Motley This is a great thread. Geeez when I think about it I don't have anything close to some people here. So my excuse is I'm trying to catch up to you all. LOL
This is a great thread. Geeez when I think about it I don't have anything close to some people here. So my excuse is I'm trying to catch up to you all. LOL
I just aspire to have as much as Michael has
Had a fellow MRer ask me "How many engines do you have?"
Answer "I don't know."
"How many cars?"
Again "I don't know."
All I know is every time the big box stores put storage totes on sale I buy more to put my I don't knows into.
How many totes "I don't know."
Almost enough to just build my layput on top of them, no need for benchwork. When I get the layout done I'm going to have a sale on those totes, unless I get that...........I need/want.
God's Best & Happy Rails to You!
Bing (RIPRR The Route of the Buzzards)
The future: Dead Rail Society
The other day a friend was with me in my car. We pulled into my garage. And he says "what in the hell are are those boxes for?". In the garage I store all my locomotive/car boxes. In case I need to sell anything. I explained to him I don't have room in my basement, so here ya go. He just laughed and said "your nuts!".
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
I let my inventory get out of date.When we moved, I piled all my rolling stock in one place. GREAT GOOGILY MOOGILY!I thought I had 400 or 500 cars. I had over 1300.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
cmrproducts When I add a new car - it gets Kadees & Metal Wheels - so I mark the date this car was put on the layout. Then when my OPs Crew encounters a problem car - they pull the car off the layout and fill out a Bad Order Card.
Then when my OPs Crew encounters a problem car - they pull the car off the layout and fill out a Bad Order Card.
Sound advice. I don't put any new equipment on the layout until it has been equipped with KD 148s, metal wheels, has been properly weighted, the coupler height and the wheel gauge checked. When I first started running trains on my layout as opposed to operations, I wasn't quite so finnicky with the equipment and as a result, there is still some substandard equipment on the layout. I operate solo and when there is a derailment and it isn't operator error such as forgetting to allign a turnout properly, I stop the session and take the problem car to the workbench and give it the same treatment I now give to all new equipment. I used to just make a note of the problem with the idea of fixing it later but later never seemed to come around. By forcing myself to address the problem immediately, I get rid of the problem child and eventually the whole fleet should be up to specs.
Dusty Solo Some years back I raised several Excel spread sheets and cataloged all the models & kits I had on hand. My avowed intention at the time was to make a religion out of diligently up dating this catalog as new items were bought & existing ones were sold. Of course the road to, you know where, is paved with good intentions & predictably no up dating ever took place. I've a fair idea what I have - I model a Southeastern Fallen Flag so numerically my engine roster is typically small in number. It's easy to remember. Building kits are the same with my layout area being small I need but a few. Passenger cars, well, not so many there either. But when it comes to freight cars - I just have no clue at all. Then there all the other things like decals & brass & plastic detail parts - plastic bins full of this stuff along with road vehicle kits that has become a hobby in itself. So it's really in the area of freight cars and road vehicles that I need to be watchful. Dusty
Some years back I raised several Excel spread sheets and cataloged all the models & kits I had on hand. My avowed intention at the time was to make a religion out of diligently up dating this catalog as new items were bought & existing ones were sold.
Of course the road to, you know where, is paved with good intentions & predictably no up dating ever took place.
I've a fair idea what I have - I model a Southeastern Fallen Flag so numerically my engine roster is typically small in number. It's easy to remember. Building kits are the same with my layout area being small I need but a few. Passenger cars, well, not so many there either. But when it comes to freight cars - I just have no clue at all. Then there all the other things like decals & brass & plastic detail parts - plastic bins full of this stuff along with road vehicle kits that has become a hobby in itself. So it's really in the area of freight cars and road vehicles that I need to be watchful.
Dusty
I had to use the Spreadsheet to keep track of my car roster as having over 1200 cars - I was duplicating way too many cars when at the train shows.
I also use the spreadsheet for Maintenance purposes.
When I add a new car - it gets Kadees & Metal Wheels - so I mark the date this car was put on the layout.
After the session - I take these cars and cards - look for the problem (which is easy as the B/O card indicates what they found - I have a number of check boxes to mark - making the filling out the card quick and easy) and fix the problems.
I then enter the problem in the spreadsheet and IF this car keeps having similar problems and I can't seem to fix them - it is sold off to someone with lesser expectations.
The same goes for my Engine Roster - Includes which DCC Decoder it has - Sound or not and Maintenance schedule!
YES! it takes some time but NOT doing so - the fleet begins to NOT run well and the Operators won't be back if the cars constantly derail or fall apart!
Your choice! ;-)
BOB H - Clarion, PA
I gave up on cataloguing. I just look at them and think.....yep...I'm a gear hound!!!!
