Model Railway Trains

By Steve Barnett

The hobby of model trains is a relaxing and satisfying hobby. When you get started in train modeling you will discover that there are many different types of trains, scales, gauges, and many different era you can model. The first model railway trains were steam driven. They were small and could only pull one or two cars. As time went by the locomotives became bigger and bigger pulling more and more cars. The first steam locomotive was the Puffing Billy which made it daub on February 13, 1804 at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks. This locomotive could only pull a 15 ton load at a speed of 5 mph. In 1952 the last 2-8-8-2 was assembled being the last true locomotive. The following year the last steam switcher 0-8-0 was build. There were numerous locomotives between these two locomotives. So if you are going to model in steam you have many locomotives to pick from.

Now let’s look at the diesel locomotives which rely are diesel-electric locomotives. The first diesel –electric engine was a motor car design for the Jay Street Connecting Railroad. This motor car was made in 1918 when the American Locomotive Company (Alco) joined with General Electric and Ingersoll-Rand to produce this locomotive. In 1924 the three companies produced a 60 ton boxcar type locomotive for the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The modern diesel-electric locomotives are fuel efficient, pulling a100 cars or more at a time. Therefore; when you model diesel-electric layout you have many different locomotives to choose from.

The next thing to take into consideration when building your layout is the scenery. There are several factors that you need to look at before starting your layout. If you are modeling early steam trains you will need to use timber or stone bridges, whereas most modern railroads have steel and concrete bridges. You will also need to make sure that the building, cars, trucks, and train stations match the era you are modeling. Another thing is that all trains need a reason to be there. You need some type of industry that the train is supplying products, and a place for the finished products to go.

After deciding what type train and the era you are modeling you will need to design your layout. You can have a single track design with a siding track, or you can model a double track design. Then you will need to decide what terrain will look like, whether it has mountains, hills, streams, lakes, timber, or grass. Probably the most important thing to take into consideration is how much space you have to set your layout up in. That brings us to another question. What scale train will you model in. If you use Z scale you can model a lot in a small area. But from my experience Z scale is hard to model. You are working with very small parts. The next scale N is fairly easy to model in and is very realistic looking, but it is still a very small train. HO scale is the most popular scale and easier to find more products for. If you have more room O or G scale can be used. The size you use is entirely up to you.

Thank you,
Steve Barnett

Article Source: http://interpret.zar.vg

About The Author
Steve Barnett is a model train expert. For more information on model railway trains, visit www.trainmodelingbook.com/building-model-rai lway-train-scenery/