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This is a good question.
My rule of thumb is all many as you want, until the following happens:
1. You open up a box in storage, and realize you forgot ALL about these...
2. You're in financial trouble
3. You TOO many engines that are NOT what you chose as you're roadname. (excludes freelancers)
Every season, I give myself a test. I cout up how many locos I have, then a week later, I try to write down every engine I own. If I forget more than 5 engines, I know I have too much :D
Currently, I have a 4X8 layout. I plan to model the Santa Fe/PRR in the future, so Im buying mostly ATSF and PRR engines. I have around 20-25 engines...I havent bought one in over a year! Im trying right now to buy layout building materials and passenger cars.
Hope this helps :D
Charles
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Modeling the PRR & NYC in HO
Youtube Channel: www.youtube.com/@trainman440
Instagram (where I share projects!): https://www.instagram.com/trainman440
I've got 23, including a couple of sound dummies.
My layout is intended to be dual-era, so ideally I'll be using steam or diesel, but not both, although I may transition a bit.
There are 2 trolleys and 2 powered subway cars in the total, too. I've got a GG-1 but no catenary. You know. I just had to have one.
This is enough engines for my layout. I like to run them all now and then. I think I've got them all out there right now, either in staging, the roundhouse or out working. I like 2-engine consists for my diesel fleet, with at least one sporting a sound decoder.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
joe323So my question is how many locos do you own (not countin some non dcc shelf queens )and how many do you actually run?
But to answer your question as simply as possible.owned - hundreds (more than 4 possibly up to 8) of all control ilks like CTC-16, DCC, RailCommand, DC and AC.run - as many as possible given that I can only run them on the modular, club, friends, or the museum layouts.
Trainman4401. You open up a box in storage, and realize you forgot ALL about these...
Trainman440 Every season, I give myself a test. I cout up how many locos I have, then a week later, I try to write down every engine I own. If I forget more than 5 engines, I know I have too much
Every season, I give myself a test. I cout up how many locos I have, then a week later, I try to write down every engine I own. If I forget more than 5 engines, I know I have too much
The model railroader's self administered cognitive impairment test.
CG
ATLANTIC CENTRAL All my B units are powered? I have about 135 powered units, but considering most of my trains are pulled by 3-4 diesels or two steamers, that only represents 30 or 40 trains. The layout is designed to stage 30 trains. When you model the early 50's, an ABBA set of F units is really just "one" locomotive...... Sheldon
All my B units are powered?
I have about 135 powered units, but considering most of my trains are pulled by 3-4 diesels or two steamers, that only represents 30 or 40 trains. The layout is designed to stage 30 trains.
When you model the early 50's, an ABBA set of F units is really just "one" locomotive......
Sheldon
To more fully answer the questions posed by the OP:
None of my locos are shelf queens, in fact all are specificly of proper era and roadnames for my narrow and carefully planned protolance operation set in 1954.
I have many duplicates of the same types to create that realistic big loco fleet feel of a Class I railroad.
I don't have any interest in collecting locos that don't fit the theme of my layout.
Everything is lettered ATLANTIC CENTRAL or for the three interchange roads, B&O, C&O and WESTERN MARYLAND.
And operations here are still DC, and I don't like onboard sound, so nothing has been "retired" for those reasons......
The next locomotive i am getting is two Scale Trains NS SD40-2's and thinking about Walthers new GE locomotives.
Russell
Too many locomotives? That depends if you are asking me or my wife. I don't know how many locomotives I have because they are all over the place. Non-DCC locomotives are slowly being converted to DCC.
What will be on the layout will depend on the mood of the day. I have enough locomotives to go all Rock Island or Nickel Plate or Burlington Northern or Union Pacific, etc.
I wouldn't mind having a couple of F units or a geep and a caboose for many different railroads. A friend likes certain locomotives and then laments that the Burlington never had any, so he can't justify getting one. I tell him to buy the demo scheme if it is available.
If it is no longer fun, you have too many locomotives.
Ken Vandevoort
I might have future shelf queens. I collected the Kato SP Morning Daylight, CBQ California Zephyr, PRR Broadway Limited, UP City of Los Angeles, ATSF Super Chief, and El Capitan.
Some are finished with their own locomotives and lease motive power. To display them from beginning to end.
I'm hoping to get an GN Empire Builder, NYC 20th Century Limited, and etc.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
I have about 60 locomotives that are DCC. Maybe another 20 that are DC only. And 10? that are new in the box and never have been run. Every locomotive is powered. The only dummy on my layout is me.
