The Psychology of Collecting and Expanding vs. Running.

At this point it dawned on me that the constant improvements and additions were superseding the actual running of trains as my main point of focus. Now, I have gone from two to four trains, if you count my trolley as one, and run them at every opportunity.

In my limited experience, it's the constant improvements and additions are what most people find to be the most enjoyable aspect of model railroading. That includes people into the smaller gauges.  The actual running of the trains isn't that much fun.

For collecting, most of the fun is in deciding what is of interest and the hunt.

And some of us like fixing up broken trains, building models, or detailing mass produced trains.

No offense intended to the folks that do get  the most pleasure from running their trains.
It's a big tent, there isn't a "right" way to enjoy toy and model trains.

I fit in the tent, just not sure where most of the time.  I tend to run for a while , then get interested in fixing some trains and I do that for a while, then maybe work on the layout for a while... I bounce around in my interest short term. It's not ideal, but it is what I do.  That said, I have always made sure at least one main loop was open for running and so I always can run something if and when the mood strikes.  I think CW may have it right though, it's that change whether getting a new car or engine or adding a building, that keeps us coming back.

Years ago; in a Tracks Ahead episode ; noted Pre-war collector Chuck Brasher made a comment that resonated with me.  Chuck said - and I may be paraphrasing a bit here - "if you had it all sitting here; it wouldn't be any fun.  It's what you can acquire."

I enjoy running my trains; doing scenery; working on trains; and actively participating in a local O gauge club.  I would have to say it's Chuck's "philosophy" that keeps me more fully engaged in the hobby, however.

If I had it all sitting here; it just wouldn't be any fun.  And after 28 years back in the hobby; I doubt now I'll reach a point where I conclude that I finally have it all.

Curt

Michael Hokkanen posted:

Like many of you I began with a train sta(r)ter set. Best deal for the money I was told- and exactly so.

Then I asked,  what do I do next? Your replies; build a layout! Started on a 5'x9' dining room table. (now running a 10' x 11' around the room wide shelf layout with an island in the middle)

 Then, I noticed that acquiring new "stuff", you know, a la the song lyrics, "Kicks just seem to get harder to find" seemed to keep my enthusiasm for the hobby going.

And now, the rest of that lyric -

"No, you don't need kicks
To help you face the world each day
That road goes nowhere . . . "

Go your own way and you'll be alright.

Pete

My shift came when I closed my store. I 'hobby' the same way but have pretty much only the internet to share on now with very little 'live' interaction compared with all the little urchins that used to crowd the display window. I do miss it!

I think train shows and trips to the train store are probably my favorite part of the hobby. I get out of the house for a while, I love looking around at new stuff and thinking of ways I can use it. Of course, adding all of that new stuff to my layouts is also a great time. Finally, there are times when I will pull up a stool and just watch my trains run. Lying on the floor watching the Christmas tree layout is always fun. I guess I enjoy it all.

Kinda like when your kids come home from the store with a bag of free goldfish.

Bogie

Texas Pete posted:

Michael Hokkanen posted:

Like many of you I began with a train sta(r)ter set. Best deal for the money I was told- and exactly so.

Then I asked,  what do I do next? Your replies; build a layout! Started on a 5'x9' dining room table. (now running a 10' x 11' around the room wide shelf layout with an island in the middle)

 Then, I noticed that acquiring new "stuff", you know, a la the song lyrics, "Kicks just seem to get harder to find" seemed to keep my enthusiasm for the hobby going.

And now, the rest of that lyric -

"No, you don't need kicks
To help you face the world each day
That road goes nowhere . . . "

Go your own way and you'll be alright.

Pete

Paul Revere and the Raiders featuring Mark Lindsey!

I'd rather just run them, I don't enjoy the fixing or building, hence my broken trains stay broken, and my layout hasn't gotten anywhere in the building.

