Building a model railway on the cheap - help needed!

[MarshLane]

Before I explain what this is all about, I may need help from people, perhaps raiding not so much the gloat box, but the ‘why did I buy that’ box, or the ‘never going to run that again’ box, so please do read on .. I’ll keep it short!

 

Introduction

Recently, I was with a group of like-minded friends on a day-out to Penzance (of all places).  We’re all over 40 and recall the likes of Crewe Works Open Day where you could pick-up no end of Lima and Hornby OO gauge locomotive second hand for £15-£25!

 

On the rail journey down, we got talking and the topic drifted onto the cost of model railways today.  Before anyone says, yes I acknowledge we have better motors, better detailing and DCC etc, but we were talking about the base cost of things.  I recalled a layout that was in Railway Modeller several years ago where it had been done on the cheap - several small industrial locos, second hand track work and a handful of wagons - and it appeared to work well.  Needless to say I got a barrage of responses all along the lines of “well you couldn't do that today!”  Now I dont recall volunteering but it appears that I seem to have accepted a challenge to prove them wrong!

 

Therefore the Low Cost Valley Railway was born (a working title!), which will be a fictional OO gauge light railway/industrial line, that has the aims of being made from throw away items, but giving a layout that is interesting to operate, portable and reliable .. and all at minimum cost.  For no other reason than to prove what can be done with things we think are past their best, poor runners, or simply not working any more.

 

Requirements

Now I am still putting the basic concept together, but in essence I am looking for anyone to make contact who may have any of the following items they no longer need - or similar things, its wide open really, there is no wish list - who would be happy to donate (or sell for a small sum!). The aim is not to buy anything new, condition isn’t important as it can be resprayed, and even if a loco doesn’t work, I am sure that things can be adapted or re-motored etc.

 

LOCOS

This will be a small freelance industrial/light railway type layout, so I am thinking of four and six wheeled locos, probably older models to keep the cost down, things like the Hornby Desmond/Smokey Joe style engines, Triang Nellie or Polly as both offer some interesting rebuilding options, or things like the Hornby Class 02 diesel 0-4-0DM .. anything of that kind of small type.  The more recent industrial locos would be nice, but they would come at a higher cost and that goes against the plan.

 

ROLLING STOCK

In terms of rolling stock, I am thinking of things such like the old Hornby four-wheeled coaches (produced in a variety of liveries and Annie/Clarabel guises) plus two-axle wagons probably more like the old 5-plank opens, or box vans/brake vans/cattle vans etc.    Colours and conditions (even things like missing wheels/buffers) are not an issue if the cost is cheap!  Again, may three, four or five coaches, with goods trains being six or seven wagons in total, including a brake van.  The aim being that the stock list does not need to be significant - famous last words!  The essence is those kind of items you might find in a rubbish box or under a stand not really having a value at a swap meet or model fair.

 

A friend has given me an old Hornby ‘Birds Eye’ liveried box van to kick things off, which is ideal as it can be detailed and repainted, while another ‘friend of a friend’ has today given me three old, but still good and very usable, Code 100 points and a couple of metre-lengths of flexi track to get started.  Now, ideally I would have gone for Peco Code 75 as I think it looks better, but hey, the purpose of is to make it work and keep it cheap!

 

I have considered that it would be possible to create a new chassis for something like Desmond and put a modern day small motor (if necessary) in to create a reliable, smooth running shunter.  I think the whole layout will be DC powered to keep the cost down - I’ve loads of electrical switches etc already so that side is sorted, so just need to find a walkabout controller, probably a Gaugemaster as they have always been reliable and compatible with most motors.

 

Like I say, if anyone can help - the whole concept is to spend as little as possible, so there is no big budget, but I am more than happy to reimburse postage, and cough up small sums for things, I am not looking to fleece anyone or get people to give away valued models!  But we all probably have some small items that were a purchase years ago and rarely, if ever, get used.  I am going to sell a couple of models to create a small budget, so yes I am getting involved too!

