I'm a 22 year old Army officer, so definitely not retired. Pay as an officer isn't bad, but being at the start of my career and saving for my coming wedding, I definitely don't have much to spare for trains. That being said, I'm not really an active modeler at this point. I collect rolling stock when I can and focus on research and planning for the small layout I plan on starting when I get to my next duty station, Fort Hood, TX.
rambo1 I don't live in a great area either my own neighbours broke into my home once. Houses go for atleast 5 to 600.000 on my street and lots of snow to shovel in winter. I'm near work and hobby shops around i don't know what it's like living in the LA area but at least your car stays new no road salt Big Boy. rambo1..
I don't live in a great area either my own neighbours broke into my home once. Houses go for atleast 5 to 600.000 on my street and lots of snow to shovel in winter. I'm near work and hobby shops around i don't know what it's like living in the LA area but at least your car stays new no road salt Big Boy. rambo1..
Actually I did have neighbor break into my house in a different area of LA I used to live. As people from countries where life and property is not valued move in, crime goes up. There are also local gangs here that go back generations, back to WW1. Family members feel it is a badge of honor to belong to the gangs, like joining the Boy Scouts. One area for example used to be a safe haven low cost place for retired folks. Now it is incrementaly being overun by illegals and creeping gang activity as they gravitate there. There are nice areas but housing prices are very high.
It's true we don't have to worry about salt corroding our cars, but we do have to be concerned about freeways collapsing in an earthquake, or gas and water lines breaking open and now you can be cited in some communities for using too much water because of the drought.
big daydreamer Oh no. Another modeller has been held at gunpoint to buy a $300 loco and now he is bankrupt. The horror. something something Athearn RTR TBH if buying a DCC+sound Athearn Genesis CN GP38-2W was going to mean no new train stuff for 8 months, I would still buy it. It's all about where you put your priorities.
Oh no. Another modeller has been held at gunpoint to buy a $300 loco and now he is bankrupt. The horror.
something something Athearn RTR
TBH if buying a DCC+sound Athearn Genesis CN GP38-2W was going to mean no new train stuff for 8 months, I would still buy it.
It's all about where you put your priorities.
I didn't buy one. I never said I was bankrupt (far from it) and $300 on a locomotive wouldn't do it either.
What I was saying is maybe have some sympathy for people and look at why they're saying what they're saying instead of giving pithy remarks like work hard or save your pennies. Sometimes there's no amount of saving that can accomplish what you want and, maybe just maybe, you can see how much that sucks.
Or even acknowledge that maybe some of the stuff we buy is a bit ridiculous, price-wise. How companies get off charging $8 a piece for a streetlight that's basically a metal tube and a 5 cent lightbub *is* a bit...odd.
mobilman44 Oh, one last comment........... folks, be careful what info you release on this (or any other) internet spot.
Oh, one last comment........... folks, be careful what info you release on this (or any other) internet spot.
What is the meaning of your warning above that we all should know?
mononguy63 I'm most definitely NOT retired. As for comfortable? Think of a movie scene in which a battered airplane is in a dive, and the pilots are pulling at the yoke with every ounce of strength they have trying to recover. The plane starts to level out a bit but they might be too close to the ground to save the aircraft. Well right now I have two kids in college, soon to be three, and the view out of my cockpit window is the sight of tree branches smacking the glass..... The flip side is I find enjoyment in discovering no-cost to low-cost ways to model.
I'm most definitely NOT retired. As for comfortable? Think of a movie scene in which a battered airplane is in a dive, and the pilots are pulling at the yoke with every ounce of strength they have trying to recover. The plane starts to level out a bit but they might be too close to the ground to save the aircraft. Well right now I have two kids in college, soon to be three, and the view out of my cockpit window is the sight of tree branches smacking the glass.....
The flip side is I find enjoyment in discovering no-cost to low-cost ways to model.
big daydreamerTBH if buying a DCC+sound Athearn Genesis CN GP38-2W was going to mean no new train stuff for 8 months, I would still buy it.
