It’s amazing but I was thinking of starting a thread with pretty much the same theme. My layout is much bigger. It fills a 24X48 basement and I discovered when I began operations, I have way more locos, freight cars, and passenger cars than my layout can handle. I too have been building my layout for about 20 years and during that time I kept acquiring locos, passenger cars, and freight car kits thinking I would have plenty of room for all of it. I’ve discovered that my classification and staging yards are maxed out, my passenger trains are too long, I have to fiddle freight cars on and off the layout at one of my staging yards and I still have about 25-30 unbuilt kits. I have more than enough locos, both steam and diesel, to handle all the trains I run during an operating session. I have two roundhouses with a total of 14 stalls and they are usually filled with steamers waiting their turn. I’ve had to use tracks intended for other purposes as parking places for idle diesels.
Despite realizing I already have too much equipment, if I find something interesting on ebay that I don’t have, I’ll buy it. I’m buying Sterlite plastic drawers for storing the excess equipment at one of my staging yards so I can swap it in and out as I see fit. At some point I’m going to realize enough is enough.
I have about 50 locomotives of which about 1/2 are transition era diesels. I also have 10 or so critters and a handful of steamers. There are only a couple of locomotives that I would consider selling. I don’t plan on buying more locomotives but if a suitable bargain comes along I would not be averse to spending the money.
Where I have been spending some money recently is on decoders. My intention is to convert almost all of my locomotives to Loksound V4s or V5s for the simple reason that I want all of my locomotives to operate the same way. Right now I have about 15 Loksound decoders waiting to be installed.
Some might consider removing a perfectly functional decoder to replace it with a different decoder to be a waste of money. Having a variety of decoders is okay if you can remember what all the different functions do for each decoder. In my case, my wee brain doesn’t do so well when it comes to remembering things like that. The result is that I am not likely to run a particular locomotive if I have to get out the manual to remember how to operate the decoder. To me, having a locomotive that will rarely if ever get run is where the waste of money is. I have a nice InterMountain F7B with QSI and dual speakers. It sounds and runs great, but I have to look up the start sequence every time I put it on my test track.
Cheers!!
Dave
Only 40? [%-)]
This is why I would never consider modeling an era later than my transition era layout. I’d have to build a whole new roster of equipment. I might backdate to the steam era. Then I could just remove my diesels. I’d have to buy new vehicles to make it look right.
My sweet spot seems to be about 50 locos, but that is way more than I need to run the layout. I usually keep my locos organized in sets of 3 or 5, and swap out the layout with each set based upon the flavor of the paint scheme I want to run. So there is a bit of purpose behind the over-accumulation.
Back in DC days, I acquired about 90 locos over the years, making do with what manufacturers produced. Now they are producing the locos I want to really have…finally started adding LED ditch lights…and improving the motor control. (Apparently, Atlas is now catching up if you read the features contained in the new announcements).
I was able to sell off about 60 of the DC and 20 early DCC Sound locos to fund the purchase of the more expensive modern locos with better features. So I’m happy to say that my overaccumulation of DC locos in the past 20 years was not a waste, but sort of a slow investment in the new stuff I bought in the past 2 years. A complete roster turnover to more satisfying models…but keeping the same theme.
I’ll be more specific about what’s in the engine cabinet.
Athearn Genesis with Tsunami2 DCC/Sound:
Genesse & Wyoming paint scheme: 3 GP15s and 2 GP50s
UP Paint Scheme: 2 GP15s , 1 GP38-2, 2 GP40P-2s
BNSF (ex) BNSF Schemes: 3 GP15s, 2 GP7us, 2 SD40-2s
CSX: 2 GP40-2s (2 GP38-2s on order)
Norfolk Southern: 3 SD40-2s (2 High Hood)
CP: 1 GP40-2
GMTX: 2 GP15s
Wisconsin & Southern: 2 GP7us
Bangor & Arrostook and exBAR: 2 GP7us
ESPEE: 2 GP40P-2s, 1 SD40 Desert Victory scheme
CNW: 2 GP9Rs
ATLAS Loksound:
Georgia & Florida RR: 3 GP40-2Ws
IHB: 2 Genset IIs
Freelanced (ex Reading): 2 MP15s
Freelanced (ex Vermont Northern/ Long Island RR): 3 C420s
INTERMOUNTAIN, Upgraded to Loksound V5:
US Army: 3 GP10s
WALTHERS MAINLINE:
Just wait until She figures out that She can fit more shoes, in Your basement, than Her closet…Hehehe!
