Have high gas prices affected your participation in the hobby?

[Anonymous]

It would be nice to think that our high taxes in the UK on petrol would help fund the public transport, unfortunately not. Governments over the years have sold everything off - supposedly to keep taxes down! - and now everything is in private hands and profit based. It took several rail accidents and many deaths to force them to put the rail track system back into the public (semi) domain after years of neglect. I don't know about our wages being any better, the national minimum wage is £5 per hour but our cost of living is way over the rest of Europe on everything from food to new cars. House prices here are very high, we bought late in life on a short mortgage and we pay £850 per month. How do I afford this RR??
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[vsmith]

Train wise, I already got enough "stuff" to last me a while, in the meantime gas here is shooting close to or over $3/gallon. I starting to use the Metrorail to come to work takes a little longer time wise but $3 round trip a day fares -vs- $6 gas round trip car commuting. doesnt take to much think'un to figure that one out.

Wife is really starting to push on restoring our old Honda N600 Sedan thats been languishing in the backyard since I found it a couple years ago. If we can get that restored, i'll use it for the commuter.

[ttrigg]

cacole;

To give you and others an idea of how much taxes other contries pay in the gasoline bill, check this out. Before I retired from the Army, I was stationed in Germany. We were authorized to purchase "coupon" books for so many 100 liters of gas, in a tax exempt status. It worked out that I was paying about thirteen cents a liter for gas with a coupon. If I paid cash for it cost me almost $1.25 per liter, and that was when the Dollar was worth 4.25 Duetchmark (1972). In 1974 the exchange rate droped to 1.50DM to the $1. I think the exchange rate is even worse now. Do the math, gas was about fifty cents a gallon tax exempt, $4.60 per gallon after tax, and that was 30 years ago, how much more has it gone up since then. But, YES, you could get anywhere in Europe that you wanted to go in a most timely mannar using their Bus, Streetcars, U-bahn (subway), or Trains. And if the schedule said your were to arrive at 19:45 hours, you could rest assured the train (or whatever) would pull in and stop somewhere between 19:44:30 and 19:45:30. That is plus or minus 30 seconds from scheduled time. That is an EXTREAMLY effient mass transit system.

[AtlasGP9]

The railroad is pretty darned important-- more so than a lot of trips- my response to high gas prices has been to be a lot more careful about ganging trips together. So a trip to the hobby shop may get linked with a trip to the dump and a berry picking session because they all involve driving to the other side of town. We are also lucky enough to live near lots of shopping so that we just include daily necessities and groceries in our daily walk. Or sometimes a second walk. good for our health too.
So I'm not complaining-- just driving smarter.


Hugh

[Tom The Brat]

Well... I might not go out to Cozad's next month...

[cacole]

People seem to forget that the prices paid in other countries are mostly taxes that pay for their excellent rail and other public transit systems, which we don't have in the U.S. If we had taxes on gasoline equivalent to what is charged in Germany or France, our gasoline would be close to $10 per gallon; maybe more.

I remember gassing up in France in 1977 and the prices on the pumps was marked as "X4," meaning that whatever showed as the price you had to multiply by 4 to figure out how much you actually owed. As near as I recall, the price was something like $3 per liter, or close to $12 per gallon.

[GP-9_Man11786]

QUOTE: Originally posted by kimbrit

We are now paying a few cents under $7 a gallon, please don't moan to much about your prices, your petrol is dirt cheap.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

That is a LOT of money. But then again how do UK wages compare to US wages. On average I was taking home $150 a week this summer. Out of that it would cost me $35 to fill up. That's nearly 1/3 of my pay spent on gas. Believe me, we have plenty to moan about. Thyank God I drive a Camry which gets 30 MPG on the highway.

[tangerine-jack]

Interesting, Kim. We have a thing going around encouraging people to buy from Esso and BP, ostensibly because they use no Middle East oil, hence a purchace from them doesn't sponsor terrorism.

I was working for Exxon during the time of the Valdez spill and all the boycotting that followed. Did it hurt Exxon? H#@LL NO! Exxon has the patent on gasoline, safety glass, asphalt and a thousand other products and services everybody uses every day. That year they still managed to squeak by financialy with a $27 billion profit.

In any case, I buy BP, it seems to run better in my Triumph![;)]LOL!





[oX)]

[Anonymous]

We are now paying a few cents under $7 a gallon, please don't moan to much about your prices, your petrol is dirt cheap.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

It looks as though we could be paying a few cents over $7 a gallon by the end of this week. An interesting idea is being e-mailed around in this country, the message is don't buy petrol/diesel from Esso or BP. They help with the control of petrol prices in the UK so don't buy from them and make them overstocked. Same idea as if nobody bought a new car for a month.................

[ttrigg]

NOPE! Made a large purchase last spring, got enough to do the total plan and some that "she who must be obeyed" (wife) had approved of in its concept. I may need a switch or two in the next couple of months but track, I've got 500 feet of "flex" track and the matching ties yet to open. When "she who must be obeyed" speaks, I listen and do exactly as she says!!!!!!! Besides the GRR is just as much her idea as it was mine. Actually she has spent more time "driving" her train around the loop than I have.[;)]

[Anonymous]

Yes, I am having to expend valuable teacher pay on gas that would go for trains. Its a sheer show down.

Read my take on it at by blog...

http://captthreadsters.blogspot.com/2005/08/economic-fuel-prices-may-fuel-collapse.html

I do not wi***o pollute this forum with talk of petrolium economics.

[tangerine-jack]

I'm with Capt Bob, more time at home to play trains! What I can't get at my LHS (3 miles away) I mail order anyway.......................



[oX)]

[RhB_HJ]

Yes and no,


Less railfanning, but more work on projects.

Now, you guys are complaining about $2.00 gas, North of the Border we currently pay $3 to 3.10 for Regular (all figures US$!). To level the playing field our government really should apply a 50% export tax on oil and gas. [;)][}:)][:)][;)]

Of course we also hear interviews with guys who just bought a Hummer (in Downtown Toronto, no less) and complain about the price of gas.

And then there's the Europeans, they managed to build more efficient cars with smaller engines, precisely because the 1973 oil shock made them wake up in a hurry.
Looks like it's time for NA, too. [;)][:)][;)]

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Nope! Causes more time to stay home and play with my trains!

[tmcc man]

I am still thanking the Big Man upstairs that i still cannot drive. I will not be able to drive till i am 18.

[cacole]

The high gasoline prices have curbed my trips to the only hobby shop around here that carries G-scale trains, in Tucson, Arizona, which is 70 miles one way. Unless I need to make the trip to shop at more than just the hobby shop, I wait.

[Train 284]

Ya gas is about 3 bucks here, for the highest grade its 3.09, for the lowest is about 2.90 something! it hasent stopped me though, probably cause i dont drive!

[GP-9_Man11786]

This season I was looking forward to making many improvments to my garden railway. However I soo found that all the money I was making at my summer job was going staight into my gas tank leaving nothing for my railway. It's up to $2.67 where I live. How many other people are in this same boat?