My problem is I don't have enough storage for all of them.
Graham Line Yes, one can have too many locomotives.
Yes, one can have too many locomotives.
I agree; many modelers are ... what is the pajorative term? "collectors".
It is much easier and often more satisfying to buy a locomotive than to put down track, wire it up, build scenery etc.
It is especially much easier to buy a locomotive and not build a layout when you don't have space for a layout as I did for a around 15 years until my wife kindly made it a priority to find a home with a small basement. I suspect its true for many others who may be looked down on for being a "collecter" and not building a layout.
But often there is more to the story than just going for a quick satisfaction or not being bothered enough to build a layout due to lack of space. What about clubs for those with out space? Been there too, not always an easy answer. My first 3 years in the DC area I tried to get involved with a club to run trains since I could do no more at home than to put up circle of track under foot in the small living room space my wife and I had. I got "crickets" when trying to get a response from the modular clubs in my area.
I'm told it is also possible to have too many freight cars, books, magazines, and unbuilt structure kits, but this is something for the advanced modeler.
I don't consider myself an advanced modeler but I've been in the process of ridding myself of magazines over the past 6 - 8 years, although I have kept some of those which are good references. The old MR magazines, in many cases, are so out dated as to be of little use anymore especially with many other how-to resources or sources of inspiration on the internet.
As for too many freight cars, I've been whittling away at many of my freight cars which I have been selling off as I back dated away from the late 1980's and early 1990's. I figure if I am going to continually buy newer, more appropriate and accurate freight cars, I might as well be selling off some I don't need; it also helps raise a little cash too.
Same with engines, I have too many and I've been selling off some of them too.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Graham Line and Rio Grande, very good points, even the ones that don't apply to me......
I have about 800 freight cars, the layout might require as many as 1000 when completed........since I have never switched eras, and don't require perfect accuracy for every piece, I have never sold off anything.........my Varney metal cars look just fine to me........(the enemy of good is better)......especially as 40 of them roll by at 35 smph.
Magazines, well since my signal and control system is partly based on stuff MR published in 1970 and before, I think I will hang on to my 1954 to present collections of MR and Craftsman......I fail to see how that knowledge base can become completely obsolete?
I am a very delibrate person who only buys things based on specific goals, but if the goals are big enough, it might mean a lot of stuff.......
MOORES LAW - some is good, more is better, too much is still not enough.......
Lost interest in hauling stuff to a club at a very early age........
I got rid of all train magazines some time ago, excepting one in which an article I wrote appears. Once I've read them, I find I just don't need them...I like great pictures, but usually, nowadays, can find the pictures I might need in online photo archives, so there is absolutely no reason for me to keep magazines anymore.
I admit to enjoying the 1970's and 1980's issues of Trains, but even after buying copies of some of my favorites and re-reading them, I enjoyed their much more colorful writing style, but just simply didn't need to keep them, and passed them on to other rail nuts.
I guess you could say I'm just big on "out with the old and in with the new". I have samples of some of the very newest, most detailed freight cars including several Moloco boxcars and 1 Scale Trains rivet counter tank car, right now 15 freight cars total, with more Moloco boxcars in the mail as I type this.
Books: I generally don't keep those either once I've read them, partly because in some I found egregious factual errors...The only two books I currently have being Howard Zane's book which contains exceptional color photography of his layout, and Dan Glasure's brass book which contains exceptional color images of many brass models. Any Texas & Pacific books I acquire, I'll certainly keep.
When I find that I'm not using certain engines, or books, or whatever, then I typically sell them for whatever I can get to defray the costs of other items I want more.
Well, according to the boys in the 1:1 world, yes, you can have too many locomotives. Each one has to keep it's paper work in order, and its inspections up to date. That costs money. Better to get rid of them. You can lease units when you need more power, and that is cheaper than keeping extra stuff on the rooster.
ROARster
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
riogrande5761I agree; many modelers are ... what is the pajorative term? "collectors".
Without collectors, the hobby will diminish greatly (possbily not survive). It's the collectors who keep many of the manufacturers in business making new models. Otherwise they can't sell enough product to survive.
It's hard to see this in HO, but in S and O the scale market is so small that it's obvious the toy train collector market keeps them alive. But without collectors N and HO would have a lot less product available.