I am with Daniel. I the 70s I owned a hobby/craft store. I had a middle school (junior high) down the street. Had a couple young 'uns that would come in twice a week to vacuum and clean the glass etc. Paid them Athearn cars. One is a minister and the other runs a department in a local hardware store and each year sets up a Lionel layout in a local doctor's office. Sold the store 5 years after I bought, took my GI bill and finished college.

Dick

I also got back in the hobby with an MTH starter set. Didn't really have a lot of room for a layout and I set up a small temporary layout about 4'x7 or so.

Then I 'acquired' stuff for a couple of years until we moved. Now I have a 6'x16' layout, but have acquired way too much stuff for that size layout. The layout now needs to be 'expanded' to fit all the 'acquired' stuff. Sort of an 'endless loop'?

Good news is I haven't 'acquired' much in the last couple of years so maybe things will start to even out one of these days. 

I haven't been able to part with any of the 'Acquired' stuff though, just can't seem to part with any of it just yet. Maybe someday that will happen as well. Problem is that would probably just lead to 'acquiring' different stuff with the funds from the sales of the other stuff and more 'endless loops'. 

when i run trains my favorite activities are switching ops and rescue derailment recovery and taking out bad guys that think its fun to ransack knudsen yards

Building is my thing... I fear the day I run out of room to build.

Trains run in the background as I enjoy running them... but friends from the club are the main staple of the hobby. I try to never miss a meet.

Keep the wheels polished!

Michael Hokkanen posted:

...

I wonder if any of you have realized a pattern or change in patterns regarding your participation in the hobby like a I have? Ultimately, I know what the answer is, "It is your railroad. Do what makes you happy!"

...

Great thread.  By and large, I think we're ALL guilty -- to one degree or another -- of building too big a roster of trains.  And it tends to be worse when we don't have an operating layout that acts as a "built-in governor" of sorts to remind us what we really NEED vs. what we're tempted to buy because it's the latest thing offered and we happen to be fortunate enough to afford the purchase(s).  All too often, stashing stuff in storage while dreaming of someday building that huge basement railroad empire (when one retires ) is the perfect recipe for overbuying.  Can we get a big AMEN to that???  

2017 was a real turning point year for me, because I made the decision (actually in late 2016) to have a layout "professionally" built.  A major health-scare in 2015 gave me pause to think that waiting for "official retirement years" might not be the most prudent plan to build that dream layout.  Not than I'm planning on going anywhere anytime soon (the Good Lord willing), but let's just say the past couple of years were pretty much like the proverbial 2x4 that hit me over the head to adjust one's spending priorities going forward.  It's amazing how new catalogs no longer mean anything to me right now.  Funds are being directed to layout construction this year.  And aside from 2 or 3 remaining "special" pre-orders, the UPS man no longer makes frequent stops at my house.

In fact, finally deciding to have the layout built really forced me to examine just how much I over-purchased.   And it's a sobering thought indeed.  Back in March, I loaded a U-Haul 9-foot cargo van filled to capacity (with literally no room to spare) and transported boxes and boxes of track, buildings, bridges, operating accessories, trackside signals, transformers, electrical items and some key locomotives and rolling stock (to ensure proper scenery clearances) -- and brought everything to the layout builder's studio.  With all of those items out of our house, the basement STILL looked overcrowded with trains!!! 

So I suspect another round of roster-thinning will take place soon enough before the finished layout arrives later this year, because it will be physically impossible for everything to reside in the same basement space.  So more stuff has gotta go.    Having a layout professionally built has thus far been an interesting and enjoyable "transition" on my journey in this hobby -- one that I never would have expected to take, as it certainly wasn't in the cards 5-10 years ago.  But we never know exactly what life has in store for us...  Sort of reminiscent of the famous Robert Frost poem, The Road Not Taken.  I just hope the path I've chosen will make all the difference as well. 

Have a great weekend, everybody!!!