 

Please feel free to PM me, or respond on this thread either with details or a pic.  Thanks to AndyY for his advice on where to post this starter for 10 diatribe!  As things progress, I'll get Andy to move the thread into the Layout Topics ... once it is a layout.

 

If you’ve read this far, well done and thank you!  Thoughts, comments, advice and (polite) suggestions are welcomed! I am hoping it will turn out to be a fascinating little project, and one that can be documented on here as it goes over the coming months.  One of the things I will do is to keep a financial tally of the outgoing.  Can the overall aim of a cheap, but interesting and fun to run model railway be achieved?  Lets see!

 

Rich

[The Johnster]

Might I suggest a dockside/harbourside set-up, the sort of place where very sharp curvatures and mad crossings are the norm.  This would justify your using secondhand cheap setrack and turnouts, and the Smokeyjoe/Nellie mechs and swb stock will cope.  Old Smokeyjoes can apparently be tamed with old CD drives, though I don't know the details, and Nellies are pretty good slow runners as they come if you get a reasonably free-running one.  The chassis is a quality job, proper frames and spacers, and could I suppose be regeared, but not cheaply.  Another candidate might be the 3.8mm/ft Jouef/Playcraft NB shunter.  The shorty coaches could form a workman's train.  I'd keep to older-style stock despite, in fact because of, their scale shortcomings (longcomings in the case of minerals on 10' generic wheelbase chassis), brake blocks not in line with wheels, moulded crude detail, ride height problems and so on, as any item of modern RTR would highlight these issues; a holistic overall matching of quality will give a better overall impression. 

 

Keep the tension lock couplings, you'll need them to prevent buffer locking when you are propelling.  Feedback controllers might be a good idea, and arrange matters so that the current is directed by the turnouts, saving on wiring and switches.  You might even find a use for the original Rovex Triang shorty bogie coaches! 

 

The key to getting this looking like a 'proper' model railway will be in the weathering and repainting.  Interesting project, good luck...

[33C]

Try a Jouef 0.4.0. Steam loco. Very free running and will make shunting interesting! Why not use all Jouef/Playcraft stock? Super cheap, H0 all round and enough british prototypes to satisfy the brief....

[MarshLane]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Yes a dockside could well be an option, with tighter curves and pointwork.  Tension locks will go as I (personally) tend to view them as more train set than model railway - no disrespect to anyone with a scale model that uses them! But for me they disrupt the realism aspect.  Whether it becomes three links or a hands-off option I have yet to decide.

 

Thanks

I'll not name them, they know who they are, but thanks to the guys who have already offered a couple of items.  Those bits, I'll say pledged as we haven't completed any purchases yet, so far include a Hornby loco body, two four-wheel coaches, five wagons and a Gaugemaster twin track cased controller!  So things are starting to move.  I have come up with a couple of ideas - we used to say 'back of a fag packet designs' but thats not particularly PC now .. so I'll say 'back of an envelope' designs, which may or may not have future at this stage, but it gives some ideas.

 

Rich

[ikcdab]

Interesting concept! You want reliability, correctly, yet you have made no mention of track or baseboards, but you have waded straight into locos and stock.

For reliability, you really must have decent baseboards, made from decent material. You cannot go wrong if you use 9mm ply. Brand new stuff these days is gold-impregnated, so you need to hunt for second hand or offcuts. Scour your local timber merchants and see what he has hidden away that you will get at a reasonable price. Or trawl through skips etc. Without decent baseboards, you are doomed to fail. For legs, look at Screwfix trestles.

Next is your trackwork. You seem to have three options:

1. Buy commercial track brand new. Expensive, but reliable.

2. Buy second hand commercial. A lot cheaper, but more problematic wrt reliability. 

3. Build your own. Much the cheapest option, even with the cost of copper clad strip, and you get really good looking, very reliable track.

