I turn 63.5 on Wednesday . I have been working 60-70 hours/wk for well over 30 years. This January I drop night call and weekends after 39.5 years....starting January 1, just five 10-12 hr days each week.....
I plan to work five days a week for 3 years, and then, drop the hospital work and go part time office until I'm 68.
I have not yet begun to play!
Peter
They will have to pry my cold stiff hand off the transformer.
At 73 I have almost stopped buying but I have a LOT of trains and still work on my layout.
I will quit when they finally close that lid! 
WHEN MY HEART STOPS BEATING.....REALLY?
D500 posted:I have slowed down a lot on purchases, as I have said here before
From Steamer, above:
...I went with the 2014 Challenger R/T with the 5.7 Hemi and a 6-speed. I'm 68. The clutch is possibly the best I have ever used - and not too heavy. Now, the one behind the 392 is a bit hairier, I'm told...
I had a '69 Mustang Mach I, during my "train-free" years. I'm sure that keeping the Mach I instead of getting heavily into model railroading would have been financially more rewarding, and, much easier to sell. But, the trains were far more enjoyable with my family and friends.
Besides, I could never get hurt running the trains off the track... .
I am 56 and you guys and girls (Peggy with the Disneyland layout) are an inspiration to me. I love the hobby, my interest rises and falls with the time I am able to spend (I will be working for about 10 more years). I am working on a 7ft x 9ft layout in the garage and just started a G scale layout in the back yard as the weather in Las Vegas is nice about 9 months a year. I collect mostly Postwar but buy newer stuff if it strikes me right. I have slowed down a little on buying as I am running out of room to store and display the trains. I have them all over the house and in my office. I, for one don't plan on stopping ever. I also know that it is ok that my interests sometimes wander (I am a car guy too). I will always come back to the trains.
Chris Sheldon
If I go blind, lose my hands and my brain then maybe. 
I'll be 85 in two months and finally accepted at 83 that my modeling days were over. But not necessarily train running days. Even so running trains is very seldom because of ornery and frequent health issues for both my spouse and myself. We get one thing under control and another pops up. Not complaining just stating the condition.
I dismantled my mountain cottage layout and one here in the cluster house, in '08 and '09 respectively. In February '10 I moved down the hall from the dismantled upstairs layout to a small finished attic and built a 9x16 round-the-room operation with a dropgate opposite the room entrance to avoid ducking under and simplified the electricals and operating controls [run TMCC or Conventional]. Fortunately I was up and running quickly because health issues soon became severe and I haven't returned to do work on any unfinished projects since. But i can ride the stairlift up 17 steps and run trains when I am vertical and mobile. Eventually dirty track and wheels will stop me but when my sons visit for the holidays their work is cut out.[four grand daughters].
Life goes on until it doesn't and I still enjoy half awake fantasizing over where I am going to install Riverleaf Model's coaling operation 
.
ps: i have quit buying but I am not selling.
I'm selling off my old Lionel stuff from the 50's. Don't run any of it as I'm more into scale running. It just sits in boxes. The thing I do worry about if I go, is what will my wife do with all my other trains and layout. I know of only one other guy on the island that runs trains. I guess Matt from the forum will have to come over and take down the layout and taking any of the equipment he wants. Don
scale rail posted:I'm selling off my old Lionel stuff from the 50's. Don't run any of it as I'm more into scale running. It just sits in boxes. The thing I do worry about if I go, is what will my wife do with all my other trains and layout. I know of only one other guy on the island that runs trains. I guess Matt from the forum will have to come over and take down the layout and taking any of the equipment he wants. Don
Just so happens my name is Matt!!! I'll get the plane tickets tomorrow!!
Matt
I am going on 57 with the new year coming. I am at the point where I hope to not be picking up any more locomotives. Getting my last one running was an ordeal for me and everyone helping me. I now think I have enough to last me and any possible clones of myself!
Dave, I love the Road Runner. My first car was s '69 Plymouth. Unfortunately, it was my neighbor's Plymouth Valient. 
I did redeem myself with a navy blue 1970 Chevelle convertible, though.
Tom
From my cold dead hands! 
Whoops, sorry got the name wrong, it was Penny with the amazing Disneyland layout. Sorry Penny, you are an amazing talent.
