At last count I had about 37 HO locomotives. Most of them are diesel, and 10 of them are ‘critters’. Two of the critters are HOn30. The larger diesels are either InterMountain, P2K or Kato.
I have enough locomotives to run the trains and do the yard work that I want, but I’m not averse to buying more if the price is right.
The only locomotive I have that I would call surplus is a steamer from a President’s Choice train set. I doubt that I will bother to convert it to DCC.
Dave
How many:
O scale - 5 RTR, 2 unbuilt kits.
O gauge (3 rail) - 4 RTR.
S scale - 8 RTR, 4 unbuilt kits.
Sn2 - 1 RTR
HO - 8 RTR, 1 built kit, 5 unbuilt kits
HOn3 - 4 unbuilt kits to be kitbashed for Sn2.
So that’s 42 total. Some of these date back over 40 years. Except for the kits, everything has been run a little. If nothing else, I have a 5’4" x 12’ test layout where I set up track temporarily in different scales.
While I’m not actively pursuing any more locomotives, I will buy more as they interest me and the price is right. As an example, my last locomotive purchase was a pair of Atlas Sante Fe F9’s from the 70’s for $75.
This is a hobby, so whatever appeals to you (and you can afford) - why not. Besides, I’m willing to admit to being a collector.
Enjoy
Paul
The number of locomotives is irrelevent. You have a number of trains that you must run, and they need x amount of horsepower. You might run one train at a time, but you will have other trains in your staging yards, in your working yards, in your engine terminal, and in your backshop.
Route of LION now has 11 subway trains on the rails of him. Him also has many locomotives, some are work engines for the railroad, the money train, the signals dolly, all kinds of C-Division stuff.
Then I will build an image of Penn Station. Here will be displayed engines that I will no longer use, together with passenger cars that I will no longer use. They will be lit up and ready to go, and never mind the fact that diesels do not enter NYP. We will just assume that these locomotives have dual mode third rail shoes~!
YEAH Imagination.
ROAR
I have no shelf queens; everything gets used, typically at least once a week. I use the MRC Tech 6 Sound Controller 2.0 to run in both dcc and non-dcc modes; lately opting to run everything in plain DC except one BLI steamer (I can kill the sound in dcc mode).
Key/Samhongsa unpainted Texas & Pacific Class H-2R (modernized) light USRA 2-8-2 #800 (other prototype road numbers differed in details)
PSC/Boo Rim Texas & Pacific 4-8-2 #906 (light green boiler)
BLI GN S-2 4-8-4 #2579 (glacier green)
And 3 plastic ATSF diesels…
John
PS Are the bills paid? Kids get some help with college costs? Do you have some money set aside for a rainy day? Retirement?
Then not too many, right?
Actually Amtrak does use dual power locomotives on its upstate runs out of NYP I remember the conductor saying.
Yes, the LION does know this. Him has ridden on them.
But those do not include PA1s and F7s. Although the New Haven had some 9s that did that. Also got some GG1s that will be more at home in there.
ROAR
Personally, I have an N scale layout that runs 12 trains plus four transfer runs per “day.” I am heavy on hard operation and thus have 4 dedicated switchers. My trains over the mainline all run in consists of 2 locomotives. Right now I have 15 locomotives on the layout. Thus I have to “reuse” power out of staging on multiple trains per “day.” My magin number is 24 locomotives that I would like to have on the layout, thus eliminating the use of power more than once in a session. For me, anything above 25 would be “wasted,” although I am sure that I would simply switch out some power so all locomotives would get used. That is not a concern, however, as I do not buy lots of locomotives. At my current rate I would say I will be 10 years before I max out at 25. By that time some of my current locomotives will be 25+ years old and will probably be looking at retirement or at least rebilding, so any new locomotive funds would go to that.
Ron
My original idea was to have one of each wheel-arrangement of standard-gauge steam locomotives that ran on my prototype railroad (Rio Grande) and leave it at that. Well, you can’t, plain and simple. After obtaining most of the types over the years (I started in the 1960’s), I found that I liked multiples of certain types, especially articulateds. And my setting was WWII and the immediate post-war years, so I found that Rio Grande had “borrowed” power from other roads. So I bought models of the other locomotives. And not just one. Rio Grande borrowed Missabe Yellowstones during the War. Is three on the roster too many? Well, not when you mix them up with a whole bunch of Challengers and 2-8-8-2’s. And what about connecting roads? Southern Pacific, Western Pacific, Colorado and Southern? Can’t leave them out. Even that Old Devil Santa Fe. But–and this is the secret–we’re talking a major mountain railroad with heavy traffic, and you’re not really going to see the same locomotives at the same place day in and day out, and none of my locomotives are “shelf queens.” I’ve got a large roster, but it’s a RUNNING roster, and I make sure it stays that way.
