Nope ... budget really doesn't allow it. I'm pretty much zero'ed-in on my railroad/era/locale anyway.
However, when I come across an item that I need/want ... I may impulsively over pay for it, instead of being patient and wait for the inevitable better deal to come along.
Jim
Sometimes.
My layout is still in the planning phase, so the impulse decision to start getting intermodal equipment is being included in the revisions. Originally, there would have been no intermodal traffic. Now there will be.
I wanted a steam locomotive, so I've put together almost two trains worth of late 40s/early 50s equipment. They get run at modular shows, which means they at least get used, even if they don't fit into my contemporary layout.
I was just on vacation in Switzerland and stumbled upon a train shop. I really liked the Stadler KISS cars we'd been traveling in. Bought one. Does it fit with anything else? Not at all. But, Caltrains has 119 of them on order. Maybe it'll turn up in tow every once in a while as a flatcar load.
When I came back to the hobby about the time I joined this forum, I started going to train shows and I was like a kid in a candy shop. Within a short time, I realized I needed shopping discipline as I was getting ahead of myself, buying things I liked even though my layout didn't have a place for them. Eventually, the layout grew and I found a space for most of the structures, and I suppose pretty much any rolling stock can just be passing through.
I have a couple of diesel switchers that aren't from my road, the Milwaukee, but my road had those models and eventually that paint job and decal work should be easy.
But, I'll confess. I had a big Lionel GG1 when I was a kid and ran O-scale trains. I had to have a GG1 when Bachmann came out with a nice model in HO for a low price. It wasn't really an impulse buy, as I researched it to make sure it would handle my tight curves. I stretched history a bit to electrify a line through Chicago and north.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
My layout era is NYC steam-early diesel between early 40s & early 50s. 99% of all my purchases are based on that and that greatly mitigates any impulse buying for me. That said, I've made two purchases the past few years that would fall into the "impulse" category...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I've resisted yet, but...
ATLANTIC CENTRALUP BigBoys, PRR GG1's, NYC Hudsons, SP GS4's, or ATSF War Bonnet F7's
Closest I've come to buying one off that list was some bidding on an Allegheny online. Lost the auction. Oh well. No biggie.
Mike
Nothing wrong with impulse buying, but I find knowing the market value helpful. This avoids over-spending on things. Certain cars I've purchased b/c they apply to my layout and others not so. I recall an MR article about a great way to answer the question "how did that car arrive on your layout despite it not being anywhere near your geographic area?" The great answer was an interchange.
Keep on shopping folks b/c we must prop up the economy!
OK, I will be the contrarian here.
About 1983 I shifted my modeling era interests from the late 60's to the early 50's. I do still have a few of thoses 1960's freight cars.
And, I do have a small collection 1880's - 1900 rolling stock and locos, which I intend to use for some sort of railway museum somewher on the layout.
Other than that, I am a very disciplined shopper.
I have no shelf queens that don't fit the theme of the layout.
No UP BigBoys, PRR GG1's, NYC Hudsons, SP GS4's, or ATSF War Bonnet F7's.
Occasionally I will see something that will fit the theme, that I had not previously considered, then I am sometimes temped to make a move.
Even staying inside my little world of the Mid Atlantic region in 1954, I have more than enough projects on the shelves and locos to protect the schedules.
Job one right now - build the layout - as soon as some tools come home, there is already lumber in the basement for nearly half the benchwork.
Sheldon
crossthedog A couple of boxcars and one hopper are also time-jumpers. I'm sure there will be more. -Matt
A couple of boxcars and one hopper are also time-jumpers. I'm sure there will be more.
-Matt
The NYC is part of my operating scheme set in 1956 but I acquired an A/B set of F7s with the cigar band logo. I can't remember exactly when that was adopted but I think it was around 1960. I also had a couple Jade Green boxcars that I think first appeared around that same time. I eventually repainted them and lettered them for my fictional road. Classic Metal Works issued a run of 1959 Fords which are a few years outside my time frame but look like they belong so I bought a few. I try to keep them in the background so as not to be too obvious.
That's the nice thing about being a freelancer. You don't have to adhere to rules.
John-NYBWMy question is whether any of you will occasionally buy items that don't fit in with your railroad but are too interesting to pass up. A
All too often! In fact it is sometimes more surprising when I buy somethng that isn't an impulse purchase. The shelves are groaning under the weight of kitbash projects that I have purchased the raw materials for but never gotten around to.
Dave Nelson
John-NYBWMy question is whether any of you will occasionally buy items that don't fit in with your railroad but are too interesting to pass up.
One of the first road switchers I bought was an SP&S custom painted and weathered RS-3, but the "broadstripe" paint scheme on it was first used by the SP&S in 1965. I didn't care. $20 at a swap meet, and it's a YB Atlas/Kato, runs smooth and quiet. I just ignore the temporal dissonance.
Recently I also bought an RS-1 of the Spokane International. Mostly their livery is drab, but this was a beautiful paint scheme of the SI that I had never seen. I had never considered including SI on my railroad because it was never part of the GN, NP, SP&S system, and was eventually absorbed by UP.
But this was a beauty I couldn't pass up. I pretend that there was some track outage on the Spokane International line and that the GN, NP, and SP&S allowed them temporary trackage rights.
Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.
I stopped by my LHS a few days ago and one thing I always check is the second hand shelves. Every once in a while I'll find something appealing there and this was one of those times. There were six Lackawanna passenger cars on the shelves. These were all generic Rivarossi cars but they all had detailed interiors, lighting, metal wheels, and KD couplers. They were priced at $10-12 apiece. My fictional railroad is a composite of several railroads that ran in the New York/New Jersey area including the Lackawanna so until now I had avoided buying that equipment but at the price and as well detailed as they were, I couldn't pass them up. Four of the cars were heavyweights and those are the ones I took. They don't fit the theme of my railroad but I can see running these stand alone outside of my normal operations.
My question is whether any of you will occasionally buy items that don't fit in with your railroad but are too interesting to pass up.