I’ve been constructing my layout for about 20 years. I have been a lone wolf railroader for most of that time (my brother-in-law has joined me over the last few years). Over that time I have always looked to build my engine roster. And I have succeeded. Suddenly, I’ve come to realize I have way to many engines! Close to 40! Yikes! My layout is modest in size, 16’ X 16’ (u shaped). A classification yard in the middle is a focal point with an engine facility at each end. Plus a 8 track hidden staging yard underneath (via a helix). So I can have a decent amount of engines on the layout, but man, I just realized I have too many. So no more looking over ads for, and announcements for, new locomotive introductions. I guess the good news is I’ll have more budget for other things. My point is it’s a bit disappointing that I won’t be buying any additional locomotives, and I’m wondering how you all feel about this? Have you had a similar moment? Should I just “get over it” and be happy I’ll be saving money? How did you all know when enough was enough?
I was never informed that there was a limit to the number of locomotives one may own.
Get the number of locos and cars you need. I’d say you’re good with 40, but who am I to judge? I have a handful and only get them on my birthday. Although I might not this year to get other things–a large structure and oil truck.
I’m getting to this point myself. If things go well, I will probably get another 22 years out of my carcass. But if I keep acquiring locomotives and rolling stock, it’ll take a dumpster or some determined modelers to get the stuff I’ve acquired away from the home when I TX. Fortunately, I seem to have naturally begun to slow. I intend to acquire only one more locomotive, the newly announced H1a/b from Rapido and I have all the others I find appealing. Thank the Good Lord, too, because it has been getting spendy with the newer releases.
I don’t keep all my stuff out in the open. About 80% of it is stored in boxes. I play with a consist or two, maybe for a couple of months, then put them away carefully, leaving notes in the boxes about what doesn’t work, if I’ve lubed them, etc, and take out new items to enjoy them…a rotation that typically takes about 12-24 months, depending. If I keep buying, there’ll come a time when I receive an item, play with it to make sure it works, put it away, and its next appointment will be with the dumpster or someone who would like it…but not with me…ever. That doesn’t make much sense. So, I have to consider slowing continuously from now on.
After I read your post, I took a look at my locomotive roster. At one time, I had 92 locomotives and that is far fewer than a lot of guys have on this forum. Over the past few years, I have sold 50, leaving me with 42. I just sold another 6 back in December, so now I have 36. For the most part, I sold locomotives that did not fit my era or layout plan.
40 locomotives is not so bad, but it is probably best that you decided to stop buying. You did the right thing. When you start asking yourself if you have too many, you have too many.
Rich
No such thing as too many locos – unless you can’t physically store them.
The way I see it, I can always upgrade to better locos. I can also model different eras for the same location. I can triple the number of engines I “need” by modeling steam, transition, and 2nd generation eras. I will never stop looking for new engines.
When I first got into MRRing in 2004, I fully expected to only purchase a small roster of locomotives. 18 years later I am currently up to over 60 - gulp! While I’m quite fond of steamers, I actually have 3x as many early diesels than steam locomotives.
Some are standard fare for my prototype (NYC) - i.e. Hudsons, Mohawks, and Niagaras. Some are standard fare for any railroad - e.g. 0-8-0s, RS-3s, and F3s. Some are very unique to the NYC and are only available in brass - e.g. H-10a Mike, NE-2 Mallet, DES-3 boxcab. Some were purchased undecorated with the idea of painting & detail hard-to-obtain models not currently available in brass or plastic - e.g. EMD FTA-B & F2 w/cat whisker striping, FM 10-44 w/lightning stripes. A few were just one-of-a kind models that I wanted to have - e.g. Aerotrain, Shake Heights & Cleveland PCC streetcars.
Is it too many locomotives? Yep. And I’ll never have a large enough layout to run them all; let alone house them all. I can see selling off at least 30% of what I currently have - particularly the “project” locomotives I reasonably will never get around to painting/detailing. I will say that the number of locomotives that I regret purchasing over the last 18 years can counted on just one hand.
I have a couple of locomotives that I would still like to pick up but will most likely never obtain because of availability and/or price - e.g. L-2a Mohawk, FM H20-44. The L-2a would definitely require me selling off some “overage” to both fund it and make room for it. The H20-44 would be another “project”, as the Alco Models drive train is not very good on those. Not a high priority since I have more than enough, as I have already noted.
Tom
I was reminded of a fella that was part of an start-up model railroad club that I was involved with from 2006-2008. He didn’t have a layout but would pick up locomotives at train shows by the armful. Rob claimed at one point of having over 400 locomotives [:O] - all of which he had hidden from his wife. THAT to me is TOO many locomotives.
Tom
Oh boy, not sure if I want count what I have.
So many projects! So many locos!
Mike
You don’t have a wife, do you?
Been getting rid of stuff for years, long before I moved to a smaller layout and space. First off I was real critical of running quality of each engine and got rid of the ones that didn’t meet my standards, next got rid of ones that didn’t fit my era, this was when I was DC, since going DCC I have gotten rid of a lot that were not easy to convert as I have aquired others, mainly DCC and sound.
Certainly I do, It’s called negotiation. I don’t count the number of shoes in her closet, and she doesn’t count the number of locomotives in my basement.
[(-D] She could care less about how many locos I have in the train room and I am not sure and don’t care how many Golden Retrievers roam the acreage on a daily basis. Works for me.
