I have been the RR hobby off and on for about 45 years - started when I was in high school; took 15 years off after college and starting a family. I’m working on layout #6 (I think).
About the only thing I am doing that Ken isn’t is modeling 2 timeframes - early 50s (freelanced and MEC) and 1980-ish (MEC abd BAR). Kind of feels like a multiple personality disorder at times [%-)][(-D]
Lucky. I only have 5 engines (Only 2 that actually run well) but soon it will be 6.
BTW, Nice dodge charger!
Or the rented storage unit… At the rate cudaken is going he will surpass several of our loco collections in a couple decades. Perhaps we should step up our rate of purchase. Well, sounds like a good excuse to me.
OK, I have maybe went off the deep end a little. Am I happy, yes and no. What I am missing is a local HO train friend that comes by and run with me. In the Mopar world I had a ton of friends, well till I stopped doing body work.
Just like in the 1:1 car world I do nothing in modaration (spell check). Lets faces it would a normal person take a 440 HP that made 375 HP factory rated (more like 340 HP bone stock) and stap a GMC 6-71 Blower on it (689 HP at 5200 RPM’s on a Dyno run) for a street car?
Of the engines I have, say 9 are cheap engines that get some track time ever month just to keep them a live. I did sell off some of the LL and Tyco stuff.
What I need is a local train nut, but the tuff part is I am only 2 miles from K-10 trains. With his 60’ X 80’ foot track, why come to my house and run trains?
Far as cheap rolling stock, that is the gear head in me! I enjoy taking cheap stuff and making it run well. Heck the Charger R/T in the Icon cost me a whole $500.00 and it ran.
Cuda Ken Looking for a local friend.
PS My car friends thank I am nuts.
What planet you on Cuda? [(-D][:-,][swg]
Don’t see any issue… i’ve been around at least 40 years, got Uk stuff and at least 200 locos… to start with. Got two CNW RS 32s and two CNW U25Bs coming (Why oh why did Atlas duplicate a number? I could have added three…).
Just don’t ask me how many cars I’ve got… [:O]
Nuts are what keep wheels on and squirrels eat.
Hey, if you shoot bunch of squirrels and sell them to your local butcher shop does he have to lable them “May contain nuts”?
Friends is where you find 'em.
Real friends come find you… when you need 'em.
Good friends come support you when you really need them.
[:)]
Good friends come over even when you don’t have any beer.
Real good friends come over and bring beer.
I thought that’s what the ladies did when they looked at all those clothes and shoes in their closet?
Ah! That explains the difference!
I recommend that if you are going to discuss issues like these anywhere near the good lady ENSURE that she is totally aware that you are talking about your trains first…
[:P]
Sounds like you’ve come a long way pretty quickly!![:O]
I’ve got around 60 engines now (not including dummies), with a Bowser T-1 4-4-4-4 kit coming soon [:D], but that’s only after about 10 years of collecting, and a lot of those are pretty cheap ones, too. And 300 feet of track? It took me forever just to start a double-loop on a 4’x7’, which I really need to start working on again!
Good to hear you’re having such a good time.[:D] It’s always nice to know someone is enjoying model railroading so much.[:D]
By the way, did that SF diesel I fixed for you ever start working again?
Kuda Ken,
Welcome to the sophmore class! I’m just a tad ahead of you at 17 months. I’m a Chevy (Corvette) guy, but I like trains too. I don’t have as many engines as you, but most everything I have is dcc and sound equipped. The integration of the computer with the railroad is just amazing.
Good luck and thanks for sharing!
Joe
No, it’s not nuts. You did the right thing. My advice to all new model railroaders is pretty straightforward. BUY LOCOMOTIVES - AND LOTS OF THEM.
Darth, guess what I got back in the mail? My check for your shipping cost. Hum, PM me and I will send another. It is still DOA, I just sat it on the track and shut down the MRC 9500 like that! I just placed it into the tool box to take to work. I do 95% of my rolling stock and engine work at work. I am going to pull the trucks apart and file off a little of the axels or replace the trucks with other FP-45’s I have. (axels are to long and hit each other).
I all so bought a new Athearn drive for a Dash 9 with board and drive shafts. Might try to fit that in there as well.
Yep I have came a long way but still away to go. Got my first BLI in Dec, got hooked on sound then went DCC on the B line. (A is still DC) now have 4 BLI’s and one PK2 all with QSI sound.
I all so have a 13 foot section of foot hills.
