Giving Ho another shot

Cody: Unfortunately, these days,  any gauge entails cost. The important thing is to get the most bang out of your buck, in terms of quality and performance.

Do not settle for any locos or cars that are not in good condition. What gauge are you currently running?

If you're willing to run conventional DC, you should be able to find lots of bargains.  People can hardly give that stuff away.  If you're willing to buy multiple items from a vendor, you should find some very good ideas.  And if you don't mind brass track, it can be found really cheap.  Good luck.

Deals are out there in all sizes. The trick is not to jump too soon for a pile of so-so stuff at top dollar.

  Cheap ho left a bad impression on me over the years. But I had an Athern GP-9 with sound, dcc ready(not in it) a few years back I was very impressed with it. It would eat up most of that $200. It would take that for each ho motor alone to keep me happy in ho too.

  Just like O. You'll get what you pay for in general. Just like O I'd stick to buying a great engine(mechanically), big power supply, good track(or great track to avoid some cleaning woes) And in other areas, keep it all simple, but growable. Nothing has to be permanent, you'll afford things slowly. As much as you badly want "something", get a good engine first, with good diesel sound, detail, smoke or a visually active steam valvetrain, and use it on a set of rollers on a shelf..and I'm only kinda joking. I've thought about it (ouch)

My picking up the hobby more seriously began with just my childhood 2037 high on the shelf so I could look at it. A piece of track was added to light up the caboose. And some time later of course my gunfighter, rocket launcher, giraffe and autocarrier needed track. And time passed and the shelf circled the room with two lines , 6 blocks, anti collision voltage drop, some scenery, etc..

  I'm stuck to tables now, but the point is that it all really starts with a good engine on the shelf. The rest will come along in time 

Regardless, Cody, it’s time to make a choice and follow through this time. Consider this a message of tough love.

For more than three years, you have been talking about getting into trains and still have nothing to actually help you enjoy the hobby.

You have mentioned HO, O and G scale — all in the past month alone, on different OGR forums. You know you have a limited budget, sometimes as low as $100, but you have often asked for manufacturers to make new locomotives that ultimately would cost more than $1,000. Or for fantasy locomotives (as in out-of-this world models of pure imagination) that are so far-fetched that waiting for them is pointless.

You have even asked for advice about how to make certain fantasy models, but you haven’t really tried any conventional modeling yet, so you can’t really act on that advice without some basic experience.

I know this is difficult for you, given your background, but you need to focus your interest. HO is fine, and you can buy some classic stuff within your tight budget. So, now, do it.

Wishing for stuff can be fun, too, but by getting into trains of a particular scale you don’t need to stop wishing for something else in whatever scale you might like. You can do both.

And you can still page through the new Lionel catalogs online as they are released, as long as you don’t put off getting into the hobby because you have convince yourself the next catalog will have that perfect item for you. Within your current constraints, that’s highly unlikely.

And if you prefer just to be a dreamer, that’s fine too. But then maybe limit pronouncements about what you are going to do and instead just participate in discussions as an interested onlooker.

Once you decide to actually buy some trains, then you can seek some advice on how to improve what you have.

I really hope you do make a choice this time. 

Cody: Jim gave you good advice! ☺