My choice has always been to make my own, largely because of cost but also because I wanted the proper, scale look.

 

With your stock, look at kits! You can still get the old airfix kits at very reasonable prices on eBay and they really are good. They need new wheels and couplings, but you get a good range at a very reasonable price. eBay or local exhibitions are good hunting grounds for unassembled kits.

 

Coaching stock, I would avoid the toy train coaches because they just look horrible.   You are building a model railway, not a train set.  There is a difference! Again you can get the old triang mk1s cheaply and with a bit of care these can be upgraded and repainted. They then look good too. I recently picked up some kitmaster mk1s for £5 each.

Locos, you really do want to be careful here if you want reliability and you can't beat the more modern ones! I would go for fewer, but more expensive rather than buying loads of cheap locos that will disappoint you. I spent my entire childhood with just two locomotives and didn't branch out until I had my own job and could buy what I wanted. 

Buildings etc....go for scalescenes every time! Cheap and excellent products, I cannot speak highly enough of them, but they do involve effort to assemble.

 

What I am really saying is that you can make very significant savings on costs if you can do things yourself. Build kits, repaint stock, repair things and upgrade them. It's what used to happen and we are in danger of losing that approach. My layout is extensive and runs very reliably, yet I have made or modified virtually everything myself, including things like the controllers that I handbuilt for less than £5 each one. 

 

Good luck, an excellent idea, try to avoid a twee trainset and build a model railway on the cheap! I look forward to seeing the outcome.

Ian

[MarshLane]

Hi Ian,

Thanks for taking the time to pass those comments, all valid and the majority of them I would agree with.

 

17 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

Interesting concept! You want reliability, correctly, yet you have made no mention of track or baseboards, but you have waded straight into locos and stock.

For reliability, you really must have decent baseboards, made from decent material. You cannot go wrong if you use 9mm ply. Brand new stuff these days is gold-impregnated, so you need to hunt for second hand or offcuts. Scour your local timber merchants and see what he has hidden away that you will get at a reasonable price. Or trawl through skips etc. Without decent baseboards, you are doomed to fail. For legs, look at Screwfix trestles.

 

I purposely didn't mention baseboards to be honest, for two reasons - the purpose of the original post was to see if it was possible to flush out a few items quite cheaply that people didn't want, the initial response suggests that yes it is.  The second is that I have yet to decide on hot to deal with baseboards.  Traditionally I have gone down the 2x1 frame work with a ply top, but the last few years I have let my membership of the flat earth society lapse, and am more swaying towards an open plan style.   But I agree totally - good, well made, solid baseboards are critical to any layout.  I already have some screw fix style trestle legs - Draper I think - so I'll use them for legs.

 

This all started as a throw away comment between trains and seems to have gained legs very quickly.  I am certainly not creating a 'roundy-roundy' train set.  I do want this to be a model style, but equally my view was to approach it from a perspective that could prove to those without a railway background or previous model making skills, that it could be done without spending huge sums. Hence looking down the earlier locos.  I have a few ideas on what could be done to improve running qualities, and without doubt somethings won't work, others hopefully will do.

 

23 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

Next is your trackwork. You seem to have three options:

1. Buy commercial track brand new. Expensive, but reliable.

2. Buy second hand commercial. A lot cheaper, but more problematic wrt reliability. 

3. Build your own. Much the cheapest option, even with the cost of copper clad strip, and you get really good looking, very reliable track.

 

Again, totally agree. I have been given some, but I am somewhat inclined to buy some C&L chairs and strip the code 100 rail from the flexi-track I have been given and go down the self-build option.  Copper clad is good and I have built that myself before, but I like the detail that proper chairs give.

 

24 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

With your stock, look at kits! You can still get the old airfix kits at very reasonable prices on eBay and they really are good. They need new wheels and couplings, but you get a good range at a very reasonable price. eBay or local exhibitions are good hunting grounds for unassembled kits.

