Best place/website to acquire used scale rolling stock?

I really think E Bay is your best choice, unless you can get to a large city with a selection of consigned equipment like PaPa Bens in Houston.

I get a lot of stuff from EBay and you have to look very close at the pictures and ask questions of the seller, if need be. Otherwise your choices are newspapers friends and garage sales.

EBay is much easier.

Ron H

I would say right here on this forum . Just keep checking the For Sale forum every day. It won't e long before you find stuff you want at reasonable prices. 

Hudson J1e posted:

I would say right here on this forum . ...

Absolutely agree!!! 

I may have to check out PaPa Bens for consignment.  His website doesn't show many consignment items though.  Maybe he doesn't keep it updated.

I'll have to keep my eyes open here as well.  I want a "green" train.  All burlington northern.  That green just looks sexy.

Just wondering what did you get off the bay? Have you checked out Menards BN Boxcars?

If you have a local hobby shop you could ask them to keep an eye out for anything Burlington Northern. My local hobby shop has me on a list for some specific items that I am looking for.

If you don't have a local hobby shop or train shows nearby then ebay is your next option. I picked up a lot of 25 pieces of rolling stock including shipping for $59.00. I'm sure the time of year had something to do with the good deal as i purchased them on memorial day weekend. Like Ron stated above just look closely at the pictures and ask questions to the seller.

Good luck

Chris

List your general Wanteds on this OGR section.  Specify road names, era (postwar or modern), size, and manufacturer.  Used or new?  Condition?  Do you want to buy in batches to help with shipping? 

There is OGR forum's 'Wanted to Buy' and For Sale' forums. If you join the LCCA you get a magazine a few times a year (quartly?) with tons of stuff for sale and also many items wanted to buy. There is Trainz online auctions, through Dash I think it is. Menards has a great selection of VERY reasonably priced rolling stock, probably less than a lot of used items you will find. Then there is ebay which a lot of folks seem to like for used purchases. There are others, but that is all I can think of right now.

FWIW, my personal experiences... I have not had real good luck with used items and gave up buying them for the most part a couple of years ago. I have been purchasing only new items since then and have been much happier with my purchases.

Texas is a big place. If you live in the Dallas area, there is a "Train show" in Jan/Fed/  Just google Train show Plano TX,   A nice show, all scales/

Brent

MikeG:  I purchased a scale 40ft. stock car (Atlas O Chicago & Northwestern).  The car is from the 70's and was made in Austria.  I thought that was kinda neat so I bought it for $10 plus 5 shipping.  Car was everything as advertised, unfortunately, I didn't realize (being new to this) that it was kadee couplers.  They won't match up with anything else I have or am getting soon.  Sooo, I bought a pair of Atlas O trucks to replace the Kadee set.  They won't fit due to a crossbeam on that car, the pin isn't long enough....  Not sure what to do with it now.

I checked out Mendards.  The prices are amazing so I created a gift registry, and my wifey bought me the 6 pack of 3 dome tanker cars.  I love them.  Had to tweak a couple axles but no biggy.  They look sharp and run well.  The only issue I have is that most of their items aren't scale.  The larger flatcars are and I believe the boxcars are as well.  My three dome tankers are close to scale.  The rest seems to be traditional size.  My trains run on my shelf layout so they need to be big as their 8 feet in the air.  Additionally, their Burlington Northern boxcars are a bit off regarding the color.  Most (not all) BN stuff has that nice dark green color.  The Menards paint on the BN stuff almost appears to be Army Olive drab.

Brent:  I went to the Plano show in October (I think it was October) and that's what got me hooked on model railroading.  Three months later I completed my shelf layout, bought transformer, legacy controller, engine, track and spent lots of $$$$$.    I live about 7 minutes from the venue.  I'll definately be back in January/February. 

Ps.. Here's a video of my "finished" shelf train.  Fast forward and you'll see the Menards tank cars. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpKtws1fAuw

Yahoo's   0 scale yard sale group.   Best internet place to buy/sell 2 rail.  No commission.  I have had excellent  dealings there.

McGee, great story and better yet great video, Your shelf looks wonderful, as if it was built with the house! Great Job!!

Great work, thanks for posting

Brent

I think that there might be some confusion and we need to help you understand some terms.  You ask about "scale" equipment and we've read about your purchase of a boxcar that had couplers that you found unusual and which did not mate with the ones you have.  Scale equipment, which is the closest to prototypical and uses (close to) scale-sized wheels, rails (generally 2) , couplers, etc, is a subset of model railroading just like semi-scale, hi-rail and tinplate.  So...are you really looking for scale equipment? If you continue to look for scale equipment, as it is generally known in the hobby, you will continue to be disappointed. 

Arthur:  I'm still getting the "lingo" down here.  What I'm looking for is the standard size rolling stock,  or true 1/48 scale etc..  The couplers and wheels don't have to be scale to me.  I actually prefer the "stock" couplers over the kadee as they look beefier.  I run my trains at full throttle and I don't trust the kadees under that kind of pressure.  Sorry about the confusion. 

TrainGuyMcGee posted:

Arthur:  I'm still getting the "lingo" down here.  What I'm looking for is the standard size rolling stock,  or true 1/48 scale etc..  The couplers and wheels don't have to be scale to me.  I actually prefer the "stock" couplers over the kadee as they look beefier.  I run my trains at full throttle and I don't trust the kadees under that kind of pressure.  Sorry about the confusion. 

In that case, you are looking for Hi-rail cars

Or what used to be exclusively Lionel, and then became "Lionel-compatible" equipment.  The reason is that Lionel was the major U.S. producer of these trains, until the industry opened up and many other manufacturers got in the game.  Some of these are close to scale size and proportions, and some are not-so-close.  The large couplers are stronger, but eventually you'll probably want to convert at least some of your rolling stock to scale couplers.  I think they look better, but they can cause problems on long cars going around sharp curves.

Are you a member of TCA? The club issues a newsletter with wanted, and for sale ads. You can assume a trustworthy transaction with other TCA members.

Used? Right here on the forum, EBay, and a couple groups on FaceBook that have Buy/Sell/Trade pages. I've had success on all 3. You have to look at all the photos carefully, read the description, and check the shipping cost. 

Is $25 shipping for it worth for one car? No. Check the seller and get mulitple items to split the shipping costs up between a few things. Usually shipping only goes up a few bucks for multiple items, if at all.