going to buy a model set soon

bjay88

New member
tell me, what should i be looking for?

what do you all recomend? I'm looking for a starter set, thinking of getting HO scale

where do you buy from? online? and can you recomend some good sites?
I'm about an hour Melbourne and there are no stores nearby so online is prob my best bet
 
I am on the same page as whitepass, most sets have the cheap rolling stock with not much detail. I would just buy locos and cars seperately, in order to really get what you want (Quality, price, and detail). Of course by some track as well as a transformer/controller for the trains. As for places to buy them, I recommend buying from the manufacture or from a well known and reputable train dealer site (like Walthers or Trainz.com) (That is if you are modeling American Railroads). The only reason I don't say ebay is because you could overpay or buy something that may look good but in reality is not so good. I would say that HO is the best choice as it is small but not too small (like N or Z) or too big. (Yet again I prefer O gauge but that is just me).
 
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Buy single locos and single cars by Athearn, and ConCor.

Bachmann used to be pure unadulterated Chinese junk ... along with Atlas, Riverossi, Minitrix, Model Power, and they all ran like dog doo, downhill, on a hot day.

Train sets are absolute low quality trash, wraped up in a fancy, nice looking box.
 
Bachmann is probally your best bet with a high detail set or one with sound look into MTH. if you are getting a set with bachmann get one of the spectrum sets the trains look good and they will last but it is going to cost you around 300-500 but it is worth it.
 
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To add on to what I said earlier, I would go with Walthers when it comes to passenger cars as they have good, quality and detailed passenger cars for reasonable prices. I also recommend getting the Walthers catalog in the mail, as almost every item in it is discounted in some way.
For high quality HO, I would go with Kadee (Freight Cars), MTH (Everything), Kato (Passenger cars and Locos), Rapido (Passenger Cars), Intermountain Trains (Everything), Atlas (Locos and Freight Cars), Walthers (Freight and Passenger Cars), Athearn Genesis (Locos and Freight), ConCor (Everything), Broadway Limited (Locos)(Expensive), Precision Craft Models (Locos)(Expensive as well), BLMA Models (Freight Cars), Exactrail (Freight Cars), and/or 2-Rail Marklin HO (Everything).
All of the stuff in parenthesis are the recommended items from those manufacturers.
 
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I guess it all depends on where your interest in trains lies. If you're interested in local Australian prototype, unfortunately there isn't much available as far as train sets go.

Lima used to make train sets with reasonably accurate Aussie prototypes in HO scale (such as the Indian Pacific, the Overland, the XPT etc), but sadly they ended up folding a few years ago and were bought out by Hornby, who now market them as a sub-brand (and, as far as I know, no longer produce Australian-themed train sets).

Powerline used to also have some Aussie-themed train sets, also in HO, but they were really hard to find (I never saw them at any hobby shops here in Perth), and I'm pretty sure they've since phased them out in preference to single locos and rollingstock items.

I'm pretty sure nowadays the only prototypes available for train sets are either British (in OO scale), or US prototypes in HO (Lifelike does market some train sets as 'Australian', but they're really American prototypes such as the GP-38 and F-7 units repainted in Australian liveries which are perfectly fine for children or people who just want a nice looking train to run).

Finally, a good starting point bjay would be to pick up a copy of Australian Model Railway Magazine the next time you're at a newsagent, as they have plenty of Australian hobby shops advertising in there which do mail order, which would be useful for you. :)
 
wow, thanks for all the great information guys :) I think im gunna start out with buying a simple loop with a siding or two made from atlas track and get locos and rolling stock seperate as said.

Unfortunatly i'll be moving house soon so i think it will have to wait a few more months, but untill then im sure TS will keep me going
 
BTW: A pair of hollow core interior bedroom doors (often found trashpicked) butted together, makes a great portable train platform baseboard, when moving.
 
Some good pricing

For just about all your model needs, this seems to be a good site in the USA.

http://www.hobbylinc.com/

Pricing appears very reasonable compared to local hobby stores here in Australia, even allowing for shipping.

Peter :)
 
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