What do you collect?

I returned to model railroading from my youth (‘50’s and early ‘60’s) in 1998. I just about bought every locomotive in the 1997 (I believe) Lionel catalog. And bought many MTH locos in 1999. I was just buying everything I liked. (I also went nuts in G-gauge)

I drew away for a few years and found interest in car shows. My two show cars were both heavily modded. 1999 Prowler and 2005 Dodge Magnum.

When I retired in 2013 I went back into model railroading. This time I decided to narrow my focus. The model year is 1954. The sole motive power would be L&N. I later included NC&StL, but I had to have all their first generation diesels custom painted.

Recently I have expanded to have a single consist of Family Lines (1972-1982). Which will be run only in the absence of the L&N steam and first generation diesels and NC&StL diesels and rolling stock.

This move has saved me many thousands of dollars.

Ooooohhhh ... The collecting rabbithole .. it has struck me a lot of different ways over the years , but I came to trains pretty late , in fact my best mate was a mad snake railway modeller and for years had to put up with my good natured ribbing about it ... Then a decade or so ago I decided to buy a clockwork Hornby train set , as I  have always been into old mechanical things and never once had a clockwork train set . Well that kinda set me off lol!

I am just fascinated by the early engineering and craftsmanship that went into something that was to be a playset and yet manages to last many many years since its initial time period .

Because I am an Aussie , I collect from all around the globe , as there were only a handful of clockwork trains produced here and in general they are quite "Spendy" to obtain and as I am now a disabled pensioner after a particularly nasty motorcycle accident on the way to work ( Hint Motorcycle vs Semi-trailer, guess which one wins! ) Luckily I came thru it intact except for some physical damage

So yeah funds are tight for me which doesnt always line up with collecting trains lol ... but in fact limited funds just makes you more careful on the "hunt" and possibly a little better at it , enjoying the hunt as much as the aquisition ? I dont think it would be as challenging if I could just chuck wads of money at people and fill up rack after rack ?

It makes "wins" really special in a sense , like that moment you correctly identify an Ernst Planck loco from the 1900's and no-one else spots it because even the seller doesnt know what he has got and its advertised an an "Old Tin Push train"

I pretty much limit myself to Clockwork , aiming mainly for pre-war ( the golden era ) but I will collect anything before cheap plastic ... Many different marques such as Bing , Hornby, Wittrock( Denmark) ,JEP,C.Rossignol, Mettoy Brimtoy, Wells O' London , Chad Valley, LBZ, Kraus, Bub, Carette, Sakai, Robilt & Maurlyn ( Aussie) , OROBR, IGRA, Biller, Marklin, Technofix, Winteringham, Alps, Bandai, Rico, Dressler, Jouef, Joustra, HWN(Wimmer), Triang, Louis Roussy, Masudaya, and of course a smattering of American marques , Lionel, AF, Ives, Hafner, Joyline, Marx ( UK & USA)

I am sure I left a few out lol but yeah its very much a global collection

I also dont mind "toy" trains , some people take this waaaay too seriously lol

I also have a weakness for tin toy vehicle & circuits and the odd floor train

Chessie System (B&O,C&O and WM) Etc.

Way too much if you ask my wife.

I have a fascination with steam locomotives produced from the beginning to the middle of the 20th Century, the Golden Age of Railroads and Steam Power. Having been raised in Southeastern PA, I have an affinity fo the PRR and at one point I had an example of every letter loco the Pennsy had from A5 to T1. Now that I'm older and retired my collecting has lessened and become more eclectic. I now collect a wider range of interesting motive power. As an example, I recently picked up a MTH Chapelon 2-3-1 Orient Express Steam Engine which has great detail, but my dream is to afford Precision Scale Co. brass 2 rail engines that, to me, are the ultimate in O Scale.

MTH Steam and Cigars. I have thousands. Enjoy life.

My favorite is the unusual such as Dorfan.

I also collect loads of crap from my Millennial minimalist children...…..

Don McErlean posted:

RKENNEY:  I loved the idea that someone is collecting the 54 mm figures, we likely all have some on our layouts or in out collection.  They were quite common "under the tree" in my youth with skaters, skiers, figures on sleds etc.  I thought you might like to see a somewhat smaller grouping, all of which are left over from my boyhood lay outs in the 1950's either O gauge or later on HO.  The larger ones are 40 mm high with the exception of the seated motorcycle cop (this was always my favorite.  The soldiers in the background are even smaller at 30 mm .  The Pullman Porter is the largest figure at about 45 mm .  I note that the poses like the lady and the engineer seem to mimic the same figures in the larger 54 mm size.  Mine have no maker on them but I am reasonably sure they are American and not Britans.  P.S. the advantage of these little guys is I can store the entire collection in a plastic cup!!

Good Hunting !

