If you have it and want it, its not too much.
grizlump9wow, i never thought this would turn into a right vs. wrong think
I didn't think we were debating whether this was a right versus wrong thing. I though we were debating whether too much stuff was a curse or not a curse.
Say, who was it that called too much stuff a curse in the first place? (LOL)
In my time doing the antiqueing thing--running a business in it even, I've run into a lot of collectors. A lot of them will be quite down on themselves for doing this--probs get people bouncing on them for what they have---and others who are quite fond of their hobby. One guy that I know has over 1500 Transistor radios. His collection does not look the least bit crowded.
I think it comes down to how you put it together. If you have an "overabundance" I'd say get some display cases and show them. Don't hide them in a back room. I show mine in some old barrister bookcases. With locks so that our little fellow in my avatar keeps his little paws off of them. All the kits that are still in their boxes can be displayed as color spots in some areas in the home----all kinds of ways to display them----
Quite frankly, I think the idea of having "Too Much" stuff necessitates a "Stuff-o-meter" that will objectively tell one whether that is so or not. Any comments to you about whether you have too much comes off more as the ravings of a busy body. What should it matter to them anyways?
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Too much?
Not possible - see Moore's Law, the motto of the Victorian age.
Moore's Law - If some is good, more is better, and too much is still not enough.
My Wife and I have a plan, our wills read "being of sound mind and body we spent it all".
Sheldon
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Too much? Not possible - see Moore's Law, the motto of the Victorian age. Moore's Law - If some is good, more is better, and too much is still not enough. My Wife and I have a plan, our wills read "being of sound mind and body we spent it all". Sheldon
That may have been the reason some designers started pushing for "Less is more"
Like MR's new slogan: Dream Plan Build. I have the dream and I'm gathering stuff for it. Hopefully I have enough time left to plan and build the BIG one. But even if I don't, the dreaming has been fun. Plus I got some really neat stuff to play with along the way.
Enjoy
Paul
What all model railroading "STUFF ADDICTS" need is to listen to George Carlin's comedy routine about: STUFF!
For example: George discussed how he had too much stuff. So, he built a garage to hold all of his car stuff, But, he soon realized that he could transfer stuff from the house to surround his car stuff. George then had to build a bigger garage to hold -- guess what? -- His stuff!
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
tgindy What all model railroading "STUFF ADDICTS" need is to listen to George Carlin's comedy routine about: STUFF! For example: George discussed how he had too much stuff. So, he built a garage to hold all of his car stuff, But, he soon realized that he could transfer stuff from the house to surround his car stuff. George then had to build a bigger garage to hold -- guess what? -- His stuff!
I was thinking about that the whole time I was reading this thread. Seriously though a couple ideas I've heard of to get some use out of older pieces ofequipment that are too old for your era would be to set up a small railroad museum or historical display somewhere on the layout. You could also model a deadline such as outside a rebuilding shop like Larry's Truck & Electric.
While I posted this somewhat in jest at this whole thread, I have become more of a "stuff" gatherer now with the "limited" production model of marketing in use by the manufacturers.
I do have a lot of stuff, built and unbuilt, but all of it has a very particular role in my current and future layout plans.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL ATLANTIC CENTRAL Too much? Not possible - see Moore's Law, the motto of the Victorian age. Moore's Law - If some is good, more is better, and too much is still not enough. My Wife and I have a plan, our wills read "being of sound mind and body we spent it all". Sheldon While I posted this somewhat in jest at this whole thread, I have become more of a "stuff" gatherer now with the "limited" production model of marketing in use by the manufacturers. I do have a lot of stuff, built and unbuilt, but all of it has a very particular role in my current and future layout plans. Sheldon
I knew where that was coming from. The idea here is that one does need to do this with the eye on why you'd need it and plan the purchases around that---That is a good way of working around those so called STUFF issues--Have a good one--
Regarding my previous post, below. With cabooses included, my wife's cousin has 277 HO freight cars! Wow! That's got to be as much (likely more) than what my LHS has in stock on the shelves. Unless I had a spacious basement or attic, IMHO, that would be way too much for me to maintain.
AntonioFP45 I've off sold a lot of the Blue Box cars and locomotives that I bought back in the 70s and early 80s. With my around-the-wall layout, for me owning 100 freight cars would be too "over the top". For the industries I will have, boxcars, covered and centerflow hoppers will dominate the layout. The old BBs and Roundhouse cars that I still have will be "freight train fillers". I now have about 40 freight cars and 25 passenger cars. Unless I find a P2K RF&P E8 unit on ebay, or somebody produces a U36B or SDP40f, I've decided not to purchase any more locomotives until the majority of my current fleet is DCC decoder equipped. My wife's cousin has 150+ freight cars and 40+ locomotives. . Many of them are parked on his folded dogbone layout, giving it a very crowded look. I visit him often and have seen him take locomotives that sat on a shelf or in a box for months......put it on the track and instantly present problems. IMHO, he's having difficulty keeping up with the required routine maintenance. I've seen similar problems with his car fleet. On one occasion I helped him install 30+ Kadee Coupler springs on cars that had lost them over the course of time! He couldn't understand why I shrank my fleet. I explained to him that with a huge fleet there would be a lot of Kadee couplers, trucks, axle sets, adjustments, and dust to take care of. For a lone wolf like me, an ideal fleet size is 50 freight cars max, 30 passenger cars max, and 25 locomotives. This would provide me with plenty of operational satisfaction, while keeping the required maintenance, manageable. Even though my focus now is on metalizing my passenger cars and installing DCC, I'll continue to buy a quality freight car or passenger car "here and there" from time to time, but I'm disciplining myself to maintain or stay below the numbers I described above.
I've off sold a lot of the Blue Box cars and locomotives that I bought back in the 70s and early 80s. With my around-the-wall layout, for me owning 100 freight cars would be too "over the top". For the industries I will have, boxcars, covered and centerflow hoppers will dominate the layout. The old BBs and Roundhouse cars that I still have will be "freight train fillers".
I now have about 40 freight cars and 25 passenger cars. Unless I find a P2K RF&P E8 unit on ebay, or somebody produces a U36B or SDP40f, I've decided not to purchase any more locomotives until the majority of my current fleet is DCC decoder equipped.
My wife's cousin has 150+ freight cars and 40+ locomotives. . Many of them are parked on his folded dogbone layout, giving it a very crowded look. I visit him often and have seen him take locomotives that sat on a shelf or in a box for months......put it on the track and instantly present problems. IMHO, he's having difficulty keeping up with the required routine maintenance. I've seen similar problems with his car fleet. On one occasion I helped him install 30+ Kadee Coupler springs on cars that had lost them over the course of time!
He couldn't understand why I shrank my fleet. I explained to him that with a huge fleet there would be a lot of Kadee couplers, trucks, axle sets, adjustments, and dust to take care of. For a lone wolf like me, an ideal fleet size is 50 freight cars max, 30 passenger cars max, and 25 locomotives. This would provide me with plenty of operational satisfaction, while keeping the required maintenance, manageable.
Even though my focus now is on metalizing my passenger cars and installing DCC, I'll continue to buy a quality freight car or passenger car "here and there" from time to time, but I'm disciplining myself to maintain or stay below the numbers I described above.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"