I would seek another option if wanted a Geneses(say) CSX GP40-2..I would look hard at Atlas GP40-2 and add sound..
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Yup and my priorities wouldn't include buying a $300.00 engine especially since there are other less costly options.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Back again.............
After going through the 50 or so replies, it appears that most of the respondants are neither retired or "well off" - which was what the OP questioned.
Nittany Lion expressed amazement at some of my earlier comments. Well, I stand by them. To restate, we have read many rants on this Forum from folks disgusted with the high price of the hobby. And my feeling is that one can get into the hobby and enjoy it without the fancy locos and RTR cars and structures and $1 trees, etc., etc. But so many come across with the idea that "if I can't have the best, and have it now, then I am out of the hobby".
As previous posters have stated, they don't have ready hobby money and do have to work (if they can get a job), but still manage to enjoy running trains - which is the ultimate goal of any hobby - to ENJOY!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
riogrande5761 For the past 15 years I've gone through some periods of unemployment, very good paying employment and underemployment. My last layout was torn down in 1999 when went through a separation moved out of my house and into a tiny cracker box appartment and changing careers. I've had not place for a layout until this year when I finally had oved to the Washington DC area and slowly worked my way back out of under employment. Even now the high cost of living in the Washington DC area makes it challenging to afford even a townhouse with a small basement when I have a daughter in college that is draining nearly a 3rd of the income right off the top every month. She is worth it definitely but it's a major drain. I have heard a lot of folks in situations like the post above where student debt is eating people alive and stifling the economy where getting a college degree for many today means putting off buying a home and/or having childlren for years or living in virtual poverty if you can earn a lawyers salary. I was lucky in that I went to college when my parents could afford to pay for it and I finished a BS and MS degree with no debt at all. Thank goodness because I've had my ups and downs in cities where the economy was bad. My daughter will graduate with student debt, but I don't think it will be large, and hopefully a biomedical engineering degree will land her a good job. I'm managing to afford a small sampling of some of the nice HQ trains of the past 5 yeasr, but certainly not like some who have been buying unit trains of ExactRail 3843 Bethlehem coal cars at $39 a pop! I've also been supplimenting my hobby budget by selling off a lot of my past collection which was bought on impulse and doesn't fit my modeling era and scheme. Model RRing has never been cheap however so. Cheers, Jim
For the past 15 years I've gone through some periods of unemployment, very good paying employment and underemployment. My last layout was torn down in 1999 when went through a separation moved out of my house and into a tiny cracker box appartment and changing careers. I've had not place for a layout until this year when I finally had oved to the Washington DC area and slowly worked my way back out of under employment. Even now the high cost of living in the Washington DC area makes it challenging to afford even a townhouse with a small basement when I have a daughter in college that is draining nearly a 3rd of the income right off the top every month. She is worth it definitely but it's a major drain.
I have heard a lot of folks in situations like the post above where student debt is eating people alive and stifling the economy where getting a college degree for many today means putting off buying a home and/or having childlren for years or living in virtual poverty if you can earn a lawyers salary. I was lucky in that I went to college when my parents could afford to pay for it and I finished a BS and MS degree with no debt at all. Thank goodness because I've had my ups and downs in cities where the economy was bad. My daughter will graduate with student debt, but I don't think it will be large, and hopefully a biomedical engineering degree will land her a good job.
I'm managing to afford a small sampling of some of the nice HQ trains of the past 5 yeasr, but certainly not like some who have been buying unit trains of ExactRail 3843 Bethlehem coal cars at $39 a pop! I've also been supplimenting my hobby budget by selling off a lot of my past collection which was bought on impulse and doesn't fit my modeling era and scheme. Model RRing has never been cheap however so.
