Model Planes And Trains

Model Planes and Trains

When people here the word “hobby,” more than likely their thoughts will turn to scenes from movies and television of men dressed as conductors, running scale model trains about lovingly created dioramas. Perhaps Gomez Addams crashing trains. This hobby has been around since at least the 1840s, with the infamous “Carpet Railways.” These were brass steam engines, which ran on the floor. They were a boiler with wheels, occasionally with lacquer finishes. After the first few explosions, safety valves were added. They tended to leave a trail of water and fuel on the ground as they ran, leading to an unfortunate tendency to start fires if they fell over after running into furniture. There was room for improvement.

Nowadays the scale model hobby is far safer, and has many outlets. There are traditional scale trains that start and run around a track, remote control cars and airplanes, ships, tanks, dirigibles and even submarines. From simple oval tracks to scale models of real places. Hobbyists can spend from a few score dollars to many thousands. There are lone hobbyists who build their projects by themselves and clubs with massive team efforts, such as the 25-mile long track at Train Mountain in Chiloquin Oregon.

Model trains are commercially available in sizes ranging from 2” tall to 28” tall trains that can carry several people. This roughly corresponds to 1/220th the size of a real locomotive to the massive 1/8th scale.

Model aircraft tend to be static displays more often, and require more skill and far more area for remote control operation. Again, there are several distinct groups of hobbyists. Some carve aircraft from wood. Some assemble plastic kits. Some buy pre-made remote control aircraft, and some will scratch build their own.

The average static model is generally 1/72nd scale, where one inch on the model is equal to 72 on the real aircraft. There are many common scales, much as can be found in the model train community. Without the need to actually operate, plastic models are far more common in model aircraft. While the cost to make a plastic model is very small, the cost to make the injection mold is very high, so even failed models are often saved and re-released to recover that initial cost.

Powerplant options are similarly wide. Some models are designed for unpowered flight, and the most common powerplant is Alphonse Pénaud’s elastic motor, the traditional twisted rubber band. The more ambitious can find CO2 rockets, internal combustion engines, real rockets and jets and electric motors. Ducted fans, propellers in a shroud, are often used to substitute for jets.

Some models fly in circles, controlled by a wire held by the user, while others are free flying, whether on uncontrollable trajectories or remote control pilots.

There is even a similar market for automobiles and other ground vehicles, with a similar variety of sizes, costs and capabilities. It is probably easier to find RC cars than the others in mainstream stores and it is hard not to see them for sale during the Christmas shopping season.

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