What is your definition of a: small; medium; large; or monster O Gauge collection?

[AKKevinT]

Although I seldom post questions or responses on the forum I enjoy tuning in and reading various topics from time to time. Recently my wife was commenting on the size of my o gauge train collection and that it seem to be taking up a lot of space in the garage! (I think she really wanted to say "Hey just how many of those darn train cars to you have there any way".) After some good old hemming and hawing combined with some politically correct spin I was able to acquiesce from the conversation with my hide intact.

Following my Q&A session with her I thought it would be wise if I were better prepared with fact and figures for the next time this discussion comes around, (as I am sure it will). I thought maybe the best offense would be a good defense concerning the size of a train collection. I live in Fairbanks Alaska and don't know many other folks with an interest in O gauge model railroading. We have one hobby shops that carry next to no O gauge products. So I have nothing close at hand to compare or gauge my interest in the hobby other than this forum and CTT magazine.

I took some time and made a list of my collection and I came up with the following count on my collection: 18 motive power stock; 80 rolling freight stock; 21 passenger cars; and 3 small motorized speeder type pieces. Those numbers bring my collection to about 122 pieces. What is the best way to describe a collection of this size: 'small', 'modest', 'medium', 'large', 'x-large', or just plain 'out of control collection'? I consider my collection to be modest at best but I am interested to hear some other opinions other than my own (or my wife’s).

Thanks for the responses folks.

AKKevin T

p.s. I really enjoy it when you guys talk about how cold the weather is in the low 48. A little over a week ago in a 28 hour period we had an 80°f temperature swing, from -52°f to 29°f (that’s not a wind chill reading).

[ADCX Rob]

Kevin,

I think you will see that you have both a huge collection/assortment, & a "very small start" of a collection, depending on the perspective.

I'm in the same position.

Rob

[tschmidt]

Kevin,

I'd say you have a nice size collection. A lot may depend on where you have your collection. Is the room small or large? Are your trains neatly on display or all over or are all your trains on a large layout? Maybe the size of your collection depends on the space you have it in.

TomS

[Big_Boy_4005]

How about well over 1000 pieces for large? That's what I have, but I have seen bigger. I would call your's small to medium. My layout is almost 2000 sqft. Tell her it could be worse.[swg]

[mersenne6]

"18 motive power stock; 80 rolling freight stock; 21 passenger cars; and 3 small motorized speeder type pieces. Those numbers bring my collection to about 122 pieces."

Very, very small. That amount wouldn't even fill a small bedroom floor to ceiling.

Small - fill at least one room in the house (bathrooms and closets excluded) - floor to ceiling with boxed trains.
Medium - Fill two out of three or three out of four (depending on the house size) bedrooms with boxed trains floor to ceiling.
Large - fill every room in the house except for kitchen, one bathroom, and a bedroom floor to ceiling with trains (well, ok, we'll exempt the laundry area too).
Monster - fill entire house with trains and force you to live in a trailer or rent a second house for living purposes.

While this may sound silly - I've known a number of people over the years for whom the above definitions were an accurate desciption of the situation (I'll never forget the visit to the guy who had, in fact, purchased the house next door so he could keep all of his trains on display).

I hope this will help put your situation in perspective.

[winrose46]

I have never considered it in terms of number of boxes. Everything I have is on the layout (except my TMCC engines (7) that I run at Christmas around the tree). My layout is 17 by 7.5 feet with a triple main lower level, double main second level and single main 3rd and 4th level. I run three trains per loop (excluding the top two that are single track) and if I am lucky I have 6 feet of slack average between first and last train (20 DCS engines). I consider mine small to medium. I think it will be medium when I build the 8 by 7 L. I consider small to be anything less than 16 or so feet, Medium up to 35 feet and large bigger than 35. Of course the number of levels and trains may effect that. I was stacking boxes in the attic last week and I was surprised to see how many were there. They do take up a lot of room.

[lynbrookyankee]

By those definitions my collection is small - 130 pieces not counting accessories, but when I mentioned this to my mother recently she couldnt believe how much I had - guess she still remembers that Christmas present 51 years ago.

[Anonymous]

I think your inventory would be "medium" for a "operator", and "small" for a "collector". The definition of a collection is technically 2 or more. I'm not a collector, but I have a few good examples of a variety of things...postwar, tinplate, wind-up. My newer stuff is pretty much limited to what I can run on my small 2-loop layout.
Now "other hobby" wise, vintage stereo (3-D) photography, I have LARGE collections...but by their nature, they take up very little room. Joe

[cnw1995]

Hi Kevin! Wow, let's see that makes my collection very small: 3 trolleys, a #41 switcher, searchlight car, 248 + pullman + obs +805 boxcar; K-Line Steam Chief 2-4-2 plus three passenger cars, another 2-4-2, the Lionelosi special car, Santa Fe FA, and six MPC-era freight cars and three cars from a K-line battery powered set. That's 8 'engines' if I include the trolleys and 16 cars - all parked on the layout. I'm practicing being 'content' with this lot - It's fun to hear what others have or collect.

[Anonymous]

I'm printing this out for future use. When told I have too many trains already I can use this as proof that my collection is comparatively very small. It's better than a price guide to justify future purchases. Thanks guys!

