Family Garden Trains
Discussion Forums

Visit our Affiliated Pages:
Return to Family Garden Trains Home page
Garden Railroading Primer Articles: All about getting a Garden Railroad up and running well
Big Christmas Trains: Directory of Large Scale and O Scale trains with holiday themes
Return to Big Indoor Trains Home page
Building temporary and permanent railroads with big model trains
Best-loved railroad songs and the stories behind them.

It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:14 am

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 9:32 am 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2014 9:13 am
Posts: 183
A reader writes:
Hi Paul:

Hope you're doing well!

I was reading your post about Delton, and I have a question for you. As a beginning garden railroader, I've been picking up used rolling stock off eBay as budget permits, so I have a mix of manufacturers including USA Trains, Aristocraft, and LGB. I only have two engines at the moment, both USA Trains. I saw a used Delton Long Caboose that I'd like to add to my slowly growing collection, but your article made me think that it might look too small in comparison to the other cars. I’m not a huge stickler for everything being prototypically perfect, but I don't want it to look "funny" and out of place either.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

-------------I replied: --------------------------------------------------------

I have a bit of Delton and a bit of HLW, the company that inherited many of Delton's molds. The Delton "long caboose" mold was purchased by Aristocraft and made under their "classic" line for a while. I don't have one of those, but considering its proportions more-or-less match the Delton and HLW I do have, I would say that the car is likely delightful, but will not look great with your other pieces. To make it useful on the average railroad, you'd have to pick up more 1:24 stuff for it to go with. Do you really need to go down another "rabbit hole"? P.S. I go down quite a few because I try to write informative articles, based on things I've actually had in my hands. But building up a collection of several different scales isn't in everybody else's best interest.

I have multiple loops on my railroad, and I "get away" with using mismatched scales by running them on separate loops. Mostly, though, my Delton or HLW stuff is stuff like railbusses that I bought because no one else makes/made the models I like in any scale. I do have an HLW switcher and work caboose, so I can make up short trains. But all of those can go on short loops visually separated from the rest of the trains.

If I stopped my Delton or HLW train next to a stopped Aristocraft, Bachmann, LGB, or USA train, it would look funny to some people, but I don't do that. :-)

You also need to think about era. If you have a bunch of stuff that looks like it belongs in the 1800s or very early 1900s, that caboose, or the LGB "drover's caboose" might be a good match. If most of your stuff looks like it belongs, say from the 1920s on, the Delton caboose, modeled after 19th-century equipment, might not be a good matach.

Sorry for the long explanation. In the long run it's personal choice, and I have bought and sold many pieces that other people loved and I wasn't satisfied with. With stuff getting harder to find, the risks of paying too much for something that really isn't a good fit for you or your railroad are rising.

Best of luck,

- Paul


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 13 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron


Click to see sturdy Lionel(r) trains that are perfect for your Christmas tree.


Visit our affiliated sites:
- Trains and Hobbies -
Return to Big Indoor Trains Home page
Return to Family Garden Trains Home page
Big Indoor Trains Primer Articles: All about setting up and displaying indoor display trains and towns. Garden Railroading Primer Articles: All about getting a Garden Railroad up and running well
On30 and O Gauge trains to go with indoor display villages and railroads
Big Christmas Trains: Directory of Large Scale and O Scale trains with holiday themes
Visit Lionel Trains. Free building projects for your vintage railroad or Christmas village. Click to see Thomas Kinkaded-inspired Holiday Trains and Villages. Big Christmas Train Primer: Choosing and using model trains with holiday themes Visit Howard Lamey's glitterhouse gallery, with free project plans, graphics, and instructions. Click to see HO scale trains with your favorite team's colors.
- Family Activities and Crafts -
Click to see reviews of our favorite family-friendly Christmas movies. Free, Family-Friendly Christmas Stories Decorate your tree the old-fashioned way with these kid-friendly projects. Free plans and instructions for starting a hobby building vintage-style cardboard Christmas houses. Click to find free, family-friendly Christmas poems and - in some cases - their stories. Traditional Home-Made Ornaments
- Christmas Memories and Collectibles -
Visit the FamilyChristmasOnline site. Visit Howard Lamey's glitterhouse gallery, with free project plans, graphics, and instructions. Visit Papa Ted Althof's extensive history and collection of putz houses, the largest and most complete such resource on the Internet.. Click to return to the Old Christmas Tree Lights Table of Contents Page Craft and collectibles blog with local news of Croton NY.
Click to visit Fred's Noel-Kat store.
- Music -
Carols of many countries, including music, lyrics, and the story behind the songs Wax recordings from the early 1900s, mostly collected by George Nelson.  Download them all for a 'period' album.
Best-loved railroad songs and the stories behind them.
Heartland-inspired music, history, and acoustic instrument tips. Own a guitar, banjo, or mandolin?  Want to play an instrument?  Tips to save you money and time, and keep your instrument playable. Own a guitar, banjo, or mandolin?  Want to play an instrument?  Tips to save you money and time, and keep your instrument playable.



Click to trains that commemorate your team!

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group