Don

Thank you for posting this @Don McErlean- that bike especially makes me think of my pop’s collection(he passed in June 2017) and I’m happy I can look on my shelf right now and see it next to his other cast-iron items.
Before reading your post I noticed the 30mm soldiers in the back- the one with the black flag and the 4 standing guard. I love incorporating battle scenes, “warring sides”, patrolled borders, international zones, etc... on my layout drawing inspiration from historical events. Anyway, I picked those soldiers up at an antique mall because of the s-Scale size. Do you know who made them or have any other info about them?

Steve

In terms of trains, I went through quite a good amount of different conventional eras, brands and roadnames when I delved back into the hobby in March 2018. My current focus has certainly narrowed, however. I also collect and operate. My outer loop might be running a Proto 3 Genesis while my inner loop runs an Ives 3250:

Trains:

Prewar European- Bing, KBN, Märklin, Kraus-fandor, Hornby, Kibri, JEP. If it’s prewar European Tin, count Steve in

Prewar American- Ives, Flyer, Lionel, Dorfan, Marx, and always on the lookout for those lesser known names

Early Postwar: Flyer s-Scale on o gauge, those obscure manufacturers, still some European

Modern Conventional Engines: Limited scope in this area- essentially only  Bethlehem Steel(a lot mainly by RMT), Lehigh Valley RR, or Lehigh Valley related engines. North-East RR Budd RDCs 

Modern Rolling stock: Try to stick close to scale ever since I bought my first scale TMCC engine. I like to run Passenger consists. For roadnames-Again- LVRR/LV related, Bethlehem Steel, Commuter Rail. Amtrak is 1a or 1b to the Valley, NJ transit(if I ever find it) Chessie System, CSX, Conrail, B&O, PRR. Brands- something of quality that represents those roadames

Modern Command: diesel or diesel electrics. Power supplies, DCS related items for optimal performance and integration. Original lionel TMCC 

accessories: prewar European, some prewar Lionel, Flyer, Marx and Hafner- tinplate buildings, signs, etc... Modern MTH, Lionelville or Menards building. Postwar Up until 2000 as long as it looks good and fits well. And then...Soldiers! Army! 1:45-1:50(sometimes 1:64) scale figures, vehicles, some model kits-mainly things that are pre-built and painted. 

I used to think I was a train collector until my LHS owner educated me on rare collectible trains. He called me "an accumulator".

I never met a train I didn't like, but my favorites are IC/IC Gulf/GM&O.

In one word everything.  From z to lionel large scale. I had to stop buying because of space. My basement is full of shelves loading with trains. Have two operating layouts, one O and one S gauge. What I still buy are japanese tin trains from the 1950*S . Have a very big collection. 

MTH & Lionel Classics standard gauge repro engines, cars  and the smaller accessories. Also original German made LGB and some PIKO German made engines and cars. AC power is an MTH Z-4000 and DC power is a lab quality switching mode 3 amp, 0-30 volt supply with a PIKO 5 amp throttle.

O scale sized (no semi-scale, except for 60" passenger cars, because of space limitations) ATSF and SP steam and diesel locomotives, rolling stock, and passenger cars that fit the 1948-1951 time frame.  Limiting myself has given me a cohesive collection of stuff and limited the amount of stuff I have. Would I like a UP Big Boy, a NYC Dreyfuss Hudson, Burlington E units and a California Zephyr consist? Sure, but they don't fit in with those 2 roads or era, so I don't buy them or consider buying them. In my case I like a focused, small collection instead of one of whatever I find cool looking. 

These days I'm not collecting anything because unfortunately I have simply run out of room.    What I do have is a rather eclectic collection of pre-war and post-war O gauge Lionel, some tinplate but mostly die-cast, pre-war and modern era Standard gauge, American Flyer S gauge, Marx, MTH and a smattering of clockwork engines from Marx, American Flyer and Hafner.  I would love to get my hands on one of the latest Dreyfuss Hudson's, The Empire State Express and the latest of Lionel's  Santa Fe Alco PA units but sadly not an inch of space available anywhere.  No complaints though because I have more than I ever dreamed of having.  Now, however, as I'm heading down the home stretch I've got to come to grips with divesting myself of my railroad empire and to be perfectly honest I just don't want to do  it.

I am leaving my modest collection (NO O gauge) to my son in law and his son, my grandson, so it will stay in the family and my spouse will not have to fool with it. My son in law already has a small collection of Lionel and MTH O gauge trains and accessories and several Aristocraft and Lionel G gauge sets.