It sounds like I need to buy a lot more locos.
With me it’s a bit different. I’ve been modeling HO since 1951 and never had the space to build a large layout.
I’ve been working on my fourth layout since 1988, my largest at 10’ x 14’. Designed before DCC and built for single train operation.
In about 2008 I discovered how to go about restoring clunkers and I quite enjoy restoring older locomotives.
I’m a Southern Pacific guy through and through and the Cab Forwards are my favorite. I started out with a new Rivarossi Cab Forward from AHM back in the early 90s. In 2008 I bought a clunker Cab Forward and after restoring it to better than new I was hooked. I now have 18 Cab Forwards, four Cab Forwards kitbashed into AC-9s, 5 Y6Bs, 5 GS4s, 5 Shays, 2 0-6-0s plus about 30 diesels of the transition era.
Kitbashing has become my thing, now with around 70 locomotives and a layout that I’m limited to two trains. I swap my many locomotives around and I’m having a blast model railroading.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
Turned 84 in July, aging is definitely not for wimps.
This cracked me up. It happened to be the very last comment when I read through the thread. I could almost hear the rim shot.
For forty years I had my two old DC locos, a steamer and an F7, and then inherited my dad’s old Mantua switcher (gave the old man’s 4-8-2 to my brother), and when I started back in to the hobby two years ago, I started buying on eBay - two FP7s, an RS-1, an RS-3, all DC. I got great deals on a DCC RS-3 and Consolidation – I probably won’t buy any more DCC engines. And finally, an acquaintance gave me five assorted locos, two of which ran. So that’s 14 all told, and I can hardly believe I have that many. But the scary part is… I keep looking. I think I have a locomotive problem. I’ve preordered the SP&S red top F7 that Bowser is building, and I keep hunting for a few other models. I imagine I could end up with as many as 20 locomotives, but my layout is small. If I’m still at it after I have 20 engines, it will be time for an intervention.
The short answer is, I fear, enough is never enough.
-Matt
Let’s see how it went for the six STRATTON AND GILLETTE layouts:
Layout #1, N Scale, in High School. I think I had nearly 20 locomotives. At this time most N scale locomotives were junk, and honestly I think the Kato PA-1 did most of the duties. It was one of the few locomotives that ran well and was reliable.
Layout #2, N Scale, Young Adult. This was the Dream House layout. I had over 200 Kato undecorated locomotives, about 100 of them received SGRR paint. All 200 would have had an operational place on the layout.
Layout #3, N Scale, Still a Young Adult. This was a very small layout, but I still had all the painted equipment from layout #2, so at this point I had way too many locomotives.
Layout #4, HO scale, Still a Young Adult. I ran this switching layout for more than ten years with just four locomotives. I could only have one on the layout at a time, so maybe I had too many.
Layout #5, HO scale, in my 40s. This layout never had enough locomotives. I had ideas what I wanted, but I just was not buying.
Layout #6, HO scale, not built yet, in my 50s. I have about 30 plastic diesels and 20 brass steamers for this layout already purchased. I think that might be too many.
-Kevin
Well, how many locos is too many? All depends on a lot of factors.
At about 140 powered units, some might say I have a lot, or more than I need, yet I know modelers with considerably more than me.
As soon as I get the lights and ceiling up, I’m starting on a 1500 sq ft layout with a 550’ double track mainline and staging for 30 plus mainline trains.
Those trains will mostly be pretty long - 40 to 50 freight cars on average, 8-14 passenger cars on average.
The average freight train will be pulled by 4 powered diesels or two steam locos.
30 trains x 3 locomotives = 90 locomotives
Then part of the operating scheme calls for power changes, the yard needs switchers, the belt line needs locos for local switching.
All of a sudden 140 locos only leaves a few “spares”.
I don’t have any shelf queens, or stuff outside my era or theme, or letter for roads not represented on the layout. I don’t have a BigBoy just because they are famous and “cool”.
I do have a few pieces that represent a “historical” presence on the layout, that consists of two locomotives.
I only a few locos on my “would like to have” list, and none on my “need to run the layout” list. So I’m a pretty lucky guy in that department.
To further illustrate the impact of of my choices, of the 140 powered “units”
24 are diesel B units
11 are self propelled passenger equipment
12 are yard switchers
So I don’t think of it as 140 “locomotives”. Modeling the transition era I think of a ABBA set of F7’s as “one locomotive”, same goes for 3 or 4 GP’s at the head of a mainline freight, or an E8 A&B on the head end of a passenger train.
My train lengths and grades require this much power per train, and again staging for 30 trains.
My wife does not count trains, tools (I do make a living with those), tractor ac
I have probably 20+ engines. Probably for my layout that is getting close to be too many. (A few of them I was given and I am expecting quite a few more when I get my uncle’s collection at some point as I’m the only one in the family that model railroads.) But even with that, I purchased the start of yet another one earlier this evening. Will become a bicentennial unit as I model the 1970s.
As said, it all depends on big your layout is and how often you rotate them. However, I do enjoy building them and finding uses for them even though I have as many as I do.
I find the Rivarossi GG1 to be an extremely smooth runner and started buying them for peanuts on ebay. All are repainted and decaled. All with different numbers. My wife asked how many more I intended to buy when I got to 26. I told her no more then 109 more since the PRR only had 135. She just walked away.