This is what I will never understand

Well, although this describes a prevalence of 5.8% of the general population in the US, perhaps a good number of them (us?) are model/toy train enthusiasts... 

Compulsive Buying Disorder:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1805733/

I grew up with postwar Lionel, put it away and came back to it in the 70's.  Time passed and when once again I got back into trains in the 90's, the world had changed.

Williams was making brass scale sized engines.  Compared to postwar engines they were really something.  I bought them because they were by comparison, works of art.  I did not have a layout and had no time to deal with one.  But, the engines were beautiful.  Then Weaver built on Williams.  Actually, Mike who had dealt with the issues of Williams shortfalls, built on Williams.  Then it was the E8's and the really great looking passenger sets.  The never ending issue of road diesels.  I bought them all and just looked at them.  Sorry if the offends but for a kid that grew up with 2037's, 675's, 646's and the like, these engines were astounding.

How can you not call Mike's Challenger a whole new level of O gauge hi rail achievement.  If it never moves an inch that engine still changed the toy train world.  And it didn't stop, more and more astounding engines.  I bought and continue to buy and just look at them.  If I get time to build a layout I am not sure they will ever see the track.  I probably will put postwar Lionel on the track and run them.  The only thing that depresses me is that 50 years from now the postwar Lionel will probably still be running and all this electronic crap will have been long dead.

It's a free country, people can spend their money however they want 😉.

That being said some people just want a bunch of stuff. I'm not one of them. I'm very particular about what I buy. It has to fit my theme and era. So anything I buy has to be either for the Santa Fe or Southern Pacific in the 1945-1954 time frame. In addition I don't like owning stuff that sits on shelves not running. So every train item I own fits on my layout. 

Everyone has different opinions on how to enjoy this hobby. It's a hobby, so there is no right or wrong way to enjoy it. As long as you enjoy it it's fine.

Hey Bill,

If all that "electronic crap" dies on you, that will be some morgue!! 

If I like it, I buy it.  

Tuscan Jim posted:

Hey Bill,

If all that "electronic crap" dies on you, that will be some morgue!! 

As long as I keep it on the shelf it should not be a problem.  Fifty years from now I probably can find a postwar Lionel motor to install if I decide to run it.

  Back in the 70's I went over to a friends house to see a new car that he had purchased.  It was the Lionel 'chicken' car.  Twice around his layout and I was ready to smash that car.  Ever since then I have hated sounds coming from trains.  Imagine how much I would enjoy all of the noise coming from today's electronics!

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

If I like it, I buy it.  

Ding!  

If it runs under wire and says Milwaukee Road, I buy it. Don

I don't spend the big bucks like some folks do,and if they have it, it's their right to spend as they may.

But as in my case I've been in this hobby for over 40 years now and have never set sale on a permanent layout in my older adult age. 

Therefore I've been more of a collector than an operator. And that may reflect the norm of those people on the forum that you might say buy too much.

I've got 10 years to retire and figure in the next few years the Good Lord willing I'll get started on a permanent layout and focus on running trains instead if purchasing more. 

Just my personal opinion if it matters. 

Like I say to my wife, "It could have been whiskey and women."

Doug

Different strokes for different folks

Bill, if it makes you feel any better, I for one follow your theory. I designed my layout for operations first. After that, I started buying trains to fit the modern era, and rolling stock that are commonly seen locally, because that's what I model. The layout currently has nearly 600 cars, and 40+ locomotives. There is still plenty of room for both, and I still have a lot of boxes left to open. I have no display shelves.

There is a lot of different approaches to the electric train hobby.  Some are collectors of certain types, some accumulate a bunch of stuff, some are operators. It is a great hobby to enjoy electric trains the way you want to.

   Bill T.

It ain't just model trains.

I've been on a tear lately buying guns.  I've had a gun since I was 13 and hardly ever went shooting or hunting.  About 2 years ago the want to go to a range and shoot hit hard and there's so many good deals on beautiful firearms that...well, you get the drift.

But, I've spent a pant load on trains this past year between Mianne, Signature Switch, and GGD.  These buys have almost got me to where I want to be in my model train hobby.  About the only thing left is I NEED GGD to make a passenger train for the Atlantic Coast Line, then I can safely say I'll be done with major purchases.

 Some of us are strictly collectors and some of us are strictly operators. However, most of us are both collectors and operators. I had 250 feet of shelves filled coupler to coupler With prewar and post war Lionel trains before I even started to think about a layout.