Cheers, Jim
NittanyLion mobilman44 I have absolutely no sympathy for those "young folks" crying over the high price of the hobby or their lack of room for a layout. If you want something, you have to work for it. And, you don't need the very best or the item "right now". I'm one of the coldest, harshless, heartless people I know, but you are demonstrating an almost laughable lack of understanding. There's no amount of working for something I can do that would allow me to be able to drop $300 on a locomotive. I have a good job. I work very hard. I love my job. But I live in a world of pay freezes, hiring freezes, and every other thing you can think of that translates to "you aren't making more money while the cost of living climbs and there's nothing you can do about it." $300 is between six and ten months of my hobby budget. I'm going to complain because I'm unhappy that there's no cheaper option. ...
mobilman44 I have absolutely no sympathy for those "young folks" crying over the high price of the hobby or their lack of room for a layout. If you want something, you have to work for it. And, you don't need the very best or the item "right now".
I have absolutely no sympathy for those "young folks" crying over the high price of the hobby or their lack of room for a layout. If you want something, you have to work for it. And, you don't need the very best or the item "right now".
I'm one of the coldest, harshless, heartless people I know, but you are demonstrating an almost laughable lack of understanding.
There's no amount of working for something I can do that would allow me to be able to drop $300 on a locomotive. I have a good job. I work very hard. I love my job. But I live in a world of pay freezes, hiring freezes, and every other thing you can think of that translates to "you aren't making more money while the cost of living climbs and there's nothing you can do about it." $300 is between six and ten months of my hobby budget. I'm going to complain because I'm unhappy that there's no cheaper option.
...
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I want to be able to have a two bedroom place so I didn't have to put my layout in my living room. In order to afford that, I'd need to have a 120% pay increase. There's zero chance of that happening. I'm going to be unhappy, no matter how much someone says "work for it." By the time I'll get to the six figures I'd need for that, rent will have climbed another 40% and the cycle will go on forever. Housing costs where I live go up 10% a year. I haven't had an increase in pay in two years. How do you think that's going? I know people have it a lot worse than I do, a lot, lot, lot worse. Four years ago, I was one of those people! But working hard and waiting isn't a viable strategy. Its an untenable position.
P&SlocalI have been broke for so long that it ain't funny.
Why?
Taken from a Governmemt Of Alberta website about oil patch jobs.
I know of a lot of people or their kids working in the oil patch. You would be out of the $ hole in a year. You work so much you don't have time to spend it. So it all gets invested. I am speaking from experience about that.
I am 57, have been retired for 5 years and so is my wife. With my high school education I made a lot of money working long hard days, weeks, months and finally years on jobs like what are offered here.
I am very comfortable financially and will not need to ever worry about money again. The few years I removed myself from society and did nothing but grunt work was more than worth the return.
I have a head hunter friend that visits California looking for oilpatch workers and comes home short almost every time. Like I have said on this forum before, there are resource industry jobs all over the world paying obscene amounts of money for long hours of hard work. Barring health issue's or age there is a lot of work available on the planet if you don't mind getting dirty. It is a young mans job though.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I have been broke for so long that it ain't funny. I have not had a full time job since 2008. I am living in the middle of nowhere in a house that is too small for all of our belongings, so we have to rent a storage unit at the same time. I am sitting on $56,000 in accumulating student loan debt. Why accumulating? Because I am on the Income Based Repayment plan. My income is so low that I pay $0 a month, but the interest keeps building. My wife just started a good government job, but she has $75,000 in student loan debt that she is paying off slowly. My advice to anyone is AVOID college at all costs! I want to model and have looked around for modular HO clubs but they seem to be like Hen's Teeth. There is an N scale modular group 100 miles east of here, but that would mean switching scales and pumping $4.00 a gallon gas to go there. So in the meanwhile (until we decide where we are going to finally settle down and build a basement and some living space above it, I come to this site and a few others to see what others are modeling or I go out in the backyard and watch the UP roll through town numerous times a day.
Robert H. Shilling II
Not retired, not rich, am working.
