Modelrailroader Are Hoarders?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

A couple weeks ago, my sister got married. My parents had some relatives visit who were from out of town and they stayed for a few hours. They saw my bedroom where I have shelf that has some of rolling stock sitting on it for when I get around adding loads and/or try my hand at weathering.

Anyway, my aunt who claims to know everything from the TV shows she watches said that I was a hoarder and that I needed some serious help. Now, I have taken a couple of psychology courses and have met some people that hoard, but I am not a hoarder.

I am at the collecting of rolling stock and locomotive stage of the hobby. I have also done some modeling, but have never really built a complete layout.

Beside hoarders don’t typically get rid of things. I have thinned my fleet somewhat and have sold some rolling stock that I don’t really want anymore.

What do you all think? Have you thought of similar things?

2

If you can get into the room without running an obstacle course, you’re hardly a hoarder.

If your aunt gets all her info from TV, she’s hardly an expert.

Andre

3

I would have said, You’re right I’m a hoarder. So while I consider getting help, why don’t you leave so I can have more room for my stuff.

4

When I look around at the stuff I have accumulated, other than model trains and INCLUDING model trains, I would say I border on hoarding.

The fine line between “collector” and “hoarder” is very thin, I think.

I have saved stuff that MIGHT have a use on a layout, for scratch building or kit-bashing and what-not BESIDES actual trains and rollling stock.

I have more than a dozen engines when I can realistically only run 2 on my layout and store two on spur tracks.

I have so many RR cars, I could cover all the track of my small 3.5 foot x 5.1 foot HO scale layout and STILL have RR cars left over.

I have duplictes of cars because my cheat sheet is never always current, and I could have sworn I didn’t have that particular model.

I have kits that I don’t have room for built or unbuilt, on the layout or off.

I have 4 tool boxes- the kind with compartments- filled with paints, people, scraps, parts, and what-nots that I know what to do with and that I don’t know what to do with of model RR “stuff”.

I have about 25 plastic shoe boxes with scenery stuff and RR cars of differing liveries, different eras {so I don’t get bored stuck in one era}

I have stacks of RR things on the verge of toppling, cars and kits and what-nots.

I have boxes and boxes of MRR and TRAINS mags and other assorted mags that I can’t bear to part with.

I can’t even find the train room now as it is also the “catch-all” or “junk room” where we also store what we don’t know what to do with that is NOT RR stuff.

The LR still has the Under the xmas tree layout still up on the table top as there is no place to put it or the new locos or Rolling stock from xmas gifts last christmas.

SO, yeah, I guess I could be considered a hoarder.

sigh

[8-|]

5

Hopefully she was kidding. I’m guessing it’s more of an organization problem than anything else. Since you live at home with your parents , I’m guessing most of the things you own are in one room. You should ask her if everything she owns will fit in her bedroom.

Now that you mention it though, model railroaders ARE hoarders![:P]

6

A true model railroad hoarder buys lots of locos and cars (usually expensive ones) and never runs them. He also likes to keep his stash a secret and worries about his stuff getting stolen.

7

Based on the general conditions of some items I have run into at train shows stuffed one on top the other in a never ending stackage of boxes on, next to and under tables, some lined with cobwebs and mouse droppings I’m pretty sure there is no shortage of pack rats out there, and they are mostly at shows apparently …[:-^]

8

LOL this is funny. I have seen those hoarder shows. Unless your house is filled to the ceiling, with boxes of MRR equipment. You are hardly a hoarder. Tell you aunt to chill out.

I do keep all of my rolling stock and loco boxes, but most of them are in the garage.

9

Remember the TV is referred to as the “idiot box”, now its it’s idiots in Hi Def!

LOL

10

I have a brother who is a hoarder. He saves everything including the MacDonald’s happy meal toys in their packaging.

If you can walk through your bedroom, you are not a hoarder.

If all your stuff is in your bedroom, you are not a hoarder.

If you have room between your stuff and the ceiling, you are not a hoarder.

If you don’t have 2 storage units, you are not a hoarder.

If you throw away advertising circulars, you are not a hoarder.