 

Coaching stock, I would avoid the toy train coaches because they just look horrible.   You are building a model railway, not a train set.  There is a difference! Again you can get the old triang mk1s cheaply and with a bit of care these can be upgraded and repainted. They then look good too. I recently picked up some kitmaster mk1s for £5 each.

 

Again, agree with most of the comments. I find eBay is mainly going for silly prices these days, but the odd 'brucey bonus' can still be had. I need to get to my load Toy & Train Fair and raid the boxes!  I am purposely staying away from Mk1 coaches.  This is viewed as being a freelance/light railway so Mk1s wouldn't have featured, but also they add to the length quite quickly with two or three of them.

 

26 minutes ago, ikcdab said:

Buildings etc....go for scalescenes every time! Cheap and excellent products, I cannot speak highly enough of them, but they do involve effort to assemble.

 

What I am really saying is that you can make very significant savings on costs if you can do things yourself. Build kits, repaint stock, repair things and upgrade them. It's what used to happen and we are in danger of losing that approach. My layout is extensive and runs very reliably, yet I have made or modified virtually everything myself, including things like the controllers that I handbuilt for less than £5 each one. 

 

Good luck, an excellent idea, try to avoid a twee trainset and build a model railway on the cheap! I look forward to seeing the outcome.

 

Thanks for the tip on Scalescenes, not a company I have used before but I'll certainly take a look.  One of the big aims is to show that with a small amount money, modelling, detailing, changing, repainting, upgrading things (ie what a model railways used to be about) can achieve a good outcome that isn't a 'twee trainsit' and a decent model that people can be proud of.   I think one of the big challenges is that too many people who are new to bashing and scratch building are too afraid that they will get into a situation where its gone wrong and too much money has been lost.  One of my purposes is to show that buying something for a couple of quid and almost wrecking it and bring it back to something decent (where it can be thrown away if the latter bit doesn't work) allows people to experiment and built confidence and skills - including myself!

 

Above all else it should be a bit of a learning curve and fun!

 

Rich

[The Johnster]

4 hours ago, MarshLane said:

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Yes a dockside could well be an option, with tighter curves and pointwork.  Tension locks will go as I (personally) tend to view them as more train set than model railway -

 

If you're going to use 3-link couplings, or the likes of Sprat & Winkle or similar designs, you will not be able to use cheap setrack curves without buffer locking hauling or propelling, and I don't recommend using these sorts of couplings on anything less that 30" radius, 24" as an absolute extreme limit.  This will mean that you will be unable to use the very large amount of very cheap setrack that is out there looking for a home, and a lot of your intention to save money will be forestalled.

 

3 hours ago, ikcdab said:

Again you can get the old triang mk1s cheaply and with a bit of care these can be upgraded and repainted.

 

Yes, agreed, but the Lima mk1s are just as cheap and finished much better.  But how this sits with an industrial/light railway layout based on Smokeyjoes and such is another matter. 

 

It is indubitably true that scratchbuilding track, locos, and stock can bring the cost of the layout down drastically, until you factor costing in for your time.  You pays your money and you takes your choice, but there's no such thing as a free lunch, and if you are concerned with scale appearance to the extent that you will not consider tension lock couplings, you may find yourself in the sort of hole that you need to stop digging.  Personally, my chief aim in the hobby is to operate trains realistically in realistic scenarios, with the correct locos and stock to the best extent I can manage, and I do not have the skills to scratchbuild or kitbuild to the standard I want; therefore I have to dig into my pocket.  That said, I have never paid RRP for an RTR loco and very rarely for rolling stock, relying on the Bay and offers.  I was lucky in that most of my locos were available when prices for tank engines were still sub-£100, and conciously made the best effort I could to acquire what I needed before the prices rose, as I knew they would! 