I sometimes shrug when I hear modelers lament that this hobby has become a rich man's pursuit. No doubt it's become quite expensive but that view seems extreme. HOWEVER...in that same "train of thought" what comes to my mind is Clint Eastwood's quote in the movie "Heartbreak Ridge": You improvise, you adapt, you overcome!
My wife encouraged me to "go for it now" as far as getting the items I want since retirement is not too far in the distance. I understand the "fixed income syndrome" kicking in once a middle income professional retires. From what I've read, even having 100K in retirement funds today still requires smart retiree(s) to live and spend carefully. Over the years I've felt the pinch of the gradual price increases in the hobby so I work within a budget and plan accordingly.
Locomotives: Except for my recent purchase of a new Bachmann GG1, I rarely buy new units when they're first produced because of the tyical $200+ price tag. I've been very fortunate in finding excellent deals on "New-in-the-Box" Proto 2000 locomotives on ebay, some for as low as $50! Typically after you clean & relube the gears, and replace any cracked axles....they run very well. I especially like the detailing. As a result I've sold off most of my Athearn Blue Box locomotives (but am keeping 2 U-Boats that will be upgraded).
Passenger rolling stock: I purchase "old run" streamlined Walthers passenger cars on ebay from reliable sellers. Cool factor is that it doesn't matter what paint scheme they're in since they'll be taking a bath in 91% alcohol and getting the "Alclad treatment". As a result, I've picked up a slew of Walthers cars in the $20 range that were in the "less popular" paint schemes. I've also purchased Rivarossi streamliners. Although generic, the "Riv" cars are easy to "spice up" and, with careful hunting, can be picked up on ebay for bargain prices.
Freight rolling stock and vehicles: I still have a small fleet of Athearn BB units from the 1970s-80s that I'm upgrading. (Here I am 30+ years later, and I still find Athearn BB coupler pockets so annoying! ). But I no longer purchase BBs since Bowser, Trainline, Accurail and Proto 2000 freight cars can be found on the secondary market for comparable prices.
I'm a big fan of transit buses but was turned off by some of the $40-$60 price tags that I saw from dealers. Again, I patiently scanned ebay for deals and eventually got a few nice coaches for my layout.
Layout: I only have space for a shelf type layout. However, it will go around all 4 walls of my "hobby" room which is only 10' x 12'. DCC will be NCE powercab since I'll only be running a maximum of 2 trains at one time (although with multi-unit lashups).
Imho, this hobby can still be affordable to those of us on fixed incomes and/or shoestring budgets. Just requires common sense planning, patience and self discipline.
High Greens
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
I dunno . . . maybe it's time to quote Dickens (as Wilkins Macawber).
Income: twenty pounds. Expenses: nineteen ten and six. Result: happiness. Income: twenty pounds. Expenses: twenty aught and six. Result: misery.
I suppose that taken on the whole, the average model railroader is a bit ahead of the curve.
Robert
LINK to SNSR Blog
While some may thing that affording a layout is too costly - which for some it may be!
But if one KNOWS they are going to retire in the future - NOW is the time to begin planning and purchasing the needed materials as YOU are WORKING and can afford these things
Once retired - YOU are NOT necessarly going to be able to do what you want.
And those that state they CAN'T afford the Hobby now (when they are still working but close to retirement) YOU AIN"T going to be able to do it then either.
Just ask your financial advisor - if they are HONEST? they will unfortunately tell you the truth - or you will find it out on your own.
I could NEVER afford to build the Layout I now have - If I was going to start all new - Retirement doesn't have enough money.
That is why I planned on the Layout before Retirement came - as I knew what money I would have after I was done working.
I see this all of the time - Many I know stated - when I Retire - I will build my layout.
IT NEVER HAPPENED!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
I will retire in 5 years, as a state pensioner (public school teacher) and have SS, while my wife will remain in the workforce full time for another decade; however, I have developed thrifty habits as a model railroader and will adhere to them in retirement. I appreciate that others can have that large room dedicated to railroading, or be able to buy, on a whim, whatever item and at whichever price- but everyone has his own life to live on his own terms. Mine are modest, and I am just grateful that I will be able to enjoy the hobby in retirement as I do now.
