have picked up over the years:

 

1) It doesn't have to be DCC. DCC adds costs to every loco; DC is still a workable alternative that is cheaper, less prone to 'complex' failure, satisfying in it's simplicity

2) It doesn't have to be new or new spec; every time a new model comes out there are people that discard the superceded models that are often nearly as good. The new Bachmann 158 is a fabulous model; but the old one is pretty good too and is a fraction of the price excepting certain 'collectable' liveries

3) Ebay, shops, fairs - all have their share of overpriced tat; but there are bargains to be had if you are willing to look, search, put in some work. The more you do, the better you will get at finding things

4) Wanting something guaranteed, tested and working costs a premium. Build the confidence to buy 'sold as seen', and learn your way around some basic mechanisms and you don't need to worry.

5) Spares have value. Even if you end up with stuff that doesn't work, learn how to take it apart and sell the bits on ebay.

6) If you do come across a real bargain you can afford that isn't your era, consider buying it and sell/trade it on for the correct value to help fund something you do want. This is not 'profiteering', it's helping you afford the hobby.

7) Learn basic soldering of electrical connections. You can buy a soldering kit for under a tenner that will let you do this, and is the single most useful repair you can do

 

Hopefully this is just a starter, but the message is that if you really want a model railway, it can be a lot more affordable than it might look.

Nice to see someone who also follows the same ethos as I do when it comes to buying stuff. 

[hayfield]

On 04/01/2022 at 11:37, cypherman said:

Hi all,

Okay Ebay, yes I said it. Ebay. Look for things that are spares and repairs. Quite often things that are sold as such have minmal problems that are easily fixed. especially things with cosmetic issues. These engines all cost me very little to buy. Yes I did spend some money on fixing them up. But you do not have to spend as much as I did. Most cost less than £30,00 to buy and finish.

So here are some pictures of what I bought and made from the puchases.

1 The  Lima small prairies. Cost me £15.00 to buy the 2 prairies and pannier tank. Pannier tank only needed minor cosmetic work. The 2 small prairies needed much more work. One if I remember rightly ended up with a new cd motor for £12.00. The most I have ever spent on a single item on these engines. The rest of the bits and pieces came from plasticard, Brass strip and bits out of my spares box. The transfers for the prairies came from Dapol. You can buy all their transfers for their ex Airfix kits seperatly for £1.50 a set. But if you were basically skint you could have made one decent engine out of the 2 prairies without spending very much more.

2 Lima J50's. They cost me £6.00 for the pair. Again they were rebuilt the same way as the priaries. Both motors once serviced were good runner. One needed a new set of wheels. But I had a spare set. Everything else came out of my spares box. Now I managed to make 2 very nice models out them. But like the prairies you could have made one decent engine out of the 2 and you would have only spent £6.00.

3 Lima crane. This cost me £12.00 and some cheap acrylic paint.

4 Hornby Hall. This cost me £10.00 if memory serves me right. Once serviced it ran well. It came with no tender but I had a spare tender from a defunct Hogwarts Castle that had been bought for spares to rebuild another Hogwarts Castle I had. The nameplates and numbers cost me £9.99. Everything else came from as before plasticard and spares box. Then a pot of paint.

Honourable mentions to 2 Hornby N15 Sir Dinadans and a Triang Princess that cost me just under £40.00 each to do.

So just a few that I have done very cheaply. All these engines have been documented in more detail here on RMweb.

 

 

We are so spoilt now that the expectation is that we can buy everything now. It was the norm especially as a school child to buy the odd yard of track at a time. Platforms and buildings were if I was lucky built from new balsa sheet, normally card from food boxes. I might save up for the odd wagon or point, but locos would be for birthdays or Christmas

 

I used to dream of being able to buy a Wills loco kit, but even the donor chassis was out of my reach.  How things have changed I see some of the latest RTR locos are selling for upwards of £300 each. On the other hand a second hand kit built model selling for £50- £60 when the parts alone now would cost upwards of £150 to £200.

 

There cannot be a better time with the advent of eBay for budget modelling. Many locos are being sold for not very much, all they usually need is a clean and oil. Look a bit harder and you will find common kit built locos (many on RTR chassis) which again can be bought for not very much and with little effort could be made into  nice little models.

