Getting Back into the Train World

Well, welcome back to the hobby! in so many ways things have likely only improved since you took a break. There aren't as many hobby shops around perhaps, which is unfortunate, but the equipment and technology has gotten pretty amazing. Good luck with whatever new venture you decide to undertake.

Welcome Back!  Model Railroading is like many things in life.  Everyone returns to things in their own time.  I am a relatively young man, but I took about a 20 year break between the time that I last operated trains, and my son became old enough to enjoy them.  The people here are so helpful that in no time I felt immersed in the hobby once more.  I hope your experience is the same.

pick a copy of O-Gauge magazine. You'll find all sources you need including all the top online sellers.

Welcome home.

There are online catalogs at each company site you could look at right now!

There is also a whole bunch of advertisers listed at the top of the screen that support this site to help keep it free for some of us. Pick & click.

 Buying from one of them, it is a fairly safe bet you will be satisfied. Use the search function above and search names with terms like "great service", "happy" etc, you will find comments about them if they are there. (But less in the way of negativity that could be interpreted as bashing)

 There is also an index to advertisers to quickly find their names again when the ad changes looks.

Happy hunting!   

Welcome back to the hobby.

Welcome back to the hobby. As stated above, the MTH and Lionel sites allow you to download a copy of the catalogs and the Forum Sponsors are a great place to find a reputable source of trains. Happy railroading. 

Hi and welcome back.

You can perform an advanced search, select members. Then check the profiles for those close to you. If they have an email displayed, contact them to see if they are willing to get together and talk and show you their trains.

There are 238 members in Texas. One or two should be close to you.

Visiting the MTH and Lionel websites will help you a lot as well as reading some magazines.

You can always post questions or ponderings on the forum and tap into valuable experience and knowledge. The only dumb question is the one you didn't ask.

Have Fun!

Welcome back. There aren't nearly as many local hobby stores now as there were even ten years ago, or forty years ago when I lived in Houston (near Rice U.) but there are really good shops scattered about with good websites and great service, and UPS and FedEx get it to you fast, and generally, in good shape.  I'm partial to forum sponsor Patrickstrains.com, but there are several others people like a lot, too, all sponsors here, who will treat you righto. You will not want for availability, quick service, and timely arrival.

A lot has changed over time, but toy trains are still good at what they do best - make fun!  There are a lot of sources of knowledge but the best may be to just come here often and read and ask questions.

If you want to buy it, it's probably on eBay. I'd say that more than 50% of my rolling stock has come from there. There is at least one major online dealer that I will never deal with again. I would urge you to read the eBay feedback. 

Welcome back. Pick any one of the retail train stores listed as Forum sponsors, give them a call, and I am pretty sure they will send you all of the catalogs you request.

You are at the right place for any questions.

Brent

Welcome back, You came to the right place for help.

As mentioned Catalogs are online.

Don't forget to look at Weaver and Atlas, they make good stuff as well.

I will note in the current catalog, MTH is running Railking (3 Road Numbers) and Premier Big Boys (3 road numbers), 4014 is in the reworked Oil fired setup in both Premier and Railking. The other 2 road numbers vary from RK to Premier.

Don't know if Lionel has one in current catalog or not.

My LHS is taking pre-orders till end of the month.

email me if you want his link; email or website, He is great to do business with but is not a Sponsor.

Welcome back Trainmaster!  You  are in the right place.

Welcome back to the best stress busting hobby in existence and the finest O Gauge Forum in existence.   A few weeks riding the rails here and you'll be up to snuff before you know it.  Have fun.

Welcome back!  Isn't is amazing how many people have to give up the hobby for one reason or another and end up coming back? 

Art

You sure have a great engine for re-entry into the hobby. Hope you have some space in your new abode for a layout with large enough curves for your Big Boy and the train you'll put together for it. 

TrainMaster,

Welcome back to the wildest ride this side of reality. I assure you that you can find the answer to almost any question or problem right here on the forum.

Since it has been some time since your last visit. It will take a while to make yourself familiar with all the changes. I'm from the "old school". I did not learn about the forum until I purchased my first computer, not that long ago. Now I find easy to learn something new everyday.

I actually have some Atlas stuff too, especially their Gunderson car sets and their tracks. I was hoping to get more of those and containers but unfortunately wasn't able to then. I hope they are still making those; there's still a good amount of containers and car sets that I would like to work on getting! I'll shoot you an email on your LHS; its too late really for me to order anything this time around so I will look toward the next ordering period. By then I will have a better idea on what to look into.

Yes, the Big Boy is my main and only steam engine for the time being; most of my engine fleet are diesels. I have the CN Dash-8's, Denver Rio SD70ACe UP Heritage set, and CP SD90MAC's (I love the Canadian road names) and a few others. Once I work on getting a dedicated space for a layout I may go with 084 and larger curves for these beasts. 

Yes, I am getting reacquainted with the changes of the site; when I first joined the site was a completely different scene. Almost 10 years...quite a long time! I'm sure it won't take long to get back in the swing of things.