Been in the hobby for one year is this nuts?

[Anonymous]

Ask and ye shall receive...

One cornfield comin' up:

http://www.trains.com/mrr/default.aspx?c=a&id=476

(I assume you're a MRR subscriber.)

 

[cudaken]

 Make that 56 ENGINES! Picked up another pair of PK2 F-3 A&B's Monon's. I now have 9 Monons, guess I am going to model IND my home state. Hum, need corn feilds.

               Cuda Ken

[Anonymous]

Cuda Ken, just kidding with ya!  LOL

I am in similar situation...I used to have a large fleet of Bachmann stuff and gradually upgraded to Atlas and Kato fleet.  No doubt MR is additctive and to make matters worse, I also collect die-cast airliners.  I suppose this is just part of the hobby I guess!  That's why we are all so broke most of the time!  LOL

[cudaken]

 Iceman, no credit used just cash. Now before you think I am rich I have been lucky as far as sell for the last 6 months. Last year at this time when I went to the LHS most I could spend was arount $10.00 to $15.00 a vist. $30.00, well I gave some stuff back. That is why I maily bought old Blue Boxes and worn out Athearn and Tyco cars. One auction I won on E-bay was for a FP-45 Athearn (needed help but lives) and 9 50' box cars all Athearn. Total cost with shipping was $26.00. I have bought cheap most of the time, paid for it with labor and parts but had fun. Of all the engines I have only 11 where bought new.

 My rolling stock, only 1 Athearn RTR and I had to work on it to make it right. I will guess with a quick box count I have bought 29 new BB Athearns.

 Yep, the engines are the stars. Tonight I fired up a old SPD-40 that I have not ran for 4 months or better. It was like seeing it for the first time again. (cost $10.00)  Next I pulled out the old J1a BLI Hudson, have not ran it for a month. For what ever reason it like to derail from time to time.  It is in a good mood tonight and dragging 20 cars. Onces again it is like seeing it for the first time.

         Cuda Ken 

[Anonymous]

I've been in the hobby for 40+ years and he has more locos than I do.

I guess someone have a bigger credit card than we do!  I cut up all my credit cards about 5 years ago except a Visa card for buying trains!  D'oh!  But I am afraid the way I am going, I might have to cut up that one as well!  The darkside of the train force is too strong!

[Anonymous]

Hi Ken,

I have a friend who says the Greeks have a saying, "Everybody's crazy; some people a little, some people a lot."

I think only you can judge where you fall on this one...

I would however say that you might want to do a reality check, only in the context of where your passions in the hobby lie. (And if possible, anticipate what they will be in the future.) If you enjoy running a multitude of different roads on a small & detailed layout just for the sake of seeing them run, (and maybe photographing them.) or just being a collector, and/or up-grading/super detailing then I would say you're serving that purpose well.

If on the other hand you would someday like to have a large, operating, Proto or Proto-freelanced layout that has purpose and is historically plausible, then what you've been purchasing may turn out to be monies that could've gone to much better use. (Not to mention the whole DCC decoder installation issue...)

If this be the case then maybe you should take a pause and start thinking about the concept for such a layout. I've been collecting (I use the term loosely, obviously my funds available for the hobby aren't what yours are.) since 1986 when my son was born. I currently have 33 Loco's in total. Take out the dummies and we're down to 26. Take out the cheap crap and the ones that won't fit the scheme of the current plan and we're down to 19. And there's only one DCC steamer!

As far as already having too many Locos/rolling stock for a large layout, your #s don't seem like a problem. (Provided roads/era's match, etc.) As someone else said, you may only want to operate 4 trains at a time, however there would be many more waiting in staging yards, and also mid-stream on the layout in the modeled yard. If we think in terms of a large layout with a 7 or 8 track staging yard at each end of the line, and 3 or 4 Loco's per train, plus yard switchers, etc. you'll probably need more!

This is the beauty of this wonderful hobby, you can do whatever you like, and if it makes you happy, and you're having fun, that's all that matters. Everything else being equal however, I think we'd all agree more is better!

Enjoy!

[aloco]

My reply reflects my own personal bias.  Locomotives are where it's at, plain and simple.  When trains are running on the layout, the locomotives are the stars of the show. 

