I got my first cheap Life Like train set with snap track 54 weeks ago. 1 engine and 10 cars with apx 4 X 8 foot of track. When I started I had no clue on what to buy or what quality what I was buying!
A friend from a slot car site started helping me, his name here is Ranchero. He does not post much but he is here. Hi Dave![bow]
He started filling my head with names like Peaco, Athearn, Atlas, MRC and BLI. Then I found this great site and one of the best LHS (k-10 trains) in the US. Folks here like Crandel and T-stage and others help me with the growing pains. Plus I learned how to make cheap junk cars run like the higher cost. One of the biggest help came from a person here that sort of told me I was nuts and wasting my money fixing up the junks rolling stock! Tell me I cannot do, I will prove you are wrong.
What brought this subect to mind is as of today I have 54 engines, that is one a week? Plus I have 202 rolling stock (3.7 per week), 300 trees (little short there but more are coming) and around 300 feet of track with more coming.
I hope too slow down but at this point the I don’t think so! So many engines and so little time.
Like to hear your folks story, just to make sure I am still a little bit right.
I’ve been in the hobby for only a couple of years and have acquired 10… well… 11… counting the one to be delivered tomorrow… locomotives. You make me not feel so guilty! [:D] [;)]
seems like a good start as long as you can afford it and noone gets irate( my wife callls my RR “the other woman” ) but it only takes my time i get my rolling stock and motive power by “wheel and deal” nuts Yes normal as normal as any other wanna be god with a minuiture world in your basemant also normal is a setting on the wash machine
Quote: “I hope too slow down but at this point the I don’t think so! So many engines and so little time. Like to hear your folks story, just to make sure I am still a little bit right.”
Sorry Ken, you’re just as crazy as the rest of us![:D]
Just keep telling yourself “I can quit any time I want!” (just not today) [:D]
Your growth has been a little quick but, oh well. If your power and water are still on and your old lady’s not screaming for a divorce, who cares? Besides, if you’ve got a Mopar like that AND money for trains your doing a lot better than me.
You just need to ask yourself, Are you having FUN? If the answer is YES then you are doing alright.
I looked over your post and pondered to myself as to what I have. Honestly, I’m not sure how many Locos I have. I have my favorites and they get run quite often. Rolling stock? Who knows! Just picked up 5 more Athearn BB Kits last night for less than $23 bucks for the whole bag and they’ll be built up and running by the end of the month. My guess, 100+ assorted pieces of rolling stock.
If you’re like most of us, you’ll eventually end up with some stuff that you will look at and wonder, “What was I thinking when I bought that”. The longer we are in the hobby, the more discriminating we get about quality and also about what types of equipment are appropriate for our layouts. Upgrading cheap cars is not a bad idea. Usually the bodies are decent quality, it’s the mechanicals like the couplers and wheels that leave something to be desired. Upgrading them can bring them up to the standards of the better equipment and you just have to ask whether the savings are worth the added time. I now by good quality rolling stock, both kits and RTR, but rarely go for top of the line. Athearn BB, RTR and Atlas RTR are mostly what I buy any more with a few Accurail kits thrown in.
Ken, your just like I was the first year I was in the hobby. I bought anything I could get my hands on that was Ontario Northland related. I then started assembling a large fleet of CN, CP, TH&B and any other Canadian railroad locomotives I could think of. Don’t worry, your just as nuts as the rest of us here, that sort of makes you normal. At least on this forum, lol.
If what you are doing is making you happy, I would say you are a success. I’m like Jeffery; been in it for over 35 years and you have quite a few more engines than I do. I feel much better now ![:D]
Hot Rods rule! Is it a daily runner? Or just in nice weather? Ours is too hot for wet pavement.
As long as you are having fun who cares how much you spend. We spend in spurts. I used to say,“When you have the time, you don’t have the money. When you have the money, you don’t have the time.” If you can meet in the middle, things should work out.
QUOTE - What brought this subect to mind is as of today I have 54 engines, that is one a week?
Blimey I’ve been in it for 30 years and I’m way behind that rate of buying!, glad it’s payday tomorrow, must pop down and get spending!
I started being given all sorts of stuff that I asked for , now I still buy all sorts of different stuff in N, HOm, HOe, HO, OO, On30, 1 and G (and that’s just the train models). Go your own way have fun and you’ll find like minded souls to enjoy it with. One mate of mine rarely gets his trains out to run but just displays them and comes and runs mine when he has time, another one will take over with so many of his own trains that you’re lucky to touch the controls. We enjoy a wind up over everyones different Railway Company allegiances and collecting habits but it’s always fun rather than snobbery. Summer evenings in the garden or cold nights in the pub,
all I need is more time, space and money to enjoy it al the time!
I’m gonna be the little kid in The Emperor’s New Clothes. 'Cuda Dude, you’ve got too many engines.
I know it’s tempting, but what are you going to do with all of them? How big will your layout be? Even if you’re running 4 trains at a time, and tripling-up the engines, that’s only a dozen.
Are you running DCC? That’s a fortune in decoders sitting on sidings, or more likely in boxes.
I’ve got 9 working engines, and one old Dockside I plan to get running someday. I may get the Hustler to work, too, but that’s only 11 total. 3 are steamers, and my plan is to dual-era the layout so steam or diesels will be there, but never at the same time.
Hmmm, maybe I ought to think about getting another steamer or two. Whadda you think, Ken?
This might be a good time to cull. Look over all your “stuff”, Ken, and separate the honest-to-goodness keepers from the items you could live without, and then sell the latter on ebay to finance a few (that is a key word) a few…occasional key purchases that satisfy your desire as you become more knowledgeable about your destination in the hobby.
Maybe the right metric to apply is locomotives per square foot of layout? At 9 engines and a 60 square foot layout, that comes to 0.15 locomotives per square foot. Or maybe it should be locos/sq.ft./era, since they won’t co-exist once the Jordan vehicles are complete - so that number is 0.075.