Many hobbies, i.e. stamps and coins, are built around collecting. So why not collect train models, books, etc? After all this is a hobby where we're suppposedly having fun - not a job where we have to be efficient and frugal.
So while I have a layout under construction (12'x31') I also collect trains as they appeal to me - in 3 scales yet.
Enjoy
Paul
There seems to be a lot of bad feelings and/or outright derision on the part of some "modelers" for those whom they label as "collectors", as though the modelers are somehow superior to those of us who may lack time and skills and thus prefer to buy finished models we cannot build ourselves for whatever reason...I have left other forums partly for these reasons.
There is room in this hobby for all of us. I like my engines to run and earn their keep but others can never have too many...as long as one can pay the bills isnt that good enough?
IRONROOSTERIt's the collectors who keep many of the manufacturers in business making new models. Otherwise they can't sell enough product to survive.
PRR8259 There seems to be a lot of bad feelings and/or outright derision on the part of some "modelers" for those whom they label as "collectors", as though the modelers are somehow superior to those of us who may lack time and skills and thus prefer to buy finished models we cannot build ourselves for whatever reason...I have left other forums partly for these reasons. There is room in this hobby for all of us. I like my engines to run and earn their keep but others can never have too many...as long as one can pay the bills isnt that good enough?
John, a few thoughts, speaking only for myself, on this topic we have covered before.
There is nothing wrong with collecting, or those who collect. There is nothing wrong with those who prefer RTR for whatever reasons. I buy my share of RTR, although very little of it makes it to the layout without some little bit of work....
I do think it is fair to say that regardless of the number of locos a person owns, collecting, and ONLY purchasing/running RTR equipment are related and puts an individual in a specific version of this broad hobby, be it high rail O gauge or HO.
Some collectors of equipment go forward to build layouts, some basic, some exceptional, that makes them, to one degree or another, modelers and collectors.
Others choose a path that involves more hands on creative activity, they like to build stuff, engineer stuff, create new stuff from existing stuff, be it the trains or the layout.
It is my opinion that most in this hobby are mix of "modeler" and "collector", but the mix varies a lot. Take me for example, not much of a collector - EXCEPT - I enjoy the better vintage pieces that can be easily upgraded a little.
So I do "collect" stuff like Athearn and Varney metal freight cars from the 50's and early 60's - well I collect them in the sense that I have a bunch, and will buy more when I find them in the right condition, and I build and run them. BUT, I am still not afraid to weather them, modifiy them, improve them to suit my needs.
Same with brass locos, its just another train and I will modifiy it or paint it to suit my needs/wants in a hot New York second.
As for the idea that "modelers" look down on "collectors", well no, I don't think so. In my own case, it is not about any kind of judgement, it is more a case of indifference - I have way less in common with a "model train enthusiast" who is primarily/exclussively a collector than I do with someone who also build models like I do.
If indifference offends you, I'm sorry.
The other "us vs them" in this hobby is marked by the very question the OP asked, and by several of the responses - how much is too much?
And there seems to be a lot of people who think they know what is good for other people, just like you feel collectors are targeted, those of us who can and do build larger layouts and by extension have more stuff often feel the undertone of the "why do you need all that" in comments you and others have made.
You can ask me why I need all this stuff, just like I can ask you why you are never satisfied or get bored and sell stuff off to buy different stuff?
Yes I have a lot of stuff, BUT, it took 46 years get this much stuff, and guess what, I'm not bored with one piece of it, including the 60 year old stuff that came from my father......
If I meet a new person in the hobby, and they say to me "I just bought the new ABCXYZ", I think so what, I could buy one of those too. But if he says "I just kit bashed an ABCXYZ into an ABC123", then I say wow, let me see, how did you do that?, that is really good.
Engines earning their keep? - well they are just little toys, BUT every loco I have, all 130 plus, has a job on the layout. When complete the layout will stage 30 trains, have an engine terminal that will store/service 30 locos, have about 8 scale miles of double track mainline, have a main freight yard that will handle 40 car trains and 300 average freight cars, not to mention industries, coach yard, passenger terminal, etc.
As a modeler of the 1950's, when most diesel powered mainline trains were pulled by 3-4 units, 130 pieces of "power" is not really that much, just enough for the 30 trains, yard switchers, selfpropelled passenger equipment, a few extras for operational power changes - I think they will all earn their keep............
