Once in a while you have to sit back and ask how much is enough?
I remember as a child, one trainset was the world. Now a few extra cars, a second locomotive and perhaps a switch or two was great.
Now I am not content with a empire that stretches for 300 miles on my computer when I drive a train with the dynos howling and flanges squealing around mountain grades.
I have tried to keep up with the hobby’s limited runs and purchased what I think to be the best with the money that is used in the hobby. I might count maybe 20 locomotives and 100+ cars of all kinds at one point in time within the last 10 years or so.
I have since cut that fleet down to about 5 locomotives with orders for 5 more that will probably take me into 2006 before I make any more serious purchases in the motive power dept. If I do buy any more engines… it would be to replace aging power that is no longer working or capable of pulling the heavy trains I like to run.
What about the rolling stock? I will always buy more but I can see on paper roughly 20 peices I will be acquiring in the next 12 months with the holidays included. The holidays are the best time of the year for buying trains and a happy time. That will not change.
What then will the LHS do when I finish my purchases at christmas having said enough is enough until next year?
I wonder in the time of extrodinary gas prices, energy costs, ebay’s pricing points approaching and in some cases exceeding retail as well as various stresses within the hobby that will always be worked out one way or another.
I counted 5 engines and about 40 cars total. Call it 3 trainsets and some buildings. I have seen full fledged operation on 4x8 layouts as well as wonderful technology and skill that is abounding in it’s overflowing riches in the internet.
I think I have quite enough trains to get me thru the next year at least.
What about those of you who have rooms full of trains
When it become too much and I’m at that point. My small layout is maxed out and no room for further annexation. Future addition will only be one BLI dome obs. Had an opportunity to buy at my LHS
a pair of Kato F40 PHs for $160.00 out the door but there’s nothing wrong with my Walthers $ 74.00
first run pair.
Due to space restraints I’m in control and beyond the point of temptation.
There is never enough, well at least until my ashes are scattered and my wife puts my empire on E-Bay. When I say never, I mean that in a positive way in two perspectives. First tommorow will *** with more birds at the feeder preparing either for a long trip south or the harsher elements of a Great Lakes winter. So too the model railroad is looking to a new day and year dealing with yesterdays challenges and tommorows needs. Second each day refines my ideas of the concept and point in time for my empire, which means that it will require new items to fit that “mission”. The Other side of this coin is that the groaning bench of kits and locos needs to be arranged, sorted by priopity and culled of those items that do not fit that mission. I understand that these parameters are vulnerable to changes of whim and condition. The efforts of Tony Koester have produced several enviable layouts that underwent change when the time machine rolled back the clock from diesel to transition steam, and the rolling stock changes that involved. This was followed by a lotal shift from freelanced a Appilachian theme to a prototype Nickle Plate midwestern layout. The theme and the mission changed completely. So It will never be enough?
It is not so much of a question of when enough is enough, as it is where are we today, what does that mean in terms of acquireing and discarding, but also where do we want to be tommorow. What does that do to what we have and what do we “need”. Those pesky researchings that unearth more understanding of “our era”, and manufacturers bringing more and/or much better must haves to market.
Sieze the day and value tommorow!
Will … turning philisophical again!
At 50 engines and 800+ cars (I need another 100 cars to make the layout work) any new engines will probably be sound units.
With a layout of 1900sq ft (25 x 75) and over 2700 ft of track it takes a lot of equipment to fill it up.
My group is into heavy OPs and as I continue development on the system I doubt if I will need any more engines. As I add new ones older units will be removed and sold.
The answer lies in the space available. No one would have seven cars with a single car garage and no off street parking (would they?). A full basement and no kids any more is very temptimg to fill. But at some point even that will say, “no mas!”. So I see it as a function of space available plus its cheaper than buying a new car.
It’s a question that has no answer outside the context of oneself. I don’t really see any ‘trend’ changing here. It’s like saying “these kids these days, no respect!” … Every generation has said the same thing for 1,000 years.
People build pikes to fill the space they have - same now as when I first entered the hobby in the late 70s. There are locos ranging from how-cheap-can-they-make-it-and-it-still-runs up to ‘you must be kidding’. People buy what they can afford. I see layouts ranging from plywood central to individually hand-painted blades of grass, people spend the time they can manage to set aside. That’s all there is to it, there’s no “enough,” there’s no “not enough.” There are modelers and their choices and resources, and that’s about all you can say about it.
To be honest I have more then enough locomotives and rolling stock. I’m spending more on scenery details and buildings lately but if I see something that stands out and really gets my attention I usually buy it.
I got a sticker many years ago which goes like this.
