Why do some of us (like myself…) go to great lengths to win expensive rolling stock off of eBay, or drive half way across the state to buy it when in the end all we do with it is let it sit and collect dust?. I was looking at my rolling stock inventory the other day and counted over two hundred individual cars. Out of that two hundred I only actually use about fifty or so while the rest just sit there. I’m going to have to get up off of my behind and get busy auctioning off those I’m not and never will be using. No telling how much some of them are worth…
I’ve got around 350 cars and around 40 locomotives. (maybe more, haven’t counted lately!) I keep around 200 to 250 in circulation on the layout, and rotate the others in and out. Once I finish building the layout, the yard space will be more than adequate to handle all of them. and probably 100 more.
Tracklayer,I have 199 IPD short line boxcars…Why does anybody need that many short line boxcars? [%-)] Simple answer.They don’t…I collect IPD short line boxcars.
All together I have 348 cars…I rotate cars on my ISLs and at both clubs.
Now for fun Saturday during our Train Shows open house the train I ran was 85% IPD short line boxcars…[tup] Needless to say I was ask many questions and the one ask more often was:How many short line boxcars do you own?"…Most was shocked to hear I owned 199.
What did I buy at Saturday’s show? 3 more short line boxcars of course![:O]
I’m just starting out. I have 2 locos, two 36’ wood reefers, and four 50’ Overland coaches. I can give a good home any 1900 - 1930’s rolling stock or loco’s!!!
Shaun, you are no doubt partly, perhaps mostly, right in my view. But I wonder if there isn’t something else going on here. We see folks suddenly buying a decent camera and then there is a proliferation of images posted by that person. That becomes the new “diversion”. It is another form of acquisitiveness…the collection part of it. Next, the person decides to try ebay, and a new form of acquisition begins to supplant the camera and its images stored on the hard drive. Suddenly, instead of spending an hour tinkering with a bad track section, we’ll sit at the computer and watch bids on ebay. Then our time is taken up on trading and seeing how we do…yet another form of acqusitiveness, but still a diversion at the same time.
What’s going on here?!
I am working hard to resist being acquisitive. Now almost 3.5 years into the hobby, I have firmly stopped buying new engines with my total at 11. I was just offered a really sweet deal from Canadian Model Trains for a limited run Intermountain FT/AB set with sound in the expected CPR livery. Would loooooove to have them, but I just deleted the message after I had my drool. If anything, I need to upgrade some rolling stock because my emphasis has always been on good engines. I will throw some junk into my parts bin and await a four-pack of K7A stock cars from BLI for which I had to sing only ($39). Soon, very soon, I will stop that process, and it will be strictly by replacement only. At least that’s the plan.
My main point in all of this was that ebay seems to have become a default diversion for many of us, and it is probably, on net, not always a good thing for our pocket books, storage space, or our time in the hobby. I may be compl
Can’t say I can relate to this. I’ve only bought a few pieces off e-bay and those were inexpensive but hard to find items. I’ve never gone for expensive rolling stock. Athean, Atlas, and Accurail are the staples of my freight fleet.
In my case, I don’t think I have a large enough fleet for my very large layout. I’m always adding cars and have room for plenty more. Eventually, I hope to acquire some excess so I can fiddle cars on and off the layout for variety. I don’t have a count of all my rolling stock but I can still easily fit it all in my two staging yards and large division point yard.
For many years, during which I had either no layout or a very small layout, I purchased rolling stock - including enough JNR standard freight cars to represent 1/700th of the 1964 prototype roster - with my desired operating scheme firmly in mind. That led me to pass up such temptations as C62 class 4-6-4s and the Shinkansen.
Now, finally, 40 years later, I have the space, the time and the disposable income to build that long-planned layout. When it is finished it will comfortably absorb my entire collection and allow me to reproduce my somewhat idealized version of my prototype’s operations.
Since layout construction started, I haven’t bought a single piece of rolling stock. OTOH, I sure have spent some time tuning and lubricating a bunch of storage box queens.
