How many are "too many"?

[Sprintex]

No point getting jealous that others have more spare cash to spend on trains, and I don't see why they shouldn't be able to say so either. Some on here have FAR more than I do and seem to be buying new locos on a weekly/monthly basis, and in most cases they've probably worked hard to get into that position - good luck to them I say


Paul

True. It's a question of priorities. If you have nothing else in your life, and don't feel the need to either upgrade of maintain the house etc then why not spend all your money on loco after loco. It's not as if say 3 locos a month is anything out of the ordinary.

Or getting back to being sensible you might have enough money to maintain the house properly, buy a new car every year, have a busy social life, and STILL buy half a dozen locos a month? Again if that person has worked for it then I say good luck to them


Paul

[ParkeNd]

No point getting jealous that others have more spare cash to spend on trains, and I don't see why they shouldn't be able to say so either. Some on here have FAR more than I do and seem to be buying new locos on a weekly/monthly basis, and in most cases they've probably worked hard to get into that position - good luck to them I say


Paul

True. It's a question of priorities. If you have nothing else in your life, and don't feel the need to either upgrade of maintain the house etc then why not spend all your money on loco after loco. It's not as if say 3 locos a month is anything out of the ordinary.

Or getting back to being sensible you might have enough money to maintain the house properly, buy a new car every year, have a busy social life, and STILL buy half a dozen locos a month? Again if that person has worked for it then I say good luck to them


Paul

Again true. My salary peaked at a few pence under £50K per annum and with personal pension savings I didn't earn enough to afford what you describe and still spend over £500 a month on locos. So I would have to admit to being one of the poor guys and out of my depth in this sort of company.

[Agrippa]

Crikey ,going into sort of lifestyle/ social comment. Must admit I don't see the point of buying a stack of locos and not running them unless you plan to flog them off later. But each to their own.

As Bruce Springsteen says " They're born to run ", like watches and cameras not sit in a cabinet like a stuffed owl. 

[scottmitchell74]

I've got no problems with someone who wants to buy nearly unlimited amounts if that's what they can and want to do.

For me, though, I have this weird relationship with my "things". Bear with me, this explanation my get a bit unwieldy...

I have a pretty sizable CD collection (yes, cds, I love them!)(and not that big, just bigger than most casual music lovers- I bet some here have much larger collections) but I try to keep it to a certain size. If it gets too big I start calculating how often I'd get to listen to each cd if I listen to say, 3 a day, every day. I feel bad if I don't get around to each cd often enough, so I make sure all the cds I keep are 8.5 or 9+ on the 10 scale. Really strong "keeper" cds that demand attention and a spot in my rotation.

I have this same feeling with my locos. If I get too many per road name or layout, I'll start getting that queasy feeling that I might not get around to each of them often enough. SO, that feeling informs my decision on roster size. Even if I don't envision an end-game number on the amount of locos I acquire, they will add up slowly over time.

Hope this makes sense.

[c6250]

I must admit that I own a three figured collection of locomotives, emu's, dmu's and carriages. I started N-guage in the early eighties. There was a 7 years blank period in between which I shifted my attention to bb guns. With some simple mathematics it figured that averaging of less than 10 rolling stock were purchased per year.

Surely that is not too out of the line, is it?

   

[oreamnos]

Interesting thread so I looked at my spreadsheets.  I have about 90 US outline locos, both steam and diesel, mostly diesel.  All purchased between 1985 and 2005.  Some of the diesels are actually dummy B-units, now that I think about it.  Not all of the powered locos actually run at this point and at least 2/3rds of the diesels are Life-Like models bought before Life-Like was bought out by Walthers and the prices soared.  I remember buying a four or five GP20s in the early 2000s direct from Life-Like for $12 each just because they were so inexpensive.  US outline - even Kato stuff - has always been so much cheaper than British outline!  Anyhow, very few of these locos get run now since I switched to British outline in 2005.

As for British outline, I have 55 steam engines, of Dapol, Farish, Union Mills and Peco manufacture.  All of them get run regularly though I do have my favorites.  Only two are exact duplicates - a couple Poole Farish Midland Compounds.  I have two old Farish Coronations (with different liveries), one A3 each from both Farish and Dapol, one J39 each from Union Mills and Farish, and one each of the old and new tooling of the Farish Black 5.  All the rest are models of completely different prototypes.  Not different liveries, but different locos entirely, so all told, about 50 different prototypes.  I think that's remarkable that so many different steam engines have been modeled in British N gauge.

My British outline diesel/DMU spreadsheet is not up-to-date.  A good guess is probably about 110 locos/DMUs, only a couple of which are now non-runners.  All the rest get regular running.  I freely admit I have purchased too many 1Co-Co1 Type 4 locos.  The Peaks and 40s are my favorites and I have purchased duplicates of each livery released for each of those types, so perhaps about 30 locos all told of those classes.  Fortunately for my pocketbook those models are older and low-tech and have historically be sold on offer fairly regularly.  I also have multiple examples (though unlike the Type 4s not necessarily repeated liveries) of 24s, 26s, 37s, 50s, 52s, and 55s.  I'd say those six classes plus the aforementioned Type 4s make up perhaps 2/3rds of my collection, the rest are one-offs of various classes with the occasional duplicate in a different livery.