[mtrails]

There seems to be some misconception about model railroading, that being the main concept of the hobby is to buy and own as much "stuff" as possible whether is is ever used on the hobby or not (just stored on a shelf) this idea has permeated the hobby where it seems if a person who does NOT have a large amount of engines is not really into the hobby, sorry, I'm afraid there are a lot of hobbyists with a couple of locomotives and some cars who are having an absolute great time choo-chooing around their layout. More locomotives is better???  hmmmmm.

I don't believe in this misconception. This is merely your opinion. Every model railroader has their own satisfactory wants and needs within the hobby, and though some may be content with a couple locos and a handful of rolling stock, others may need much more than that, for reasons I will not attempt to list... because I can't speak for anyone else.

But why should you judge? Hobbies are fun, trains or otherwise, so what difference does it make? Some want locos and rolling stock simply because they want them, they like them. Others, get just what they need. There are many variables in model railroading, and there are many variations of people who are interested in the hobby. Some may think more is better, some can afford, some cannot. Some like realism, some don't. I could go on, but not to get off topic, life is a garden, dig it. Use whatever tools you want, and plant as much as you want, whether you need it or not.

Jeremy

 

[Texas Zepher]

Who counts? I lost track several years ago.

I count my stuff, but only for insurance purposes. Once I got it into a database, it was easy to keep track of (sorry for the bad pun).

I have my stuff recorded for insurance, that is a pretty big difference from counting. 

I had the wife of a fellow club member asked me once if it was common to have more than a few locomotives.  Her husband had apparently just purchased his 20th locomotive.  I told her is was not uncommmon and I was certain I had more than 20.  She didn't seem satisfied with that answer, so, for her, I started counting. I eventually gave up, simply reporting to her that I had more than 300.  Later that same fellow came up to me and said something like, "I never understood why you or Jim always said you thought you had loco xyz in your collection - how could you not know exactly what you had.  Now I understand."  He had just gone out and purchase locomotive #50 or so, forgetting that he had already purchased it earlier that year....  

[CP5415]

The only people who are nuts in this hobby are not directly in the hobby. They're called wives, husbands, signicant others etc etc etc who do not understand the term "model railroader"

Gordon

[3railguy]

  I got my first cheap Life Like train set with snap track 54 months ago. 1 engine and 10 cars with apx 4 X 8 foot of track. When I started I had no clue on what to buy or what quality what I was buying!.........clip.......

  Like to hear your folks story, just to make sure I am still a little bit right.

                       Cuda Ken 

I got my first Life Like starter set in Dec 2004 as a table top ornament for the holidays. It's an N scale Yardmaster switcher set. I watched that thing go in circles for hours and soon I was off for a station, more track, and cars. I gradually expanded my table top empire into a larger Unitrack layout and shifted to better quality engines and cars such as Kato, Micro-Trains, Atlas, and Intermountain. I think I'm up to around 20 engines and 100 cars.

Maybe because my roots are tinplate, I can't seem to break away from grassmat, styrfoam tunnels, and colorfully painted plastic structure kits. I go for engines and cars in colorful schemes. Ballasted flextrack, realstic scenery, and weathering just doesn't do it for me so I don't fit the description of what many would call a model railroader. I'm modeling a fairy tail world so I don't know what I am nor do I care because I'm having a lot of fun with this.

[twhite]

Well, let's see.  I was a Junior in high school (1955) when I bought my first SP rubber-band GP-9 from Athearn (Black widow, natch), and a junior in college when I bought my first brass steamer.

25 years ago, my father built me a locomotive display case and said, "It only holds about 25 or so."  I had it filled to capacity the moment I installed it in my house, plus about 15 more that were out on the layout, running.  And this was brass.  Last year, my 34-year old Genius Son asked me, "Dad, how old is this locomotive?" pointing to one of my two Akane 2-8-8-4 Yellowstones, and I smiled and said, "This predates you by at least eight years.  Your MOTHER wasn't even a gleam in my eye, let alone you." 

Why do I have three big identical 8-drawer dresser drawers out in the train room VERY CAREFULLY filled with rolling stock?  And one of them just REFRIGERATOR cars? 

No, my friend, in my opinion, you're doing every thing JUST RIGHT!

Tom

[tatans]

There seems to be some misconception about model railroading, that being the main concept of the hobby is to buy and own as much "stuff" as possible whether is is ever used on the hobby or not (just stored on a shelf) this idea has permeated the hobby where it seems if a person who does NOT have a large amount of engines is not really into the hobby, sorry, I'm afraid there are a lot of hobbyists with a couple of locomotives and some cars who are having an absolute great time choo-chooing around their layout. More locomotives is better???  hmmmmm.