 

Tbh, I don't think it is possible to build and stock a layout to current RTR standards of scale and detail for much less than it costs to do this using the Bay and jumping on special offers, but I'll be interested to see how you get on with proving me wrong!  Kits cost more than RTR equivalents by the time you complete them and are not as detailed,  Scratchbuilds take too long for my purposes even if I was competent to undertake them.  It costs what it costs!

[Kris]

If you want cheap, keep your eyes on local auction house that do household clearance sales, there can be great bargains to be found. 

[BernardTPM]

For older style coaching stock you could look at some of the old 1970s Grafar/Graham Farish coaches. These have a 1920s look to them and are around a scale 55 foot long in both corridor and non-corridor formats. The old Triang/Hornby short Clerestory coaches can be hacked into all kinds of pre-group stock. A little more upmarket the old Mainline LMS period 1 corrdor coaches or the Airfix/Dapol LMS non-gangwayed lavatory stock are pretty good. While not scale, the older Hornby Gresley coaches have nicely moulded panelling and may lend themselves to chopping around. There are also the old Ratio (now under the Parkside brand) kits, 4 wheel and bogie, GWR, MR and LNWR though the bogies have a reputation for being a bit delicate.

With careful shopping around none of these options should be expensive.

[Steamport Southport]

You'll need an A4 or GWR Bird if you want something that goes cheep! 

 

🐦

 

As for doing things on the cheap have a look here. These are often very cheap. 

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/179562-Hornby-lwb-van-can-the-ugly-duckling-be-transformed-into-a-swan/

 

 

Jason

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Just some thoughts:

 

1. Baseboards - good foundations are essential. I find 5mm ply, suitably braced, is fine. Look for off-cuts from timber merchants or a skip. But make sure it's not been in the rain/damp. Ensure the bracing isn't warped either. Scenery can be made free using carboard strips from packaging etc.

 

2. Track. Don't skimp on this as it will cause no end of frustration. If using secondhand, eg PECO, ensure the rail contacfs are still in place on the underside of the switchblades and the springs are springy enough to keep the switchblades firm against the stock rail.

 

3. Locos and stock. No real point looking for wagons on ebay as when postage i added, the cost is almost double. Use local model shops/ shows and look carefully through the secondhand stuff. I try not to spend more than £5on a wagon or £10 for a coach. Wagons like Airfix / Palitoy / Mainline are good quality and with weatherig / detailing, can stand up well against current stuff. Always test run the locos if you can - if details are  missing (like a buffer or sidesteps), try to get a few £££ off.

4. Buildings. Cereal boxes are your friend. Scalescenes brick papers are cost effective if you have a printer - they really are good. Make sure you brace the buildings well and they'll last for ages. 

[Nick C]

You might want to have a read of this thread:

 

Photos all gone, except a couple on the last page, but a similar concept - in their case done on a strict £100 budget, you might need more like £120 to do the same thing now!

 

Have a look on your local freecycle and/or facebook marketplace, there might be suitable materials available free or cheap for baseboard construction.

[Phil Parker]

On 28/06/2023 at 11:21, MarshLane said:

I have considered that it would be possible to create a new chassis for something like Desmond and put a modern day small motor (if necessary) in to create a reliable, smooth running shunter.

 

Branchlines already makes a suitable chassis I think. By the time you add motor, wheels and gears though, the price will scare the horses a bit. I'd sugest sticking to more modern Smokey Joes, as the later chassis aren't bad runners.

[The Johnster]

My South Wales essay, Cwmdimbath, was originally intended to be a strictly budgeted layout, but that was very soon holed below the waterline by the failure of my existing ex-Mainline loco stock, which dropped like ninepins under the allegorical weight of either mazak rot, the usualy ML split-chassis issues, or both.  The baseboards are skipraided IKEA shelving, braced with skipraided battens, and I rely (against the advice of conventional wisdom) on insulfrog turnouts to send the current where I want it to go; the layout is of course DC.  Turnouts are changed by the Hand of God, saving on point motors, but I have indulged in Dapol working signals, largely because they are lit and I am working towards being able to operate at night.  Track joins are by Peco joiners, which hold the adjoining pieces smoothly together and are the main means of power transference between them.