David

I buy what I want to run and I run what I buy  - sounds normal, right? I recently did some 'inventory' - 15 locomotives, 5 motorized pieces, 7 caboose and I can't tell you how much rolling stock. And I only have a 5'x9' layout. I've slowed down in recent years as I have most of what I want (or need). But then again, something will pop up and I can't get it out of my head - my latest pursuit is a Sunoco tank car from 1997 with 'Aviation Fuel' imprinted on the side. I have some acquisitions that are going to be deemed 'surplus' but I can't seem to get the courage to move forward and unload them. As far as my layout goes, I still have to finish the 'water' in my harbor. 

This is a great thread, my story is probably way different than most in this thread.  When I was little, I always wanted a Lionel train set for Christmas, we would go to the department stores here in El Paso, and see the window displays and Sears always had a huge layout in the garden section.  My uncle and I would walk around the layout and watch the trains run for what seemed like hours (probably only 1 at the most) and I would tell my mom and dad what I wanted for Christmas.  However my dad didn't want the big stuff, HO was still pretty new and Santa would always bring me an HO train set.  My uncle had an O gauge train set that was Marx, I always thought it was Lionel.  We played with that set and literally ran the wheels off of it.  Those were fond memories.   Fast forward to my 30's, I was modeling in HO and N scale at the time when I came across a book about building an O gauge layout that wasn't toy like, it was more like building it to scale, the gentlemen used O scale buildings and the track from what I recall had more of a scale appearance to it.  He did use the conventional locomotives and cars if I remember correctly.  This one book had a huge impact on me and left a very lasting impression in my mind as to what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go if I ever got into O gauge.

The one hobby shop we had in town, the old guy that owned it, had a pretty nice collection of O gauge trains that he would take in when people brought their stuff in to sell.  He would give them pennies on the dollar for their stuff.  He culled out the really good stuff for himself and sold the rest off at pristine prices but he wouldn't ever order any new stuff for sale.  This was all before the internet mind you, all we knew about O gauge trains was what we saw in the hobby magazines and there wasn't much about Lionel, Williams, K-line and so on.  I dabbled in Sn3 for a few years, still have all of it packed away in boxes, even did a stint in 1 1/2" scale live steam.  Unfortunately, tooling was costing more than the locomotive, besides, my twins came along and I shut the live steam down and ended up selling all of my shop equipment except for my bench mill.  I putzed around for a few years and never really got into anything serious because I didn't have the time to mess with it but I always kept the O gauge trains in the back of my mind.

When they built a Barnes and Noble book store here in town, I discovered Classic toy trains, this rekindled my desire to want to acquire the O gauge trains and hopefully someday build a scale layout using the 3 rail track.  I managed to pick up a Lionel train set from a girl who had acquired it from a divorce, it had belonged to her husband and was his childhood trains.  She knew I liked trains and asked me if I wanted to buy it from her.  Got it for a really good deal, that started me into the O gauge part of the hobby.

When I discovered the OGR magazine and then the forum, I was able to start collecting some of the trains I wanted and nearly all of them were scale.  I have amassed a fair amount, around 80 to 90 pieces of rolling stock and probably 20+ locomotives, both steam and diesel.  Most of what I have is used, very little of it is brand new.  However, it is all new to me.  I have only one minute problem with all of this, I have no layout yet and my space in which to build is 15' X 12' and I have two big rooms that I could build in but my better half doesn't think a train layout would be good in those rooms so I'm trying to figure out what I can do in this space that I do have.

Until I figure out my space problem, I have steak tastes on a hot-dog budget, I'm going to scale my buying back and start trying to figure out what I can and can't do with my room.  I really want to run what I have but a lot of what I have takes large radius curves and those take lots of real estate.  Unfortunately, here in El Paso, they don't build many of the new homes with basements like they do back East.  Just not feasible down here.  If I had the luxury of having a large layout, it would be based on operations with the ability to just let trains run while I did switching duties for industries and line-side industries and businesses.  Being an ex-SP switchman, it is definitely in my blood.

