In addition to the usual cheque as our joint Christmas present from the inlaws this year we got another surprise.
It appears my Father in Law has decided that as Ian is here to stay, I may just as well house his memorabilia as well.
He'd cleared out some of the loft and we came home with 4 huge boxes of model train stuff dating back 25/30 years. There's two bags of magazines and paperwork too.
There's track, trains and carriages, buildings etc and we don't know what to do with it.
Is it worth anything or should we give it to the local charity shop?
Is there an easy way to know if it's worth selling it and what should we look for?
At the moment it's stacked in the spare room and we haven't even had time to have a look at it.
I'm told there's more to come too.
No one mentioned this when they said 'Do you take Ian to be.......' :)
Pat
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Do your home work find the model of the trains it says so underneath it and advertise them on e bay.
It would be best if you could fit up a small bit of track and test it to see if they work then you get more for them, i have bought several over last few months made my lad who's 4 a train set on a 6ft by 5ft board hidden behind the sofa when not used.
If you sell it all together you will get peanuts sell individually the train units and carriages plus any buildings and bits of track look on e bay first.
If in doubt i'll take the lot off you.!! :-)
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Yeah find out what it is, then price it up on the net
You have email.
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I bet that's man maths at work and Zero is bidding for a train set:)
Pat
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>> I bet that's man maths at work and Zero is bidding for a train set:)
>>
>> Pat
When was the last time you had men falling round your feet
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I haven't an email yet!
Pat
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I'd go with the Charity shop before it becomes a fixture and you appear on the next series of "Hoarders'.
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Trust me CG, it will NOT become a fixture:)
Ian is a hoarder but I just persuaded him to have a clear out and we loaded the car up and dropped it all in to the Sally Army shop on the way to Addenbrookes in early Decenmer.
I know he gets it from his Dad now!
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Fri 28 Dec 12 at 17:13
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Not my area of expertise. I suppose it will depend what you have.
I only found out the other day that train sets had gone digital. Instead of regulating the power and polarity applied to the track, the track is live all the time and the locos get digital instructions from the controller as to how fast to go and which way.
I never had a train set as a child. My daughter got one for her 3rd birthday. She is now an consultant engineer. I suppose those three facts could be connected!
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Pat
About 3 years ago when my parents were downsizing I was put in a similar position.
They had 2 collections of trains (a few boxed complete sets) but mostly single items or small groups from the 60s/70s belonging to my late grandfather and and my (still alive) father.
They had no idea how the web worked and it was an afternoons work to accurately identify most of it and another afternoon to list it on Ebay.
At the outset my mother was adamant she would have taken £50 for the lot.
I had broken the items into about 60 individual lots and I know from the research undertaken there was nothing of any special significance there.
When the bidding total went past £1k you can possibly realise my mothers surprise.
Nothing special in it, just nice clean items in boxes and accurately described. Now the funds for the local charity shop to spend on overheads or to my aged parents. You decide which route I felt happiest about!
I looked upon it as a return against previous filial indifference.
As always
Mark
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When Ted recovers from his apoplexy I guess Pat may get an email from him.
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It's certainly worth something to the right buyer; how much depends on who the maker is, what the models are of, and the condition they're in.
If you want to post the answers to those (admittedly very broad) questions, I'm sure we can point you in the right direction. I'd urge you not to sell as a job lot, as mentioned above you'll get the lowest possible price. Chances are a charity shop won't realise the collection's value either.
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>> I only found out the other day that train sets had gone digital. Instead of
>> regulating the power and polarity applied to the track, the track is live all the
>> time and the locos get digital instructions from the controller as to how fast to
>> go and which way.
>>
At the risk of sounding like a train spotter, train sets went digital over 30 years ago!! We had a Zero 1 controlled Hornby train set which, entertainingly, let you run trains in opposite directions on the same track... Must have been very early 80s because it pre-dated (and was promptly cast aside in favour of) the ZX Spectrum, which I think we got in '83
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>>At the risk of sounding like a train spotter, train sets went digital over 30 years ago!!
