when do you have too much

[dwbeckett]

Since I am moving my DNRR to a new house, I started an inventory of equipment. So far the count is  30 working engins + 2 needing repairs, 2 powered hand cars, 1 hustler, 1 speeder and 1 mack railcar, 18 passenger cars, 17 2bay hoppers, 10 car work train, 12 mixed reffers, 8 pair of log bunks, 6 flat cars, 5 gondolas 15 mixed box cars, 3 stock cars -1 sound equiped, and 10 cabouses, 3 car kits and a lot buildings most needing to be built. Track (all stainless) 1 box 11.5 ft diam, 1 box 10 ft diam, 2 box 9 ft diam 1 box 6.5 ft diam and 1box 5ft diam (used under xmas tree) Plus 4 #6 sw, 2 10ft diam sw (I need more switchs), 1 19deg cross over,1 box 6" , 1 box 12' , 2 box 24", and 1 box 36".  Power packs include 1- 15amp remote controled, 1-10 amp teathered walk around and a coupled from sets. and all of this must fit in my 20X21 space. My wife has just started and She has a Ludy Bug eggliner and a Snoopy set. THE DNRR WILL LIVE AGAIN.     

[FJ and G]

I'd rather have 1 locomotive and a couple of rolling stock and a cool garden layout, rather than a closet full of trains.

[Anonymous]

Large Scale outdoor railroads is a very expensive hobby. I have read the forums here and on AristoCraft.com and often wonder where do people get the money to buy all these Loco's and rolling stock. Shoot...I had to sell my 17 foot Old Town Discovery 169 canoe in order to buy the Mikado.

I've seen many elaborate outdoor layouts that must have cost a fortune.$$$$.....

 

dan

 

[cabbage]

Actually I have found it to be a rather inexpensive hobby. The only real expense is track at around £5.75p per yard. The locos and rolling stock are the result of scraps and leftovers or active recycling of rubbish. I allot myself £10 per week to my production budget and I do pretty well out of it. All but the current loco, a live steam loco, have all been build for under £60.

Yes, I could go out to the local dealers and slap plastic on the counter and walk off with a steam loco with a value of over a thousand pounds. But, since they don't sell the types of locos that I like, (and grew up with), then I have to build them myself.

No, I don't have a huge tool room I have a small piece of worktop near the cooker and my main tool is a portable pillar drill and a belt sander grit wheel combo. A small collection of needle files, a couple of handsaws and a mitre block -and well that is it!

The next BIG purchase for the tool supply will be a Propane /MAPP cartridge burner 'head' at about £15 -to do the silver soldering to produce all the plumbing and pipework for the steam motor.

I am not alone in my self imposed impercunity -most 16mm enthusiasts expound the value for money ethic. Just last Saturday at the club open day a complete series of wagons made from tobacco tins and lollipop sticks pulled by a home made Y6 (also made from lollipop sticks) made its debut to applause!!!! Before anyone says anything the 14 year old Owner/Builder had to do his paper round before comming to the club.....

Things are only expensive if you let then get that way - a quote from my mother.

regards

ralph

[vsmith]

Dambrose:

Same here, its a lot cheaper than HO when comparing big apples to little apples. LGB switches are $25-30 for manuals, thats not too far off from quality HO switches, G scale cars can be found for low costs. It really depends what your likes are. If your into big impress-the-gang models then yes it can get expensive, $2K for Accucraft Shay, but Bachmann has a terrific plastic Shay for under $300 now. The most I've spent on an RTR engine is $120, all the rest were for $75 or less, and I have 30 locos, some of them scratchbuilt/kitbashed for less than $100. Cars are same, Aristos 20foot cars, which work well on my short line are about $30 each, Bachmann 20 footers are same $, HLWs mini-car kits are LESS than $10 each. I've had good luck buying cheepo battery set cars from Scientific and New Blight and adding details and repainting them into good looking narrow gauge equipment.

 

Track is the expensive item, but then its something you can buy over time, and lay it down as you aquire it, remember if your outdoors, your not spending for plaster, Woodland Scenics grass, or fake trees or fake water etc etc. Its all real, real gravel, real soil, real plants, so again plants can be bought over time, gravel can be purchased in bulk, or even scrounged from construction sites, as can wood, concrete, stones, and soil. So outdoor railroads can be done on the inexpensive side for very little money.

 

HO can very quickly run into the thousands of dollars, so can garden RRing, the difference is that $500 in HO wont get you much of a finished layout or quality trains, but in G you can get a nice decent outdoor layout and nice quality train set. At least IMHO.

[John Busby]

Hi dwbeckett

You have too much.

If it will not fit in the designated storage area

In the case of the railway its self you have too much when it starts to overpower the garden rather than being an integral part of it.

You will invariably end up with more stock than the line can handle at any one time that's just the way of things.

regards John

[ttrigg]

Things are only expensive if you let then get that way - a quote from my mother. regards ralph

its a lot cheaper than HO when comparing big apples to little apples.

