1st off ...if you have too many rolling stock just send em to me.
2nd tim the toolman taylor rule of life "there is nothing to big that it cannot be made better by being made bigger"
3rd if I ever feel that I have too much rolling stock then bury me cause i must be dead
I think that there is possibly a very simple answer to this and it's no! This is because I don't think it is for me to say if somebody's collection of stuff is too much.
But, here is where I will attempt to complicate the matter
If a model train enthusiest has a big sky approach to his hobby with a budget to match, storage and family objections present no impediment and his collecting rational is - I buy everything I like - then that modeler/collector/enthusiast will never have too many models. If the opposite is true and his collecting has gotten away on him and this has become a personal concern, then it may be time to re-appraise your collecting rational - but, once again it's a matter of personal choice and circumstance.
My experience is that because I model one prototype road in a specific place and time, then those factors in themselves has the effect of detremining what models I buy. Not being keen on operation - more in the craft of building models and scenery then I don't have a problem now of aquiring more models than I need or want. Having said that, I believe that my roster of freight cars is weighted too heavily with home-road cars and I should really swap them out for cars that are more representitive of any given mixed freight drag.
Out of around fifteen locomotives - both steam and diesel - only three are not what was used by my prototype - one is a Heisler, there is a two truck Shay and a V&T ten wheeler. These a from a time when I was going to include a logging scene on my layout, but I've changed that now to a harbor instead.
Humpf, now I may have too many boats
Bruce
hcc25rl Simple answer, HELL NO!
Simple answer, HELL NO!
Nice answer.
Will
What I see here is several people with a lack of control.
Last weekend I picked up an Athearn SD60I with sound. Don't know why but it looks like it will consist with a couple of AC6000's I have.
Since then I've decided that I'll order one of the upcoming MTH SD70Ace Loco's. That will be the last and I really mean it this time
Springfield PA
Well…It’s the double edged sword sort of thing, I think.
The short answer is most likely NO…But then again, if you have so many that it requires numorius cyles to get them on the layout, than the answer may be a YES. Unless…You have unlimited funds, you really love collecting, it just doesn’t matter if a car only gets to the pike once a year (or less), or you have a REALLY BIG layout where you can actually run prototype length trains.
I say this because: My peddlers run 3 to 6 cars. My mainline freights can do (in conjunction with the size of the Trainroom, length of the sidings and the distance between modeled scenes on the layout) 12 maybe 14 cars.
You mean you shouldn't be able to have all your cars on the layout, notch the loco up and realize that you don't have slack because the lead loco's front coupler is firmly pushing the rear coupler of the last car/caboose?
Dan
Let me put it this way: if you have eight passing sidings on your layout and you can only run one train at a time because those sidings are all clogged with standing freight trains YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY TOO MUCH ROLLING STOCK!
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
R. T. POTEET Let me put it this way: if you have eight passing sidings on your layout and you can only run one train at a time because those sidings are all clogged with standing freight trains YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY TOO MUCH ROLLING STOCK!
Or modeling a down turn economy and storing cars for a fee.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
BRAKIE R. T. POTEET Let me put it this way: if you have eight passing sidings on your layout and you can only run one train at a time because those sidings are all clogged with standing freight trains YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY TOO MUCH ROLLING STOCK! Or modeling a down turn economy and storing cars for a fee.
That would be another excuse for collecting according to some
Me? I'd be saying I'm modelling according to my prototype!! So there--HHAAARRRRUUUMPH!!
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/
I've currently got 11 locomotives and around 50 cars ( I don't keep an exact count to be honest. ) which were purchased to reflect the mix of equipment that I think my "proto-lance" early 70's layout would need. That is, of course, tempered by my likes & dislikes as well.
Kits get built when bought, or shortly thereafter, as that is a large part of my "enjoyment" of the hobby.
My switching layout can comfortably accomodate about 25% of my equipment at any given time. Cars get switched out and moved off to storage on a regular basis.
Every car gets on the layout and gets run. No closet queens in my collection. Every wheel is turned.
The question "Too much?" is answerable only on an individual basis. Fortunately that is exactly how we as hobbyists are answering it.
Mark Gosdin
Penncentral R. T. POTEET Let me put it this way: if you have eight passing sidings on your layout and you can only run one train at a time because those sidings are all clogged with standing freight trains YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY TOO MUCH ROLLING STOCK! Unless modeling a post merger meltdown. lol Otherwise you are correct.
How right you are! How right you are!
On a trip through extreme West Texas in December, 1997--right after the Onion Specific acquired the Sufferin' Pathetic--I never saw one UP freight moving; I sure saw a lot of them sitting idly on sidings however. I was almost into Monahans before I ever saw a moving train.
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
Agreed, Andy, One can have closets full of cars, if that's what he wants, but any yard that is between 50% and 70% loaded is clogged beyond its usefull capacity. A yard is for classifying cars and getting trains out, and for that it must remain fluid! John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Yes, you can.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Of course you can. That's part of the fun of this hobby.
