That’s what I use to believe, but now I have so much “stuff”, I forgot half of what I own. Actually, during those days of buying anything I saw amounted to such random pieces, that later on realized I have no use for and sold of quite a bit.
Now after 25 years of collecting, i will only buy specific engines, rolling stock to fit my prototype. Example, as much as I shouldn’t spend that much, Walther’s announced the Capital Limited. This name train consist is as close as you would ever get. Serious B&O historians and entusiasts work w/ Walther’s for such accuracy in the model. 5 cars to date, waiting for the E9 and E8B w/ sound next.
I realized that when I moved last year. I filled the back of my 2004 Grand Caravan from the front seats to the tailgate and up to the roof AND the 4x7 open utility trailer I used to move all of my stuff out & it still wasn’t all out.
Didn’t stop me though, came across an Athearn Coke flat car w/ Coke trailer thinking that I didn’t have it, ooops, I now have two!.
I saw part of that show one time in passing ( i dont watch commercialvision anymore, since the late 80’s). Was disgusted by the show. The home that was the topic of the show looked like an inside-out landfill.
However, if i saw a home like that, wall to wall-floor to cieling covered in trains… Id swear i was in the garden of eden! [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Bob K - no offense meant in the least, but i just cant fathom what you said. I personally cannot grasp the simple thought that there could ever be… " too many trains ". Even if this thread is for fun. (please dont mistake that for me not having humor, i do)
Even if i was train poor, living in a ditch somewhere Id still buy trains. I guess i have the disease a little more deeply than some.
I think it goes back to that XMas special… the one where there is an island for toys that are broken, or unwanted. I could never ever see a train being on that island. (ofcourse there was one in the show. Shattered my heart!)
I am by no means rich or well to do by any standard. But dang if i wouldnt apply to be “savior of all trains”, if there was a job for it.
Even if i dont have a use for a model, to me, atleast it has a home. Sitting on a shelf or in a box. I just cant grasp there is ever such a thing as “too many trains”.
Therefore, i opt myself as being addicted, a train junkie, over enthusiated, etc etc. Either way… i understand the theme of this thread and will jest with my fellow railfans here, and place myself squarely in yalls sights for any joke or pun.
Douglas, I knew I had a lot, the EX kept reminding me, it’s just that it was spread out under the train table in different locations. Now that I’ve had to box it all up and it’s all in one spot in my basement, I am in shock just how much stuff I have.
My understanding of hording is it is a condition in which people have a complusion to acquire things even if though there is no chance they will ever use them. I saw one episode of the program in which a woman drove around the neigborhood on trash day picking up things other people were throwing out for no other reason than they were free. I don’t think model railroaders fall into that camp. We do acquire things we at least expect to use someday, even if th
I guess I don’t have that much stuff yet, although I do have quite a bit. I’ve always been able to keep in my head what I have so if there is any problem I have, it sould be duplicating road numbers.
That said, part of the reason my collection hasn’t grown bigger is that I regularly cull my collection to sell of models I don’t need to buy stuff that fits better. My budget has been tight much of the time, so selling off models I don’t need has helped me raise cash. I suppose if funds are not an issue for some, the collection could
I’m sure many could open a hobby store and even I have more than many hobby stores have on their shelves, but thats not saying much these days as many don’t have much.
I’ve basically got my benchwork and sub-roadbed in now so track laying can re-sume. I say resume because I had to layout my staging yard fully before I could go over the top and put in the 2nd level where a regular yard is. I’m hoping to have enough track down this spring so I can run trains around the circuit.
My financial state (genteel poverty) and my rigid adherence to a very specific theme has saved me from, “Too much.” In fact, after years of selective purchases, kitbashing and passing over everything that wouldn’t be appropriate in the Central Japan Alps I have just about enough.
Enough for what? A layout that fills a double garage plus a bunch of cassettes on shelves and some US prototype stuff in a small display cabinet. With a few spares left over…[:-^]
Every freight car I own including the unbuilt kits will fit on the layout when finished. So will the locomotives if I cram them, or devide up between steam some days and diesels others. I have a couple little structure kits, almost never buy those.
HO vehicles though, they’ll have to take turns.
Then there’s my other hobby. 1/25 truck and car kits. I should have no trouble building the ones I have if I build at my current rate, provided I live to about 180.
I ran into the same problem when I ran across a program called RRTrains, by Gregory Braun. Not only does it keep track of what you have, you can list upgrades, couplers, wheels, etc. It also has a function so that you can assign pictures to all of your equipment.
1/25 cars are pretty big, where do you desplay them? Thats the trouble with O gauge, It takes up a lot of room, many in O gauge shelves are full, layout is full and a bunch are in boxes in a closet.
That brings up another point which I neglected to mention in my first response. I just began operations and quickly discovered my layout is already at capacity for the number of cars it can comfortably handle during a session. Between the industries, the classification yard, and the staging yards, adding any more rolling stock is going to create a logjam which will make it difficult to keep things moving. I still have about 25 unbuilt freight cars, mostly Accurail which I would buy one or two of when I stopped in the hobby shop for something else. What that means of course is I am going to have to come up with a system for swapping these cars on and off the layout and storing them where they can easily be accessed. One of my staging yards is in the open where I can fiddle cars on and off and there is also a dummy interchange track which holds about six 40 footers where I can swap cars in and out. I’m through adding rolling stock to the layout…for now.
John D Rockfellar in the “20s” was a billionaire making him still the richest man ever. He was asked by a reporter when he would have enough money. His reply was classic and can be applied to this post. When he “got just a little bit more”