Now you may be a pack rat. That is you save stuff to use, you accumulate stuff for the eventual big layout, you are collector (of certain things like model trains, but not everything), etc. I’m a packrat, I have stuff in my basement for all scales except Z. But I can get to it all and it’s not in danger of falling over and killing me. I also give away stuff that I don’t need and I reduce my possessions when they exceed my ability to keep them comfortably in my home.

I also would be very leery of experts who get all their “medical knowledge” from TV shows, the internet, or magazines.

Enjoy

Paul

11

Hi!

As my 40 something year old daughter asked me a few years ago (after being with her twin brother and his wife)… “Daddy, are you a packrat?” I laughed and said I save stuff that I will or think I will need, but certainly no junk…

Anyway, anyone who has been an MR for any length of time has a closet (or three in my case) filled with MR stuff, etc. It is the nature of the beast. Thankfully, the wife and I have a sizeable house, and we each have our own “playpens”.

I have downsized a lot over the last 7 years (thank you Ebay) as I’ve come to realize what I will use or just have to have, however. And now that may “last” (I’m 67) layout is almost ready for scenicking, I’ve got even more stuff to dispose of in my “annual Ebay Christmas sale”.

Quite frankly, anyone that says you need help in that area (other than your spouse of course) is way out of line, and “rude” is one of the nicer adjectives I would use.

My comment to you is to ignore - and ENJOY !!!

12

I believe there are degrees of hoarding. If you collect everything related to trains and never throw anything out you are a serious hoarder. If you are keeping things you might use on the layout someday but have yearly spring cleanings to get rid of things you haven’t used for 4-5 years you are a moderate hoarder. If you are always looking for things that might fit on the layout and bring home the things your wife will let you, you are a serious modeler and borderline hoarder. I guess I would place myself between borderline and moderate.

13

I would say this…if it was not for my hoards of MRR stuff I would go stark raving bonkers!!!

Thing is…i go to trainshows and such…buy up the pieces and bits and kits and all else…that way…when my job goes through these cut back hours stints I have something to work on!!!

Have at you…you minimalists!!!

14

Ditto !

Wayne

15

Ah! So much knowledge comes from watching TV???

The definition can mean several things. To store hidden stock, store in excess, and amass and deposit in secret. I think your aunt is incorrect!!! Your stock was not hidden and probably not in excess if you still need more motive power or anything on your list. You certainlly did not deposit them in secret since she saw them and we know about them. I always need at least one more locomotive per month and sometimes several in one month.

Go ahead and visit a LHS and get more items since she is not there to call you names.

16

Your aunt hasn’t met my mother! A hoarder if aver there was one.

17

I would hardly call a person who is USING things, or working toward a master plan for future construction, to be a `hoarder.’

OTOH, I would call a person who judges something from a quick (and totally uninformed) first contact seriously deficient in judgement. As for the diagnosis, I think it’s your aunt who needs help.

I sometimes run into something similar from my wife, the TV-taught medical expert. She will see the medical fad of the month, then tell me all the things I need to do to avoid (fill in condition of choice) When I talk to my doctor, he usually says that she’s so far out in left field that she can’t even see the home plate umpire…

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

18

Safe!!! Can still walk around the layout…

But still, I can’t even think about selling or giving models I don’t use… you never know what will happen in the future! :wink:

Matt

19

This persons doesn’t understand the obsession and its ramifications. A hoarder acquires several things, not just a substantial collection of one type of thing, and continues to do it compuslively until it becomes an impediment to healthy living. This is not to say that some of us don’t spend far too much for our own good, and that we also don’t happen to be hoarders…some of us clearly are exactly that. But let’s be sensible: if a person has a layout on which he can use any one of about 10-20 different consists that he likes, including brass, and including very nice Pullman cars, that hardly constitutes hoarding or its root compulsive disorder. Also, and this is salient: a hoarder can’t be persuaded to give up even a little bit of his/her collection…they become deeply anxious. Most of us are willing to part with some of our ‘stuff’ if we decide we need to spring for a new offering and have to finance it that way.

Crandell

20

Tell your Aunt to stop watching so much Reality TV and get a life. Or a hobby. Hmmm–maybe Model Railroading, LOL?

Tom