Enjoy the hobby within your own means; don't begrudge other's- we all love trains and our derived satisfaction is what counts!
Cedarwoodron
I am medically retired, and far from "well off" or "rich" or not even "comfortable"!
Why? WHat do I mean? Well MOH {that's My Other Half}, works TWO, count 'em, TWO jobs to help support what My disability money won't.
I just read A "Money Talks News" report about the ten most difficult states in which to have a career...My state, NY, was # 2 behind Hawaii, and apparently before California! I don't exactly see us moving...we haven't the money for that.
I have a small, very small 3.5 FOOT by 5.1 FOOT {so yeah aobut 17-18 Square feet total} HO scale layout in a corner of the spare bedroon of our LOVELY TRAILER HOME. At 31 years old, the trailer needs things repaired or replaced..like a new furnace that halted ANY hobby budget about 3 years ago. Like the roof re-done again now, and a new water heater next month {if this one holds out that long}. The "enclosed porch" attached needs work done on it too. MAJOR work.
I am disabled so I can't do these things. Money to do these things isn't around. We needed other things- like to replace a 1998 rust bucket Caravan, too. The current "other" vehicle is now 9 years old too.
But, We manage.
I just haven't had a hobby budget for years now, and so I have what I have and that's it.
SO..retired? Well, YES, Medically
Comfortable? Well NO
Well off, well, Maybe if the lottery pays out....if I buy tickets...
Enjoy the hobby?
well YES.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
I am seven to twelve years out from retirement; as is my wife. We will have both of our kids in college this fall; both will be 1000 miles away (son at Purdue, daughter at Western Carolina). Both are scholarship athletes, and our all of our disposable income goes to for travel to see some of their games.
I have a stockpile of hobby supplies to last three lifetimes; acquired over the last 35 years, and aided by a three year stint as a hobby shop owner. I must admit that I am still in acquisition mode as new products come out; I have 18 Intermountain Santa Fe stock cars on reserve that are scheduled to be released next month. All of this in anticipation of "the space" where I can build my dream model railroad. I am beginning to wonder if "the space" will ever exist; and I may need to carve out an 8 x 16 section of the garage for a Santa Fe or MKT based switching layout.
I am not retired but basically I am comfortable. I work in the IT field so I experience layoffs and unemployment just about every other year. When I am working I try to sock a good chunck for retirement, but each unemployment pushes my retirement date further back. Also when I am working I accumulate a bunch of craftsman kits which I don't have time to assemble until I am again unemployed. My layout currently is about 1000 square feet and 20% complete. I hope I make retirement soon so I can work on this layout and take up oil painting. Also I have been in the workforce for 30 years and I am totally burnt out.
Actually I am semi-retired.
This is Los Angeles county the average price is $300 to 400,000 for an average house. Would like to sell and move to a lesser expensive nice area but there aren't any around here, and if you do find one, it is infested with gangs, criminals and illegals who gravitate to those areas and have taken over. This is Los Angeles.
I have enough gear I collected over the years to make a nice layout, but am constantly on the edge about moving, that's why I posted about modules.
Some day maybe I'll get an Athearn or maybe a Marklin Big Boy for my still to be built dream pike when I hit the lotto.
I had a train room when my kids were little, about 15 by 20 feet room around the wall mainline with a 4 X 8 yard, all HO, mostly Athearn and some Tyco and Model Power on which I modified the trucks and couplers, to get better action. Picked up some amazing deals on Athearn BB at an estate sale a few years ago.
Health ain't what it used to be, but model railroading makes life more tolerable, even if it is just planning and fiddling around and reading Kalmbach books, which I have a lot of.