[jackn2mpu]

Who counts? I lost track several years ago.

I count my stuff, but only for insurance purposes. Once I got it into a database, it was easy to keep track of (sorry for the bad pun).

[mtrails]

To some people, Model Railroader's ARE nuts! One of my best friends, who also enjoys the hobby, thinks I'm "koo-koo for choo-choo". Here's my story:

My first train set was a Campell's Soup train, that my Mother obtained for me, by sending in- like 100 proof of purchases. I was 8 years old. In time, the trains got broke, didn't run, etc., so they kind of disappeared. (hope my Mom still has that train set in a box somewhere!)

When I got my first job at 15 yrs, delivering the newspaper, I managed to buy four locomotives, and 13 rolling stock over the course of two years, including a new power pack (MRC Tech II), and a few packs of Atlas Snap Track. All I had was the kitchen floor to set up on, and run. I set up my trains once every month or two. At 17, I got my first car, and the trains went into a box, and were then set up to run just once a year... then almost never.

Upon the age of 30, I moved to a new state, and stumbled across a model railroad club. Seeing this very large layout, I was quick to bring my trains down to run. I was made aware that the system was controlled by DCC, and I was urged into adapting my locos. I was also made aware that rolling stock must be equipped with metal wheelsets in order to run on the club layout. I had to invest in decoders, plus metal wheelsets in order to take advantage of running on this club's layout. Well, it didn't take long to get my trains updated and moving!

Now the perspective had come into play... "How big do I want/need my layout to be?", "Is 13 cars enough to fulfill a sufficient model railroad?". In comparison to the modular club layout, of my personal thoughts of a home layout, I had much to consider. In the mean time, I would take advantage of being able to run trains on the club layout, and build to my desire. This began the kid in me wanting everything at once! I had enough power to move a decent train, so I was buying at least one piece of rolling stock a week. When a locomotive popped up on the shelf, I saved and bought it, then continued my rolling stock purchases.

In short, within three years, I have bought 94 rolling stock, and 7 locomotives. During this time of train purchasing, I have learned quite a bit about model railroading, and prototypical railroading. Some rolling stock, and one locomotive, I have gotten rid of, because they ultimately wouldn't fulfill my model railroading endeavor. Now, I could use about 20 more locomotives!

Jeremy

 

[CMSTPP]

Nuts? Hmmm. No I dont think your nuts. I think thats great!!! I have about 30 locomotives and about 100 rolling stock. Not all the locomotives are on the track. But I think it's great that you like the hobby. I think thats the idea!

Happy railroading

James

[cudaken]

 Darth, guess what I got back in the mail? My check for your shipping cost. Hum, PM me and I will send another. It is still DOA, I just sat it on the track and shut down the MRC 9500 like that! I just placed it into the tool box to take to work. I do 95% of my rolling stock and engine work at work. I am going to pull the trucks apart and file off a little of the axels or replace the trucks with other FP-45's I have. (axels are to long and hit each other).

 I all so bought a new Athearn drive for a Dash 9 with board and drive shafts. Might try to fit that in there as well.

 Yep I have came a long way but still away to go. Got my first BLI in Dec, got hooked on sound then went DCC on the B line. (A is still DC) now have 4 BLI's and one PK2 all with QSI sound.

 I all so have a 13 foot section of foot hills.

 

                        Your Friend Ken

[aloco]

No, it's not nuts.  You did the right thing.  My advice to all new model railroaders is pretty straightforward.  BUY LOCOMOTIVES - AND LOTS OF THEM. 

[joe-daddy]

Kuda Ken,

Welcome to the sophmore class!  I'm just a tad ahead of you at 17 months.  I'm a Chevy (Corvette) guy, but I like trains too.  I don't have as many engines as you, but most everything I have is dcc and sound equipped.  The integration of the computer with the railroad is just amazing.

Good luck and thanks for sharing!

Joe 

 

[Darth Santa Fe]

Sounds like you've come a long way pretty quickly!!

I've got around 60 engines now (not including dummies), with a Bowser T-1 4-4-4-4 kit coming soon , but that's only after about 10 years of collecting, and a lot of those are pretty cheap ones, too. And 300 feet of track? It took me forever just to start a double-loop on a 4'x7', which I really need to start working on again!