If you're not a pack rat take up golf.
Enjoy
Paul
We have a guy in my club that does nothing more than build car kits...all to exact NMRA standards...he has somewhere catalogged 3-5 thousand pieces of rolling stock...no duplicate #'s anywhere...and about 1000 pieces of motive...most sound and dcc equipped...don't forget the passenger sets...too many....all with no home layout....I always joke about the fact he could model North Platte...
A true friend will not bail you out of jail...he will be sitting next to you saying "that was friggin awesome dude!" Tim...Modeling the NYC...is there any other?
Yes, I have too many freight cars, but I need more.
The planned layout has a capacity of 100 to 120 cars. I recently took an inventory of unbuilt and built freight cars and found I have about 160 on hand, and am still accumulating. Nevertheless, my goal includes having more cars than the layout's capacity so I can rotate rolling stock on/off the layout for variety, especially for the "oddballs."
I need more single-sheathed box cars as well as some NP and SP&S box cars to fill in the "holes" so the car pool will be representative of the period and place being modeled.
I do have too many flat cars and tank cars, too many foreign non-box cars (in my modeled era and location, foreign cars consist of 90% box cars), one duplicate car, and a small number of out-of-era cars. I've already donated some to a local club and will donate more and make as gifts another 30 cars so someone can make better use of them.
Anyway, taking the inventory was a useful tool in creating a "rational" car fleet.
Mark
For those of us modeling on a budget, the question answers itself. There may be lots of stuff out there we want, but we have to focus on what we can afford.
I'm in the process of building a small sectional layout (6x12) based loosely on the Seaboard Coast Line's Jacksonville Subdivision circa late 1970. If I can ultimately reach a fleet of 100-150 freight cars, 20-25 passenger cars, 15-20 freight locos and two passenger locos, I'll be a happy camper, and will have more than enough equipment to keep a steady and varied flow of trains running on my layout.
Of course, if I ever win the Powerball, all bets are off!
Bill
IRONROOSTER If you're not a pack rat take up golf.
Model railroading > golf.
My neighbor across the street recently died suddenly. Relatives descended on the house to get what they wanted but the vast majority of my neighbor's hobby and collection of stuff was simply dumped in the trash.
Something to think about when you have way too much stuff. Jim
I might suppose how you define the word "collector". I have a lot of rolling stock, but find myself constantly up-grading my buying. An example of this woiuld be I have a lot of Athearn rolling stock, but will possibly never run it again. In the process of "collecting" (I do not consider myself a collector), I have changed my likes to kits such as Funaro and Camerlengo, Tichy, Branchline, Intermountain and Red Caboose (if you can find those two) kits, etc, etc..
I do not consider my self in any way a snob; I just am constantly improving what I have. I get a great deal of enjoyment out of the challenge of building a "hard" kit, and wouldn't part with that feeling for the world.
My layout is in the process of being rebuilt, but will I run the Athearn stuff again? Probably, although I, like others, will reach a point where I will cull out my "collection" (menage) to what appeals to me individually, and the Athearn Roundhouse, etc level of product will have to go, and that will be soon, I am sure.
One observation might be that one might get more enjoyment out of watching a string of higher level models behind a small engine, and one might just get as much out of that as the rest. The naked ape is, after all, a unique beask.
Yellowjacket EF3
Welcome John.
A member since 2013 and this is your first post?
Ya'know, if you would've posted earlier, and more often since 2013, you won't have needed to let it all out in one long sentence... to make up for it all...
Joking around John. You could have started your own thread on rolling stock, instead of digging up a 10 yr. old thread. There is a current thread about "Too many locomotives?" (which is immpossible to achive).
Welcome to the forums, don't be shy...
Mike.
My You Tube
"Can you ever have too much Rolling Stock"
No, not in my opinion. Until the day you realize you have a serious compulsve spending disorder on e-bay and put the brakes on for a while
TF
What do you do when you fill all your storage tracks and staging, and you've got enough in your yards to be practical? Having engines and rolling stock buried on shelves or in boxes does not appeal to me.
I really have two sets of locos, rolling stock and even vehicles, so I can be in either the 1960s or 1930s. So, it's already more than I need.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasleyWhat do you do when you fill all your storage tracks and staging, and you've got enough in your yards to be practical?
Fill up drawers, Tupperware containers, some will fit in the box they came in, pretty much where ever or in what ever you can come up with.
Wait! Are we talking about completed RTR rolling stock? or the 2 Tupperware boxes I have of kits, yet to be built?
I'm thinking my next project may be a wall display of some kind with some tracks to display (and store) some cars that won't fit on the layout.
York1 John
mbinsewi MisterBeasley What do you do when you fill all your storage tracks and staging, and you've got enough in your yards to be practical? Fill up drawers, Tupperware containers
MisterBeasley What do you do when you fill all your storage tracks and staging, and you've got enough in your yards to be practical?
Fill up drawers, Tupperware containers
3.99 when on sale at Harbor Freight for N scalers.
Felt .29 a sheet at wallmart.