Overview

Model railroading involves assembling and powering trains on railroads.  The amount of paraphernalia that accompanies this particular activity can be immense.  You'll need locomotives, tracks, signals, and scenery such as roads, building, people, mountains, valleys, rivers, and anything else that evokes the great outdoors.  Some hobbyists are more interested in constructing and expanding the miniature landscapes than others.  Some people prefer to concentrate on the trains.  Models can come in different scales, or ratios, based on their real-life counterparts.  Some hobbyists even build models large enough to ride on!

Getting Started

You can choose to make this hobby as simple or as complicated as you like, but remember two things: you'll need to invest money to buy the pieces, and you'll need lots of surface area.  First you must decide what scale of model you want.  This information is typically noted by code letters like N, HO, S, and O, which correspond to various ratios of the miniature to the real thing.  The most popular scale is HO, which means the ratio is 1:87 - one foot (30.5 cm) on the model corresponds to 87 feet (26.5 m) of the real train.  Another popular one is N scale, which is 1:160.  The best way to figure out which you'd prefer to spend hours of your time with is by visiting a hobby shop and handling the different model trains.  Deciding on a scale also depends on how much room you have; the smaller ones, like N, pack in more details, occupy a smaller surface area, and focus more on the scenery.

When it's time to choose which train set to buy, invest in a high-quality one, especially when it comes to the locomotive.  For tracks, go for nickel silver rails, which are more conductive and make the trains run better.  Be sure to pick up some track pieces with turnabouts and curves, so you can vary the route.

Brief History of Model Railroading

The first model railroad was probably built by Josef Ritter von Baader, a German engineer who assembled a model to impress the king of Bavaria and get him to agree to build a life-size railroad project.  In 1838, a live model steam engine was built in Dresden.  A few decades later, the British started selling steam-powered models commercially.  In the U.S., Lionel and American Flyer were the first companies to produce electric-powered toy trains in around 1900.  The 1920s were known as the golden age of toy trains, a time when exquisitely detailed models were being produced.  By the 1950s, model trains had become the favorite hobby of many youngsters.