Time to try and see if I can go to sleep now. 

interesting thread

i started late in the hobby, and as such, the ups man is a frequent visitor

i am on the acquisition and construction phases, and really get a great kick out of opening the boxes and going to lowes for that special tool

i hope to be running sometime next year and i am looking forward to it with great anticipation

what a great hobby

All too often, stashing stuff in storage while dreaming of someday building that huge basement railroad empire (when one retires ) is the perfect recipe for overbuying. 

I think that is exactly how some people turn to collecting, they come to the conclusion that they don't really want a huge layout.

I have started and stopped, bought and sold, have run trains and collected trains and train stuff for years and years.  For the longest time, I didn't run trains, but I collected avidly, perhaps to the point of obsession.  Yes, Obsession.  My wife always asked me, "When do you intend to stop?"  My answer was true, and I would respond, "Now, I have quite enough."  But that was always short-lived, and soon enough, I would begin again, buying and selling.

I have finally reached a point, whereby, I have all I need, and well above what I actually need.  I will try to sell off some stuff, most likely at very low prices, just to reduce the load around here, and to make the dear one happy again.  

But, along the way, I have enjoyed the hunt, the finds, and the gathering (collecting) of many trains and all related goods.   The hobby has given me much pleasure, as has the forum and the folks who participate in these venues.  Most are really good and knowledgeable people, willing to praise and offer advice, free of charge or expected recompense.  And, of course, the camaraderie and friendship are  welcome aspects of participating.

Always liked Lionel then year 2000 bought first MTH proto 2.0 now have 5 total Mth engines and small 4x8 dcs layout .Over the years Lionel pre and postwar caught my attention  and have about 75 total engines with plenty of rolling stock way to much period.

I run them often but always wanted to expand layout just no room too, wife is retiring in 2 years and wants to move out of this snowy cold state to Florida which is scarce on basements.

But determined to build bigger layout once moved as age is catching up with me rather fast. Finding the room for it will be a challenge.

My dreams were certainly bigger than my basement turned out to be. Even though I lived there all my life as a tenant and knew the size of the space there, I'd often design layouts that occupied almost all of it, especially after my landlord (coincidentally related via marriage) announced an intent to move back to his childhood hometown once retired. We were first in line to buy them out, and did just that in 2005.

The thing I didn't factor in was needing to share that space with the family (whoops!). The other thing was the advancing age of my parents/co-owners, which meant once we made the initial round of home-improvements, the willingness to engage in projects such as "clearing out unused or poorly stored stuff" would weaken. So now the basement is so full of "stuff" that it's more like a maze, and even though I built a (freestanding) shelf wide enough for two tracks to encircle the largest space, it's five feet up in the air (to clear an upright freezer) and I have yet to build the lift-out bridges to pass over the access walkway and two doorways interrupting its path. It's just discouraging to go down there and look at it, knowing there likely won't be room for much more than the two-track loop.

That leaves the "test track" around my living room. Until I briefly needed the open space to accommodate a houseguest (there's a sofa-bed in there) and had to pile all the train boxes in a corner between the storage shelves making almost a quarter of the track inaccessible. After that situation passed I resolved to get one more storage unit to place in the basement and did that--only to find that there wasn't even enough room to assemble the thing let alone park it next to the two that were already standing there back-to back. So, my test-track activities stagnated. It's been more than a year since I last ran anything there. (yeah, I said I'd join the NJ Hirailers--they're as short as a 30 minute drive away with light traffic--but I'm still a newbie behind the wheel, and the logistics of swapping the family's two cars around just for a day wasn't that appealing)

But a light may have appeared at the end of this tunnel. Recently I identified a corner in the dining room where the unit could go. I don't know why I didn't use the space before (I'm the sole occupant of my apartment in the two-family, so there's no one to object). I managed to shove a (heavy yet structurally questionable) computer cabinet over enough to clear the shelving unit (once I move the devices managing my home network), and the excess can go there, restoring access to the test track, and neatening things up enough to resume running trains, filming test-train activity, posting said video to YouTube (an activity that got me my first thousand subscribers) and perhaps more importantly, allowing me to resume photographing and entering these items in my inventory, so that one day...