I enjoy sitting in my train cave just looking at the shelves of older trains some with fond memories going back to my childhood. I also enjoy operating my layout. Some of the trains I run go back to the early 30s. Every locomotive on display runs. Some better than others but all acceptable.

Obviously you’re only an operator and more power to you but I think you’re missing out on a lot by not enjoying the history and vision of toy trains on display, not just running around a layout.

Jim

Why?....... because many, if not most, hobbyists  are collectors, whether they admit it or not.

Ever meet a person into fishing who had enough equipment?

Bob Delbridge posted:

It ain't just model trains.

I've been on a tear lately buying guns.  I've had a gun since I was 13 and hardly ever went shooting or hunting.  About 2 years ago the want to go to a range and shoot hit hard and there's so many good deals on beautiful firearms that...well, you get the drift.

But, I've spent a pant load on trains this past year between Mianne, Signature Switch, and GGD.  These buys have almost got me to where I want to be in my model train hobby.  About the only thing left is I NEED GGD to make a passenger train for the Atlantic Coast Line, then I can safely say I'll be done with major purchases.

One summer several years ago while on vacation in Michigan I saw a camera I liked.  By the end of the vacation I had ten banana boxes full of cameras.  I now have over 2000 and the room that was going to be my layout is now the camera collection.  I tell people I collect shiny things but at the end of the day I collect Industrial Design.  The same guy that designed a NYC locomotive also designed kitchen appliances and many other things.  It reflects who we are as a country and a people.   ...and it is a lot of fun!

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

If I like it, I buy it.  

This pretty much sums it up for me as well.  However, I don't have that much stuff.  Maybe 10 engines.

I believe many are not only Model Railroaders, but also collectors of various engines or road names.

I don't have a huge layout, and stick with the mainly 3 road names that came through our farm. But I also piloted warplanes and collect diecast model planes and flight gear from WW2 to Vietnam, so I can see the overlapping of modeling and collecting. I have over 350 flight helmets to date. Too many? Interest is what makes our Hobbies enjoyable.

I never understand why people care how others spend their money.....

William 1 posted:

I just don’t get it.  

Some things are not worth even warming up the neurons to consider thinking about...

Count on their buying stuff so it'll be there on the secondary market later when you want to get what you want/need to achieve your plans.

How about just plain old fashioned pride of ownership. 

William 1 posted:

Why you guys buy so much stuff.  I always thought you built a layout first, with some kind of operational scheme in mind, then you filled in with engines and rolling stock that matched your plan. 

You seem to be taking it for granted that we all have room for a big benchwork layout.  

Personally, I don't; my layout is roughly 6' x 8' on my basement floor.  Which means that I can only run one train at a time.  So when I want to run a NYC passenger train, the Atlas 60' cars and a 783 Hudson (or Mohawk, or S1 electric) go on the tracks.  If I want an early-Fifties RDG freight, then it's time to break out some period freight cars and my Reading T1 or FM TrainMaster, while the passenger cars go back into storage.  If I want to run a postwar train (usually during the holiday season), out come the PW cars and locomotives.  But I don't want to run all my cars and locomotives at one time, and I don't have the room even if I did.  So they get run in rotation.

 To spend $800 + on a model train engine, just to be let down.  

Why do you take it for granted that there's an inevitable let down?

That is too much for me. Just to have the latest whatever gizmo.  I like TMCC.  I don’t need or want anymore than that.  Everyone is different.  I get that part.

I'm not sure that you do.  Personally, I have no use for TMCC or any other digital-control system, and consider it little more than "the latest whatever gizmo."  How does that fit into your conception of what we all ought to be doing?

I guess I’m just old school. Read Track planning for realistic operations too many times in my youth.  

So you're an operator.  Fine with me, I know that some people are into realistic operations.  As for me, I could care less about realistic operation, and don't really have the space to do it, even if it appealed to me.  There's no One Right Way to enjoy railroad modeling.

I just don’t get it.  I always thought building the layout was the point of the exercise.  

It's not an "exercise." it's a hobby, and everyone has their own way of pursuing it. There's no compulsory rule book.

Buying  a bunch of stuff that never gets taken out of the box, just seems weird to me.  

Me, too.  But how other people spend their money is no concern of mine.  