Take Care! [swg]
Frank
I have over 60 new and used locomotives and that doesn’t seem like too many.
The steam locomotives would be run as one era and the new era diesels as another. My layout will be mostly countryside to facilitate this multiple era option.
I have a few transition diesels to run with late model steam locomotives for a third era option.
Maybe 10 locomotives on the layout at any given time, max.
Not going to happen.
I bought one of those Wife-A-Way gadgets off of Amazon and have it installed at top of cellar steps. Works well.
Man after My own heart…HAHAHAHA. Made My day Max…
Take Care! [swg]
A related “problem” (if it is a problem) is that (we – I include myself here) railfan photographers tend to take prototype pictures, or vids, of the locomotives and then put the camera down. It is a wonder that a hardy few took enough photos of freight and passenger cars back in the 35mm slide era to allow Morning Sun to print all those rolling stock picture books.
A slightly more distantly related problem told to me by friends who are truck fans is that too much attention has been paid to the trucks and not to the trailers, in terms of having historic documentation of trailers of the past.
The common thread is that we are attracted to the power, and to the interesting details that being a power source entails, steam, electric or diesel; railroad or highway.
But the good news is that there is a prototype for this locomotive fixation of ours: back in the early 1950s the somewhat-ineptly- managed Chicago & North Western was randomly buying diesels but not in a necessarily thoughtful way, so when new management took over and decided to fully dieselize, they found that for all practical purposes they had the diesels they needed on hand, and could simply start the retirement and scrapping process for C&NW steam.
Dave Nelson
My prototype only has 9 locomotives in the first place, so there’s a bit of a cap there.
This where I failed horribly.
I designed the next layout completely for personal operations, and set out on a three-year project to build all the freight cars, passenger cars, and locomotives I need.
I carefully designed the operating plan and arrived at the following numbers:
90-110 freight cars.
17 passenger cars.
30 locomotives.
I don’t want to go into the detail here, but it was a very exacting list.
After three years, this is what I have accomplished:
150+ freight cars finished.
0 passenger cars finished, but over 50 purchased.
10 locomotives finished, but over 50 purchased.
This is what we call a major failure in executing the plan!
The worst part is I have over 100 brass and craftsman kit freight cars still waiting for assembly.
It should be obvious that I love freight cars. I have strived for lots of variety in the fleet and lots of uniquely styled freight cars. It is also obvious that I really don’t give a hill-of-beans for passenger cars.
I have added a storage drawer system to the plan so I can fiddle cars off of the carfloat between operating sessions.
I don’t know what all this means, but I am having fun.
My wife loves her new 10 by 11 closet with room for lots of shoes and purses!
-Kevin
But do you have all 9? [:-^]
Rich
With all the excess equipment I have accumulated I thought of myself as a pack rat or a hoarder but after reading all these posts, I’m starting to realize I might be the norm rather than the exception.
I only have about 20 locomotives, or, more specifically, powered railroad devices, including trolleys and subway trains. Really, it’s enough, and my layout is dual-era, Steam and Transition. I have a few dummy diesels but I don’t count those. I have no powered dummies.
My only recent engine buy that didn’t fit my road and era is a GG1. I model the Milwaukee, but dang it, I had a Lionel O gauge GG1 when I was but a wee lad and I had to have one. I have no plans to buy any more engines. If someone produced one of the Milwaukee electrics like the Little Joe or the Bi-polar, I might get one, but the DCS-equipped ones from MTH don’t seem worth the trouble.
On the subject of promoting domestic tranquility, I remember a show I went to where one dealer as giving out sub shop sandwich bags to bring new engines home in and disguise a 2-6-4 as a large meatball with cheese.
Halfway there
Does that mean you have 4 1/2 of them?
[(-D]
-Kevin
I been questioning my locomotive roster and freight car cap. I have several locomotives in different regions.
My main roster is Amtrak, NYC, and Conrail. My ideal number for a decent diesel roster 8-12. Unfortunately that number was been overwhelmed by my love of Amtrak locomotives.
I’ve somewhat learned what to buy and not to buy. I’m still missing Auto racks, containers, maxi stack, refrigerator car, flat car, gondola, tank cars. Rethinking about modeling the 1990s since I can’t afford forcing myself getting Auto Racks and Maxi stacks with containers. To fully model the actual timeframe I desperately wanted. The late 1980s was my second choice including the New York Central.
If all else fails I will have a variety of equipment to sell in the next 20-30 years.