I'm actually pleased with my collection of British steam engines, having purchased a very diverse and fine running lot mostly on sale, although sometimes the sales have been at inconvenient times.  My British diesel collection I'm less pleased with simply because of my repetitive purchases of some classes which I cannot really explain except for a failure of character.  There are some classes such as the 50 and 55 (and I'm sure the 40 at some point) where fully retooled models are due to be released and while I suppose I might buy one or two of each class, the complexity (and fragility) of the new mechanisms and lighting in the new locos intimidates me and puts me off - along with the skyrocketing prices.  In short, I expect to purchase markedly fewer locos in the years going forward compared to what I've bought in the past nine.

Matt

[D1042 Western Princess]

Interesting thread so I looked at my spreadsheets. 

Matt

That's posh. I record my locos on one side of a blank postcard and coach numbers on the other. It probably works just as well, can be taken with me to shops or shows and is easy to use.
For the record, at the moment, I have:
3 x Class 22s
5 x Hymeks
4 x Warships (and one pre ordered)
2x Westerns
1 x Class 14
1 x Class 08
1 x Class 47

Technically those, plus a couple of DMUs, are all the locos I would ever need, but hardly scratched the surface of what I desire.

[silverfox]

Not sure that I understand the concept of owning too many locos.?....................is it a bit like  left-over wine?............another  concept  equally lost on me

[Caz]

Sorry to be a wet blanket but it must be a bit hard to digest for the less well off amongst us to learn that certain people have locos that they have bought and never used, and others have so many locos that they have "swaps", like when we used to collect stamps.

Best regards,


Joe

Perhaps I should qualify my previous statement that I have locos in the cupboard unused, the reason they are in the cupboard is that I can't afford to put decoders in them at the moment.   It costs as much or more to put sound into a loco than to buy the loco, as I am also on a tight budget, I've bought the locos I will eventually need to run the layout properly whilst they are available.  Although I have just a state pension I am lucky in that my house is bought and paid for with no mortgage (worked hard to achieve this) plus other outgoings are kept to a minimum.  Just saying.   

[Sprintex]

Interesting thread so I looked at my spreadsheets. 

Matt

I use spreadsheets too One for train formations including indicators for DCC chip fitted, loco address, and wagons fitted with Dapol magnetic uncouplers. Another sheet for total layout cost to date (scary that one! ), and another one containing my 'wishlist'


Paul

[Pengi]

Sorry to be a wet blanket but it must be a bit hard to digest for the less well off amongst us to learn that certain people have locos that they have bought and never used, and others have so many locos that they have "swaps", like when we used to collect stamps.

Best regards,


Joe

Check out our buy/sell/swap section N'porium for used stock. Likewise shop around and there are bargains around to be had and buying from Germany and France has saved me at least 1/3 of the UK price  (with cheaper postage and faster delivery  )

I used to buy stuff from Japan, again saving considerable amounts  but have stopped now in case I get stung for import duty etc (so far been lucky)

[ParkeNd]

Finally this is getting to be really good reading. Come on you 100+ hoarders. We know you are out there. It's not a crime - we just need to hear about it.

[Agrippa]

Come on you 100+ hoarders.

Is that their age or their number of locos....

[ParkeNd]

Come on you 100+ hoarders.

Is that their age or their number of locos....

If the people who predict longevity to reduce annuity rates are right it could soon be true for both.

[oreamnos]

Interesting thread so I looked at my spreadsheets. 

Matt

That's posh. I record my locos on one side of a blank postcard and coach numbers on the other. It probably works just as well, can be taken with me to shops or shows and is easy to use.
For the record, at the moment, I have:

Hardly.  It's an absolute necessity for insurance purposes.  I don't know how homeowners insurance policies work in other countries but in the US, items like model trains are not covered completely under a standard home policy.  Instead should there be a loss, they would be covered only at a fraction of their replacement cost and they would also be subject to a low maximum payout cap limitation, perhaps $500 to $1000 (if that!) for a whole collection.  To get full coverage for their replacement cost in the event of a loss the policy holder has to purchase a supplemental policy and "specially schedule" items like model trains and pay a surcharge for that coverage.  Given that I have more than 200 locos each worth (for sake of example here) $100 each, that's $20,000 of value I need to insure.  My insurance agent has a copy of the aforementioned spreadsheet so the insurer can assess what extra premium to charge me and also so that in the event I file a claim the value of the collection is already known to it.  I actually need to send him an updated copy since the version of the spreadsheet he has is probably five or six years old and out of date.

Matt