Bruce Webster

[jimhaleyscomet]

I have about 10 powered engines (about 5 dummies). Probably about 50 cars along with 5 small speeder types. Visitors think it is a huge collection. My wife thinks it is a huge collection. My train buddies have much large collections. Actually mine is not a collection at all. I run all my gear so it is not collectable, it is just a bunch of toy trains!

Jim H

[Jumijo]

We have 10 locomotives, and roughly 20 frieght cars. Add to that 6 passenger cars and you have a small collection. My wife hinted that we have enough by stating, "You have a good-sized collection now". This from the gal whose on a first name-basis with every slaes clerk at the mall!

Jim

[Big_Boy_4005]

Decisions, decisions. Keep in mind I'm divorced, but that had nothing to do with the trains. I have bought way fewer trains since she left, mainly because I had to give her so much money in order to keep the house and the train room.

[Anonymous]

Tony Lash's.

[mickey4479]

Jim:

QUOTE: Originally posted by jaabat

We have 10 locomotives, and roughly 20 frieght cars. Add to that 6 passenger cars and you have a small collection. My wife hinted that we have enough by stating, "You have a good-sized collection now". This from the gal whose on a first name-basis with every slaes clerk at the mall!
Jim

Your remark about shopping reminded me of a remark my Dad once made when a family friend called and asked where my Mom was. He said "In fine stores everywhere." [(-D][(-D]

I have a small/modest number. 5 steamers, 7 passenger cars, 50 freight cars. They are all on my layout. I have about 350 feet of track but too difficult to explain the layout here. I am amused and puzzled by a perceived problem the first poster's wife has with storing trains in a garage. I have a 2 boat garage. Where are you supposed to put your other toys when the basement is full?

[Anonymous]

I would say yours is small to medium. I have 50 Diesel engines all TMCC, 200+ pieces of rolling stock and about 12 operating accessories. I would consider mine to be medium to large. My stuff fills one bed room 80% full and the closet 100% full. My wife is always after me to get rid of my stuff.

[AKKevinT]

I have checked in over the past couple of days to survey the replies to my question on evaluating the size of a train collection. Thanks to everyone who took time to reply so far. It is great to have some feedback to compare my position in the hobby with.

After reading the replies I tend to judge my collection of O gauge trains as small to modest (not yet arrived at medium level) when compared to the big picture.

I realize there are some folks out there who have really invested a much greater amount of time and money to their pursuit of the hobby than I probably ever will or would. This leads me to ask another question:

What is the largest number of O gauge train pieces you have heard of in someone private collection? Can be either collector or operator status collection.I am sure there are some "lunker" sized collections out there.

Within the last 5 years a widowed wife shipped out her husbands collection to be auctioned off in the lower 48 somewhere. Their entire house was full of lionel trains in the original boxes. When the lot was shipped out it was said to have filled a 40" container load taken by semi to the auction house. My regret was that I was unable to see the collection and meet the collector before they both departed Fairbanks.

[dwiemer]

It is more a matter of what floats your boat. Some have an entire railroads consist with every car put out with the name on it. Some just have a wide variety with a little bit of everything. My wife has put me on train restriction until we have the building finished which will have a 24 x 20 layout. I can see her point as we have trains in a few rooms on the second floor.
Dennis

[Frank53]

seven engines, two trolleys, probably 60 or so rolling stock - all post war, all original. By the time I'm done it may get 50% oarger, but that's a stretch.

[andregg1]

Hi
The "kind" depend how many happines give to you.
For me my colection is a monster, I'm very happy with all item, because was very hard to buy and keep. I appreciate all my trains.
Andre.

[gvdobler]

The guy that owned the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas said that he had 600 cars (roughly) in his Auto Collection on the 5th floor of the casino. He said that 90% of the value was in about 4 of the cars. He only has about 200 on display at a time, the rest are where you can't see them.

The point is, a collection is whatever you think it is. Lash's beautiful collection of the wrong brand is a commercial venture like the Imperial Palace. For an individual, a collection can be any size, but if it is all cheap stuff then it is not too impressive. If it is a mix of good and better stuff then it starts to be interesting.

If you have a 3000 square foot basement and 50 rolling stock and 10 locos then it dosen't sound very big, but if you have 500 boxes stuffed into a 10 x 10 bedroom then you are a big collector, or pack rat as viewed by the CFO. [:D]

[mersenne6]

A large collection, as has been noted, can be defined any number of ways. If you are collecting something like pre WWI, O gauge , American outline, like new condition, hand painted Marklin, then a "large" collection would be less than 100 items. On the other hand, if you are collecting mint boxed postwar Lionel then large would probably be in the realm of 1000 items or more.

The biggest collections, in terms of number of items, that I've ever seen were people who had multiple rooms completely filled with trains. As I mentioned before, one had actually purchased the house next door. Some of the rooms were packed, floor to ceiling with boxed trains with narrow access isles so that you could, in theory, go into the room and find something. Other rooms had trains on floor to ceiling racks which, at least, allowed you to see what had been collected.

Probably the oddest large collection I ever saw was an individual who had collected nothing but factory sealed sets and items. The entire basement of a very large ranch house held floor to ceiling racks of nothing but sealed boxes. The individual had xray pictures of each of the boxes so if you wanted to "view" the collection he would show you the films.