Dambrose:

I'll go so far as to add N to that list.  Was at my LHS this weekend and the switches I used in N are three cents MORE than the remote power switches from LGB.  I had 52 of those puppies on a 3'x10' layout, in the back yard I have only 18 in place (and 7 more ready to place during the next few expansions.)  Looking at the price tags on the boxes of my N cars, D&RGW box cars at DM 32.5, (roughly $20 USD) compared to the same "G"arden size Bachman D&RG boxcar at $49 USD, it takes a lot more of them to fill a 300 sq. ft. N scale layout than it does to fill my back yard.

This topic go me so "wired up" that I dug out the old inventory ledgers (for you youngsters out there, a ledger is an old book form of a computer spreadsheet.)  Between 1959 to 1972, I spent $9,212 on HO rolling stock, track and switches, (no record of wood, wire, plaster, and scenicing supplies, but had to be at least another couple of thousand.)  From 1971 to 1999 I spent $12,482 on N scale.  Again no record of wood, wire, plaster etc.  Since 2000 the ledger indicates I have spent $3,412 on the "G"arden size stuff, that includes the crushed rock, dwarf trees etc.  There was no expense for the dirt as it was a left over byproduct of the Koi Pond.  Over the next few years I plan on spending another $4,000 or so on rolling stock for the garden, so in my case, the GRR is a whole bunch cheaper than either the HO or N layouts ever were.

[Anonymous]

This is the first year I began GRR. I had one G-scale loco and some rolling stock, but it was mounted inside the house along the wall. Since I moved and now have 1/2 acre that is flat as a pool table I moved my RR outside. I have been scrounging rocks/boulders that are free. The 6X6 border was used and free, the turkey grit was cheap, only 8 bucks per 50lb bag, but I did buy 10 tons of screened farmland topsoil. But, that was also used for flower beds and a small vegetable/herb garden. I guess the biggest expense I have so far would be the Mikado and $150 for extra track. I would like to get some more track and incorporate some bridges and another line.

Oh yea, I forgot, my live plants were on sale during Memorial Day too.....

 

I guess what I was refereing too would be some Heavyweights, those passenger cars are very expensive, both at USA and Aristocraft.

 

Thanks for the replies!!

dan

 

[dwbeckett]

HI Everyone I'm still packing trains and found a few more things one Reffer box no car in it and 3 tank cars. Boy I wish I could find that Missing reffer . I think it may have been packed with some Xmas stuff. I would guess after having  3 outdoor railroads over the last 16 years and having started with a Bachmann set from Costco $110.00 then. I still have that set The engine has been repainted to RGS # 20 and the cars repainted for RGS.  We have resently changed out are track from a mix of LGB and Aristocraft brass to all aristo stainless. I am well aware of the fact I will not be able to run all my trains at the same time. With the space I've been aloted for my trains and about 400' of dispaly shelfs on the wall's  I mite get them all out of the box's. I would estimate the value of my collection in the range of $15,000-18,000 at todays prices. REMEMBER I have been collecting for over 16 years. I all so found a old MANTUA General Kit in HO, no Box but the kit is complet. The move starts 31 Aug 06.

I CAN'T WAIT TO LOAD UP.

[dwbeckett]

http://community.webshots.com/album/184959078dplhyD

The above site Has way more then I do and is worth checking out

Dave

[Anonymous]

That's one of the sites I saw....this guy (person) must have thousands upon thousands invested!!!! The detail is the best I've seen anywhere!!!

 

dan

 

[skeenapac]

NEVER!!

[piercedan]

Did you not know that he who dies with the most toys wins!!!!!!!!!





But win what?????????

[Anonymous]

You may have way too many, but you will never have enough!

Frank

[wchasr]

I'm absolutely positive that I have way too much. Having just moved to a new house myself I'm certain alos that this willbe the last move for a while and I'll be relatively set to lay some track here. Took several trips to transport all the "equipment" to the new house and I still have some in storage as well.The last inventory was done about 10 years ago and is so incomplete at this point as to be useless. I do need to do another and am awaiting the purchase of a laptop to help me do it as even now the trains are in two buildings. Some in the shed and some in the workshop. Will some go away? Sure there are some things I purchased in haste that don't fit my scheme or cannot otherwise be rationalized. Still others will be kept for sentimental value more than anything else. Still more await purchase! Yes things can be expensive but they also can be budgetted for.

 

Good luck with your move!

 

Chas

[dwbeckett]

The move is in it's final stages all but one of my 1:20 2-8-0 is moved ( the one my wife gave Me) Its been lettered for thr DNRR # 519 (anniversary date) named NANCYANNE (wife). My wife broke her ankle on the day we picked up the new keys did a good job of it, she will be in a wheel chair for about 10-12 weeks. So the move has been on me. So is keeping up the two house's and the wash and working nights too YES what she did every day.. Progress on the new DNRR is slow, have most of my storage under the layout sent up and gained 4' wide by 6' deep by 6' high back part of under the stairs for big box stuff. Seem's like every the we have ordered for the new house come's the worng color or missing parts or has to be assembled. not as much time as I thougt I would .