Your Friend Ken
Nuts? Hmmm.[:)] No I dont think your nuts. I think thats great!!![tup] I have about 30 locomotives and about 100 rolling stock. Not all the locomotives are on the track. But I think it’s great that you like the hobby. I think thats the idea![tup]
Happy railroading[(-D]
James
To some people, Model Railroader’s ARE nuts! One of my best friends, who also enjoys the hobby, thinks I’m “koo-koo for choo-choo”. Here’s my story:
My first train set was a Campell’s Soup train, that my Mother obtained for me, by sending in- like 100 proof of purchases. I was 8 years old. In time, the trains got broke, didn’t run, etc., so they kind of disappeared. (hope my Mom still has that train set in a box somewhere!)
When I got my first job at 15 yrs, delivering the newspaper, I managed to buy four locomotives, and 13 rolling stock over the course of two years, including a new power pack (MRC Tech II), and a few packs of Atlas Snap Track. All I had was the kitchen floor to set up on, and run. I set up my trains once every month or two. At 17, I got my first car, and the trains went into a box, and were then set up to run just once a year… then almost never.
Upon the age of 30, I moved to a new state, and stumbled across a model railroad club. Seeing this very large layout, I was quick to bring my trains down to run. I was made aware that the system was controlled by DCC, and I was urged into adapting my locos. I was also made aware that rolling stock must be equipped with metal wheelsets in order to run on the club layout. I had to invest in decoders, plus metal wheelsets in order to take advantage of running on this club’s layout. Well, it didn’t take long to get my trains updated and moving!
Now the perspective had come into play… “How big do I want/need my layout to be?”, “Is 13 cars enough to fulfill a sufficient model railroad?”. In comparison to the modular club layout, of my personal thoughts of a home layout, I had much to consider. In the mean time, I would take advantage of being able to run trains on the club layout, and build to my desire. This began the kid in me wanting everything at once! I had enough power to move a decent train, so I was buying at least one piece of rolling stock a week. When a lo
I count my stuff, but only for insurance purposes. Once I got it into a database, it was easy to keep track of (sorry for the bad pun).
There seems to be some misconception about model railroading, that being the main concept of the hobby is to buy and own as much “stuff” as possible whether is is ever used on the hobby or not (just stored on a shelf) this idea has permeated the hobby where it seems if a person who does NOT have a large amount of engines is not really into the hobby, sorry, I’m afraid there are a lot of hobbyists with a couple of locomotives and some cars who are having an absolute great time choo-chooing around their layout. More locomotives is better??? hmmmmm.
Well, let’s see. I was a Junior in high school (1955) when I bought my first SP rubber-band GP-9 from Athearn (Black widow, natch), and a junior in college when I bought my first brass steamer.
25 years ago, my father built me a locomotive display case and said, “It only holds about 25 or so.” I had it filled to capacity the moment I installed it in my house, plus about 15 more that were out on the layout, running. And this was brass. Last year, my 34-year old Genius Son asked me, “Dad, how old is this locomotive?” pointing to one of my two Akane 2-8-8-4 Yellowstones, and I smiled and said, “This predates you by at least eight years. Your MOTHER wasn’t even a gleam in my eye, let alone you.”
Why do I have three big identical 8-drawer dresser drawers out in the train room VERY CAREFULLY filled with rolling stock? And one of them just REFRIGERATOR cars?
No, my friend, in my opinion, you’re doing every thing JUST RIGHT!
Tom
I got my first Life Like starter set in Dec 2004 as a table top ornament for the holidays. It’s an N scale Yardmaster switcher set. I watched that thing go in circles for hours and soon I was off for a station, more track, and cars. I gradually expanded my table top empire into a larger Unitrack layout and shifted to better quality engines and cars such as Kato, Micro-Trains, Atlas, and Intermountain. I think I’m up to around 20 engines and 100 cars.
Maybe because my roots are tinplate, I can’t seem to break away from grassmat, styrfoam tunnels, and colorfully painted plastic structure kits. I go for engines and cars in colorful schemes. Ballasted flextrack, realstic scenery, and weathering just doesn’t do it for me so I don’t fit the description of what many would call a model railroader. I’m modeling a fairy tail world so I don’t know what I am nor do I care because I’m having a lot of fun with this.
The only people who are nuts in this hobby are not directly in the hobby. They’re called wives, husbands, signicant others etc etc etc who do not understand the term “model railroader”
Gordon
I have my stuff recorded for insurance, that is a pretty big difference from counting.
I had the wife of a fellow club member asked me once if it was common to have more than a few locomotives. Her husband had apparently just purchased his 20th locomotive. I told her is was not uncommmon and I was certain I had more than 20. She didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, so, for her, I started counting. I eventually gave up, simply reporting to her that I had more than 300. Later that same fellow came up to me and said something like, “I never understood why you or Jim always said you thought you had loco xyz in your collection - how could you not know exactly what you had. Now I understand.” He had just gone out and purchase locomotive #50 or so, forgetting that he had already purchased it earlier that year…