I’ve mentioned this in other threads but three times I has purchased a structure kit only to discover I already had one. Acutally, one of those times I didn’t already have one but forgot I had one backordered through Trainworld so naturally after buying the kit at my LHS it became available to Trainworld too so a few days later I got a surprise from the UPS driver. The end result was the same. I had two of a kit I only needed one of.
Another measure of this syndrome is to find the oldest unbuilt kit in your inventory. I have a craftsman 300 ton coaling tower kit which I purchased for the layout in my old home which I moved out of in 2001. It had already been on the shelf for over 15 years before that so I’m quite sure it is at least 30 years old.
Just a few days ago, I discovered an E&B Valley kit for a Union Pacific observation car which I had completely forgot I had. I modeled the UP in my old home. I have no idea how old it is but the price tag on it is $9.00 if that is any indication.
Two things no modeler will ever say are, “My house has too much storage space” and “I made my staging yards too big”.
I keep my car inventory in Excel. That way, I can sort by car type, road, number or even color. I print a copy (5 pages now) and put it on my clipboard to take to train shows. That way, I know what I have. I put kits on the list, too, and label them “unbuilt” so I don’t buy duplicates.
It doesn’t stop me from buying more than I need, but at least I don’t have duplicates of what I don’t need.
You gather a lot of stuff when you are prepairing to build a model railroad, then you start using stuff and have to buy more because the original dosn’t fit. Sometimes your ideas change, mine did from logging to freight hauling (just too many nice cars at dirt cheap levels). I have gone whole hog into the layout now and have sold off any kits for cars except for those there are no RTR of high quality (hopeing those show up by the time the layout is done). Got rid of a lot of craftsman buildings that were unneeded and most of my duplicate number cars (if I had enough not to renumber). Sure wish they would come out with a 36’ RTR boxcar of high quality because I got a box of 50 unbuilt ones!
Just one? Piker! I kept thinking the Walthers Overhead crane would be perfect for my layout. I kept thinking and thinking that, and now I have ten. One of these days I guess I should build one.
One of my guest operators has 14000 [thats right fourteen thousand] HO scale freight & passenger cars, and ~2000 locomotives, filling up his basement. He is planning to someday build a barn in his backyard to house a layout.
Seeing that, I can never possibly have “too much”![(-D]
I dunno Dave, I’ve only seen the stacked boxes, didn’t have time to examine them too closely. If not, he’ll hire somebody to renumber them. Money is definitely not a big concern for him!
I’ve been collecting stuff for the “the dream layout” for over 20 years. Its pretty much everywhere Now that I’m starting the layout, I hope to alleviate the mess!
HOARDING: Thats the word, regardless of how you justify filling your basement with hundreds of kits, locos, cars, track, buildings etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. you are hoarding, there is no other word for it, you are hooked, enjoy.
I have a bit of a twist on the theme of this thread:
I would love to have more stuff but now that the Canadian dollar has fallen flat on its face I’m managing quite nicely to do without very much new stuff. When a BB freight car is going to cost me $30 to $40 Cdn. including shipping I don’t have too much trouble passing on it.