There’s nothing like the smell of railroading in the morning ❤.

I love that you mentioned The Little Choo Choo Shop! I visited just a few weeks ago because it was the closest option to me, and they had some wonderful clearance options at the little corner you talked about, as well as up in the front. They had about 11-12 decent n scale rolling stock for 5$ a piece along with some other clearance items, and I and my dad bought them out of all of the working ones 😂 The people there were so friendly and made sure we came out knowing way more than we did coming in. One of my favorite stores and weekend trips to date!

Train show bargains, consignment sales and junkers. Love to sit at the bench and restore and upgrade them while trains run. The best hobby! Keep up the great work, Jimmy.👍

@davidf9630

Жыл бұрын

Me too… it’s my happy place

There's a brick and mortar shop in a town I occasionally travel to for work. I've gotten to know the owner and he lets me dig around in boxes of new old stock he's picked up in deals. I've walked out of there with all kinds of finds of rolling stock. I agree on the multi-packs. Bought a number of athearn 4 packs over the years. Drinking green tea today.

One add is to buy a few cheap cars and use them to work on your skills. Add details, like grab irons, couplers and better wheels. Then you can also use them to learn painting and weathering skills BEFORE messing up on a higher priced car.

@davidf9630

Жыл бұрын

GREAT IDEA! I spent a lot of time and money taking apart AND breaking apart used rolling stock, that I bought on the cheap. I’m glad I got that out of my system.

when I go to my local train store I go to the used section of rolling stock and I have found some jems, just a hundred pieces of rolling stock you need to work on that Jimmy 👍👍

Man I have adhd so when I get into something I go all out. So in the last 3 months since getting back into the hobby I’ve accumulated well over a hundred pieces of rolling stock and 7 locos which 4 of them were brand new. Mostly athren and walthers and intermountain. Scales ho and I’ve actually stumbled upon multiple collections on Facebook marketplace that I’ve bought which helped me get to where I’m at now.

I have collected a few items over the last 3 decades for N scale. Things exploded over the last two years to get a layout started (and hopefully finish in a few years), so I been buying what I need for my concept of the new layout for the industries type of cars they need. So I been buying coal, oil tankers and grain cars plus miscellaneous cars. I have in N scale 53 locomotives (mostly diesels) with one on preorder. 53 Passenger cars. 248 freight cars with 13 on preorder. A model train show last December I got majority of freight cars. Model train shows are addicting. Just as model trains are. The only thing that doesn't like the hobby is my pocket book. By the way I drink the local store brand of coffee.

Yep, bulk of my fleet bought used and restored 👍😁 OperateOnOperator

I have a few cars right now and am picking up some new rolling stock at a train show this weekend.

A few extra tips from an European perspective: Focus on one coupler type. This will make life a lot easier as you don't have to spend extra money on replacement couplers. Know the prices of the spare parts. The bargain box can sometimes get you a better deal on parts compared to buying them separately. Learn to identify AC wheelsets, the DC replacements are often sold at rip off prices. Even if you have decided to run modern trains, there is always room for a large steam locomotive running plandampf. And the last tip will test your patience... If you really want a specific locomotive, wait until it is released with new tooling. If it is a significant raise in quality, people will replace their fleet and the inflow reduces second hand prices

I started collecting HO rolling stock back about 4 years ago and have in excess of 1,200 freight cars. Almost 99% has come from Ebay both new and used. I have begun to order from places like Lombard Hobbies and Yankee Dabbler since they offer new stock at decent prices. Problem is I still have no layout to run them on (yet).

Another good show. Thanks Jimmy.

Yep always go for quality unless your going to heavily modify or practice with them. The Atlas , Micro trains have great value and the other brands have high quality but at a higher price. Intermountain rolling stock are nice for N scale .

Drinking Foldger's Dark Roast Coffee. I'm pretty much maxed out on rolling stock as I don't have enough room in the storage totes for any more, the Kato 10-car Daylight Passenger Car set was the one maxed it out. What I intend to do in the future is upgrade the rolling stock that still have "Rapido Style" couplers to "Knuckle" couplers, should be an easy job.

Drinking Amazon Columbian Coffee. I agree on car packs. I bought a 5 pack of NS coal cars from Athearn a while ago. They are a mainstay on my layout! Great video!

Great ideas. And I loved the hobby shop in Spencer when I got a chance to visit it. Thanks for sharing.

What I do when adding rolling stock, yes train shows are the best. switching out couplers can be a drain on the hobby budget so what I do is install micro train couplers on one end of two cars and add old style coupler cars and passenger cars between, This way I can run con-cor car haulers till I can afford to switch them out and it works for older locos as well.

