renew h o

[tatans]

Just returned to h o and a few things I can't grasp, I've been to the LHS and the customers seem to be around 87 years old and they are spending money like drunken sailors buying every brass item in the shop, can there be that many lotto winners? Another phenom i'm hearing, and I've heard 3 stories is the old guys who die and had 300 or 600 brass engines stored away, can this be true or are they urban myths? I did buy an engine on an online auction and this guy had hundreds of engines in deplorable condition, would anyone that has more than 6 engines fit into this category? Can anyone tell me if this is what I can expect in the future? Will I be found in 20 years under a huge pile of brass engines still in their original boxes, is there any hope for me? Keith

[Anonymous]

Yup, sorry mate, that's your fate. Don't worry though, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together.

[Anonymous]

LOL, interesting thoughts, but no, in 20 years you'll be found under a pile of high priced Plastic models instead.

oh and welcome to the forums. [:)]

Jay

[cacole]

Your profile doesn't say where you live, but my guess is that it must be near one of the Seizure World communities, aka Leisure World. The nearest hobby shop to me is 70 miles away in Tucson, Arizona. I have never seen anything near what you describe. There's only one hobby shop in Tucson that carries brass locomotives, and most of them are on consignment. I think most of them have been there for 10 years or more now, and hardly anyone even looks at them.

You must live near retired doctors or lawyers instead of "real people." I don't own, nor will I ever purchase, anything brass. I looked at an unused brass locomotive one day that a local woman was trying to sell. It was an Akane locomotive that had been made around the 1960's in Japan, and had never been out of the box. It was falling apart because the solder that was used when it was assembled was no good and had deteriorated. That convinced me to never purchase brass.

[BRAKIE]

Yes,I know a collector that has over 3,500 HO brass and plastic locomotives and still buys them..He's a ripe old age of 68..Now when he dies what will become of his mass collection?

[Anonymous]

Wow... three thousand five-hundred engines, all at least $100, maybe $1000 for brass?! How do people get enough money to be able to spend that much on a hobby?
That's when you have too much money to know what to do with it all.[:O][wow]

[AntonioFP45]

To "paraphrase" a quote: Hobby purchases can be good, when excercising moderation (and some old fashioned common sense).

Owning hundreds of even thousands of model locomotives, brass or plastic doesn't seem to make sense unless the hobbyist's aspect is "collecting locomotive models" instead of "model railroading. BTW: When would a modeler be able to run all of those locomotives?

[Jetrock]

Thing is, brass DID NOT always cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Go take a look at old issues of MR. In the fifties, sixties, even seventies, a brass engine cost around $30-50. Brass was more common back when plastic modeling technology wasn't advanced enough to produce really high-quality models.

I own three brass pieces--two Birney streetcars and a Baldwin-Westinghouse steeplecab. All three, together, cost me $300, and I have purchased all three in the past year and a half. While it's possible to spend a lot on brass, it's not strictly necessary.

And yes, actually, many people DO simply collect locomotive models, sometimes in conjunction with model railroading, sometimes just because it's something they like to do. This happens in many hobbies--I know plenty of gun owners who own a far larger number of firearms than they are likely to ever need for hunting, target shooting and home defense combined--they keep buying them because they like guns and enjoy their collection. A model railroader who enjoys collecting engines, and who has the means to do so, is in the same boat.

It's not the path I would choose--not having the means, and not really being that much of a collector. But I'd say it was a VERY common malady of model railroaders to own more rolling stock than they can actually fit on their layouts, either constructed or still un-built.

Speaking for myself, even though I consider myself pretty frugal, I own more rolling stock (built or not) than I could fit, end-to-end, over every inch of track on my six-foot shelf layout!! About half of said rolling-stock isn't even built yet, or needs "just a little work" before being road-worthy. Of course, I do plan on at least quadrupling my current layout space--but even then, I probably have enough rolling-stock and motive power, right now, to keep me busy and railroading for another decade or so, without having to buy another kit (aside from upgrading with Kadee couplers and Intermountain wheelsets, etc...)!

But I'll probably buy more rolling stock in the next decade anyhow. Just because it's fun.

[cacole]

Jetrock -- while it's true that brass locomotives cost only $30-$60 in the fifties, sixties, and into the seventies, what was your income back then? Mine was $10 a week when I was working as a printer on weekly newspapers, and "jumped" to $30 per month after I was drafted into the Army. Comparatively speaking, those prices for brass were equivalent to today's $1,000+ brass prices.