...

...

...I'll actually know how many pieces I have

---PCJ

The stories are great.  Sooo many similarities and consistent themes.   I think most of us can relate, sort of, been there - done that.  Just think if we could have a space where we could all go and have all our layouts together, and go from one to another, running trains, having refreshments, good talk and, well, it would be kind of train-guy heaven.  

Texas Pete posted:

Michael Hokkanen posted:

Like many of you I began with a train sta(r)ter set. Best deal for the money I was told- and exactly so.

Then I asked,  what do I do next? Your replies; build a layout! Started on a 5'x9' dining room table. (now running a 10' x 11' around the room wide shelf layout with an island in the middle)

 Then, I noticed that acquiring new "stuff", you know, a la the song lyrics, "Kicks just seem to get harder to find" seemed to keep my enthusiasm for the hobby going.

And now, the rest of that lyric -

"No, you don't need kicks
To help you face the world each day
That road goes nowhere . . . "

Go your own way and you'll be alright.

Pete

Pete - Sage advice!!

For me it would be Change. Like many I started out in the acquisition stage. About twenty years of buying like crazy, followed by the relinquish stage do to the model RR Hobby condition know as "Lack-a-roomia"!

But throughout my hobby years I have always been more motivated by the fun of trying new things verses showing off my layout.  It is not a surprise to my friends and family to come over and find half my layout redesigned so as to accommodate some new project.

That is why I seldom post any pictures of it, it's always apart.

That said, I am in another transition of purpose in this hobby, like seeing it all working is fun too.

Hopefully in the not to distant future I will be posting a few things.

A lot of great reads in your responses....Thanks!

Rocky Mountaineer--Yes, sometimes there are simply gentle reminders of how our health can affect our future. Our prayers are with you and hopefully this decision to have a special built to Order train Layout will be a Fun to Run System. I totally agree that most of us in the hobby have more than enough trains and related items to last a lifetime. Now, who knows how long we really have on this "planet earth"?  Only Our Lord knows...

Now, please keep us updated on your new model railroad. This will be exciting and hopefully can be in operation by Christmas...Thank You.

Just to keep with the title of this thread, my philosophy is to sell the older trains that I have to new comers in the hobby, which saves them money to get started, and gives me a few dollars to purchase the newer trains coming our way with Legacy electronics.  I am selling more than I am buying and at age 75, which is 2-1/2 years from now, Lord willing, I will sell 80 per-cent of my collection.  Also, I will offer my home for sale to folks on the Forum, if they were to retire in the Great a State of Tennessee. This way, they could have a really nice layout, BTO.

Happy Railroading

Had to chime in here on an interesting topic.  

  I've pondered the same question many times. I have been in the hobby since 1975 and have been collecting trains along with my late Dad since. I have more trains than I really need and have never completed with details a " permanent finished " layout.

 So here I am with boxes full of trains,track,transformers,building,etc. with no time or real predictable schedule to even start on a permanent layout that I have plans drawn up for since I moved in this house over 20 years ago .

 So what to do,wait till I retire (which is 12 years away), use an existing garage to slowly start on that layout because I have now accumulated so many things I dont have the room to begin on a layout .Build a new building to use as a layout room, or just give up ?

 And like yourself,I  reside in a smaller town (10,000) that although the area is very railroad oriented (CSX/NS) both are in the tri-state ,there's not enough people collectively involved to have a larger presence in model railroading.

 We do have a small club ,but it has its limitations as far as days available and members.

 I guess another issue. I have been employed for 26 years on a real railroad and sometimes I  get burnt out on railroading both real and model.Kinda takes the fun out of the hobby at times .

 I actually just fired up the transformer on my  20+ year old  "temporary"  layout ,not to run trains per say,but to move around some trains to be able to pickup some my Siamese cat knocked over.

 I have sold some of my trains in the last year or so thinking I'd like to downsize my collection,but then I'll turn around and buy a basket case to " put back " for future restoration .

