Keeping That Feeling of Brand New After Buying Model Trains

[MARTIN STATION]

wjstix wrote the following post 3 hours ago:

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"I think the OP may be referring to...not sure what it's called, but maybe it could be called the "kid on Christmas syndrome"? You wait excitedly for months for the toy you want for Christmas, but then after the holidays end the excitement wears off."

 What is the saying? "Having is not near as much fun as getting". It's the thrill of the hunt. Once the trophy game is bagged and mounted, it's on to the next hunt.

 But I believe this is more for collectors, in model railroading I think I try to always focus on the big picture. Sure we all have our favorites: motive power, rolling stock, scenery or scratch building, but each one is still just a part of the whole. When I get to where I'm focusing too much on one, it's time to move on to something else.

Ralph

[wjstix]

I think the OP may be referring to...not sure what it's called, but maybe it could be called the "kid on Christmas syndrome"? You wait excitedly for months for the toy you want for Christmas, but then after the holidays end the excitement wears off.

Not sure how much that applies to our hobby though? Yes it's fun to buy a new engine, but I generally buy engines to use on my layout. The RS-11s that I bought to haul iron ore trains are as much fun to run now as they were a decade ago. I suppose the engines I bought that have been updated with sound decoders may help keep them 'new', I do use my c.1988 GP-30 now more that I updated it with a new motor and sound decoder etc.

[dknelson]

I think I understand the OP's point - that there is a certain pure enjoyment in the aquisition of something nice that you need or want.  Whether it releases endorphins or not I cannot say.  The longer you can retain that feeling of pleasure the better able you'll be at being able to have some control over your budget, rather than just robotically buy new for the sake of buying.  If the newness itself is part of the pleasure, how can you keep that feeling going.

Not unlike the excitement avid gardeners feel with each January's seed catalogs, the interest wine collectors have in learning what vintages or vinyards have produced this year's "it" wines, or the excitement golfers and fishermen feel when the magazines aimed at their hobbies talk about the latest products and developments.  It is possible for all those hobbies to say "enough is enough, I need nothing new" but somehow that feels sort of like moving down a notch in full involvement.

The advertisements for back issues of Model Railroader and Trains used to have the slogan "Every Magazine is New Until You've Read It" and I think that same notion applies to the models and other "stuff" we buy as well.  The stuff does not have to be newly released.  Indeed maybe the strongest feelings of pleasure come when you find something at a train show that you've been looking for for years and finally you've found it, even if it is just a small detail part.  A modest example, for years I had a nearly complete collection of North Western Lines, the quarterly magazine of the C&NW Historical Society that goes back to the mid 1970s, but was missing two issues from back before I was a member/subscriber.  I found both at a train show being sold by a well known vendor, Teskey's Trains, whose prices are reasonable.  I'd been looking for so long.  Similar experience with certain structure kits - finally finding one is a very enjoyable experience particularly if the price is also good.

Many years ago in Model Railroader Jim Findley had a column about his experiences building a layout in Korea.  He once told about buying a brass 4-6-2 and then anticipating all the small changes he intended to make to the locomotibe.  I think that is one way to retain the feeling of pleasure in buying something new.  Let's give as an example a Kadee PS-1 boxcar, which costs enough to feel like an "event" at least it does to me.  What details would you change, what improvements, what weathering or additional decaling?  What customers will you route it to on the layout, what would the four cycle waybill for it say?  Thinking about those things (even if you conclude no details need be added) can keep the feeling of "newness" alive for some time.

If that is what the OP is wondering about then I think there are clear paths to keeping the feeling alive for some time in this hobby, more than in many hobbies.  For a golfer to buy a new box of golf balls is a "meh" moment: so what?  We have other purposes for our stuff.  And there are even moments where no money is involved that are pleasurable, such as finally finding a long-missing fact or map or photo that is part of prototype research.  The "aha!" moment is its own reward.

Dave Nelson  

 

[riogrande5761]

Sounds like an issue counselling would help with. Are their any model trains anonymous groups?

[mbinsewi]

mobilman44

I confess I'm at a loss as to what the OP's purpose is with this thread. 

Mike.

[mobilman44]

I confess I'm at a loss as to what the OP's purpose is with this thread.  As said, anything I get I didn't have before is NEW to me.  And with time, everything NEW to me will not be NEW.

Like buying a new truck.....once you drive it off the lot, it is USED!

 

[NorthBrit]

I do not think I could keep that feeling of brand new, unless running them counts.

With a fleet of nearly 60 diesel locomotives (many are over 40 years old)  they all have a part to play in being run on train services.  Off course I look after them; they have to be ready to perform their next turn of duty.

 

David

[selector]

I have a modest stable of about 24 locomotives, only three of which are duplicates.  No, four, the fourth being a pair of Genesis SD-75M's.  So as to keep the zip in them, I rotate them on an off the layout every few weeks.  I can go almost two years without seeing the same locomotive twice.  When I reach into my cupboard and extract a box, it's like a brand new introduction all over again.

[Autonerd]

SeeYou190

With only two exceptions, I cannot remember the last time an announcement of something new actually made me want to purchase it.

I died a little inside when Rapido announced the Amtrak turbo trains. I used to ride those (I believe it was the Niagara Rainbow) when I was a kid. But at a grand for the set, it ain't gonna happen!

Aaron

[SeeYou190]

Engi1487

I have found myself, and others having this feeling, buying the latest thing with the reasurching thought that we will have use for it down the line, should we actully start layout down the first lines of track on our layouts.

With only two exceptions, I cannot remember the last time an announcement of something new actually made me want to purchase it.

The Rapido PENNSYLVANIA X-31 boxcars are the only new release in over a year that I had any desire to own.

Before that, it was the Walthers Cornerstone Art Deco overpass.