Chris Sheldon (FireOne)
My Grandchildren will get the trains and can keep or sell them. I had to make that call a few years ago and get it recorded. I just turned 72 and will keep on going.
Guys/Gals, this is something you should get serious about.
they are gonna have to pry that legacy remote out my cold dead hands
or better yet just bury me with it and put a monitor in my gevo shaped casket hooked to cameras in the layout room so i can run my trains while 6 feet under
i imagine my family would call ghost adventures to investigate the house for a ghost after the trains start running by themselves
zak bagans would be like- "We got trains running in the middle night this is awesome and orbs shooting through the layout this is the most spectacular paranormal evidence we have captured as this man who was known as paigetrain on the OGR forum still runs his trains after being long dead
or better yet forget the cameras and casket monitor
just prop my body on a couch in the train room
i'll run trains there
just don't forget to spray me with formaldihyde and axe so i don't start to stink and rot away and when i get my daily spray down don't get my legacy remote wet.
Wish I still had my wife's Marklin Z gauge train. A loop would fit it the old wood box!!
I didn't read all the replies but if I repeat someone I'm sorry. To answer your question as you put it out at the beginning, A lot ( not all ) give them up about the age 15 or so when girls and school activities kick in. Then pick them back up when they have kids and then when they get to old for them ( school and Girls again) ( or Boys for the female collectors) and your to busy with work and things. Then about time to look at retirement they enter again and probably in my case will stay till the end I didn't give them up ever but thats the way it goes a lot of the time. ( I sold all my once because of two things mainly because no room to store them and funds where tight back them. )
paul 2 posted:4 ways come to my mind. Going to the big layout in the sky, too old and can't move around anymore, sell the trains for financial reasons, lose interest in trains. These would be the only reasons I would have...............Paul
Add downsizing one's residence to the list. Many of us surely have been the beneficiaries of fellow hobbyists sharing items for which they no longer have space.
As for the original question, which has been a topic of discussion here over the years, I am repeating myself in expressing the opinion not making arrangements for a timely exit from the hobby is like dying without a will. Failure to address either situation can leave a fine mess for our survivors.
Personally, I already offered and set aside trains (which entailed purchasing additional track and power) for my prospective heirs, then established an ecommerce website in expectation the last item will have been shipped the day before I die. Should the end of my life occur sooner than anticipated, at least a mechanism is in place to assist in disposal of the remainder. Who knows, maybe an enterprising survivor will manage to sell the established website and any remaining trains in a package deal ... or perhaps take on other collections and expand the marketed offerings.
You know what? I've never really thought about it.
RickC,
Did you actually say Quit, sir you are a sinner, we will pay for your soul!
PCRR/Dave
For the same reason I continue to do engineering, I plan to stay with the trains for many more years. Engineering to me is exciting and not work. Ditto trains. I just turned 75 and am in good health except I have to watch my blood sugar. I don't want to travel as I have traveled a lot already and it is boring. Ditto sitting on the beach or going to Paris to see the sights. I have been to Cairo but Cairo is a little frustrating because no one knows how the pyramids and temples were built. Forget hammers and chisels. The huge stones are too precise to have been done by simple methods.
The lid. Cold hands on the transformer seems pretty cool. It used to be hands on a steering wheel at over 150mph, but that won't happen again.
Anyone know of any old Indian burial grounds used for pets nowadays? 
Not picking up a locomotive has a whole different meaning for me some days. I can't hold a camera steady enough for clear shots half the time already and Dewey has over 30 years on me. But it doesn't really stop me from trying either. Its sort of trains, books, the net, or TV...and I don't really like TV anymore.
Fireone,
Now that's a "real" hot rod! Or should I say its "a bucket I wouldn't mind kicking" 
(The look is awsome. Bonus points on the windscreen. But not enough rust for me yet. I liked looking between my legs at the pavement mere inches below me 
"Yabba Dabba Doo!" 
)
Adriatic, I built the truck first and love it but it is pretty refined with LS-1 power and all. I yearned for something more primitive with the roadster, kind of like the allure of Postwar trains vs the new stuff.
FireOne (Chris)
As long as I'm alive I'll be working on my layout. I will never move or downsize homes. The trains will be here well after I'm gone. Perhaps they will go to the next owner as part of the house.