 Do I have a problem ?

I definitely like collecting and building trains and the layout more than operating them.  And I have an operating layout with 27 switches and a scratch built $10 turntable with 3 to 5 trains running. 

As kids my brother and I got tired of operating our layout (a Marx set with 4 switches in an oval and figure 8) at age of 8 or so and took to building plastic models, then stick, balsa and silk span planes, later 1/2 A and Fox 35 U-control planes and scratch built model radio control (tubes at first!) boats.  Flying the planes (combat with fast flying wings and stunting) and running the radio control boats and gas powered boats was much more challenging and fun than operating model trains.  We trained many neighbor hood kids to fly and build planes.

Model trains for me restarted in 1976 when our young kids needed a Christmas train layout.  It has been part time with the layout up a month or so during the holidays and added to in the winter.  This plan has continued until 2010 when we built a two story garage with a upstairs all purpose room, train room, vintage stereo room and media room all in one.  The layout gets most use during the holidays.  I still enjoy local train club meets and sales.

Check out my 40 year old layout and how I built it if you want at link below.

https://ogrforum.com/...fties-era-027-layout

Model trains are just one of my interests.  Other are vintage stereo (1970s), work shop and tools , golf, church work, traveling, reading, yard work, garage and thrift shopping,  etc.  We were active in boating and water skiing when my kids were home. 

It is okay that operating the trains is not all that big an activity but is nice to see the layout daily and crank up the trains anytime.

Charlie

 Do I have a problem ?

Are you spending grocery money?
Is your family going without?
As long as you aren't spending money that should be spent elsewhere, and have a place to put the new purchases, you do not have a problem.

C W Burfle posted:

 Do I have a problem ?

Are you spending grocery money?
Is your family going without?
As long as you aren't spending money that should be spent elsewhere, and have a place to put the new purchases, you do not have a problem.

Hmmm, I seem to qualify.     

I'm getting to the point in life where I want fewer "things" and more "experiences."

Applies in the hobby as well.

More "things" to get sold at the next York to fund other O Gauge "experiences!"

I too reentered the hobby with a MTH starter set.  My youngest was 4 (now 19) and he wanted the "Blue" train he found in a catalog we got at a model train show.  I had a Lionel diesel and a 4x8 HO layout as a kid.  I really liked the more realistic appearance of MTH Realtrax.   Our layout grew from a basic figure 8 to an L and then to a double loop representing Harpers Ferry, WV.  Starter O gauge sets include sub scale O-27 cars and tight O-31 curves.   As the layouts grew we bought more track with larger radius since the trains 'looked better' on bigger curves.   Bigger curves need more space and so I redesigned my layout again and again (made possible since I'd never screwed track down).  Up to then I had bought additional starter sets to expand collection.

Then I discovered I could buy used scale MTH Premier for the price of new semi scale on EBay.   Plus MTH introduce Railking Scale diesels.  Funny thing is the scale engines and cars looked cramped on my O-42, O-54 min radius layout.  I joined a local club and helped build a huge min O-72 layout.   There my scale engines looked great.  At home I expanded my layout again from 11x13 to 24x13 by going through a couple of walls into an adjacent storage room in the basement.   My wife was thrilled I had 'improved ventilation'    I also discovered YouTube as a way to share my hobby with a larger community eight years ago.   In fact most of this story is chronicled in my videos.  Up to this year I ran a mix of scale engines and freight and 60' passenger cars.

Then I bought a scale articulated N&W 1218 that I had to have after seeing the prototype in Roanoke, VA.  My son and I saw it during his college tour.  I got it despite the fact I knew it needed O72 curves which only existed in 2 places on my outer loop.  But when I tried to run it, something magical happened.   It negotiated the O54 curves without derailing.  Yeah she was mine 'Swing out sister' but that's what I love about articulateds.  She scraped up my backdrops and collided with a couple of long freights cars so I redesigned my layout again.   BTW designing layouts is one of my favorite hobby activities.   My new plan retains a Harpers Ferry setting but now the tightest curve is O-54 on the inner loop.  Now I can run everything I have anywhere on the layout.  I had to eliminate a non-prototypical tunnel and build extensions to my bench work but I'm very happy with the plan.  Now I need to redo some scenery and finally finish some other scenes.   I plan to screw down this track and ballast it to improve its appearance.