Am glad to see some of the responses here, some of which are inspiring. Model railroading is a combination of art, engineering, woodworking and many other things. We are lucky to have this hobby, but I look at it as more than a hobby. It's the "therapeutic" aspect that makes it a superior hobby, and it goes along with watching the prototypes roll on the local tracks.
BRAKIE I know you asked about non retirees but,I wanted to show some of us are common and not filthy rich. I'm retired,don't have a large hobby budget and here's my layout. Its a whopping 1 foot by 10 foot and I'm completely satisfied.
I know you asked about non retirees but,I wanted to show some of us are common and not filthy rich.
I'm retired,don't have a large hobby budget and here's my layout.
Its a whopping 1 foot by 10 foot and I'm completely satisfied.
Larry, you and I (and Jonathan Jones [MR, May, 2001 issue]) are kindred spirits, as my lauyout (unfinished at this time), is 1 1/2' by 20', U-shaped, and, like yours and jonathan's, is a point-to-point switching layout.
And, to answer this post, no, I'm not retired and I don't have a huge budget either. I do still enjoy the hobby quite a bit, though I am about to make a transition as far as living arrangements go. Looking for a little bit more space for both my business and my layout.
Excellent point made by CTValleyRR:
"...For the rest, a very interesting outlook. Rather proves the point that we are not a bunch of wealthy retirees, but a wide variety of folks in different ssituations...."
Perhaps the underlying pathology is that we as a community do not celebrate the inexpensive and small with the same enthusiam as the expensive and expansive? Depending on where the community directs its attention, the hobby can look intimidating and expensive or inclusive and inexpensive.
The local chapters of the NMRA do an excellent job promoting low cost modeling solutions for many applications. Such efforts deserve everyone's support.
Kevin
up831Yes, there are some of us who are neither retired nor financially comfortable. I have neither the time nor space to build a layout, at least that's the excuse I give. Rather late In life I "discovered" my current profession and I have absolutely no intention of ever retiring. I just love what I do so it's not work.
I'm with you on that, up831. I am working for myself, in a professional capacity, can set my own hours, so the freedom is a great thing. Additionally, like you, I really enjoy what I do - - that's right, it's not work; I look forward to doing what I do every day! I think I'd be bored, literally to death (as I see so many do shortly after retirring) if I did retire.
Packer Retired, no Comfortable, Heck no Working a restaraunt job isn't comfortable. And this is florida, where rent for a studio apartment would be over 700 a month. So I live at home and am going to school for IT. I already went for mechanical drafiting/ CAD design, but no one here is hiring..
Retired, no
Comfortable, Heck no
Working a restaraunt job isn't comfortable. And this is florida, where rent for a studio apartment would be over 700 a month. So I live at home and am going to school for IT. I already went for mechanical drafiting/ CAD design, but no one here is hiring..
We're hiring. Can't find enough trained draftsman. Of course you'd have to move to Connecticut, where you won't find things any cheaper than Florida.
For the rest, a very interesting outlook. Rather proves the point that we are not a bunch of wealthy retirees, but a wide variety of folks in different ssituations.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
I'm retired. Comfortable enough to still buy things. But I already have plenty of stuff from 40+ years in the hobby - I could go years without buying anything.
But even retired I don't have a lot of time for the layout - involved in too many family/community things.
But hey it's a hobby. Time and money ebbs flows. I had years where all I could afford were magazine subs and only had time to read them while sitting on the toilet. Other times I had more time and money - enough to start, but never finish, some 8 or 9 layouts. I have started a layout in the basement that may grow into the "Big One", we'll see.
Enjoy
Paul
I'm retired and "comfortable" now, but my first personal investment in model railroading was with the income from my newspaper route which I worked mornings before school (8th grade).
I took a lot of years off in the middle, but I'm back.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
"I am lapidary but not eristic when I use big words." - William F. Buckley
I haven't been sleeping. I'm afraid I'll dream I'm in a coma and then wake up unconscious. -Stephen Wright