I restored a '60s muscle car, and as I started the project a fellow at work suggested he had done the same, and decided not to track what he spent, it being a hobby and all.
I adopted that advice for the car and also for my train hobby.
About a hundred square feet, and about $6000, spread over the years. All new track, but I started with older rolling stock which has been upgraded with metal wheelsets and Kadees. I run DCC.
I currently have an 11x15 two level HO layout built in 2008. Its predecessor was very similar - built in 1994. It was during that time I was “between wives” and dated a number of ladies. Sooner or later they came to the house and of course I showed them the layout - which fills a closed door spare bedroom. Most of them would “oooh and ahh” over it, and were suitably impressed.
But one gal - a well to do mortgage broker - had a different response. Her first and only words upon seeing it were “how much did all this cost?”. We lasted just over a month…
On the other hand, the last gal I dated was easily the most impressed and showed real interest in it. It didn’t hurt that she worked in her parents hobby shop when she was young, so she knew and appreciated the time, effort, and skills that went into it. In fact, she took home a couple dozen unpainted dairy cows and did a wonderful job on them.
Yes, I married her, and last week we celebrated 18 years together.
Back to the OP’s question…well, I think it can come off a bit rude to some, and frankly being a hobby, some of us just don’t want to put a dollar number on it.
Unless someone can save this thread, it is doomed out of the starting gate.
With all due respect to the OP, his own experience tells us little to nothing about the cost of a layout. He cannot recall the cost of lumber, he acquired track at bargain prices, he got his power pack as a gift, he scrounged the outdoors for scenery, and he “fixed up a lot of junk buildings” for structures. That is not how most of us have gone about building a layout.
Another problem with this thread is that most of us are not about to reveal the true cost of building a layout or quantifying our participation in the hobby. And besides that, so much depends upon the size of our layouts and periperal considerations such as space preparation.
Perhaps a better way to approach the topic is to consider the cost per square foot for the overall footprint or the cost per linear foot by following the track plan. I have no problem with the OP’s approach to layout building, but a total cost of $230 to build a layout, exclusive of locomotives and rolling stock, is perhaps at the very low end of a typical layout. I do find Mister Beasley’s statistics to be a more reliable indicator of the average cost of a layout.
Agree rich. Last time this was discussed the cost ranged from $50 to over$200 per square foot. And as I remember it got pretty heated. Having said that, MisterBeasley’s estimate pretty well fits my experience.
And just why would I want to know that? What’s the point? Why would anyone keep track of what a “hobby” cost?
It’s only worth whats it’s worth in terms of enjoyment to you, no one else.
No offense to the OP, but this is a question that might possibly be asked by a deranged MIL or FIL or a very judgemental family member.
Just like my refurb work on old garden tractors, they’re only worth so much, no matter how much you stick into them, so to get them running and looking great again? Who cares? Not me.
In 2007 I spent about $8000.00 the first year as I had nothing in HO scale. I have hardly spent a dime since as I get an endless stream of gift certificates for PWRS from people I do things for. I currently have a $1100.00 credit there that will go towards my two Royal Hudsons when they come.
I don’t know how many square feet my layout is, however its outside edge footprint is about 15’ x 24’.
I grew up in an age, where only the braggarts talked about how much they spent or earned. Johnny Unitas, quarterback of the Greatest Football Game Ever Played, still worked at Bethelehem Steel in the off season.
Nor do I want to know how much I spend on model railroading or any of my other hobbies.
I was an avid scuba diver for 20 years and have been to the Carribean 5 times and dove from Calfornia to NJ shipwrecks to the Florida Keys and Florida caves. I have friends the have been to the Great Barrier reef and the Red Sea. One dove the Andrea Doria.
I have another set of friends that were big game hunters. Some were caught up in the African mystique. They do reget the money they spent. Not only is the initial cost huge, they felt an obligation to the animal to have it mounted. When they needed to downside, nobody wants stuffed animals.
I also went to Zimbabwee. I believe if every American went to Africa, and saw how people live and how they are ruled, it would dramatically change how we looked at our own country today.
Nearly all the money I spent on all my hobbies was worth it at the time. Had I hoarded my money like Ebenezer Scrooge, I would have had more money today, but far less memories.
I believe Harrison is a lot younger than my 67 years. My advice to you is that you don’t have to have the best and certainly shouldn’t rack up a credit card loan on things you can’t afford. If Scale Trains rivet counter rolling stock doesn’t fit your budget, you can make do with Athearn BB and maybe some detail upgrades.
I don’t want to know how much I have invested in my layout, that would be scary. Just my every day tinkering around runs close to $200 per month. I’ve been model railroading in HO for 68 years, that’s a lot of months. Even allowing a reduction for cost of living it’s a lot of money spent on my hobby essentially for just small parts, no locomotives or rolling stock, structures, track or power packs are included in the $200.