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/
yougottawanta John D Rockfellar in the "20s" was a billionaire making him still the richest man ever. He was asked by a reporter when he would have enough money. His reply was classic and can be applied to this post. When he "got just a little bit more"
John D Rockfellar in the "20s" was a billionaire making him still the richest man ever. He was asked by a reporter when he would have enough money. His reply was classic and can be applied to this post. When he "got just a little bit more"
Yes, there is always just one more that's needed to finish the locomotive roster.
Oh! and one more freight car for the fleet.
And one more building for the waterfront.
And one more ....
Paul
Southgate Every freight car I own including the unbuilt kits will fit on the layout when finished. So will the locomotives if I cram them, or devide up between steam some days and diesels others. I have a couple little structure kits, almost never buy those. HO vehicles though, they'll have to take turns. Then there's my other hobby. 1/25 truck and car kits. I should have no trouble building the ones I have if I build at my current rate, provided I live to about 180. Oh well.
Every freight car I own including the unbuilt kits will fit on the layout when finished. So will the locomotives if I cram them, or devide up between steam some days and diesels others. I have a couple little structure kits, almost never buy those.
HO vehicles though, they'll have to take turns.
Then there's my other hobby. 1/25 truck and car kits. I should have no trouble building the ones I have if I build at my current rate, provided I live to about 180.
Oh well.
That brings up another point which I neglected to mention in my first response. I just began operations and quickly discovered my layout is already at capacity for the number of cars it can comfortably handle during a session. Between the industries, the classification yard, and the staging yards, adding any more rolling stock is going to create a logjam which will make it difficult to keep things moving. I still have about 25 unbuilt freight cars, mostly Accurail which I would buy one or two of when I stopped in the hobby shop for something else. What that means of course is I am going to have to come up with a system for swapping these cars on and off the layout and storing them where they can easily be accessed. One of my staging yards is in the open where I can fiddle cars on and off and there is also a dummy interchange track which holds about six 40 footers where I can swap cars in and out. I'm through adding rolling stock to the layout..........for now.
When I decide to donate stuff to the semi annual church garbage Err I mean Rummage sale (One mans trash is another mans treasure)
Joe Staten Island West
I ran into the same problem when I ran across a program called RRTrains, by Gregory Braun. Not only does it keep track of what you have, you can list upgrades, couplers, wheels, etc. It also has a function so that you can assign pictures to all of your equipment.
RRTrains
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
I have a few that I think fit:
1) When you have more paintbrushes in your dishdrain (brush end up of course) then you have silverware (I don't use an airbrush)
1a) When you purchase glass cleaner to clean your paintbrushes rather than your windows.
1b) When your fingers are the same color as what you have been painting that particular day.
2) When you decide your can kitbash a car easier than you can assemble a kit for the same general purpose.
3) When you start looking for unusual items and people think that it for your model railroad.
When you sell or give away stuff to make room for new stuff.
One can NEVER have too much!
On the good side, buying the same thing over and over helps to keep manufacturers in business.
Jim
My financial state (genteel poverty) and my rigid adherence to a very specific theme has saved me from, "Too much." In fact, after years of selective purchases, kitbashing and passing over everything that wouldn't be appropriate in the Central Japan Alps I have just about enough.
Enough for what? A layout that fills a double garage plus a bunch of cassettes on shelves and some US prototype stuff in a small display cabinet. With a few spares left over...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Fergmiester Ever hear yourself say: "Geez I've gotta get me one of those!" Then you realize afterwards, "wait now I have one of those!" Yes I have so much in my basement ,I have forgotten what I have in stock! And yes I could open a Hobby Store! I'll be a much happier person once I have the track laid, ballasted and base scenery completed! Some time this decade I hope!
Ever hear yourself say: "Geez I've gotta get me one of those!" Then you realize afterwards, "wait now I have one of those!"
Yes I have so much in my basement ,I have forgotten what I have in stock! And yes I could open a Hobby Store!
I'll be a much happier person once I have the track laid, ballasted and base scenery completed! Some time this decade I hope!
I guess I don't have that much stuff yet, although I do have quite a bit. I've always been able to keep in my head what I have so if there is any problem I have, it sould be duplicating road numbers.
That said, part of the reason my collection hasn't grown bigger is that I regularly cull my collection to sell of models I don't need to buy stuff that fits better. My budget has been tight much of the time, so selling off models I don't need has helped me raise cash. I suppose if funds are not an issue for some, the collection could
I'm sure many could open a hobby store and even I have more than many hobby stores have on their shelves, but thats not saying much these days as many don't have much.
I've basically got my benchwork and sub-roadbed in now so track laying can re-sume. I say resume because I had to layout my staging yard fully before I could go over the top and put in the 2nd level where a regular yard is. I'm hoping to have enough track down this spring so I can run trains around the circuit.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
BRAKIE tatans HOARDING: Thats the word, regardless of how you justify filling your basement with hundreds of kits, locos, cars, track, buildings etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. you are hoarding, there is no other word for it, you are hooked, enjoy. Just as long as we don't end up on that TV show "Horders".
tatans HOARDING: Thats the word, regardless of how you justify filling your basement with hundreds of kits, locos, cars, track, buildings etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. you are hoarding, there is no other word for it, you are hooked, enjoy.