I need to add some kind of staging yard so I can keep more of the collection on track so I can more easily swap out whats running on the mainlines.  I also discovered that I can buy 5-car 70' passenger sets for about as much as 6-car 60' sets.   I had convinced myself that 60's are fine but now that the layout has bigger curves I've replaced 7 or so of my 9 passenger sets with 70' counterparts.   The scale passenger engines with a scale consist look great.   Sure the overhang is noticeable on the O-54 curves but no more than 60' on O42.  Now I just need to sell off all my Railking 6-car passenger sets to offset my 70' binge.

My hobby psychology goes around a loop.  I prefer to run my trains.  Then I see scenery I need to improve so videos look better.   So then I  suspend operations to work on scenery.  Then I want to see what all of my engines look like in the new scene.  Then I remember why I don't run this engine because it has a mechanical issue.  So I suspend operations while I repair this engine.  Once fixed I return to running my trains.

I'm not buying anything any more.  I can't seem to get rid of the MPC and post war stuff I have.  Last offer I had for some conventional locos was $30 a piece.  These were not crappy locos, just stuff I don't use.  My solid rule is nothing else comes in unless something(s) go out.  As far as the layout is concerned, if I weren't seriously thinking of selling in 2 years it would be a tear down.  I have learned enough to see the mistakes made during construction and would like to rebuild but I don't see a reason to invest the time and effort for the short haul.  My focus is Jersey Central and/or the trains I would have seen growing up alongside that main line.  I think I have sufficient rolling stock and a locomotive roster that will do that justice.  All I would consider now will be scenery items.

My basic need is to run trains, this of course leads to the need to buy the rolling stock and locomotives to make up trains. That leads to laying track which leads to having a dedicated space to build a structure to lay track upon. This leads to buying action accessories for the train to move goods an people which in turns leads to making scenery to tie it all together and tell a railroading story or give the railroading experience.

So I'm a shopper, buyer, builder, set designer, operator not to mention financier. I have far more stuff in storage in and on top of four large cabinets in the general basement area that contain more locomotives and cars than can be fit on this modest, double track layout; that I guess, also, makes me a collector. My wife would add "junk" ahead of that, after all she only has 3 closets full of clothes, shoes, and purses which are necessities according to her where toy trains, a hot rod pick up and a couple Harley's are not. I have to remind her that a man cannot live by pasta an beer alone.

Bogie

I am definitely not a "collector." I met a pair of what I call "collectors." They had a whole raft of stuff, 90-95% of which they never so much as took out of the box. "Lowers the value," they told me. 

I limit my purchases to stuff I saw as a child/adolescent. That means CN and CP stuff. Nothing modern. 

Still I have more than I can run!

"No more!" I tell myself. But if 3rd Rail ever make another Canadian steamer . . . well . . . "never say never!" Even if Lionel make a Legacy or Vision Line CDN steamer, or MTH, a Premier . . .

Like many, what I really need is more space, not more trains!

The same psychology fits most hobbies.  My son's hobby is the trains, although I love tinkering with older things to make them work again.

I got into woodworking, and soon found myself collecting and rehabilitating old hand tools more than I did any real furniture making.  I was glad to build a layout table for my son as an excuse to actually build some furniture again.  It was 4x8 with a 4 ft x 30 in "L" added to the side.  A week later, my son and I both want to build a larger layout.  He has three engines and enough rolling stock such that the engine can almost touch the caboose  while running around the loop

J Daddy posted:

Building is my thing... I fear the day I run out of room to build.

C'mon, man!.....There's always another wall to put a hole into and a track through to new terrortory territory.