 

Baseboard support is a combination of tables, drawer units, and stacking boxes; the layout is not intended to be moved.  It can be if necessary, by hacksawing through track and scenery at the baseboard joins, because I live in rented accommodation and may have to move one day.  The system has been proven in action back in the spring of 2017 when my landlord decided to refurbish my flat and moved me into the one over the hall while the work took place.  Re-erecting the layout took about a week, a day of hardish work setting everything in position and the rest laying new track over the cuts and repairing the damage to scenery &c. 

 

I try to be aware of free or cheap sources of material, and one of my faves is wooden coffee stirrers, available in your local Wetherspoons, M-way services, Gregg's, supermarket cafe, &c.  They can be made into wooden fencing, I've used them as footboards on old Triang shorty clerestories and Ratio 4-wheelers, made them into plank loads for open wagons, used them in as architraves and bargeboards on home-made card buildings, made them into impromtu disposable tools of all sorts, and, most recently, scribed lengthways down the midddle, as floorboards for the signal box.  The Squeeze indulges herself in an Mivvi

sometimes, and the sticks are good paint stirrers and pva application tools.

 

Cheap poundshop tools are carp at their intended jobs, but are handy as scrapers and cleaners.  My local Poundland does kiddies paintbrush sets in virulent colours, carp for painting with but with stiff plastic 'bristles', they are great for cleaning in awkward corners, such as getting crud out of flangeways or if it prevents blades closing on stockrails, essential on my layout where this is the means of current transmission.

 

I've in the last week or so collected the yellowish seed husks from the London Plane trees that line my street, to use as scenic flock; there's tons of it out there at this time of year.  The impression of gorse is not too bad, and if they go brown over time, that won't be a disaster!

 

I have never bought a locomotive at RRP.  They are all either 2h or offers/discounts, and so are the majority of my coaches and wagons.  I made an effort to buy as many locomotives as I could manage early in the process before 2h prices were dragged up by the inevitable and foreseeable rises of the last couple of years, a policy that has paid off but regrettably cannot be recommended to those starting new projects now, you've missed the boat!

 

I am an inverterate kit basher and cut'n'shutter, which is shown particularly in my various colliery locos, one of which is a modifed Triang Dokafority on a Smokeyjoe mech, which is the current mech and runs acceptably slowly.  I'd probably use more of these but it is difficult to be certain on eBay that they are not the previous rocket mech.  I have to be aware of bargains, as I am only a poor pensioner and don't have it to throw around, currently trying (but only occasionally succeeding) to work to a budget of £25 a month.  I had the sense (unusually for me!) to build a fairly simple BLT that is within my budgetary needs and can be operated to real time by one person, but is absorbing to operate and provides huge entertainment value viewed holistically; I 'got it right'.  The layout is 'complete' in the sense that there is fully operating ballasted track set in scenery and properly signalled, but there are numerous projects that are not even started, never mind those that are only part-finished.  There is plenty of modelling to keep me going for probably for such revenue service as remains before my withdrawal and scrapping; I'm the wrong side of 70 and this will probably be my last layout, not being morbid, just realistic. 

 

[Binky]

11 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

Branchlines already makes a suitable chassis I think. By the time you add motor, wheels and gears though, the price will scare the horses a bit. I'd sugest sticking to more modern Smokey Joes, as the later chassis aren't bad runners.

 

I believe the ones to get are marked "Made in China" underneath and have the more modern motors which run better. The "Made in England" ones had the older style motor that didn't run as smoothly.

[Dave John]

I totally support the idea. I have a feeling that the way things are going there will be a lot of potential modellers who have time but not financial resources. 

 

I have only bought a couple of OO items in years so I can't contribute anything practical. 