I'm surprised it was so long, though not that it happened of course. I suppose they were a very superior option when I bought my daughter's train set in late 1983.
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Ramsay's guide is the de facto 'official' source for valuation of used items, although in terms of real world pricing, searching ebay finished items listings is a better, if more labour intensive, source. As Mark has already shown, it can fetch good money, I gave up buying used train items on ebay yonks ago as prices were getting silly, even for mundane items.
www.collectors-club-of-great-britain.co.uk/Information/ramsaysguides
If you have trouble identifiying items post a photo somewhere, I'm sure me, Ted or someone can help.
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>> At the risk of sounding like a train spotter, train sets went digital over 30
>> years ago!!
Not all of they didnt. My sons basic hornby, a mere 14 years old is delightfully electronically analogue.
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>>
>> >> At the risk of sounding like a train spotter, train sets went digital over
>> 30
>> >> years ago!!
>>
>> Not all of they didnt. My sons basic hornby, a mere 14 years old is
>> delightfully electronically analogue.
>>
This digital lark (DCC) has only gained ground in the UK over the last five years, at a rough guess 80% of new Hornby sets sold are still analogue.
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Zero 1 was woefully unreliable though. Digital Cab Control is much better now, though it's debatable how useful it actually is for the sort of model layout most of us would actually build!
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This is not what most of us could actually build:-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk-TV6Ptpy4
Personally I'm 100% analogue and so is my train set :-)
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A mere toy, Spam. This is what you want -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkmg3Y64_s
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Won't hijack this thread but our charity has had a model train set donated to sell for funds.
Guy had built it up over a few years, track set up on an 8x4 sheet with various engines etc.
He reckoned it had cost him close to a grand over the years.
Its in my storage unit just now - will get out in Jan and take photos and then maybe seek some advice from the experts on here??
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There are several Model Rail magazines which offer free ads to private sellers. I was inundated with calls when I sold my late FiL's ' N ' gauge stuff some years ago.
I'd love to know what's in your treasure trove. Boxes can be important. I make sure that I keep the box from everything I get....it can increase the value by quite a bit.
Anyway, if you can put up some pics and a little more information...locomotives would be a good start...... I'm sure one of us will help.
Just don't give them away.......someone else might then make a fortune out of your stuff.
Ted
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Thanks for the advice and to Mark for his post, at least I know it may be worth dusting round it for the moment!
We certainly won't give it away but at the moment time is short and it will be a few weeks before we can get it out and photograph any of it.
I suspect a certain car4play train spotter may arrive on my doorstep to blag a cup of coffee some time soon;)
Hope he's prepared to batch and describe it all ready for Ebay.
You don't get owt for nowt in the Fen!
Pat
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Good man Zero helping Pat out proud of you.!!
Would be interested to see what you have if you can take some photo's & please do let us know when there going on e bay. :-)
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Intend to Catalogue and Photograph, of course readers here will get first looksee and advance warning of how to be sold (if her ladyship queen of the trucks agrees that is)
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I was talking to Ian yesterday about how I could persuade you to batch and write a short description, so it seems Nicole has you well trained after all:)
Pat
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Any LMS goods brake vans.......keep me in the frame !
Went to me biker mates this arvo for a drink and a mince pie. Got talking about model railways and he did no more than go upstairs and bring down a Triang train set, boxed, dating from about 1955.
Princess Elizabeth loco with 2 coaches.....no track but mains controller and battery box with it. Very crude by today's standards but you wouldn't let a 9/10 yr old loose on a new one at well over £100.
We wondered if it would still run so I offered to bring it home and give it a run on Pickersgill Junction. He said for me to keep it, it was just in the way. I'd rather call it a semi-permanent loan.
I'll see what happens tomorrow when I give my new loco a run-in as well.
Ted
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I imagine we are talking 00 gauge here. I never had any but a lot of contemporaries did. Hornby-Dublo had good scale model locos and rolling stock, although the standard track was a bit tinny. And you could only control one locomotive at a time. If there were two on the track, they both did the same thing when the controller was operated.
There was another make though which allowed two locos to operate independently on the same track, using a different outside rail for neutral in each case. Can't remember the make but I knew someone who had a set.