As for me, I plan to go hoboing in the afterlife. I have instructed my wife and sister where to dump my ashes on a passing freight.
In my Dad's case,it was only until his body gave out due to pancreatic cancer at 74.He spent his final months restoring trains from his collection that he was leaving me.Two days before he passed on,we watched a LGB club dvd together.His love of real and model trains continued to the end.
I will probably stop when I am 6 feet under although with some good LED lights and a few batteries I could probably keep going another 6 months. We will see what the undertakers says.
Al
I'll attach a trailer hitch to the hearse, I'm taking it all with me.
I do not assign any age limit to model railroading but the demographics of model railroaders is changing and that can affect ones departure from the hobby. Things like health, retirement, relocation/downsizing and change of financial status can all have an impact. Buying habits may change but I would say that as long as one is reasonably healthy, model railroading is a life long hobby.
You don't stop playing as you get old; you get old when you stop playing!
The OP has a very good question. So I'm going to offer a different perspective. While all of the answers here are basically never, mine is somewhat different. For me, and I'm I'm going on, hmmmm, uhmm 55, yeah that's right. I had to do the math on that, all this year I thought I was 53, when I was really 54! LOL! But back to the question, I've been giving it some hard thought lately, I don't have room for a layout, I just set up a carpet layout for the first time in umpteen years and while I liked it, the excitement just wasn't there like it was when I was younger. And maybe partially for that was because it was just that, a carpet layout. Crawling around on a hard floor and getting into positions or maybe I should say TRYING to get into positions I could 25 or 30 years ago just doesn't cut it anymore. I really like and I am still fascinated by trains, but lately I've been contemplating as to whether I want to keep collecting or maybe give it up. I've spoken to my wife about this and she's all for me staying with the hobby. She want's me to understand that she has no problem with what I collect or what I spend on trains, she's great on that. But for me at this juncture in my life I just don't know. I look at my PW Lionel NYC F3's and just love them sitting on a shelf, along with my many Conrail Units and cabooses and other NYC items and I think to myself, what do YOU want to do? And right now to be quite honest, I just don't know. I'm still very interested in the hobby, maybe it's because I don't have a running layout and I really can't see when I would be able to build one or get one going. But for now I'm sorta up in the air. I know people will gasp on my answer but that's the way I see it for now.
I'm 86 and I am still buying trains.
eddie g posted:I'm 86 and I am still buying trains.
Eddie you are truly an inspiration to us old timers.
What interesting responses! I've thought about this... As others have said, my interest in the hobby waxes and wanes with the seasons of the year but I still enjoy it. I have re-themed (and re-built) the layout over the years, churning my collection to match my latest interest (from circus trains to trolleys to Thomas to Ivor...). Last year, i decided to take a hard look at everything I had stowed away (that wasn't parked on the layout) and sold or gave away most of it. For me, it's just part of living a bit simpler... I've also been cognizant to have switches and operating accessories within an arms length of the edge of the layout.
eddie g posted:I'm 86 and I am still buying trains.
Agreed! Inspiring!
BUT... the important QUESTION is:
Do you still buy green bananas?
Upon death do us part!
Well, I'm 79 and sold off all my 3 rail trains last fall. I have no space for a layout any more. And, I had to decide - buy food or trains. BUT, I really miss my trains and I'm thinking of a little 3 x 6 layout on 2" Insulation board. Probably HO analog operation 1 small train and a siding. Hoping to buy something in January if finances permit. I had big layouts from 1994 until 2015. I had to give a lot away as no offers on a lot on my stuff. And now, freight charges and US dollar exchange add about 65% to a US price.
I have a friend who just turned 100. He still runs trains.
NH Joe
My instructions to all my girls are as follows:
Take my ashes and put them in an urn. Tie the urn to a flatcar and give me one or two last trips around the outside main loop. While you're doing this, you should all be enjoying the cocktail of your choice. A glass of sangria or a Gin and Tonic would be nice.
It will be our last big grin together.
Until that moment, this boy will be running his trains. There is no "quits". You can't quit being genetically programmed to like trains.
Steven J. Serenska
Rusty Traque posted:I would say it depends completely on the individual and circumstances.
Rusty
DITTO.
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