[PaulaDoesTrains]

3 hours ago, cypherman said:

Hi all,

One more thing you can save money on is point motors. If the layout is just for you why use point motors at all.  First digit movement is all that is needed and that is free. Or use wire coat hangers channelled under the boards with a push/pull action. Easy to do with a little bit of drilling.

 

On my little BLT I started off changing the points by hand which worked OK but a) I'm very clumsy and any stock anywhere near the points was in mortal of being knocked over and b) I was forever forgetting to change both points on a crossover. Then I discovered the method you refer to in a YouTube video by Casterbridge OB. It works really well.

[hayfield]

4 hours ago, cypherman said:

Hi all,

One more thing you can save money on is point motors. If the layout is just for you why use point motors at all.  First digit movement is all that is needed and that is free. Or use wire coat hangers channelled under the boards with a push/pull action. Easy to do with a little bit of drilling.

 

What's wrong with a simple wire in the tube, even extending it to a lever frame ?

[HonestTom]

My accumulated wisdom (ha, this won't take long) on the subject of modelling on a budget is:

 

1. Do you need super-detail? Do the shortcomings of older models bother you? Can you see the details at normal viewing distance? If you can be happy with older, cheaper models, you can save a lot of money.

 

2. Learn to do things yourself - for instance, there are many older wagons by the likes of Triang and Lima that can be easily repainted and which, with a bit of weathering and a new set of wheels, will give you a wagon to be proud of.

 

3. Think outside the box. Develop an eye for things that have uses on your model railway. Cheap craft paints can be used to make weathering washes. Chalks can be ground down into weathering powder. Cross stitch grating makes great window frames. The inside face of an egg box makes for a lovely rough stone texture. Check out your local craft shop.

 

4. Along those lines, scratchbuilding isn't as hard as it looks. Maybe you can't build St Pancras yet, but a tumbledown cottage, a platelayer's hut or an industrial workshop is an easy starter project. I would suggest looking at wargame terrain channels on YouTube such as Wyloch's Armoury or Black Magic Craft for ideas.

 

5. When buying second-hand, get an idea of what a reasonable price is for what you're looking for and be prepared to ask questions. Be aware of potential issues with models (for instance, when buying a wagon, does it have all its buffers?). Check your purchases before you hand your money over. Set yourself a sensible budget and stick to it.

 

6. Look at older modellers - for a long time, modellers had to do just about everything themselves. Books by people like John Ahern and Peter Denny are full of helpful tips on how to do things without the a full range of modelling aids.

 

7. eBay is fine in its way, but you can often find real bargains in the real world. I once got a Hornby Dublo West Country in beautiful condition for £40 from a model railway club stand. I got a Hornby Class 25 for £22 at a jumble sale and a Lima Deltic for £20 at an antique shop.

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by HonestTom

[Northmoor]

20 minutes ago, HonestTom said:

My accumulated wisdom (ha, this won't take long) on the subject of modelling on a budget is:

 

1. Do you need super-detail? Do the shortcomings of older models bother you? Can you see the details at normal viewing distance? If you can be happy with older, cheaper models, you can save a lot of money.

 

2. Learn to do things yourself - for instance, there are many older wagons by the likes of Triang and Lima that can be easily repainted and which, with a bit of weathering and a new set of wheels, will give you a wagon to be proud of.

 

3. Think outside the box. Develop an eye for things that have uses on your model railway. Cheap craft paints can be used to make weathering washes. Chalks can be ground down into weathering powder. Cross stitch grating makes great window frames. The inside face of an egg box makes for a lovely rough stone texture. Check out your local craft shop.

 

4. Along those lines, scratchbuilding isn't as hard as it looks. Maybe you can't build St Pancras yet, but a tumbledown cottage, a platelayer's hut or an industrial workshop is an easy starter project. I would suggest looking at wargame terrain channels on YouTube such as Wyloch's Armoury or Black Magic Craft for ideas.

 

5. When buying second-hand, get an idea of what a reasonable price is for what you're looking for and be prepared to ask questions. Be aware of potential issues with models (for instance, when buying a wagon, does it have all its buffers?). Check your purchases before you hand your money over. Set yourself a sensible budget and stick to it.

