High Price of trains hurting the hobby?

[dbaker48]

Very, very interesting! I couldn't agree more with "flyingtothetop". I started with Lionel about 25yrs ago, and looked forward to MR mag, (CTT was not on the scene yet), and would scour the adds, go to meets. And usually purchase at auctions. Maybe once a year purchase a new engine or set. Always dreaming about and desiring the "high end" equipment but realized it was no doable.
Now sometime later, I have been able to get back into the HOBBY, after putting it all away for 15 years. My biggest concern was that the QUALITY of the high end equipment would have been eliminated as a result of a starving cost driven market. My gosh even LIONEL is now made in China. (Major concern about our children and grand-children regarding the economy we are creating for them.)

This may seem crazy to most and downright foolish, but I just did the following..
Purchased the AC-9 Cab Forward, at Full Price from a local train shop! (knowingly) Seems really dumb to most I'm sure. Also purchased the TMCC system. From the same source.

What did I receive ? Obviously the hardware, but more importantly support, service, guideliness, and a long term support base for issues, training and assistance. Can't imaging going to another source for that. What will happen to this hobby if all the trains shops were eliminated?

Also, this is not just 1 engine and controller, this piece is a gateway to many, many hours of entertainment and bonding with my son. And fortunately a lot of "family " quality time spent together. Not all of my purchases will be from the shop, but I will support them as long as I can.

Don't mean to ramble but the money we spent, on a hourly return basis will actually cost pennies. I don't know how I could have spent it better.

I drive a Chevy, maybe their shouldn't be Porsches, and Mercedes ?

[dbaker48]

Very, very interesting! I couldn't agree more with "flyingtothetop". I started with Lionel about 25yrs ago, and looked forward to MR mag, (CTT was not on the scene yet), and would scour the adds, go to meets. And usually purchase at auctions. Maybe once a year purchase a new engine or set. Always dreaming about and desiring the "high end" equipment but realized it was no doable.
Now sometime later, I have been able to get back into the HOBBY, after putting it all away for 15 years. My biggest concern was that the QUALITY of the high end equipment would have been eliminated as a result of a starving cost driven market. My gosh even LIONEL is now made in China. (Major concern about our children and grand-children regarding the economy we are creating for them.)

This may seem crazy to most and downright foolish, but I just did the following..
Purchased the AC-9 Cab Forward, at Full Price from a local train shop! (knowingly) Seems really dumb to most I'm sure. Also purchased the TMCC system. From the same source.

What did I receive ? Obviously the hardware, but more importantly support, service, guideliness, and a long term support base for issues, training and assistance. Can't imaging going to another source for that. What will happen to this hobby if all the trains shops were eliminated?

Also, this is not just 1 engine and controller, this piece is a gateway to many, many hours of entertainment and bonding with my son. And fortunately a lot of "family " quality time spent together. Not all of my purchases will be from the shop, but I will support them as long as I can.

Don't mean to ramble but the money we spent, on a hourly return basis will actually cost pennies. I don't know how I could have spent it better.

I drive a Chevy, maybe their shouldn't be Porsches, and Mercedes ?

[thor]

Everyone else has answered your post very well but for what its worth whereas I do agree with your remark about how expensive the hobby is, its kind of self limiting in that those who are willing to either pay the price or find workarounds are going to be pretty dedicated and therefore its a worthwhile investment, in their terms.

The steam locos I want are all in the $1000 range but they are worth it. As someone else said, look what you get for your money! A great big hefty piece of well made machinery that could conceivably still be running on some lucky grandchilds layout 25 years from now. If I stopped smoking at NY prices I could have that Shay in 5 months.

My Vulcan consumes that in maintenance about every 6 months too...so really all those prices do is make me consider very carefully what I want and what I'm prepared to do to get it. Instant gratification is fun but speaking from experience, building up your collection one bit at a time is actually better because it makes you really appreciate each new piece. That new switch or wagon becomes a real event.

Last but not least, if you're really determined and want to get some more stuff so as to make your trains worth playing with, you can't beat trainsets for bang for the buck and if you're really determined and ingenious you can make your own rolling stock, with computers and printers it becomes quite easy to turn out good looking thin card pieces, study a tinplate model to see how its done, in my youth we built coaches and wagons from card stock and superimposed them onto rolling underframes of old beaten up stuff and they looked jolly good too.

I intend to do this myself, 0 is large enough to use real veneers to make carriage sides from, you can buy brass in all sorts of sections and thickness and plasticard will do for the rest. A train layout that is a labor of love will always be the most satisfying of all.

However I must admit that if trains were cheaper I'd buy rather than build!

[Anonymous]

"and if you're really determined and ingenious you can make your own rolling stock, with computers and printers it becomes quite easy to turn out good looking thin card pieces, study a tinplate model to see how its done, in my youth we built coaches and wagons from card stock and superimposed them onto rolling underframes of old beaten up stuff and they looked jolly good too."......
Hey Thor I`m right with you on that [tup], I have been picking up junkers and rebuilding them, especially with Kusan stuff, there cheap and there value is`nt like messing around with a Lionel or eqivalant.The diesel shells can be reworked to fit a Lionel or k-line chassis coast cutting measures that work. Marx is another that is easy and cheap to kitbash.Its almost as fun as building them from scratch[tup]



[tup]