Good to hear you're having such a good time. It's always nice to know someone is enjoying model railroading so much.

By the way, did that SF diesel I fixed for you ever start working again?

[Dave-the-Train]

If you're like most of us, you'll eventually end up with some stuff that you will look at and wonder, "What was I thinking when I bought that".

I thought that's what the ladies did when they looked at all those clothes and shoes in their closet?

The longer we are in the hobby, the more discriminating we get about quality and also about what types of equipment are appropriate for our layouts.

Ah!  That explains the difference!

Upgrading cheap cars is not a bad idea. Usually the bodies are decent quality, it's the mechanicals like the couplers and wheels that leave something to be desired. Upgrading them can bring them up to the standards of the better equipment and you just have to ask whether the savings are worth the added time.

I recommend that if you are going to discuss issues like these anywhere near the good lady ENSURE that she is totally aware that you are talking about your trains first...

[MisterBeasley]

Friends is where you find 'em.

Real friends come find you... when you need 'em.

Good friends come support you when you really need them.

Good friends come over even when you don't have any beer.

Real good friends come over and bring beer.

[Dave-the-Train]

         Cuda Ken Looking for a local friend.

 PS My car friends thank I am nuts. 

Nuts are what keep wheels on and squirrels eat.

Hey, if you shoot  bunch of squirrels and sell them to your local butcher shop does he have to lable them "May contain nuts"?

Friends is where you find 'em.

Real friends come find you... when you need 'em.

Good friends come support you when you really need them.

[Dave-the-Train]

 Been in the hobby for one year is this nuts?

I got my first cheap Life Like train set with snap track 54 months ago.                        Cuda Ken 

What planet you on Cuda? 

Don't see any issue... i've been around at least 40 years, got Uk stuff and at least 200 locos... to start with.  Got two CNW RS 32s and two CNW U25Bs coming (Why oh why did Atlas duplicate a number?  I could have added three...).

Just don't ask me how many cars I've got...

[cudaken]

 OK, I have maybe went off the deep end a little. Am I happy, yes and no. What I am missing is a local HO train friend that comes by and run with me. In the Mopar world I had a ton of friends, well till I stopped doing body work.

 Just like in the 1:1 car world I do nothing in modaration (spell check). Lets faces it would a normal person take a 440 HP that made 375 HP factory rated (more like 340 HP bone stock) and stap a GMC 6-71 Blower on it (689 HP at 5200 RPM's on a Dyno run) for a street car?

 Of the engines I have, say 9 are cheap engines that get some track time ever month just to keep them a live. I did sell off some of the LL and Tyco stuff.

 What I need is a local train nut, but the tuff part is I am only 2 miles from K-10 trains. With his 60' X 80' foot track, why come to my house and run trains?

 Far as cheap rolling stock, that is the gear head in me! I enjoy taking cheap stuff and making it run well. Heck the Charger R/T in the Icon cost me a whole $500.00 and it ran.

        Cuda Ken Looking for a local friend.

 PS My car friends thank I am nuts. 

[Texas Zepher]

Isn't everyones basement, garage or spare room suposed to look like a hobby shop, my basement has been filled for years.

Or the rented storage unit.... At the rate cudaken is going he will surpass several of our loco collections in a couple decades.  Perhaps we should step up our rate of purchase.   Well, sounds like a good excuse to me.

[Hoople]

 What brought this subect to mind is as of today I have 54 engines, that is one a week?  Plus I have 202 rolling stock (3.7 per week), 300 trees (little short there but more are coming) and around 300 feet of track with more coming.

 

Lucky. I only have 5 engines (Only 2 that actually run well) but soon it will be 6.

BTW, Nice dodge charger!

 

[G Paine]

I have been the RR hobby off and on for about 45 years - started when I was in high school; took 15 years off after college and starting a family. I'm working on layout #6 (I think).

About the only thing I am doing that Ken isn't is modeling 2 timeframes - early 50s (freelanced and MEC) and 1980-ish (MEC abd BAR). Kind of feels like a multiple personality disorder at times

[MisterBeasley]

Maybe the right metric to apply is locomotives per square foot of layout?  At 9 engines and a 60 square foot layout, that comes to 0.15 locomotives per square foot.  Or maybe it should be locos/sq.ft./era, since they won't co-exist once the Jordan vehicles are complete - so that number is 0.075.