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I can remember back when I first got into model railroading in the early 80s I could go out and buy whatever I wanted or needed for my layout with little financial strain, and that was even as a teenager making a measally $4.70 an hour working part time at the local supermarket after school and on weekends. Hell, back then, even the 'real' things in life were cheap, gas was only $0.60 a gallon, a pack of cigarettes was under a dollar and I could take my girlfriend (who is now my wife) out to dinner at the local pizza parlor and to a movie for under $20.00! <br />Back then, when I was 15, me and a few buddies had a 8' X 8' HO scale layout in my parent's basement. It wasn't modeled after any road in particular, it was just a bunch of track, a few trains, and some buildings that were either kit or scratch built. A fun week-end for us was getting together, spending a few hours working on our cars in my parent's garage (we were hot-rodders too) and killing the rest of the night working on the lay-out. Our parents liked it cuz we weren't hanging out getting in trouble, and it was a time for us to just hang out and have a good time. As we got older, other interests came along, such as girls, and we stopped spending as much time on the lay-out. <br />When I moved out and got married at 19, my parents took the layout apart, boxed the track and trains and junked the rest. It sat in a box until about a year ago when I started getting back into them. Now, I find it a very expensive hobby and like many others, I can't always afford to get what I need or want for it. Other things take priority, like supporting my wife and children, paying the bills, and all the other usual expenses. What I find myself doing now is, when I have extra money to blow on the trains, I look for used locos and rolling stock and spend the time on repairing or fixing em up. I scratch build all of my buildings (I use stuff like old CD and cassette cases, popsicle sticks, and the like) and they come out just as nice as a store bought kit, sometimes even better. I look at it like this: it may be an expensive hobby, but, there are always ways around having to spend top dollar to get an end result that looks top dollar.
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