I am obviously not the target audience for new model railroading products.

-Kevin

[Autonerd]

Interesting question!

I belong to a club (now a museum, actually) with a 'UGE layout so I tend to go for quantity rather than quality. But boy, does the quantity add up fast!

My budget does not allow for much buying new, or maybe I don't allow it to allow for that. I can't see paying $300 for a locomotive. So a lot of what I buy is new-old-stock (i.e. Proto blue box), or items that are on sale at TrainWorld or Walthers.

That makes collecting a bit more of a challenge, but also good fun. I wanted a Phase I Amtrak train, but didn't want to spend $80 per car, so I took my time, kept an eye on the sales, went to train shows, checked in on hobby shops as I traveled. Took 2 or 3 years but I ended up with the train I wanted, including a pair of Proto Es to pull it. (I'm still adding cars as I find them.)

And sometimes I get -really- lucky. A few years back Walthers put its Amtrak Proto Hi-Level cars on sale for $22-$23 each. I got a set of 6 cars for less than the retail cost of two! I can run it as a six-car train, or add my Amtrak Heritage fleet cars for a Southwest Limited. A friend at the club found me a pair of Athearn SDP40Fs on the cheap. This train-building fever is contagious!

I can't always find what I want, but I can often learn to want what I find. I stumbled on a great deal on old Proto 1000 Erie-Builts. Read up on Fairbanks-Morse and fell in love. Wound up with an A-B-A set of Eries, plus an A-B-A set of C-Liners with an extra pair of shells in a different paint scheme. 

How do I keep it new? One way is I rotate. The freight cars stay on the club layout, but I rotate my locomotives and especially my passenger trains. I'm about to pull my heavyweight NYC off the club layout and put on that aforementioned Amtrak Phase I train. It hasn't run in about two years so it'll be new to me!

I also look for different combinations of the same equipment. I mentioned running my Amtrak cars either together with Es or with the Hi-Levels and SDPs. I'm working on a NYC Budd train (Mainline cars modified with grab irons and people). It's not done, but I can combine a couple of its coaches with a PC green sleeper and bag and a just-acquired NYC grille car (Thank you Ed GMPullman!) and my PC Bachmann GG1 (on sale at TrainWorld), and hey presto, it's a just-post-merger Penn Central train!

Likewise, a friend just passed away and left me his mostly-correct 1948 20th Century Limited. We've been running it on the club layout for ages. By pulling the lounge, adding one of my Great Silver Fleet coaches, a Slumbercoach (thanks again, Ed!), and maybe a silver 10-6, and swapping one of the E7s for an E8, now I've got a 1960 20th Century limited. Or the Century's sleepers can mingle with my Budds, and now I've got a nice generic NYC train from the 50s-60s. A diner and heavyweight baggage cars puts it in the 1950s; fewer sleepers, a grille instead of a full diner, more head end cars (including FlexiVans) and a cigar band shell on an E-unit chassis puts it in the 1960s.  All new trains to me!

Aaron

[Engi1487]

mbinsewi

Well, good for you!  I'm glad you have that all figured out!  

Show us the layouts you've built, the rolling stock you have aquired and running, the rolling stock and locomotives you have rebuilt,  converted to DCC and detailed,  the structures you have scratchbuilt and kit bashed.

ANYTHING you buy or aquire from whatever means, that you didn't have before, is NEW to you.

Show us all of the stuff you have bought and modeled, to keep it "new" ?

Mike.

 

⁸

Im time I will Mike, as I have other life matters to attend to in these times of global pandemic sickness.

[mbinsewi]

Well, good for you!  I'm glad you have that all figured out!  

Show us the layouts you've built, the rolling stock you have aquired and running, the rolling stock and locomotives you have rebuilt,  converted to DCC and detailed,  the structures you have scratchbuilt and kit bashed.

ANYTHING you buy or aquire from whatever means, that you didn't have before, is NEW to you.

Show us all of the stuff you have bought and modeled, to keep it "new" ?

Mike.

[Engi1487]

Hello everyone,

In the hobby of model railroading, its sibling hobby model kit building, and in other hobbies, recreational activities and other aspects of life, that feeling of something new that is available for sale is always there that desire for that that new thing, and the desire to buy new.

In model railroading this is no acception, as seeing that new announcment or release of new rolling stock, locomotives, kits etc. I have found myself, and others having this feeling, buying the latest thing with the reasurching thought that we will have use for it down the line, should we actully start layout down the first lines of track on our layouts.

 There are many locomotives I admire, and have come to realize I do, such as the N&W Y6Bs, after seeing that "Pillars of Smoke In The Sky," preview video of a N&W vintage footage DVD on youtube, showcasing steam power on the N&W on the blue ridge.

 I saw for the new January 2021 run of Broadway Limited Imports HO scale N&W Y6Bs, they have one road numbered #2194 I like as 1994 was my birth, and a fantasy N&W blue livery Y6B. I do like collecting what I know I like, as some of my favourite model railroading youtubers such as Sam'sTrains and jlwii2000, enjoy collecting all sorts of locomotives no matter what era, and even a layout of their own to compine them.

 I have learned to self disapline as to not buy everything that I see, new or used, and have asked myself a few questions to help me, and I feel this could help others as well such as.

• What is it about the real life prototype I like and admire, other then its cool looking?
• Will I haul model versions of its original era matching rolling stock or modern?
• Will I find a good use for this. An example would be an older diesel or steam locomotive hauling excursions or, just being used for switching regardless of real world regulations.

 However, with anything new, that feeling of brand newness will wear off with time, no matter how well you maintance your models or how accurate and up to date the tooling is.

 So how can we still keep that small feeling of having something new? I found I have the same feeling buying good condion used rolling stock & equipment at a model trian show, and on the various Facebook model train seller pages.