STEVEFROMPA: I took another picture of the soldiers to give you a better idea of what they are, but the lighting is not as good as I might like. (My lighting engineer i.e. grandson is still at school).  Measuring more closely, the marching soldiers are 33 mm from boot bottom to top of helmet, all 5 are identical.  The flag bearer is the same size for the man, but the tip of the flag pole goes up to 50 mm with the width of the flag about 10 mm. they are clearly hand painted and the faces are still distinct, flesh color face and tiny pinpricks of black for eyes, nose and mouth.  Believe it or not given how small they are they are not identical.  There are 4 marchers with a rifle over their shoulder and one with no rifle but a pair of binoculars around his neck.  I suspect he is the leader (sergeant?). The flag bearer, except for the flag, is the least detailed man and has no equipment except his uniform.  I inspected them all with a good light and a magnifying glass but I am sorry to say I cannot see any maker's mark or even the remnants of one.  These were purchased (perhaps given to me by my parents) before I was 15 so that would have been 60 years ago and I have no hope of remembering how I got them. 

Best of luck in your search.

Don

STEVEFROMPA:  I realized too late that I made a mistake above...when talking about the marching soldiers I said ..."all 5 are identical" that is not correct.  4 are identical carrying a rifle and 1 is unique and has a set of binoculars around his neck.  The rest of the above description is OK.

Evidently I collect Lionel Pullmor motors:

RAILROADMAN:  when you say Japanese "tin" trains do you mean stuff like this?  I also like these things and love to watch them run around the floor .  In addition the lithography is mostly beautiful and add quite a lot of detail

Don

I'm interested in anything that runs on O gauge track.  However, whether or not something actually gets added to the Collection is a function of the confluence of a variety of factors, not all of which must be present at the moment of deciding to add or not to add...simple things like the phase of the Moon (new  Moon is almost always a definite "no"), whether or not I can see my shadow by the light of Venus on a clear, moonless, night, the reaction of my CFO when I say the "C" word, the street spot price of tea in Kunshan, China, the count of robo-calls on the 4th Tuesday of the month, etc.

When I got back into the hobby in 2004, I tried to collect everything Lionel, since then I got my sanity back, pared down my fleet, but did collect all 7 of the Odyssey Demonstrators, finding the last one 2 years ago, they are displayed in my train room, everything else is either on my layout or in my travel box and run at the clubs layout.

I collect whatever tickles my fancy, Postwar, Prewar, Standard Guage, S gauge Flyer, modern O.

Hi`, most of what i  have is Pre-war Tinplate, there`s my restored 2 tone Blue 252 set, UP M10000 in Yellow and Brown, 616 Flying Yankee, Orange #248 engine and 2 car set,i also have the first version of the Pratt`s Hollow Phantom and 4 car Passenger set, and my one standard gauge set, the 402 engine with 4 cars, would love to have a Standard gauge Blue Comet, alas, as they are so pricey, that will have to be my Unicorn, lol, Phil

Years ago I collected Gilbert A.F. "S" Gauge. Today I collect pictures of dead presidents and Ben Franklin.

Until recently, I collected whatever caught my eye that I found interesting, with an emphasis on Northeastern Railroads.

But now, I'm excited about having much greater focus on collecting trains and other items that are reminiscent of The Put (Putnam Division of the NY Central). Arnold

As my wife will tell you, YES HE DOES!  (collect that is!).  Yep I am in that grey area between collector and hoarder!  I started life in HO, then for many years it was 2 rail O, recently it is ON30, but to make things even worse I have been a 7 1/2 inch gauge live steamer for most of those years!  See I told ya!  YES HE DOES (collect)!    Russ

Dust. Not intentionally, it just happens.

JD2035RR posted:

@sncf231e I like the luxury passenger focus.  Which do you like the best?  My mind jumps to the easy ones, 20th Century Limited, Broadway Limited, Super Chief, Powhatan Arrow/Pocahontas...

@JimJohnson Aquarium cars...This is getting to the root of what I was looking for.  There have been a large number of aquarium cars made over the years.  Is there any one in particular that you enjoy or was difficult to find?

@artyoung A wide range indeed!  I enjoy all types of postwar and prewar...it sounds like you are in paradise

@Former Member lol wise man, Dan!  You need to come clean about your train and accessory collecting though

@Bill T I always look for trains in the background when they are hunting through people's collections.

Regarding Aquarium cars, they're pretty abundant on Ebay. I'm currently looking for#52584 TCA Kid;s Club Phillips car, and #81035 B&M car from the Paul Revere GP9 set. Those are really tough to find.

JimJohnson posted:

JD2035RR posted:

@sncf231e I like the luxury passenger focus.  Which do you like the best?  My mind jumps to the easy ones, 20th Century Limited, Broadway Limited, Super Chief, Powhatan Arrow/Pocahontas...

@JimJohnson Aquarium cars...This is getting to the root of what I was looking for.  There have been a large number of aquarium cars made over the years.  Is there any one in particular that you enjoy or was difficult to find?