@norvalmcphail4819

Жыл бұрын

⁰ no

@rwissbaum9849

Жыл бұрын

Surprisingly, this almost exactly mirrors prototype practice. The D&RGW had a lot of mixed gauge track at their Alamosa yard. They added buffer cars which ran on std gauge track, but had a narrow gauge coupler at one end. This allowed a std gauge switcher to move narrow gauge rolling stock.

Jimmy, we are all looking for two things in our rolling stock: performance and appearance. Regarding performance: the three keys are trucks, couplers, and weight. You've addressed replacing trucks and couplers, but I don't recall you emphasizing weight, which might be the most important of all. Regarding appearance: pay attention to the locale being modeled, and the era being modeled. Locale: Because of interchange rules, railroad-owned freight cars become scarcer the farther they get from their home road; so for example you'll see a lot of ATSF cars in the western US, but not so many along the east coast. Era: Intermodal trains look great, but they are out of place in 1950s era layouts. Likewise, rooftop running boards disappeared from box cars, refrigerator cars, and cabooses in 1982, when they were banned from interchange service. Cabooses disappeared in the early 1980s. Truss rods became very rare after 1941, when all-wood cars were banned from interchange service. All that said, it's YOUR layout - choose what you like!

Jimmy, on the train right now heading to Choo Choo from Durham. Maybe I'll see you there some time.

I have had N scale for over 50 years, and early on, I collected all sorts of rolling stock. When I built my latest layout, I chose to model a certain era, and sold off all the stock that did not fit into that era. I also looked at the industries that I included in the layout, and ensured that I had appropriate numbers of the different rolling stock to service those industries, getting rid of surplus and buying some to fill gaps in my roster. Now, I doubt that I will buy any more for the layout. However, I have also decided to buy some modern era trains to run on my club's layout. To determine what I was going to buy, I spent a lot of time watching various KZread railfan videos to see just what is actually running these days. For manifest trains, I even kept a tally of the different types of cars incorporated in each train, and then averaged out the numbers. So, as I wanted to be able to run a 50 car manifest, I then was able to determine the number of each type of car needed to make up an average looking manifest train. This means that when I go shopping, I am only looking for cars to fill the quota that I have set, and that stops me from spending more than I need to.

Hi Jimmy , I probably have around 350 pieces of rolling stock and still buying. I started buying about a year and a half ago. The hardest thing for me is making sure in or before my era. I do buy a lot of micro trains. I have some that were released in the mid nineties. I do shop online, and a train show or two when they are in Raleigh close to home. But the biggest problem for me is they keep making new rolling stock i want. Thanks for sharing. Have a good weekend. 😎😎

Jimmy: Great video. May also add estate sales and dealers that sell estate items. I have picked up several great buys at train shows. By the way smaller tank cars are placed at the rear of the consist because they typically contained heavy materials. I have lots of Con Cor. I am really impressed with Intermountain rolling stock. They have very fine detail on their cars. Rail on!

Nice job Jimmy! A smaller company that I have been really impressed with is Bluford Shops. I have about 12 hoppers from them and the all have body mounted couplers, nice detail, and roll great right out of the box.

On thing that is quite nice, I have CSX and Florida East Coat railroads close enough to me. And I’d say over half of the trains, are a great mix of intermodal, chemical, box cars and auto racks. I’ve counted as many as 14 various railroad names on the cars. A CSX pulling 40 cars that just happen to be pulling all CSX marked rolling stock or FEC train pulling all FEC cars is just unrealistic. Both trains in the real world are both pulling almost the same thing so I can use the same train for multiple rail roads

Being in HO scale I tend to hunt for old Roundhouse or Athearn BB kits. Absolutely amazing when given metal wheels and Kadee’s.

@skerbs7755

Жыл бұрын

Quick question --what metal wheels do you recommend for the Athearn BB's and old Roundhouse? The majority of my fleet are these kinds. Most are 40' and 50' boxcars.

@James-Railyard

Жыл бұрын

@@skerbs7755 my local shop sells Athearn wheel sets with the old Athearn label on them. I believe it’s the 33” with “short” axle. Another brand I highly recommend is Walthers proto as they offer bulk packs of 100 wheel sets for about $75 from shops. The problem is there are two types of axles being “long” or “short.” I believe that’s the thickness and it is varied between each car. Those are the two brands I’d recommend, another if you can find it are intermountain. Reliable but hard to locate for certain wheel sets.

@skerbs7755

Жыл бұрын

@@James-Railyard Thank you for the helpful information. Switching over to metal wheels is definitely something I want to tackle in the not too distant future. Thank you.

@rwissbaum9849

Жыл бұрын

@@skerbs7755 I use Intermountain 33" wheels. They'll cost about $75 to $85 per 100 axles. I've NEVER had a set that failed to comply with NMRA standards. They offer two tread widths - 0.110" and 0.088".