Everything I have gets its turn to run around the layout at some time or another.  I've been running my NYC passenger train for a couple of months, now, and it may be time to put the passenger cars back in their storage container and start running some PRR freight equipment.  

I'm choosy about the dates of the equipment that I run (1935-1955), but beyond that, There's very little that's hard and fast about my approach to the hobby.

It's all for fun.

--John

 

I went crazy buying trains, now I have too many to run and am starting to let them go. Now I'm on to guns as well and the novelty of buying guns does not wear off. My recent discovery is nice shotguns. Starting to collect over/unders, the sky is the limit on prices for those. I will not buy more than I can shoot though

Read this topic with interest and agree wit almost everyone. As for myself I am a strange duck I guess. I got hooked at age 4 in the 50's. Left the hobby after High School but still loved trains. Always jumped when I saw a layout or trains on a wall. 4 years ago I stopped to look at a layout and got hooked on the new technology. Changed scale back to HO (in my late teens and early 20's as I originally had O 27 Lionel) back to O with MTH being the biggest player. I did as you say, bought a starter set and layout. Currently building a 625 Sq ft layout and loving it. BUT, I do have shelves. I use them to store what I am not running at the moment. Then People started giving me their old American Flyer and Lionel. I just had a guy give me a 1942 or 43 Lionel set and it still runs. This is what I use my shelves for the most now. Why? Because I love looking at it and remembering back to my dad setting up at table every Christmas. He would work on it for two months and I could never see it till Christmas morning after opening stockings and Breakfast. I could have cared less about the gifts I just wanted to stay in the basement and run trains as I knew I only had till one week after new years day. It is those memories of good times and a Dad that loved trains and me. That is why I have shelves with old stuff. Is it worth money ? I guess bu I really could care less as I just love them and the memories. In my final answer I say What ever cause it is personal and they LOVE what they are doing for personal reasons and I love the fact that whether shelve nuts or layout freaks I am happy I can have them as friends and talk with them.

BRIAN WHITE posted:

I never understand why people care how others spend their money.....

My guess is that it is less about trying to control what others do and more about trying to understand thinking or actions that you find completely baffling.  Just my $.02.

I have gotten to know many people in the toy train hobby, the more you get to know them you will find many times the toy train guy is also a hot rod guy, a gun guy, maybe owns and airplane, toy soldiers, and more.

I attribute the acquisitiveness to:

+a thing, a time, and / or a person/people who were deeply cherished in childhood, who enjoyed trains themselves, real and toy, are remembered and associated with having such treasures in adulthood, in the present.

+something left undone or not experienced sufficiently in childhood, connected to trains, or the trains themselves, which still needs to be satisfied.

+continuing memories of cherished people, events, times, and places being revisited.

+ sufficient "disposable income" in the present, available to be able to "afford" the self-indulgences of buying trains and their attendant paraphernalia.

+ Life zips by very fast. Buy and enjoy things while you can.

Those suggestions are off the top of my head, Willaim1. I'm no psychologist, and I don't pretend to be one, so these ideas I offer from my heart, which is where my interest in having model trains - and plenty of them - resides, to this day and to this moment.

FrankM

P.S. I did reach a point, however, when enough-was-enough, and I stopped buying the trains themselves and gave full attention to crafting a layout and working on the layouts of other hobbysits. Creativity became a huge part of my focus. I guess we could say that my interest in our hobby "evolved." Perhaps, that exerience applies to others?

I agree with the OP and with the comment "different strokes for different folks".  A few years back OGR ran an editorial about focus with regards to the hobby.  It struck a chord with me.  Since then I have focused but have also learned much of the post war and later 027 stuff I had may never find a home.  I expect my next house will not have a basement and may not have a room even for the trains.  If that is the case then a diorama will be my best attempt at modeling.  I accumulated lots of bicycles as well, 14 at one point. Those are also finding new homes.  At least with bikes one can recover cost and even turn a profit.  Only 3 will make the move.  

Craignor posted:

I have gotten to know many people in the toy train hobby, the more you get to know them you will find many times the toy train guy is also a hot rod guy, a gun guy, maybe owns and airplane, toy soldiers, and more.

 

You know what they say.  Well, I forget but it is something about the guy that dies with the most toys.

This is my 1933 Ford 3 window that I bought for $75 when I was 14.  That was over 60 years ago.

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

If I like it, I buy it.  

