What do you think was your greatest error in your O Gauge hobby?

Not doing enough research before building my previous layout.

Chief Bob (Retired)

 opening the door for the first time at the local hobby shop

Not moving to S gauge 30 years earlier.

Selling my like new 1950 773 and a like new original Southern AA set to buy my first Betamax. Don

Taking five years off from working on my railroad.

Elliot, you working late tonight on the railroad? Don 

fastman posted:

 opening the door for the first time at the local hobby shop

That was my first thought as well.

Hard to say, really. One that I still think about, 13 months after the fact, is not buying a reissued tinplate set at the Ocean City train show. I stared at it, walked around, and stared at it some more. The price was right, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger. I knew my bonus was due in a week, but I just wasn’t comfortable spending that much on myself until the new cash actually reached the bank. Must be the Dad in me, especially since my kids were with me that day.

scale rail posted:

Elliot, you working late tonight on the railroad? Don 

Yeah Don, I took a nap after dinner and went down for an hour around 10:30 central. Now it's just after 4AM. Hope to put in a solid 8 hours tomorrow. It's called making up for lost time.

Hesitating to buy a good deal at train shows until too late.  I have done it many times.  Once hesitated on a Ross 4-way yard switch with switch machines for $50.  The guy behind me got it when I came back 5 minutes later,

Bill

Joining train forums and train related discussion groups such as this one have proven a mixed bag for me as both a curse and a blessing. A blessing by meeting new folks and sharing in their opinions, knowledge, and benefiting from their product reviews but also a curse in that my proclivity to impulsively buy products has  been stoked and fueled by items "shared" in forum discussions which I initially think I "either need that too or have to have" but later wonder "why" I ever purchase such items that in  reality I don't need or have use for. I've bought way too much stuff I otherwise wouldn't have known about or desired because of being a part of model railroad forums.

A progression of errors.

Jumping in to the hobby too fast before I knew what to buy.  (Sold excess off)

Neglecting obligations.  (now attend to family first, trains can wait)

Buying too many engines. (sold / traded select roads)

Failing to start off with battery powered RC.  (maybe biggest blunder)

Building too big.  ( However I actually enjoy construction innovation more than running)

Not planning more for operation. At the time the 3 rail hobby didn't have command control and who could predict that the hobby would change so much at the turn  of the century. 

The other thing was not planning for hidden staging. I've remained somewhat focused in my purchases. Still it accumulates over the years and it would be better if more rolling stock would fit on the layout.

Joining the forum AFTER I started my layout. Could have prevented a few mistakes if I did it the other way around. No worries though- I'll get it right next time .

This is my first layout in 30+ years and first O gauge (grew up with HO). Lot's to adjust for with the larger scale. Still having a blast though.

Oh yea- spending way too much time (and money), on Ebay. Trying to be more selective with purchases now (specific roads, engines and rolling stock). 

Bob

A local hobby shop had a 50% off all pre-owned items a few years ago.   I passed up a Lionel 18009 NYC Mowhawk engine in excellent condition including the box for $250.   Was gone the next week.  DOH!!

Thinking I can buy trains that need repair off of Ebay and then fixing them and thinking I can make a profit doing that, selling them on Ebay. 

Yes some I did but not enough to cover the ones that didn't, Forgot about the cost of shipping related to it, to get it here. I didn't really loose money but didn't make much doing it. 

Has to be selling something I should have kept. That has happened more than once.

I haven't made every mistake, but I'm still working on it.

Not really my error, but my Dad's giving me a Lionel train when I was was six.  Now many decades later I am hopelessly addicted.  Terrible thing to do to a six year old.

Chris Sheldon

Clicking on Ebay for the first time....

Hands down, Atlas switches

Impulse buys...

Over purchasing and buying stuff for projects that were never completed.  Plans are always too big for my skills and space.

I came into the hobby at 40.  I was not aware of accessories and still not train literate.  However I’m an illinois native.  Even now I don’t have the engines or cars for my local and era.   Basically I’m cheap.  I just upgraded to lc+.  I wish I would have started there.  Just really hard for me to spend $100 more for a roadname knowing it’s the same dang thing. I have a tendency to build, sell,and rebuild.   My current colaboration is my most planned. Here’s what I’ve done wrong.  

1) Not starting out with some sort of command control and proper road names.   When I go to get rid of 2-3 engines I have, I’ll take a beating.   Don’t be cheap and get what fits  v

2). What do I want my rail line to do?   I decided on coal and lumber (no imagination).  I started with Christmas theme which got old.  

3). Learn what accessories are out there for your rails purpose.  Do a little more planning on where they go.

4) here is the main reason I keep tearing down.  Unfortunately trains running in a circle loses interest for me.  There needs to be a purpose

With this build I want to have cars in my yard that are empty.  Build the train in my yard.  Go around the layout and load my coal and lumber.  Then deliver.  I don’t think I’m quite where I want to be yet on that aspect, but I’m not against tearing up and starting over

Trying to collect everything (trains, comic books, video games, Hess trucks, license plates and baseball cards / memorabilia).