“My wife say’s she will leave me if I buy another train. Gee I’ll miss her”
Well I have continued to buy trains and still she has not left, in fact she has become more understanding as the years have passed (Yes Yes she has given up).
It’s difficult, you think, now it’s enough and then a beautiful loco one that you have dreamed about or a model not available before appears in the shops and off you go and buy it. Anyway the XY formular above is very good.
William
I have maxed out at 6 locos (2 were gifts). Quite apart from my strong desire to cap the spending, and to find contentment with what I have (I have a good track record over the years), my current layout is getting crowded. My big concern, and project for this winter, is to solve the puzzle I created for myself by not designing a yard and at least one passing track in the first place.
My wife was about to tell me how much is enough as she was backing out of the driveway. I said “hold that thought honey, there’s a loco closing on ebay.” When I came back out she was gone so I guess I’ll never be sure how much is enough.
As (some of) the replies state,enough is never enough, and to comment on this topic you will find responses to defend that attitude with “we can buy as much stuff as we want and you shouldn’t comment on our actions” I’m sure many people with rooms full of “stuff” will not be heard from, good topic though.
I have come to the realization that I now have more locomotives, freight cars, and passenger cars than I can sucessfully manage by my self. They way the model railroad hobby is going in wyoming I feel I am destined to soon be forced into “Lone Wolf” modeling. Currrently there are a couple of friends whom I share the hobby with. However both are in their 70s and I serously doubt they will still be modeling in 30 years time. Even if I draft my best friend and his wife to help me with just my stuff. I still have more than eneugh to keep us busy.
So lately I have started on a plan of repainting equipment that can be made to fit my finally settled on era and prototype of GN 1969. And selling off what doesn’t fit. However I am having separation Anxiety at the thought. And for some strange reason I have this urge to buy up all another friends modern motive power now that he has settled on MILW 1985. Im I messed up or what? I would probably sell all my large steamers over 2-8-0 size (Except for my Old Bachmann UP 4-8-4. That is the first steam loco I ever purchased. It has sentimental value) as I do have a steam powered tourist line in my MR plans and small steam locos fit its need perfectly.
With prices going the way they have been. I have been doubting my ability to continue affording the hobby. Given my grand ambitions. and the fact that so far that I have only been able to partially complete a 4X6 layout that was scrapped and replaced with one that was purchased assembled and that one is now in storage, makes me feel sort of like an abject failure and a fraud. I rest a little easier though, in the knowledge that if I bought no more model trian stuff after today. I do have eneugh stuff stockpiled that I can execute a very nice “Spare Bedroom” sized train layout. Complete with DCC control and working block signals. But even that is along way off from modeling two freelance divisions of the GN, and building my own copy of the V&O.
Well, given that my layout is partially completed and I can’t fit all my cars and locomotives that I have now on it, and I have plans to buy MORE cars and locomotives… HELP!!!
12 locomotives, about 75 cars, and 3 locomotives and a dozen more cars planned…
I figure I’ll have to shuttle rolling stock between the layout and the boxes underneath. I can’t build a bigger layout, but I CAN get more boxes!
i just got back into trains a couple months ago, I had about a 8 locos and maybe 25 to 30 peices of rolling stock. I spent the last two months selling my coin collection to finance model railroading, now I m over 20 on locomotives and 50 to 60 boxcars and such. I think I have enough for now but plan to start the layout within a week or so. That could take me in a nother direction. I have lots of rolling stock but it’s not like I want it. I want to have 6 or more of most of each one( it just looks more realistic) so, I’m looking at fixing my little situation here. It comes down to one thing, MORE. Joey
What is enough anyway? I have concluded that you need to identofy your era and location. That will inform your choice of models. How much space do you have? I don’t have enough, but I am building my railroad and it is fun. Enough is what I have now. Maybe even too much. But somebody will come out with something new, and if it fits, I’ll try it.
Don’t let collecting get in the way of model railroading. Stick to a budget and a plan of development for your model railroad, so that what you get will really fit, and you can have fun with it.
With one engine, a dozen cars, and a caboose you have enough to run a train and do some switching. I am sure there is someone who stopped there, but not me. Like others, I have enough now that I could keep going for years if I didn’t buy another thing. But of course that won’t happen - I have to buy ahead for that dream layout of 3000+ square feet. [:D]
What has happened now that I have more rolling stock and engines than I can fit on my present layout is that I have become more selective. I doubt that I’ll ever stop buying because the collecting is a part of the hobby that I enjoy.
Enjoy
Paul
With the layout I have planned, after I go over six locos I’ll have to rotate them in. Not that this would be horrible or anything, just … unnecessary.
Rolling stock though… I’m going to have to get a lot of that in the future.