I must agree with Marty. I have been “collecting” trains for nearly 50 years and only built a permanent layout 2 years ago after I was retired. I don’t model any specific place or time, and pretty much EVERY railroad passes through my territory. If I like something (and can afford it!!!) I’ll buy it. And, with Lionel, you must also take opportunity into account - if you don’t purchase something when it is available, you may not see it again for many years, if ever (e.g. the Acela). 

Same as fast cars, beautiful women, etc,etc. It's all a "FEEL GOOD" fix! Nick

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

If I like it, I buy it.  

Same here, if I can.  I've been working on a layout for the last 5 years and it's still not done.  I hate it.  I'd rather just run my trains, but without a layout I can't run them.  Building the layout is not part of the hobby I like.  It'll have a few buildings and such on it, but no ballasted track, no realistic scenery.  And now it's going to sit untouched for who knows how long as I got laid off.  No income means no hobby.  So I'm going to miss getting anything out of the 2018v2 catalog from Lionel even though there were several things I really want.  I love trains.  I love looking at them.  So as soon as I get a piece it comes out of the box and goes up on my wall.  If I really need to run something I throw a loop of track on the living room floor and run.  Once the layout is done I'll be able to have half a dozen trains worth of rolling stock on it, and if I want to run what's not on it I'll just exchange it for what's on the wall.

I have gotten to know many people in the toy train hobby, the more you get to know them you will find many times the toy train guy is also a hot rod guy, a gun guy, maybe owns and airplane, toy soldiers, and more.

When I started in this hobby, I met folks from all walks of life: young folks still in school, older folks, truck drivers, policemen, garbage collectors and doctors to name a few.
Sadly I think a lot of those folks were priced out of the hobby long ago.

I started on a carpet with the trains as my toys.

  I grew up watching and learning about a little bit of everything in O. I just don't prefer to bound creatively by prototype alone. "What if" is a motto.

My collection isn't large, About 20 engines total. 4 are Marx, 1 rivarossi, 1 mth trolley

  8 were not paid for and would be returned vs sold. I bought 5 because of type, one for roadname alone (DT&I) the rest were just good deals.

4 sets of passenger cars(2 Marx) and various freights, more hoppers than box cars; then gondolas, flats, stock cars, tankers, and "others", in that order. Freight cars came along strictly by chance. A dome set was a must, Engines are basically had for wheel counts and engine types, I think a Northern or an ABBBA SF (yep 3b) would be the largest you'd ever see on my shelf.

  There is not much roadname loyalty outside of trying to keep a train mostly under one flag.  My engine and cabooses are pretty much a team, the variations between head and tail aren't much concern outside of passenger trains.

I'm drawn more to the history and life experiences of railroads; large and the minitures; than the "work puzzle" of prototyping too. Which is odd because I'm usually drawn to puzzles. Maybe it's just the play side of trains are where I experienced the most freedom of expression?   Maybe it's because I know IF I prototype it would be whole hog and that takes work, area, and meticulous planning... I just want to relax and watch the trains loop, my mechanical campfire.   Sure beats tv

It's an addiction, Bill, not unlike alcoholism, and forums such as this are the antithesis of AA, with fellow addicts and purveyors encouraging and enabling the behavior.  Don't fall victim.

Hi, my name is Alfred and I am a model/toy train addict.

What, me worry?

p.s. Or what Tuscan Jim posted covering the larger universe of addiction in clinical terms.

These things come to mind in describing my buying habits.

  The model or kit must hold some historical significance that interests me.  Whether that be the importance of the actual railroad, the equipment they run or the lineside architecture.

The other easier addiction to control is the collectibles, like standard gauge, railroadiana, catalogs and other related ephemera.

The layout restricts purchasing of large equipment only because I find their awkward look on O72 curves distasteful.

Those are loose guidelines, especially when it comes to flea market buys.  Most of my happiest acquisitions happen there.

Bruce

Why does it matter to you?

Big_Boy_4005 posted:

Bill, if it makes you feel any better, I for one follow your theory. I designed my layout for operations first. After that, I started buying trains to fit the modern era, and rolling stock that are commonly seen locally, because that's what I model. The layout currently has nearly 600 cars, and 40+ locomotives. There is still plenty of room for both, and I still have a lot of boxes left to open. I have no display shelves.

When I get around to a layout, like yours, it will be a lot of track.  I am big on long trains and a lot of them.