 

6. Look at older modellers - for a long time, modellers had to do just about everything themselves. Books by people like John Ahern and Peter Denny are full of helpful tips on how to do things without the a full range of modelling aids.

 

7. eBay is fine in its way, but you can often find real bargains in the real world. I once got a Hornby Dublo West Country in beautiful condition for £40 from a model railway club stand. I got a Hornby Class 25 for £22 at a jumble sale and a Lima Deltic for £20 at an antique shop.

 

Agree with all of that, but for #7 I have bettered those, about ten years ago I got a Hornby 25 from a box under the table at a swapmeet; body unmarked (although couplings had been removed), numbers not yet added and it runs well, for a tenner.  Although I didn't keep it (except for the track which formed a useful test loop), Hawkins Bazaar(?) had a Hitachi Javelin set down to £30, because the controller didn't work and one set of wheels was missing.  The very polite young assistant told me I had a bargain when we opened the box to check and found the wheels rolling around in the bottom.

I got my bargain-hunting skills from my Dad, probably about 3/4 of our combined collections has been secondhand.  If you limit yourself to only buying new, you can only by what is available at that time.  If you are prepared to buy 2nd-hand, the whole product range of history is open to you.......

[HonestTom]

27 minutes ago, Northmoor said:

Agree with all of that, but for #7 I have bettered those, about ten years ago I got a Hornby 25 from a box under the table at a swapmeet; body unmarked (although couplings had been removed), numbers not yet added and it runs well, for a tenner.  Although I didn't keep it (except for the track which formed a useful test loop), Hawkins Bazaar(?) had a Hitachi Javelin set down to £30, because the controller didn't work and one set of wheels was missing.  The very polite young assistant told me I had a bargain when we opened the box to check and found the wheels rolling around in the bottom.

I got my bargain-hunting skills from my Dad, probably about 3/4 of our combined collections has been secondhand.  If you limit yourself to only buying new, you can only by what is available at that time.  If you are prepared to buy 2nd-hand, the whole product range of history is open to you.......

You bring up another good point. Shops that aren't necessarily model shops can be good for an unexpected bargain on new items. Remember when the Hornby Peckett W4 was first released and sold out really quickly? I thought I was doomed to go without or spend big bucks to get one. But I happened to be in a department store that was having a January sale and on impulse, had a look in their toy department at their Hornby display. Lo and behold, the exact variant of W4 I was looking for at 40% off. That same shop had a discount department where I picked up several items of rolling stock that weren't glamorous enough for the casual shopper.

[The Johnster]

All good points, Tom.  I'd add that, when it comes to older Triang/Lima etc wagons they are let down mostly by the crude chassis; moulded handbrake levers and brake blocks that claw uselessly at fresh air because they are moulded to the W irons and way out of alignment with the wheels.  If your usual viewing perspective is side on, this may not matter too much, but I cannot live with it.  The body toolings are usually pretty good (Rovex and Lima were very good at plastic moulding and Rovex were pioneers of it), and stand up well to comparison with current models.  They can be obtained for shrapnel at jumbles and swapmeets, and often very cheaply as job lots on the Bay, and the chassis taken off, given the opportunity of an exciting new career in the landfill industry, and replaced with kit chassis from the likes of Parkside. 

 

You may need to cut the floor off the RTR wagon because Parkside base assembly on their own wagon floors, or cobble up a way of attaching the solebars and buffer beams direct to the RTR bodyshell, but you will end up with a very acceptable model that runs well for around a tenner all in.  Beware mineral wagons though, as Triang, Hornby Dublo, and Lima all used generic 10' wheebase underframes and stretched the wagon bodies to fit.  IIRC Mainling got it right and their successors, Bachmann still do, as do Oxford for 7 plankers.  Cheapest way to obtain 16ton minerals is still the old Kitmaster/Airfix/Dapol/Kitmaster again plastic construction kit, and has been for 60 years, perfectly good model with doors that can be posed open and runs fine with a bit of ballasting, even with finishing costs half the price of Bachmann RTR.

 

Dapol sell wagon chassis in various sizes for retrofitting older bodies to, but these are not much of an improvement on the original chassis, retaining the moulded handbrake lever detail.

