If you had to restart collecting model trains...

If I were to start over in the hobby, like a newborn babe with no knowledge and no history, I would probably still buy a lot of traditional, given the realistic constraints of space and budget. But I would focus on MTH: I keep seeing all these neat MTH products based on Midwestern prototypes, which I perceive as a chronically weak area for Lionel.

But I am not a newborn babe with no knowledge. I am someone who played with his dad's train as a kid; someone who long ago fell in love with the traditional train "look," with Pullmor motors and ozone, with the feeling of mastery when you coax out a realistic slow start by working the transformer handle just so, with trains whose insides are big and brutal enough to evoke just a little bit of the real thing represented by their outsides, with trains whose bells and whistles are actual bells and whistles. So, given my history, were I to start over, I would do just what I am doing now--collecting old Lionel! The ONLY doubt I MIGHT have would be whether Postwar Flyer could scratch that same itch...oh! those MoPac PAs!

I think this topic is right up there with

"what would you do different"

and

"what would have NOT bought for your collection"

I have several trains and cars that I purchased on impulse and after

the fact wish I had left them on the table at the show.

example of a purchase my wife made. she saw a metal locomotive

bank for putting coins in. there was a coin slot in the top and a piece

of masking tape on top next to the slot marked $5.00.

My wife purchased it, got it home, removed the tape and underneath,

someone had engraved "Kyle" into the roof of the locomotive.

sneaky dealer strick again.

I cant get to mad though, because guys like that always get what

they deserve and it will come back to bite him.

"what goes around, comes around!!"

I would've went 2R O Scale and never looked back.

I would have exercised a bit more restraint in how many scale locomotives I let myself buy.