Tracklayer, you, like me, are inclined towards emotional purchases and,like you, I haven’t always exercised good judgement in my purchase of products. I would like nothing more than to have all of my equipment “fit” i.e. comply with a standard of era, operating theme, etc. To some that is not important; to me it is. I will grant that it is your railroad and you can certainly do as you wish; me? a consist of double stacks pulled by two SD70MACs stabbed in a siding for a meet with eight flute sided cars of the Great Lakes Flyer pulled by an A-B-A set of Alcos doesn’t quite measure up to my standard of prototypical legitimacy. Unfortunately, I like both passenger trains and very modern railroading but to avoid anachronism I can’t have both.
I have stated in other topics that my recent model railroading experience has been either non-existant or in a temporary environment - read that as apartment dweller. I now have a permanent space available for a layout, my first since my first marriage fell apart almost eighteen years ago. In designing and building this new layout I have to make decisions regarding era and operating theme and gauge my future acquisitions of motive power and rolling stock to that arena of time. I have accumulated a large fleet of passenger cars - I don’t have an exact count but I think that the number approaches the century mark - and I think that you can probably tell that I like passenger train operation. But passenger trains simply don’t fit -except for an executive train, of course - in a world of '40-2s, '60s, '90s, dash nines, etc. - and, of course, vice versa.
I never intended to become a “collector” but I’ve bought an awful lot of equipment over the years because of compelling emotion. I have to get rid of that baggage.
For me, although my layout is modest and the yard can handle only 25 or so cars, I do it for the future…
By this I mean that when I retire (in like 20 years… I am only 35 now…), I hope to have a larger layout and enjoy building it. That being said, I have a vision for it and collect rolling stock and motive power for it… It will be a more realistic, larger scale of my current layout (reusing some of the buildings) and I look forward to a few decades building it in retirement…
Perhaps this is only an excuse, but it keeps me sane when I think of of the extra gear I have, but heck, I could be wasting all the money on greens fees or beer… At least I have a commodity from my hobby
it seems my wife asked me that very question not too long ago. I have been on the search for a SOO SD60M. During that search I have acquired a Rock Island 0-8-0 and a SOO GP38-2. Over the last couple years as we have worked on our layout and honestly have run trains very little during the construction my inventory keeps going. Well when I am able to take over the family room and all of its space the growing inventory will be able to run. Laughs. i think my process is that I began almost 20 years ago and as the days go by I am slowly updating my inventory. Yep, that is my story and I am sticking to it
You will notice the above responses are from people that collect vast amounts of rolling stock and they seem to enjoy it and can afford to, also they seem to think the rest of us will soon be doing the same, Well, you may be wrong, I for one, do not collect large amounts of stock because I cannot afford it or want to, and I imagine a lot more MR’s out there do not collect large amounts either(strange, we never seem to hear from them) Buying the odd boxcar (new or used) once every 2 or 3 months and spending time weathering or modifying it does not really fall into this category, (also, the thrill of saving up for two or three years to buy that neat little steamer is a great thrill) now I know the response to this post: I’m either really jealous or you can do anything you want because you can. just a comment folks!
As a side note…Those 199 IPD short line boxcars has been almost 12 years in the making…The other 249 cars came a bit quicker over that same 12 years.Some was bought new while others was bought used at train shows and hobby shops.
For me that is easy. I have several “scenes” in my brain that I want to someday reproduce on my layout or in a diorama. I need to buy the stuff now before I retire and don’t have nearly as much liquid income.
A few years ago I had more rolling Stock and engines on Shelves and not being used, After I tore out my old layout 2 years ago and installed my new one I also made up my mind to only keep the best engines and rolling stock,I now have 40 Engines 10 of which are on the layout at all times and these get cycled out every other week, with my 2 main lines and new 2’ x 10’ Yard I have 110 peices of rolling stock on my layout and nothing on the shelves, everything gets used or moved at least twice a month or more, I will keep looking at stuff at train shows and pick up the interesting stuff that I think I need, Have not bought anything off of Ebay in 2 years mostly my LHS and train shows.