Sold the comic books and video games this past year. Now I need to sell the Hess trucks and baseball cards and thin out the license plates.

We will probably be downsizing and I'll need the space for trains.

Sean

Yep Atlas Switches

Greatest error: Starting before I knew of this forum and before I knew about Vision Line, Legacy, and Command and Control.  In 2014, I realized that I had never owned a Lionel.  Started with an impulse buy of the Polar Express 10th Anniversary set for the tree and then Lion Chief + B&O Hudson.  Then, found this forum and learned about the rest. 

Greatest success: Accepting the mindset that products out of the box may be broke and then OK with sending them back to Lionel Service with a good success rate for repair.  It is what it is.

Mine was: Trying to transition from traditional to hi-rail.

As long as I was staying traditional: These were SUPPOSED to look like toy trains and my rewards/enjoyment level was fine with that center rail, 6464-type proportions, etc. Besides, what's not to love about the smell of ozone and a panache of Postwar? (Mixed in with contemporary traditional-sized trains of the time.)

Then I wanted a bit more realism, so I went from tubular track/switches to GaGraves track/switches. Good move. Nice looking and operating track.

Then I wanted a bit more visual realism so I purchased some scale sized cars via Atlas/Trainman.

Hm... need better running locomotives so I can switch more realistically: Purchased an Atlas SW.

This is getting better.

Then that blasted center rail begin to bother me more and more, as well as the compressed feel of it all...

I chucked it and went back to two rail never to seriously return to 3 rail.

So, my single biggest error in my enjoyment of 3 rail trains? Wanting my presentation to look more realistic.

Andre

(1) Not weathering the rails before installing the track, and (2) waiting until I had a lot of the scenery done before adding the ballast. 

I am done with the ballast (except where the track is hidden, which will remain 'naked'), but the rail weathering is still to be done.

Alex

1. Not buying the K-Line scale Hudson when it came out.

2. Having a mix of control systems (conventional, TMCC and Lion Chief+).

3. Not linking my lower two loops with my upper loop.

I know that's 3 instead of one, but those are the main things I'd change if I could.

Biggest without a doubt....Table too low. I let others convince me it should be low for kids. Not true at all, kids like climbing up on a chair and can easily see the trains. Anything under 40 inches is too low. Second thing would be I sure would do a better wiring job. I started out good but over time backslid to my old evil ways.

Jim

1) Making my layout a crawl-under.

2) Buying the Lionel Acela.

Scott Smith

I've been into toy/model trains for 60 years and have made many, many mistakes, in fact far to many to enumerate, but you know what, I learned from all of them and chalk them all up to one great learning experience which has kept me engaged in the world's greatest hobby.  What's even better is I'm still learning.

1. Building an island-type layout, rather than around the wall.

2. Not spending more time on competent wiring, with drop-feeds, etc., rather than relying on a couple of lock-ons.

3. Over-paying on certain items, and totally missing out on others.

Going to YORK.  Seeing all the great stuff out there and the voice inside of me saying "go ahead and buy that".  

Buying those fancy computer-controlled engines. It was just a few, and I finally sold them at a loss, and thank God that I never bought more of them. Conventional for me!

Plus, I never finished so many layouts because I kept trying to hide the wiring under the tablework and building a control panel. Today, the wiring runs in neat lines to the track and accessories, and all those operating cars and accessories that I love are controlled by buttons on the site. 

Jim 1939:  I built my present layout 30" tall so that I could sit in a comfortable chair instead of on a stool. Everybody has their own preference.

Not buying the Lionel scale PRR S2 Turbine that I saw at a train show for $300.  My wife told me I'd regret not getting it, and she was right.

selling off all of my almost-all Pittsburgh related engines and cars to get into tin-plate.  Gosh I miss seeing those cars running around on my Christmas Layout.  Also a big loss: selling off my Aerotrain.

All regrets

- walt

I got started with trains with my grandpa when I was a kid. Most of my mistakes are all around not doing more with him. 

1.  He had a two level 6x16 layout. We can’t find a single picture of the entire thing. Only a couple small pictures of it that don’t come close to giving us enough idea for the track plan. 

2.  The layout came down probably when I was 8-10 as my older brother and cousins got into things like ping pong and video games. When I was 14 I tried to get it back up with grandpa but didnt do enough and soon lost interest. 

3.  Not getting the trains out before he passed away for play with my nieces and nephews. Over the last year my Dad and I have been working on a layout as the kids are old enough (7 and 5) to start to understand it and be able to actually play with them.  Grandpa passed away 4 years ago, would have been 90 yesterday. 

Other then that, everything else so far with the layout has just been “lessons”. Rebuilding an E-unit and repairing switches and controllers.