I met a 'collector' a few years ago when I was giving him a quote for windows. One wall of his den was completely lined with obviously expensive HO scale British steam locomotives. There were dozens of them! I complimented him on the collection but I didn't get into details about his layout. I have no idea how often he ran them or if he ran them at all. I will say that the effect of seeing so many beautiful locomotives in one spot was rather exhilarating!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Perhaps Sheldon may have misread me a little bit. I personally can choose to think less is more, but I also specifically said that as long as one can pay the bills then one doesnt have too many trains. ie dont be like my friend who charged $30000 in ho trains and never paid it off.
I humbly submit that if one is running a $30,000 credit card balance of model trains and does not pay it off, one might have too many trains.
Some build layouts they can never finish or cannot maintain, and I have seen too many friends and customers always accumulate but never even get more than a short test track built on which to run them. Both in a way are a little sad to me. I think trains should at least get out into the air to be appreciated once in awhile.
I had a different friend actually a very nice guy named Don Nyce who built a club sized layout but got very ill and never even finished troubleshooting the trackwork much less really starting scenery prior to passing away...So I remember Don and choose for those reasons to stick to..less.
Your mileage may vary.
PRR8259 Perhaps Sheldon may have misread me a little bit. I personally can choose to think less is more, but I also specifically said that as long as one can pay the bills then one doesnt have too many trains. ie dont be like my friend who charged $30000 in ho trains and never paid it off. I humbly submit that if one is running a $30,000 credit card balance of model trains and does not pay it off, one might have too many trains. Some build layouts they can never finish or cannot maintain, and I have seen too many friends and customers always accumulate but never even get more than a short test track built on which to run them. Both in a way are a little sad to me. I think trains should at least get out into the air to be appreciated once in awhile. I had a different friend actually a very nice guy named Don Nyce who built a club sized layout but got very ill and never even finished troubleshooting the trackwork much less really starting scenery prior to passing away...So I remember Don and choose for those reasons to stick to..less. Your mileage may vary.
I think it goes without saying that people should not buy things they cannot afford, trains or otherwise, but that is likely not an approperate topic for this forum.....
Just like for some the hobby is collecting, for others it is the journey of layout building - finished? when are they ever finished?
Just like you fail to understand those who have more than they might be able to "complete", I will never understand those who buy, then sell, then buy, then sell, then buy..........each time loosing money in most cases.........
But then again, I don't like the process of selling, I'm not crazy about the "hunt" either, and I actually know what I like and want, with model trains and other things in life.
One of my mottos - I was well rounded, until I learned what I really liked.
I guess on thinking about this thread that I started I fall a little bit on the collector side. After all in addition to the 7 locos the SIW has I have six or so trainset locos that I have deemed unworthy of bring upgraded to DCC but nevertheless for various reasons ( mostly because they were given to me by relatives) I have not parted with. These shelf queens get the plastic knock off couplers glued in (as all my operating stock has Kadee couplers) placed on left over EZ track from my last layout and left on display.
Joe Staten Island West
Sheldon--
I know exactly what I like, now, after all the trying and trading different things.
I have a very short list of less than 5 models I really want to have just one of.
I'm not trashing anyone for having big rosters; I just have kids that will need some kind of post-secondary education, and I would feel terrible making them borrow 100% of it as my relatives helped me greatly...so I personally am not at a point in life where I can accumulate much. I don't think I ever said it was wrong for others to do so, only that I personally don't see a need for myself to do that.
If I can make a little cash on my hobby in 4 years when child number 1 goes to college, by selling some brass at that time, I will...but i don't think it likely (oh, in our state, i'd be penalized on financial aid for having any cash at all in the bank).
John
PRR8259 Sheldon-- I know exactly what I like, now, after all the trying and trading different things. I have a very short list of less than 5 models I really want to have just one of. I'm not trashing anyone for having big rosters; I just have kids that will need some kind of post-secondary education, and I would feel terrible making them borrow 100% of it as my relatives helped me greatly...so I personally am not at a point in life where I can accumulate much. I don't think I ever said it was wrong for others to do so, only that I personally don't see a need for myself to do that. If I can make a little cash on my hobby in 4 years when child number 1 goes to college, by selling some brass at that time, I will...but i don't think it likely (oh, in our state, i'd be penalized on financial aid for having any cash at all in the bank). John
And compared with some people we both know, I don't have many trains at all.......
And I don't buy much anymore, I have most of what the layout theme calls for.