@skerbs7755

Жыл бұрын

@@rwissbaum9849 Thank you for the information!

Fox valley are very nice cars.

My strategy has always been slow and steady. I try to buy one or two cars at every train show I go to. I don’t try to get hundreds of cars overnight.

100+? In my N scale collection I have over 600. Most are pre-ICC billboard reefer ban for build dates. A smaller subset are outside braced wooden boxcars. There are a couple of more modern collector cars in my collection. Most are Western railroads like Southern Pacific. I have sold some, but not many. The issue is remembering what you have when going to train shows. To see a nice quality car on a table, buying it and getting home to find you already have two of the same road number can be a little discouraging. I kept a spreadsheet, in tiny font, that I took with me to the shows. That way I could look to see if I already had the car in my collection. That helped prevent me from wasting my money on rolling stock that was already in my collection. Today there are databases available just for tracking your train collections. One way to get free cars... Back in the day when I did N-Trak, Lifelike released that dark green Borden's steel reefer with gold print. Back then it was the nicest car Lifelike had released. I made mention of that to the club I was in. The next thing that happened was the members were giving me the same car from their rolling stock. Suddenly I had 25 of those. I converted all to Kadee wheel sets and couplers to run at shows.

literally just got that BLI 4 hopper pack last week in the SP scheme (amongst many other cars) they are very nice. also picked up the rapid b100 box car 6 pack and some micro trains weathered tank cars. all really nice and of course in the SP

I bought out a guys N scale collection. He was into HO and didnt want this stuff. Got two whole totes full of unbuilt buildings and track and one other tote full of rolling stock and locomotives. Where i live in MS there isnt any hobby shops anywhere around let alone train shops which is a shame as my part of MS has a lot of old railroad history.

Love your stuff man and keep up the good work drinking folgers dark roast as god intended black

heffelfingers(local in allentown, pa), sumatra decaf. I have about 2400 rolling stock, some new, some used, a lot undecorated. I enjoy decaling and painting cars. have a couple of bli steam locos(one mikado, one pacific) to do both undec one LNE one LV. I also buy 3 bay bli undec hoppers and in 4 pack.

Drinking decaf green tea, sry no coffee...

Atherns makes nice cars

Having a plan in era, location and what industries are on the layout will help narrow the focus. I have made several mistakes along the way. Big oops was not knowing what what era I was focused on. A $$ bargain is not a bargain if you end up not using them. ...😉 wanna buy some used freight cars?😊😊?😊😊😊

this video fits just what I'm doing right now, I want to start building my rolling stock and the area is 1975 to Present... so that is alot to look at it's hard to know which unit is from what area.

I’m drinking Dunkin’s home brew cold brew in a Starbucks cup. One thing is like is a good storage solution to store n scale rolling stock without having to keep the jewel cases.

@andrewlaverghetta715

Жыл бұрын

Also, it would be nice to be able to see what kinds of cars would be good for different eras. Websites have prototype info often if new, but not if used.

7-11 Long Island bold

Well over 100 could be 100-200 or 500 or more. What does that really mean?

Hi Jimmy! I'm on the other end of the spectrum and trying to get rid of rolling stock (in HO) that I don't need. Any tips and tricks for how, and (more importantly) where to put them up for sale? I'm not overly tech savvy and I work most weekends. I'd love your input! Thanks in advance.

@rwissbaum9849

Жыл бұрын

I am a casual eBay seller, and like you, I had a lot of rolling stock inventory that just didn't fit on my layout; so I listed it on eBay. Here are my tips: (1) Sell in January, February, and March - that seems to be the time interval when most people are looking to buy model railroad items. (2) Group your items in lots of three or four cars, and make them logical groupings - all tank cars, or all Union Pacific - this reduces the shipping cost overhead for your buyers. (3) Do not mix new and used equipment - sell batches of new items and batches of used items. (4) Price point will be about $5 - $10 per car, but could go higher (I sold one lot of 3 Red Caboose gondolas for $81 ex. shipping). In my experience, you will just about break even on shipping costs, and you will net about 65% of the as-sold price. (5) Offer all of your items as auctions, but provide a "Buy it Now" price - I's estimate that about 10% of my auctions ended up selling above the "Buy it Now" price, and about 10% of my items sold immediately at the "Buy it Now" price. (6) Open a small checking account and use that account for your eBay transactions - I have never had an issue with financial transactions through eBay, but it pays to be extra safe. (7) Finally, reconcile yourself to the fact that you will NOT receive anything close to what you paid - your goal is not to make money (or even to break even); your goal is to clear out stuff you will never use, to get it into the hands of someone who WILL use it, and to get a little extra cash to buy more railroad stuff.

you didnt feature any coffee from others daddy

You say 100 pieces of rolling stock as if that is a lot. You need to up your game, LOL.