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

Agree with all of that, but for #7 I have bettered those, about ten years ago I got a Hornby 25 from a box under the table at a swapmeet; body unmarked (although couplings had been removed), numbers not yet added and it runs well, for a tenner.  Although I didn't keep it (except for the track which formed a useful test loop), Hawkins Bazaar(?) had a Hitachi Javelin set down to £30, because the controller didn't work and one set of wheels was missing.  The very polite young assistant told me I had a bargain when we opened the box to check and found the wheels rolling around in the bottom.

I got my bargain-hunting skills from my Dad, probably about 3/4 of our combined collections has been secondhand.  If you limit yourself to only buying new, you can only by what is available at that time.  If you are prepared to buy 2nd-hand, the whole product range of history is open to you.......

 

I guess if you are forced to model to a budget the latest highly detailed items are out of the question so either a good rummage or a bargain off eBay is the answer. Or buying a non runner, repairing it is a good way of getting a decent item for less

 

A great attitude to grabbing a bargain, well done

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

 

I guess if you are forced to model to a budget the latest highly detailed items are out of the question

 

Or, alternatively, model a small layout which needs fewer wagons, track, and only one locomotive, maybe another as a spare.  It can then be afforded using current hi-fi items with a high level of detail.  It's a matter of cutting your cloth according to it's width, and if you are modelling to a limited budget you will probably already have limited space to work with, so this will be playing to your strengths.

 

I would certainly agree with the point that, on a smaller layout, turnouts can be hand operated and do not even need wire in tube if they are within reasonably easy reach of the operator,  A walkabout or, if you prefer untethered, Hornby HM6000 smartphone app control system is a worthwhile investment here! 

Edited January 11, 2022 by The Johnster

[Annie]

I've just received the latest digital copy of Railway Modeller and inside they have a double page spread reminding subscribers that RM's digital archive going all the way back to the first issue published in 1949 is available.  As a school girl with slender pocket money reserves it was RM that guided me to make all manner of things for my very first 6 foot X 4 foot model railway.  Somethings I made were better than others and eventually I became a dab hand at making my own cardboard buildings.  Perhaps somethings like my first go at making a 6 wheel cardboard coach were a bit rough, but I was very pleased with it at the time.  

Here in New Zealand at the time there was very little in the shops in the way of specific railway items apart from good old Triang so the only option was to make most of it myself.  Maybe it wasn't perfect, but I did have a lot of fun and I learned an awful lot of skills along the way such as how to solder properly that served me well for years afterwards.  And a definite thumbs up for buying broken and down on their luck second hand locos and rolling stock and making repairs as that was about the only way I was able to obtain anything for my model railway back then.

[Foulounoux]

I've started to put this into practice 

 

Over this Year apart from the odd special I've purchased from antique shops and the like who have odd bargains

 

For Christmas 

Used up Amazon vouchers obtained via a works reward scheme to purchase a old release P2.

Now this was a slight non bargain as I model eastern region br blue but the wife says diesels are boring so I  agreed lner derivatives if that means she is on board with buying me stuff

So part two wife's Xmas present to me 6 steam era coaches all from a shop in Southampton that has a great 2nd hand selection 

 

Other present from in laws also was to have been models and I stressed don't buy new   in the end they decided to gift me a magazine subscription and the money that saves me I can use for more second hand stock

 

 

 

All the track for the layout  is code 100 recovered from previous attempts

 

I consider myself well off but just can't bring myself to spend eg 50£ + on a coach 

[BernardTPM]

4 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Beware mineral wagons though, as Triang, Hornby Dublo, and Lima all used generic 10' wheebase underframes and stretched the wagon bodies to fit.

Actually the Tri-ang 16t Mineral is too short rather than too long as their standard chassis at the time was 16ft over headstocks.

Trix did a plastic 16t mineral too and their standard chassis was 17' 6" but to 1:80 scale which works out to 16' 6" in 4mm scale, just by luck. For that reason their unusual Pig Iron wagon is the right length too and could be mounted on a suitable 9ft w.b. chassis. They later did a wooden P.O., the same length, though the later plastic chassis has suspension far too sophisticated for a mineral wagon of any type.

Edited January 11, 2022 by BernardTPM