In 46 years I can count on one hand the "mistakes" I sold off.....
And again, for my layout, an ABBA set is one loco, so it does not take long to get to 130 powered units.
Take care, Sheldon
Short answer yes... There is a running joke among my modeling buddies about making very long trains just from locomotives.
As to what constitutes too many??? That I think is really determined by the inividual (with the exception of putting yourself or family in financial trouble by buying too many expensive locos).
I have a modest roster of maybe 30 locos...Mine are runners. I don't need that many to fullfill the OPS plan for the layout. I have friends who have 100's and 100's of locos.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
If only we all could be as organized and certain of what we want as you Sheldon. Unfortunately most of us are a bit more flawed. :-/
For a long time I wanted to model what I saw so my purchasing tended to favor "modern" through the early 1990's. But eventually I became disatisfied with "modern" as it morphed into lobotomized and patched diesels, no cabooses, vandalized freight cars and other things.
Another reason I have sold off way more cars than I can count on my hands and toes is this, I like to run models that look like the real thing, not generic foobies that look generally like American freight cars. Perhaps it's because I read too many Highlights magazines as a child and I could readily see the details that others can't; that translated into me replacing many foobie train cars with cars that actually look like the real thing. Just quirk I have I guess.
Yes. I'm always amazed at what some of my friends still have on hand, too. Some of them are buying the newest, latest greatest Genesis, Fox Valley, etc. diesels, yet they retain Blue Box units on hand just I guess because there is intrinsic value in them for the time, place or even gift that they were/are.
I loved, loved the blue box diesels back in the day and vividly remember when some of them were brand new releases...that was awhile ago. Some of my friends have been accumulating closets full of trains since the blue box days and never got to the building a layout stage...
Often people hold on to old engines for sentimental reasons. I kept a blue box SP F7 for a while and then realized I couldn't just keep buying newer, more accurate engines without clearing out some of the older stuff; That cured me of my sentamentalism and I have only a few blue box engines left and I should probably sell them them off.
I think that all of us should remember that the object of the game is to have fun. Collectors, builders and runners have fun in different ways. How to have fun with model trains is an individual choice, not subject to negotiation or arbitration.
I (me, the guy in MY socks) have been accumulating very specific items, each having a place in a master plan that was cast in bronze fifty-two years and two months ago and has remained unchanged since. Since I seldom had a layout for the first 40 of those years (a 15" x 96" module, built in 1980, hardly qualifies as a layout!) I was a collector, so I have no heartburn with the breed. (I DO have a problem with the individual who threw a hissy-fit after seeing my re-detailed Toby Baldwin 0-8-0T, which HE needed to complete HIS collection!)
I then had a totally inadequate layout along two walls of a spare bedroom, with trains being moved around on cassettes between three levels of shelves. I managed to test-run all of my assembled power, only to discover that most of it was unhappy with 18 inch minimum radii. Still, wheels rolled, if only in test track mode.
Finally, after the big post-retirement move, I had an adequate layout space. I transitioned smoothly to builder mode and made a fair amount of progress before I was blind-sided by some health problems which reduced the rate of progress from turtle to sickly snail. Fortunately I had built enough to allow wheels to roll. That is a two sided blessing. Time spent with throttle in hand is time not spent erecting roadbed, laying track, stringing wire or sculpting landforms. However, I'm still having fun. If I wasn't, the garage would be a lot emptier and my bank account would be a lot fuller.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
riogrande5761 If only we all could be as organized and certain of what we want as you Sheldon. Unfortunately most of us are a bit more flawed. :-/ For a long time I wanted to model what I saw so my purchasing tended to favor "modern" through the early 1990's. But eventually I became disatisfied with "modern" as it morphed into lobotomized and patched diesels, no cabooses, vandalized freight cars and other things. Another reason I have sold off way more cars than I can count on my hands and toes is this, I like to run models that look like the real thing, not generic foobies that look generally like American freight cars. Perhaps it's because I read too many Highlights magazines as a child and I could readily see the details that others can't; that translated into me replacing many foobie train cars with cars that actually look like the real thing. Just quirk I have I guess.
Agreed, it has been my experiance in life that few people know what they want, Chuck and I are unusual in that regard........
I have a friend who has a good saying:
"You can have most anything you want in this life, you just can't have EVERYTHING you want."
I am far from perfect, but I have avoided a number of pitfalls in life, and have no regrets about the things I skipped to have and do the things I like most.