Modelling On A Shoestring.

[Bandit Mick]

Motorcycling - now that IS expensive. E.G. £160 for a rear tyre that lasts 6000 miles (if I ride carefully!)

[Mountain Goat]

Thanks all.

Thanks Footplate. Maybe I can write a book about the subject...

Bandit Mick. and GWR. The Tea sturers and matchsticks are an old favoourite, especially useful in the larger scales as they tend to fit in better. I have tried them for 00 gauge as well, though it is better to get a craft knife and make them into thinner strips. In 7mm narrow gauge tea sturers are just right!

I guess motorbikes can be like model railways. There will be budget ways or one can buy something really nice and sporty but have to pay for it. It is a similar issue with bicycles. At the moment, if one is careful, one can build a bicycle with a good lively frame and keep to the modern day form of older parts (E.g. 5, 6 or 7 speed freewheels rather then the more expensive 8,9,10,11 or 12 speed cassettes, which tend to wear out quicker and ones freewheeling mechanism is smaller so doesn't last as long as a freewheel. I could go on with the many modern designs that have been tried and abandoned due to various flaws only to re-emerge in recent years as a "New" product (Though they still have the flaws the old designs had. Intigrated headsets come to mind).

Malcolm. Now rebuilding older models is close to my heart. I love to see older items re-used.

Glencairn. Is an old favourite, though is the wrong colour for ballast in my area apart from in recent years where ballast has travelled many miles from other areas of the country. This new ballast has magnetic particles in it, or so I've heard by a modeller who tried to crush some up for his layout!
Oh. And if one is really careful one can get more then one cup from each teabag before use. Prehaps the tea leaves will turn grey when all the flavours gone? (I don't drink tea myself though).

[glencairn]

Glencairn. Is an old favourite, though is the wrong colour for ballast in my area apart from in recent years where ballast has travelled many miles from other areas of the country. This new ballast has magnetic particles in it, or so I've heard by a modeller who tried to crush some up for his layout!
Oh. And if one is really careful one can get more then one cup from each teabag before use. Prehaps the tea leaves will turn grey when all the flavours gone? (I don't drink tea myself though).

The tea can stay brown for me. I tend to use it as earth and spread it near hedgerows and the like.

Glencairn

[Mountain Goat]

Here is a contrevercial money saving idea. Contrevercial because many say not to do this, but with patience and care the rewards can give good savings as long as one is careful, and that is to buy secondhand track.

[It does take a little experience here, so if one is unsure then new track will be the safer option, but the potential savings made by those with a little experience can be well worth the risk of making a mistake and buying bad track].

Secondhand track can be often purchased very cheap in bulk. You maybe lucky and be given track for free! Make sure if you buy used track that you are not paying too much. Do some research first with new and secondhand prices. Do not pay too much. Even unused secondhand track in their boxes should be noticeably lower then new prices, so check before you spend. Also check you are buying the right track for your intended use. (E.g. the correct gauge and rail height etc).
If you buy assuming that half of it or more is unuseable, you should not have any issues.
You will need a track cleaning rubber and a pack or two of railjoiners.
The sorting. First sort into three piles. Steel track, nickel silver track and scrap track. The scrap track can usually still be used to offer various parts (Sleepers, railjoiners, rails etc) so don't throw it.
Your gem track is the nickel silver track. Steel track can be used for sidings if you run out of nickel silver track so keep it for now.
The most problematic of track tends to be pointwork (And crossings etc), so careful testing and inspection can be done here first. Check the points are flat and that they work electrically. Sometimes points can be rescued electrically with a decent clean and adjust.
Derailment issues through points can be caused if the frog (The central part) has raised or that there is too much or too little gap in the flangeways of the frogs and checkrails. Also the blades themselves may need a slight adjustment. Go very carefully if doing this as they are normally delicate.
Other track, other then obviously broken track should be ok as long as the rails are flat (No kinks) and they are clean. Dirty or half wrecked railjoiners can be replaced.
Providing you know what to look for, and don't pay too much, one can get ones layout going relatively cheaply (Assuming one has carefully tested each piece first). The good point being that any surplus track can be sold on so someone else can find a bargain, and it also offsets your initial investment.

Small narrow gauge railways often bought secondhand track from the larger more successful narrow gauge railways when the successful ones bought new track, and the cash strapped smaller railway would replace their track with this secondhand track, and their older rails would then go to those horse drawn tramways or be used in sidings etc. It was even common with the standard gauge railways to reuse older track for sidings to save money.

[footplate1947]

I am quite parsimonious when it comes to modelling - if I can scratch build something I will, or update the detail on an older model I will.

Blimmey Malcom. Where did you dig Parimonious up from. I had to look it up. My wife did not know it either and she is member of MENSA Do you know how many meanings it has Too many for me to remember. Lovely ................John

[Walkingthedog]

Thought you’d have known parsimonious John. Aren’t we were all a bit like that?

[footplate1947]

Course we are a'nt we Brian.

[Forfarian]

parsimoniousDictionary result for parsimonious
/ˌpɑːsɪˈməʊnɪəs/Submit
adjective
very unwilling to spend money or use resources.
"even the parsimonious Joe paid for drinks all round"
synonyms: mean, miserly, niggardly, close-fisted, penny-pinching, cheese-paring, ungenerous, penurious, illiberal, close, grasping, Scrooge-like, stinting, sparing, frugal; More

Are we like this

[Walkingthedog]

Of course or we wouldn’t have spare cash to spend on trains.

[footplate1947]

Yes I had to look it up as well.