This looks like a great event to go to if you are in the Oregon area. What a great place to take your children and see the model trains and o scale trains in action.
It is also great for anyone just starting in the railroading hobby as you can see the trains and ask the experts before you spend any of your cash on model trains.
BEND, Ore. -- They're usually used around Christmas trees, or set up in your child's bedroom, but one group of Central Oregon adults is turning the hobby of model trains into a huge passion.
Saturday and Sunday brought the 16th annual Eastern Cascades Model Railroad Club open house.
With conductor hats ready, operators ran a complete model train layout -- with regional operators running the local communities.
Visitors could also ride an outdoor railroad and view a scale layout all day long.
For many of the club's members, this passion for trains started when they were children.
"Everybody is amazed at the amount of work and detail that we've put into this," said Bruce Blanford, president of the Eastern Cascades Model Railroad Club. "It's just ongoing, and everybody works on it, a little bit at a time. And we've been working on this layout since 1989 -- we are always adding something to it."
The Eastern Cascades Railroad Club is HO scale, or half of O scale, and has approximately 1,900 feet of track.
The outdoors branch of the club, the Central Oregon Area Live Steamers, has built a 1 1/2-inch scale railroad, now with one quarter-mile of track on five forested acres.
Organizers say the annual open houses attract more and more people each year.
Summer is a tougher time to try to keep up the rail yard on U.S. 61 in Jackson. Over the years, city officials have fielded complaints about the area housing railroad engines, cars, ties and heavy equipment as it becomes overgrown with weeds.
Adjacent property owners say the rail yard is an eyesore. Others find the yard and its contents pique their interest. Rail yard owners say low funds and hot weather hamper upkeep efforts.
Gary Seabaugh owns storage sheds near the rail yard and this year has had problems with rail cars blocking customer access. Seabaugh said before the rail yard was mowed two weeks ago, weeds were chest-high.
Seabaugh approached aldermen Larry Cunningham and Joe Bob Baker for help in June after he said he couldn't get anyone with Friends of the Iron Mountain Railroad, the not-for-profit organization that runs the railroad, to do anything about the problem. Seabaugh said he was told before by the organization that there wasn't any money to mow or to fix the engines so the trains could be moved....
Model trains are a fulfilling hobby for kids and adults alike and gives hours of pleasure for literally all of the family.
Age is not a factor that usually separates people who are into model trains with the rest of the population, it can be enjoyed by anybody regardless of age.
In this concise article what we aim to give the reader is a smallintroduction to model trains so that you learn plenty about the hobby and railroading in general to know what to look for, and what to look at next.
Model trains come in many different shapes and sizes, the difference between these sizes is usually termed scales.
Although the scale is the correct term for the size or ratio train it can also be referred to as gauge, what it really means is the distance between the rails on the track, however gauge is used when describing the size or ratio of a model train.
For instance N Scale trains are frequently called N Gauge, whereas something such as O Scale trains are most commonly referred to as O Scale not O Gauge.
Scale refers to the ratio of the model train in respect to the real train.
The most common and well known model trains are listed here:
G scale : 1-22.5
N Scale : 1-160
S scale : 1-64
O Scale : 1-48
HO Scale : 1-87
OO Scale : 1-74
These are the most popular scales and you're sure to find what you're looking for within these sizes and scales of model trains.
If you pick an obscure train scale to start off with then you may find that it is difficult to find things that you want for your hobby.
The most common scale of model train as to be the HO Scale as it is a perfect size to fit in your house or livingroom. The second most popular is probably the N Gauge or N Scale model trains, these are smaller still and make for a great space saving train set.
O Scale are also a popular size of model trains, not only is the O Scale size a classic scale but the trains are big and often have very accurate designs.
The reason why many people do not go for O Scale is because to have a layout that doesn't look small next to the trains you really do need a lot of room.
One thing you must also understand is that depending on what scale your model trains are you must also buy the corresponding track size or gauge.
Be sure to really make sure you know which track your trains need sometimes you can have model trains that are of the same scale but require a different gauge.
Now that you have the scale that fit your needs and you have chosen the correct train track gauge you all ready to wire up and get your model trains going.
You may think that your now finished but this is where the fun begins, you are now ready to start building your layout around your train set. This can provide literally hours and weeks of time and patience.
Model railroading and model trains are probably one of the only hobbies that grandad can do with his grandson and be equally rewarding for both parties, so go out and get railroading!
Earlier this week I found a video kicking around the internet by a professional train collector, it seems to be part of a course and the weird thing is its free!
I have only seen the first video but the info in the video and the free PDF are pretty good, I will have to let you guys know what the second installment is like - it promises to be good.
It seem james may has been up to his old tricks again - crashing someone elses event in the name of journalism.
Security officers at Securi-Guard have monitored Top Gear presenter James May’s model railway challenge in North Devon.
The stunt, in which May raced a team of German model railway buffs along the Tarka Trail, was guarded with 24-hour cover.
A security team equipped with a lone worker monitoring device from RedWeb Technologies were spread out along the nine miles of track.
It comes after an attempt by the TV star to run a miniature train track from Bideford to Barnstaple in 2009 was thwarted when thieves stole batteries and sections of track.
Lone tracking helps TV show stay on track The lone tracking devices were deployed so that the location of all the officers could be monitored to ensure every section of the track was protected at all times, Securi-Guard said.
Mark Tapper, business development manager for security services at Securi-Guard said: “We were delighted to be asked to provide a security presence at this event.
“Our security team provided a visible deterrent to anyone intent on committing crime and helped to ensure the whole event ran smoothly.”
The model railway race was filmed as a special for May’s Toy Stories series.
Around 1,000 people turned up at the recent event to see May take on three brothers, who run the world’s biggest model railway exhibition in Hamburg.
The two rival trains departed at opposite ends of the specially built section track, but the winner will not be revealed until the programme is screened later this year.
There has just been a new blog post at trainsoscale.com about the free model train collectors course, looks like he has taken a look and given it a short review. Check it out here:
Yes you heard me right, someone has actually created a FREE mini course all about how to collect model trains and never lose money. He is sharing tips and information from professional dealers.
The first video was posted today and it seems promising! The next video is all about how to get "absolute steals" . We will have to see how it unfolds.
