I was very young when I got the start of it in a set, probably 1962. I have no photo’s of it that I can post, but after the last of it had been bought way back then, I had aquired enough to fill a 5’ x 10’ sheet of plywood. I know this because it was just a few years ago when I decided to return to the hobby, I dug it out and set it up. After obtaining new rubber bands from my kids Orthodontist, it still ran quite well.
Now I have my HO stuff.
I also picked this up for twenty bucks at a flea market.
I have a brass “S scale” caboose that a friend bought for me at a flea market for 25 cents thinking it would fit my HO layout.
We have enough Thomas The Tank Engine stuff to fill the same 5’ x 10’ sheet of plywood with stuff left over.
I also have souvenirs from 1 to 1 scale displayed around the house, that we often acquire over the years.
So I am a light weight in the hobby and have managed to collect the above bits and pieces. I am wondering how much stuff in different scales do some of you have?
According to my family, too much. I have 4 storage boxes (biggies, too) full of postwar Lionel, 1 full of HO, some old wooden Thomas trains (unused since I was a young boy), and an N scale train set, as at one point I was going to build an N layout. And yet I always find ways to get more.
I started in HO, switched to O, and finally S as my primary scale. But I kept all my stuff and occaisionally dabble in them all.
In HO I have 15+ locomotives - 5 are still kits. At least 50 rolling stock of which half are kits. Couple of dozen structures, mostly still kits.
In S I have 14 locomotives - 6 are kits. About 200 pieces of rolling stock about 1/3 are kits. Couple of dozen structure kits or more. I also have some On30 stuff to convert to S.
In O 2 rail I have 4 locomotives - 2 are kits. About 50 pieces of rolling stock mostly kits. 20 or so structures most are kits.
I also have 3 rail O gauge - enough for 4 trains.
I have my son’s N scale - not sure what I’ve got there.
Some Sn2 mostly kits.
A G set someone gave me years ago.
I pick up things in multiple scales that interest me, so the collection continues to grow.
Eventually, I plan to have a small layout in each scale, but collecting is a part of the hobby I enjoy.
I have two G Scale locomotives battery powered train sets. Three HO Scale train sets, and three N Scale train sets.
I have a lot more N Scale supplies to model a good portion of Union Pacific/BNSF in 2007. I also model different eras and railroads like CR, NYC, ATSF, PC, SP, CSX, NS and BN.
Whole lot more if I could. So much for one person to handle.
My late mother twice got outrageously good deals on Lionel 0-27 train sets at rummage sales: locomotives, cars, track, and transformer. No original boxes unfortunately - but one was $15 and the other was $1 (and that was the one with the die cast steam locomotive!). She also found a Marx 0-27 train set at a rummage sale. I got some additional 0-27 track (switches and a crossing) and from time to time have set those trains up at Christmas.
To give some tracklaying clinics and write some Frugal Modeler columns for the Waybill I bought some N track and a few freight cars years ago and then was given a very nice N scale hopper “author’s car” for giving a clinic at the N Scale Enthusiasts Convention here in Milwaukee a few years ago.
When I was a boy the local Gimbels had a sale on Hornby Doublo (i.e., OO scale on HO track) train sets with engine two cars and track for $2.98. I still have the set.
I also found a deal on various genuine O scale (not tinplate) detail parts years ago that are still sitting in the box. I also bought an AHM grab bag of four O scale bobber cabooses decades ago with the goal of kitbashing a normal two truck caboose out of them. Never got around to it so they remain in their boxes.
For display purposes I bought a Corgi PCC streetcar which I believe is 1:50 proportion. That same display has a very nicely done O scale Northern Pacific wood caboose that someone assembled and painted. I paid $10 at a Burlington Route Historical Society convention for that – held in Mendota IL at the Civic Center where the prototype of that very caboose was on display on the grounds, donated by the BN.
I had an S American Flyer caboose that mysteriously was part of another grab bag of model train stuff but I got rid of it.
I also have an old AHM “MiniTrains” trainset in HOn2 1/2 gauge. It is HO scale so it really does not count as a “foreign”
HO all the way for me, except for a couple of N scale mechanisms that are donors for some HO loco shells that I am kitbashing into HOn30 locos for Boothbay RR Village
Much as I would love to have stuff in other scales, I just can’t afford it. I can barely keep up with the nice stuff coming out in HO scale with my limited budget.
I’ve got a few S-scale signals and other odd items. My sister found them at a yard sale.
In the last couple of years, people have been giving me trains. Like me, they don’t want to throw anything this cool away, but they can’t really use them. I ended up with a box of O-scale accessories, and a couple of months later a couple who know my wife from Florida stayed with us for a couple of days, and he models in O. So, he was happy to get these castoffs.
Another friend had a box of Lionel HOs. It’s my scale, but I knew this box of “toys” just didn’t fit. There was an atomic waste car, a helicopter car that would actually launch the helicopter, and a giraffe car with a giraffe that would duck its head to go under obstructions. I brought it to a show and sold it to a dealer, who said he actually wanted it for his personal collection. I gave the money to my friend and felt good that I’d made a couple of people happy that day.
All my RR stuf is HO. I also build 1/25-1/24 model trucks, equipment, and have a truck shop diorama. Any other items not of those scales were pieces given to me.
I am primarily modelling in HO and HOn30 however I do have a couple of boxes of Marx O scale stuff that I inherited from my brothers. I set the Marx stuff up several years ago and it ran fine but it was too toy-like for my tastes so back into the boxes it went. My wife wants me to get rid of it but Marx stuff commands such little money that I would rather keep it, even if it is just for the nostalgia factor.
I also have one N scale transport truck which I acquired by virtue of not paying close enough attention to the details on an eBay listing.[D)] I will try to incorporate into a background scene.
Just HO here although as a kid I had Lionel 027 with my Dad and enough to fill 2/3s of the basement. Then Cars and Girls got in the way for a few years. Then I started to dabble in HO but not operating for awhile and then head on into it.
The only N scale car I had was one given to me because they knew I liked Western Pacific railroad goods and stuff. But I sent it on to Ulrich a number of years ago, when he was playing in “N”.
I did buy the Grandson a Bachmann, Thomas the Train (HO) set for Christmas this year, but thats it, and I don’t plan to buy much more other than maybe signals etc. I sure don’t need any more rolling stock.
Over the years I managed to acquire a lot of assorted items in a lot of scales, but now I’m trying to cut down and restrict myself to my primary interest, which is HO scale. Somewhere along the line I got some G scale equipment, which I sold at Timonium. A friend is leaving HO and going into Proto 48, and that has given me the opportunity to swap my last remaining 1/4" scale standard gauge items for some of his HO. Another friend is in N, and he now has all of my old N scale equipment. When my dad passed away about 15 years ago, I got all of the old Lionel and Marx equipment that we had when I was a kid. I’ve kept most of it for sentimental reasons, but gave several items to my nephews who wanted keepsakes to remind them of their grandpa. I still have a couple old 1/4" scale narrow gauge items that I’d like to put on display some day, as well as a 1/4" standard gauge passenger car that I happen to like. Otherwise, I’ve managed to winnow the collection down to just about all HO.