@artyoung A wide range indeed!  I enjoy all types of postwar and prewar...it sounds like you are in paradise

@Former Member lol wise man, Dan!  You need to come clean about your train and accessory collecting though

@Bill T I always look for trains in the background when they are hunting through people's collections.

Regarding Aquarium cars, they're pretty abundant on Ebay. I'm currently looking for#52584 TCA Kid;s Club Phillips car, and #81035 B&M car from the Paul Revere GP9 set. Those are really tough to find.

BTW, if anyone has those 2 aquarium cars for sale, I would be interested.

Postwar o gauge and o gauge oddities. I like tinplate structures too.

JimJohnson posted:

JimJohnson posted:

JD2035RR posted:

@sncf231e I like the luxury passenger focus.  Which do you like the best?  My mind jumps to the easy ones, 20th Century Limited, Broadway Limited, Super Chief, Powhatan Arrow/Pocahontas...

@JimJohnson Aquarium cars...This is getting to the root of what I was looking for.  There have been a large number of aquarium cars made over the years.  Is there any one in particular that you enjoy or was difficult to find?

@artyoung A wide range indeed!  I enjoy all types of postwar and prewar...it sounds like you are in paradise

@Former Member lol wise man, Dan!  You need to come clean about your train and accessory collecting though

@Bill T I always look for trains in the background when they are hunting through people's collections.

Regarding Aquarium cars, they're pretty abundant on Ebay. I'm currently looking for#52584 TCA Kid;s Club Phillips car, and #81035 B&M car from the Paul Revere GP9 set. Those are really tough to find.

BTW, if anyone has those 2 aquarium cars for sale, I would be interested.

That one from the Paul Reverse set is rare. The Lobster Car!

Several years ago a bunch of dealers, many of whom are sponsors here, did set break ups and sold the cars off separately. Seem to recall brisk sales on that car. Have you posted a 'Wanted to Buy' here?   

I run trains with modern electronics and concentrate on Northeast RRs: New York Central, New Haven, Penn Central, NYO&W and Conrail.

However, I have accumulated a fair number of PostWar sets, mostly inexpensive O27 sets......however, my most valuable PostWar sets are 2 Super O ones.....2507 from the 1958 catalog (New Haven F3 freight) and an uncataloged Sears Santa Fe diesel switcher set from 1962.

Peter

Cool thread, interesting to see what everyone's unique likes are.

My main focus for collecting and operating is Postwar Lionel, this is 80% of my O/O27 trains. Engines gotta have Magna-traction. There is only one Postwar Lionel item that I'm still looking for, a nice Denver & Rio Grande F3 pair at the right combination of price and condition.

About 20% of the O/O27 gauge items I collect/operate are modern era (mostly LTI) Lionel items that have the traditional Postwar style. Favs are the Disney sets, Mint (bullion) cars and liquor reefers.

I also have and enjoy several PreWar Lionel Standard gauge sets and a few Lionel and American Flyer PreWar O/O27 gauge tinplate sets.

I recently acquired and run a couple S gauge Postwar American Flyer trains. 

It started out with Lionel Postwar all the stuff me and my father wanted but he could not afford during the 50's and 60's. After he passed I sort of collected Postwar on limited basis raising two kids and supporting a MIL. Then I started with MTH when they first hit the streets. Mostly what I liked and then decided one example of each MTH locomotive the PRR every had on its roster. That got expensive and out of hand real fast. A lot of cabooses and Western PA stuff from MTH until that g. Now I am after Postwar Lionel all the stuff my dad and I talked about when he was arond but could not afford. As mentioned in other posts I also collect a lot of dust. As I have more than I could every dream about getting on my current under contrustion layout, until that got way out of hand, Now juts alot of dust and funning looks for my wife when she sees everything and ask why are you going to do with it all and don't you have enough already whenever I bring something new home.

Does anyone else buy two of almost everything?  Engines, cars, tools, supplies, etc. (just one spouse)

Yes

2 is 1, 1 is none

I concentrate on collecting O gauge windup trains, mainly from American manufacturers (Marx, Ives, AF, Hafner):

I don't know if it counts as collecting, but the other major aspect of my train hobby is the outside railroad - 12" gauge live steam and "diesel":

My collection has several ‘sub-groups...

New York Central motive power and rolling stock; Raritan River railroad motive power and rolling stock; any rolling stock that’s New Jersey-based, of which Atlas made some really nice cars. I have a few Morristown & Erie pieces, and with the coming M&E switcher I’m on the hunt for an Atlas M&E caboose. I also have a small group of SW/NW and Alco S locomotives...

Nothing.  I have an accumulation of three rail items associated with the railroads I grew up with.  Mostly jersey central, Lehigh valley, reading.  I don't need more stuff.  What I want to collect at this time in my life are experiences and memories.  

Vintage Lionel Transformers...almost the complete collection of the 1900s.