HOARDING: Thats the word, regardless of how you justify filling your basement with hundreds of kits, locos, cars, track, buildings etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. you are hoarding, there is no other word for it, you are hooked, enjoy.
Just as long as we don't end up on that TV show "Horders".
My understanding of hording is it is a condition in which people have a complusion to acquire things even if though there is no chance they will ever use them. I saw one episode of the program in which a woman drove around the neigborhood on trash day picking up things other people were throwing out for no other reason than they were free. I don't think model railroaders fall into that camp. We do acquire things we at least expect to use someday, even if that someday never arrives. I would bet that most of us have a little packrat in us. While we don't go out of our way to acquire useless items, we are reluctant to throw anything away for fear we might one day find a use for them. For example, I have a couple large storage boxes of nothing but sprues of excess parts from plastic kits I have buiilt. Many kits come with excess parts because some kits share some but not all parts on a particular sprue. It's cheaper for the manufacturers just to create extra parts rather than tool seperate dyes for each kit. I do occasionally find a use for those extra parts in kitbashing projects. Only a small fraction of those parts will actually be used but I don't know which ones they are so I keep them all.
This Thread Has Made Me Feel A Lot Better.
Misery Loves Company
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
Douglas, I knew I had a lot, the EX kept reminding me, it's just that it was spread out under the train table in different locations. Now that I've had to box it all up and it's all in one spot in my basement, I am in shock just how much stuff I have.
Brought to you by the letters C.P.R. as well as D&H!
K1a - all the way
BRAKIE Just as long as we don't end up on that TV show "Horders".
Brakie -
I saw part of that show one time in passing ( i dont watch commercialvision anymore, since the late 80's). Was disgusted by the show. The home that was the topic of the show looked like an inside-out landfill.
However, if i saw a home like that, wall to wall-floor to cieling covered in trains..... Id swear i was in the garden of eden!
Bob K - no offense meant in the least, but i just cant fathom what you said. I personally cannot grasp the simple thought that there could ever be.... " too many trains ". Even if this thread is for fun. (please dont mistake that for me not having humor, i do)
Even if i was train poor, living in a ditch somewhere Id still buy trains. I guess i have the disease a little more deeply than some.
I think it goes back to that XMas special.... the one where there is an island for toys that are broken, or unwanted. I could never ever see a train being on that island. (ofcourse there was one in the show. Shattered my heart!)
I am by no means rich or well to do by any standard. But dang if i wouldnt apply to be "savior of all trains", if there was a job for it.
Even if i dont have a use for a model, to me, atleast it has a home. Sitting on a shelf or in a box. I just cant grasp there is ever such a thing as "too many trains".
Therefore, i opt myself as being addicted, a train junkie, over enthusiated, etc etc. Either way.... i understand the theme of this thread and will jest with my fellow railfans here, and place myself squarely in yalls sights for any joke or pun.
Just as long as everyone understands my mind could never be changed. Again, no offense what so ever is meant to you by my statements.
CP5415 - due to a recent family health crises, i am now forced to move to take care of an elderly, ailing parent. I just aquired a storage unit to make things easier for me.
I have a truck with a full size bed (6x8'). I filled it once already, and will again atleast one more time. Possibly twice. It saddens me that this is all i have after 40 years of collecting.
You notice trains were the priority of my move. Furniture, and all my other worldly belongings take a back seat. I am the shining irony to this thread. Not to be different, but im proud of it none the least.
In all fun..... fire away guys!
Douglas
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I realized that when I moved last year. I filled the back of my 2004 Grand Caravan from the front seats to the tailgate and up to the roof AND the 4x7 open utility trailer I used to move all of my stuff out & it still wasn't all out.
Didn't stop me though, came across an Athearn Coke flat car w/ Coke trailer thinking that I didn't have it, ooops, I now have two!.
C'est la vie
Gord
PM Railfan i know what the theme is for this thread, but i still have to say it..... THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO MANY TRAINS!
i know what the theme is for this thread, but i still have to say it.....
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOO MANY TRAINS!
That's what I use to believe, but now I have so much "stuff", I forgot half of what I own. Actually, during those days of buying anything I saw amounted to such random pieces, that later on realized I have no use for and sold of quite a bit.
Now after 25 years of collecting, i will only buy specific engines, rolling stock to fit my prototype. Example, as much as I shouldn't spend that much, Walther's announced the Capital Limited. This name train consist is as close as you would ever get. Serious B&O historians and entusiasts work w/ Walther's for such accuracy in the model. 5 cars to date, waiting for the E9 and E8B w/ sound next.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
I have a bit of a twist on the theme of this thread:
I would love to have more stuff but now that the Canadian dollar has fallen flat on its face I'm managing quite nicely to do without very much new stuff. When a BB freight car is going to cost me $30 to $40 Cdn. including shipping I don't have too much trouble passing on it.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!