Tom
Yes, one can have too many locomotives. Almost all modelers do. It is much easier and often more satisfying to buy a locomotive than to put down track, wire it up, build scenery etc.
I’m told it is also possible to have too many freight cars, books, magazines, and unbuilt structure kits, but this is something for the advanced modeler.
For some, it’s easier to buy a new locomotive than to repair one with problems that can’t be fixed under warranty. Those people tend to accumulate hangar queens (roundhouse/diesel shop queens?) IMHO, anyone who has one such that hasn’t been consigned to display behind a chain link fence has one locomotive too many.
If, by my comments, you assume that I repair and return to service, you got it in one.
My office is stacked with literal piles of books, model railroad, non-fiction (including learned tomes on the prototype) and science fiction. My wife thinks I have too many. If I can’t find the reference to some elusive fact I recall from long ago, I would say that I have too few.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with interruptions)
Page 2!!
This is a good question.
My rule of thumb is all many as you want, until the following happens:
1. You open up a box in storage, and realize you forgot ALL about these…
2. You’re in financial trouble
3. You TOO many engines that are NOT what you chose as you’re roadname. (excludes freelancers)
Every season, I give myself a test. I cout up how many locos I have, then a week later, I try to write down every engine I own. If I forget more than 5 engines, I know I have too much 
Currently, I have a 4X8 layout. I plan to model the Santa Fe/PRR in the future, so Im buying mostly ATSF and PRR engines. I have around 20-25 engines…I havent bought one in over a year! Im trying right now to buy layout building materials and passenger cars.
Hope this helps
Charles
I’ve got 23, including a couple of sound dummies.
My layout is intended to be dual-era, so ideally I’ll be using steam or diesel, but not both, although I may transition a bit.
There are 2 trolleys and 2 powered subway cars in the total, too. I’ve got a GG-1 but no catenary. You know. I just had to have one.
This is enough engines for my layout. I like to run them all now and then. I think I’ve got them all out there right now, either in staging, the roundhouse or out working. I like 2-engine consists for my diesel fleet, with at least one sporting a sound decoder.
I don’t know why non-dcc loco’s should be relegated to the shelf…
But to answer your question as simply as possible.
owned - hundreds (more than 4 possibly up to 8) of all control ilks like CTC-16, DCC, RailCommand, DC and AC.
run - as many as possible given that I can only run them on the modular, club, friends, or the museum layouts.
Been there, several times over.
The model railroader’s self administered cognitive impairment test. [:-^]
CG
To more fully answer the questions posed by the OP:
None of my locos are shelf queens, in fact all are specificly of proper era and roadnames for my narrow and carefully planned protolance operation set in 1954.
I have many duplicates of the same types to create that realistic big loco fleet feel of a Class I railroad.
I don’t have any interest in collecting locos that don’t fit the theme of my layout.
Everything is lettered ATLANTIC CENTRAL or for the three interchange roads, B&O, C&O and WESTERN MARYLAND.
And operations here are still DC, and I don’t like onboard sound, so nothing has been “retired” for those reasons…
Sheldon
The next locomotive i am getting is two Scale Trains NS SD40-2’s and thinking about Walthers new GE locomotives.
Too many locomotives? That depends if you are asking me or my wife. I don’t know how many locomotives I have because they are all over the place. Non-DCC locomotives are slowly being converted to DCC.
What will be on the layout will depend on the mood of the day. I have enough locomotives to go all Rock Island or Nickel Plate or Burlington Northern or Union Pacific, etc.
I wouldn’t mind having a couple of F units or a geep and a caboose for many different railroads. A friend likes certain locomotives and then laments that the Burlington never had any, so he can’t justify getting one. I tell him to buy the demo scheme if it is available.
If it is no longer fun, you have too many locomotives.
Ken Vandevoort
It depends on your age.
I might have future shelf queens. I collected the Kato SP Morning Daylight, CBQ California Zephyr, PRR Broadway Limited, UP City of Los Angeles, ATSF Super Chief, and El Capitan.
Some are finished with their own locomotives and lease motive power. To display them from beginning to end.
I’m hoping to get an GN Empire Builder, NYC 20th Century Limited, and etc.
I have about 60 locomotives that are DCC. Maybe another 20 that are DC only. And 10? that are new in the box and never have been run. Every locomotive is powered. The only dummy on my layout is me.
My problem is I don’t have enough storage for all of them.