My own trains were O gauge, bit of a mishmash but three superb pullman coaches with opening doors and a Bassett-Lowke clockwork loco in LNER colours, 4-4-0 with tender, given me by a friend of my parents who was a tremendous model train enthusiast. Having cast wheels the pullmans sounded just like a real train when rolling, including the click-click-click-click over rail joins. But they tended to derail on my 1foot 6 radius curves. They were designed for 2foot radius. Had a lot of goods trucks too and an electric loco (basic, 0-4-0) which was powerful and made showers of sparks. Sold the lot to an adult trader for damn all when I was about 15, along with my very fine Meccano. My parents looked askance and advised against, but made no attempt to stop me.
Regretted it immediately and ever since. Damn!
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I find OO gauge way to big for indoors, my own set is N gauge and I'm even considering selling up and switching to Z. I like layouts that don't look too cluttered in the limited space most houses provide, unlike some enthusiasts my boss won't let me have a whole room for the set.
O gauge I would love, but only if I could put it in the garden.
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>>
>> There was another make though which allowed two locos to operate independently on the >> same track, using a different outside rail for neutral in each case. Can't remember the make
>> but I knew someone who had a set.
>>
That'll be Trix Twin I reckon:-
www.ttrca.co.uk/TTR.htm
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Oh dear, Robin.......why not go the whole hog and try 'T' gauge ? You could almost build a proper scale replica of the West Coast Main Line in a Petrie dish and use a microscope to see it running ! :-)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYZBinr0_Y4
Ted
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>>
>> Oh dear, Robin.......why not go the whole hog and try 'T' gauge ? You could
>> almost build a proper scale replica of the West Coast Main Line in a Petrie
>> dish and use a microscope to see it running ! :-)
>>
>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYZBinr0_Y4
>>
>> Ted
Pity they cant get the sleepers to scale....
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start digging
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_rwzsdVW6M
Unfortunately I suspect it will not be long before he cannot in and out. The option must surely to raise the floor of the house?
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I have never "got" model railways, I am fascinated by the modelling and look of the locos and stock, the architecture and making station buildings and track furniture, but put it all together and it turns me off with a sudden rush of disappointment and dissatisfaction, leading to subsequent annoyance.
Looking at that layout its just struck me why. The speed and movement of the trains is completely wrong, everything happens far too fast for the scale. They accelerate too quickly, stop too quickly and run too fast.
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>>
>> Looking at that layout its just struck me why. The speed and movement of the
>> trains is completely wrong, everything happens far too fast for the scale. They accelerate too
>> quickly, stop too quickly and run too fast.
>>
The 'magic ingredients' required to make a truly prototypical model railway are the subject of perennial heated debate on model railway forums. It's fair to say McKinley/Wonderland are at the 'showbiz' end of the spectrum. At the other end are layouts like Pendon:-
www.gwr.org.uk/pendon-youtubes.html
..or a selection of 'finescale' layouts here, for example:-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfmPO4wQHOk
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>>
>> Oh dear, Robin.......why not go the whole hog and try 'T' gauge ? You could
>> almost build a proper scale replica of the West Coast Main Line in a Petrie
>> dish and use a microscope to see it running ! :-)
>>
One look at that video will tell you why Ted, and confirm Zero's point below. The trouble with T gauge is the motors are so small they lack any torque, so you've got a two speed train - flat out or stationary. Z is the smallest gauge you can run at a realistic speed. In N I've seen a Bachmann loco run so slowly it took five minutes to cover a single track length.
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A long time ago, FiL had a Codar controller...pre digital...very !. I built him a layout round his loft, I guess about 45ft of circuit.
One loco, a GWR pannier tank was kit built, very free running and packed with extra weight.
It wasn't very fast but you could get it up to speed, switch the controller to ' coast ' and it would do about 2 complete circuits before it stopped.
I suppose modern digital might be the same...but I have no real knowledge of it. I'd like it but a lot of my stuff is old, some dating back to my own train set in about 1957, and is still used.
Ted
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Model train stuff! - Bigtee
