Arnold, I totally agree with your last sentence. There's nothing better than making a living doing something you would do just for fun. I just never thought about making money from this hobby, but good for those who can!
John
The classic correct answer is: Start off with two million dollars.
Getting back to the expense side of the hobby, another way to save money is to spend less on trains and focus more on structures and scenery, which tends to be less costly.
This reminds me of the train layout on one of the OGR videos of a very successful CEO on the west coast who has a great layout, but says he has very few trains, even though he can well afford them. I think focusing on the design, construction and artistry of the layout can maximize one's enjoyment of the hobby because so much creativity is involved with it.
I love everything in my collection., which is now substantial because I've been collecting for so long, but I find that I've been regularly running between 5 and 10 favorite locomotives. My favorites are mostly modern because they are more realistic, detailed models, have speed control using a handheld and have more play value. I also run a few Postwar, particularly my 773 and FM Traunmaster from the 1950s. I rarely run anything else, but when I do, I enjoy them for a change.
Ideally, I would have bought only my favorites, maybe 10 to 12 locomotives. However, I wonder if I would not have discovered my favorites unless I bought a lot more, which I did.
@Arnold D. Cribari posted:Getting back to the expense side of the hobby, another way to save money is to spend less on trains and focus more on structures and scenery, which tends to be less costly.
This reminds me of the train layout on one of the OGR videos of a very successful CEO on the west coast who has a great layout, but says he has very few trains, even though he can well afford them. I think focusing on the design, construction and artistry of the layout can maximize one's enjoyment of the hobby because so much creativity is involved with it.
While probably true, my experience is that many (too many?) O scale modelers would rather spend $1000s on engines along and then complain about the $100 price of a structure....or better yet just complain about the cost of attending a meet while carrying out ~$4000 of brass. The latter example sort of defined a critical aspect of this hobby for me 20 years ago.
I love everything in my collection........
And then there's that collector mentality which counters that premise of saving money by focusing on structures and scenery.