I tried to calculate the cost of the construction of my layout less trains, just the material when I built it. My layout is approximately 120 square feet. It came out to about $500 in 1980 dollars for plywood, 2”x 4”s, bolts, screws, and glue for 14’ x 10’ layout base. I over build everything so my layout today, 31 years later its very strong and it has storage below it to hold almost all of my power tools. I don’t store my table saw, bench drill press of my bench grinder under my layout. So my layout doubles as tool storage, that slightly reduces the cost of my layout construction.
The benchwork was the cheap part. I had to buy the DCC system NCC 5 amp Power Pro-R. I bought a dozen Rapido coaches, maybe 50 freight cars and a few Locomotives. Track and turnouts were a couple of thousand along with all the bits and pieces. I doubt I spend $200.00 a year now. I am retired and don’t have much time for trains. I sure wish I was still healthy enough to dive, I did the Barrier Reef, priceless.
Last layout $0. I bought everything at deep discount and by the time I built it I was able to sell off the stuff I didn’t want for the cost of the whole layout, fiqure I will break even on the new layout too as I bought new in box Shinohara turnouts for $5 a pop and have more than I will need, I am sure. So when all said and done this hobby has cost me $0, wish I could say the same about my health insurance!!!
For men my age in South Florida, these seem to be the most popular hobbies: Power Boats, Sail Boats, Bass Boats, New Muscle Cars, Classic Muscle Cars, and College Girls.
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My trains have probably been a comparable cost to any of these other hobbies, but far fewer headaches.
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I once tried to total up just what was in my workbench, and I stopped at around $5,000.00.
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I once built a house for $130,000.00 to be a home for a layout, does that count?
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My current remodel is going to be $60,000.00 - $80,000.00 once it is all done, just so I can get a layout room. Does that count?
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Like bass fishing, model railroading costs as little or as much as you want to spend.
Just to back up a little bit, I understand and can appriciate what the young OP is asking.
I just think he might be asking the wrong crowd? age group? He would be best served, for comparison reasons, to ask this question among modelers his age group, and who’s budgets are dependent on resourcefulness.
I applaud what the OP has accomplished, and from what I’ve gathered from other threads, he’s gearing himself towards a college education. Excellent.
I abandoned the hobby once in the mid 60’s, as my mother remarried, and a whole different life style ensued, and trains were not to be part of it.
Later in life, with my own kids, say early to mid 80’s, my love of trains rekindled while my youg son and I put together his first train set.
Even then, I had a family and obligations, so my train purchases were from a change can I kept in my work truck.
Maybe after his education, and life’s work experiences, he’ll be in a better position to be able pursue is love and talant, for model railroading.
I have learned not to put a price tag on something I love to do. Sure… I have somewhat my own allowance on what I will spend in a certain given amount of time, but I don’t want to keep track of a running total. I don’t want to know. It takes the fun out of it.
My hobby before I got back into model railroading was salt water aquatics. I really loved that hobby. At one time I had five aquariums in my house. I had beautiful corals from all over the world in my master tank in the living room wall. I had a tank that had seahorses in it. I had a tank that had poisonous lion fish in it that I fed by hand. Not too smart… if you get pricked by one of the spears in thier dorsal fin, you better get to the hospital quick before your trachea tube closes up, not to mention the extreme excruciating pain.
I was known at the aquarium store by my house. Somehow my success at aquatics led me into a side business taking care of aquariums in a couple of senior living homes and several dentist offices.
After I started doing what I loved for money my aquariums started to slide at home. To make a long story short it took the love out of my hobby, tainted it so it was never the same.
I never kept track of the money I spent on my aquarium hobby. I learned from this experience. I think if you relate money in any way to something you love to do. It ruins it.
I bring home a bag from the hobby store or get a box in the mail from eBay. Right after I admire my new train stuff, the receipt finds the circular file. I don’t want to know.
I was given an Athearn GP30 as a gift in 1964 or 1965. I remotored it, but still use it.
I bought my first Athearn kit in 1970 for $1.79. The car still works.
Et cetera.
Summary answer for the OP: I spent small amounts of money, but at a car kit a month, after 50+ years the stuff adds up. Model railroad stuff rarely wears out.
If I haven’t told my wife how much I have spent on the hobby why the heck do you think I would tell you?!?[swg][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Seriously (more or less) I don’t have a layout. My layout is at the club (I even designed it!) and the club is paying for its construction so it isn’t going to cost me much at all (although I have been very generous with donations to the cause). How sweet is that?!?
To date, our plywood paradise (mainline is up and running) has cost us about $21.00/sq. ft. Cdn. Final costs once all the scenery is done might be around $30.00/sq. ft. depending how nuts we go with trees etc.
I have a general idea which comes out to about $70/sf, including locomotives and rolling stock. I decided to attempt to quantify the cost for insurance purposes after talking to my agent. He said a rider was not necessary but to take some pictures and put them in a safe place in case of a fire or something along those lines. I was clear that my layout could hardly be considered as “collectible”.