 

My own approach is the 1/50 scale project, 100 % scratch build though I'm a bit odd and lean towards the making rather than the running side of things . 

[33C]

7 minutes ago, Dave John said:

I totally support the idea. I have a feeling that the way things are going there will be a lot of potential modellers who have time but not financial resources. 

 

I have only bought a couple of OO items in years so I can't contribute anything practical. 

 

My own approach is the 1/50 scale project, 100 % scratch build though I'm a bit odd and lean towards the making rather than the running side of things . 

You have to cut your cloth to suit your means. If you MAKE UP a railway you can have whatever gauge, scale, colour, stock and landscape you want AND nobody can criticise that! They can tut as much as they want without a rivet in sight! (Lartigue monorail, upside down, on the moon, with the lead piping in the library....)

[Barclay]

When I first started putting some stock together for a small American layout I was astonished at the cost of new RTR stuff, good as it is.

 

To be honest that would have provided very little enjoyment for me anyway. I obtained my stock mostly from ebay 'tat' bought quite cheaply. Everything in this motley collection was very cheap, except the brass one and even that was so rough that it was cheap too before the postal costs and taxman had their way. 2 of these are now detailed and painted, which has been most enjoyable, and the others will go the same way I hope. DC - no sound, just simple stuff. The J17 in the background is a friend's, an old Bec kit from Hattons, didn't cost him all that much. I improved the body and put a scratchbuilt chassis under it, and it's come out half-decent. The 'thing' in the box is a cheap old Reidpath casting, with a kit chassis and some details. Cheap but fun to build.

 

I hope all this shows, as others have, that you don't need to spend a fortune on this hobby, and the more of your own effort you put in, not only do you get more out but it usually costs less too!

 

[SimonHMT]

A couple of years ago, I decided to have a go at a small 00 layout as I'd been given several items of 1970s-era Triang-Hornby by relatives, bought other things in a fit of nostalgia for my misspent yoof, and wanted somewhere to run it occasionally. It was never intended to be a "budget" layout as such (Scale Model Scenery baseboards, the Really Useful Boxes to put them in, and new Peco Setrack saw to that), but your idea does sound somewhat similar...small locos, freelance approach, etc. It's a nice diversion from my more usual narrow gauge (and a bit of EM) modelling.

 

I've taken a somewhat similar approach to you when acquiring stock; there's the odd bit of "new condition in box" if the price is right, but mostly purchases have been the sort things that lurk on second-hand stands at shows or in the less fashionable corners of model shops for very little money. There's been the odd bargain from places like "antique markets" of the sort where there are lots of small traders under one roof as well; while some traders' prices are firmly in the realms of fantasy, others seem a bit more realistic.

 

My scheme has since stalled due to an upcoming house move, and may end up taking a completely different form (perhaps a roundy-roundy in the garage rather than the boxed microlayout boards...I can do something else with those!), but hopefully it'll come to fruition at some point...in the meantime, I'll watch your project with interest! 

 

Also, something I've noticed of late is how cheap many older kits have become, especially from the likes of society "bring and buy" stands at shows, and even more so kits for prototypes that have since become available ready-to-run. I wonder how many of the kits I've stashed away over the decades will end up as someone else's bargains in due course...

 

Cheers,

Simon.

[cypherman]

Hi all,

I suppose the cheapest layout that can be built would be an inglenook layout. All that would be needed would be 1 engine 5-6 wagons 2 points and a bit of flexi track. Scratch build some buildings out of cardboard. then a little scenery. Job done.

[adb968008]

Have you considered a preserved railway theme ?

 

They too run on a shoestring, and the early days / smallest ones also rely on minimalist, non mainline cast offs too.

 

 

[MarshLane]

Hi everyone, sorry for the radio silence.  It's been a busy few weeks. Thanks to everyone that as offered help and advice, much appreciated. I think I have got a few thoughts narrowed down to make something interesting and small.  Hoping I can get back to people in the next few days and get things moving :)