I was at a greenberg show a month or two back. A dealer there had 2-3 small starter layouts. 2 in "N" and one in HO. They were pieced together with mismatched track and nothing I would put my name on, but he was selling them and got like $250 for scary looking HO layout maybe 4x5 tops. I figured some dad, kids bugging him for trains, Dad has no time or patience but he has $$. Do you think there is a market for this. I'm not talking grand highly scenicked layouts, but maybe a WGH plan or something similar. Little or no scenery, making it a starting point for buyer, buyer and kid to work on. Populated it with used cars, and a reliable engine. Thinking even combining it with a Bachman EZ DCC starter of controller and engine to start them off right. If you made them as standard setups so you could easily reproduce them and make say $100-150 on each one, it would be a nice sidline. I haven't worked for 1.5 years because of back surgeries, and I'm supported by my wife, but if I kept them small, or maybe modular to make larger HO layouts I think I could do it. Anyone have any experience with this ? I also thought of keeping it small because few people have the space to properly transport a 4x8 layout without ruining it. Whatch think ? Dave
The only LHS in my area does that at shows too. For him it is a great way to get people into the hobby, and create repete customers! It should work Dave, Just if you do create sets make sure they have quality products. You could really frustrate a newbie, and I asume you want a good reputation also! David
I don't know if there is a market but I have thought of doing something like that on 2'x4' 2" thick foam in N scale. Good luck.
I have an old Life-Like foam based layout from the late 60's. I bought it like new at a flea market for $10.00 It was made for snap track but I put Unitrack on it. It's about 2 x4 max. I could have sold it 20x. I've even though of a little layout with Thomas the Tank for kids for Christmas. Do they make an "N" scale Thomas ? Dave
I see these sort of things on Ebay quite often and they do tend to sell. I would start with the KISS principle and keep it basic and low cost (but decent quality) to start off with and test the market. I say give it a shot
i think its a great idea. Atlas Track, Athearn rollingstock, whatever Buildings, in a small size btw, i've designed a Track Plan for HO in 4x4, also one for 4x5. they arent that bad either, you can have some fun with them, and they have some short spurs too i'll have to get them up again tho
I thought half the fun of model railroading WAS building the layout. Of course, everyone has their own idea of how this hobby works. If you had disabilities and couldn't build it yourself then maybe buying one would be cool.
While the majority of model railroaders probably enjoy building their own, in any hobby as big and varied as this one there are going to be people who either can't build their own, don't feel that they can do a good job of building their own, are more interested in operation than construction, or simply don't have the time. I don't think it's a huge market, but depending on how big a metropolitan area you live in there may be enough demand to make a success of constructing small layouts on the side. Recently I helped someone who was interested in looking into the idea (he wanted to find an outfit that would design and construct a layout for his son) and found about 8 advertisements for this type of business in a recent issue of MR. I was surprised at the number of them, and there are undoubtedly more of them out there. I have a friend at an LHS in Texas who says they do quite a side business in constructing layouts. I think a key for Dave is whether there are sufficient train shows within a relatively short drive of him so that he can have exposure more than once every six months. Build a couple of test layouts, without sinking too much capital into them, and seeing whether they move at the next show. Hey, as slow as my layout is progressing, maybe I need someone to come help me build mine! :teeth: Regards Ed
I got mine on e-bay from a seller in Japan. http://cgi.ebay.com/Thomas-the-Tank...goryZ486QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Here goes the usual ...not affiliated ... statement but he is my source for all the Tomytec cars, trucks and buses.
I think it's worth a shot. In today's world, extra time is something most people don't have. I know people who would like to get into the hobby, but just don't know how or have the the time to figure it out. With a nice basic small layout (which should be designed to encourage future expansion), someone can get up and running and then spend what time they can spare doing a little scenery improvement, building and adding a couple structures, etc.
I believe there is likely a market for such layouts. It might be small. But does exist. For the time and materials, to make a quality layout, probably little profit. Boxcab E50
Boxcab has a point. You could make more money per hour at minimum wage. Still if this was a labor of love and you were practical it could be fun.
I might have mis-understood! (not hard for me!) What I meant was a starter set of say a good Engine, some decent rolling stock, MRC Transformer, and track! Better quality than the train sets from, -------, or --------- They still have to build the layout! David
I have seen people at shows and shops do this. The result is usually far better than a factory boxed set. Which have a very weak point in their power supplies. Boxcab E50
Since benchwork and trackwork are my greatest personal challenges, I can see a market for a barebones type of layout. I personally have no money, so I'll be slogging it out on my own, but I can see the potential.
Yep, I've talked to a couple of guys that have tried this. They sold OK at train shows but they had a hard time marketing them anywhere else. By the time they figured in the cost of materials, travel and show vendor fees they ended up making about 15 cents an hour. I've never seen either guy at a show a year later. It might be something fun to do, but not something to make a living off of.
Thomas, Thomas Everywhere I was in Golden, CO, this past Saturday, at the Colorado Railroad Museum. I didn't know beforehand it was "A Day Out With Thomas the Tank" weekend. Tens of thousands of little Thomas-crazed kids and their parents,... and me the only adult on the grounds without a kid. Life-size standard gauge Thomas (actually pushed by a helper diesel behind Thomas) pulling gondola after gondola of screeching kids and parents, tents with Thomas-branded stuff, Thomas songs, Thomas "people" characters walking around, etc., etc. If that event was any indication, anything you might want to build related to Thomas would sell like crazy! :shade:
Man, this happened to me too up at Williams! I'd been out hiking all day and was filthy dirty, dried blood on my arm, etc. No clue about Thomas. Walking around amongst all the Thomasonians, it was very surreal (and I'm sure I got a few looks too!). Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread.
Building a Thomas type layout to sell My wife and I owned a Photo studio for 15 years before I had to give up. We did a lot of Children and they were all Thomas Crazy. I thought of building thomas related layouts between now and Christmas. This would differentiate me from other layout builders. I know Bachmann makes and HO Thomas, and Tomix a much more expensive "N" But I'm afraid "N" would be too small for little hands. I spent a whole summer building an RC plane when I was a kid, now they are almost all RTF (Ready to Fly ) Many people especially the more financially succesfull among us have more money than time and will pay to a something allready built. This is why they buy kids video games instead of build trains with them, they have no time, or make no time. I'm going to give it a try. Make it an odd shape to look like the "island of Sodor from Thomas " Keep you posted.
