How many are "too many"?

[gc4946]

I don't think I have a 'maximum size' of my fleet (both locos and rolling stock). I buy enough to fill the storage boxes I have... then buy some more storage boxes.

I have enough for my 60s-era scenario on 'Dunestone' (I think). Anything I buy now will probably be more for the 50s and 30s-eras I want to run.

Having recently moved into a smaller property, I've allocated a maximum of two storage boxes bought from Staples (15 x 13 x 10 inches each) to house ALL my N gauge locos, stock, accessories including buildings, unused track and spares.
This excludes basic modelling materials, my controller/transformer and tools.

[Agrippa]

You can never have too many Union Mills locos. At the moment I have 1.

How about a poll to find out numbers of locos members have.

Excluding dead ones  and dummies. (The locos not the members )   

PS the Eurolottery winner could buy about 1.2 million Union mills locos, assuming
he hasn't spent the dosh on wine, women and Lambos.

[philwhite]

I'm something of a collector so 'too many' is not really a phrase I'm familiar with!

I have certainly amassed a collection larger than I conceivably need, or could ever run at one time on my North American layout, but then I get a great amount of pleasure from running a wide variety of trains (admittedly un-prototypically). But still I keep finding new locos to add to my fleet!

I remember seeing a photo on one of the American forums, following a similar discussion, of a modeller who had laid out his entire feet totalling nearly 300, it was quite a sight but I can't help thinking you're getting into the realms of hoarding with those sorts of numbers.

How many is too many? As many as you want I guess I would say.

[ParkeNd]

You can never have too many Union Mills locos. At the moment I have 1.

How about a poll to find out numbers of locos members have.

Excluding dead ones  and dummies. (The locos not the members )   

PS the Eurolottery winner could buy about 1.2 million Union mills locos, assuming
he hasn't spent the dosh on wine, women and Lambos.

This is an interesting proposal. There was a TV programme on two days ago called "Inside Rolls Royce" which I watched being a past employee of the real Rolls Royce in Crewe. It was a great programme dominated by German managers and was styled in what I saw as concentrating on very high quality, very high priced, utter vulgarity.

A similar programme on multi-billionaires model railways and the number of their locos might make a similarly entertaining programme - but it would have to concentrate on just the "gimme gimme gimme cos I got loads of dosh" fraternity rather than genuine high profile rail enthusiasts.

[Paddy]

Mmm, well I suppose my fleet contains far too many locos for HOLLERTON JUNCTION which is only 6' x 2.5' but I tend to buy what I like (need does not come in to it!).  Currently there are 58 on shed so some pruning might be needed. :-(

Paddy

[D1042 Western Princess]

I'm not sure I understand the question

Can I put it another way then?  When do we decide "I have enough locomotives"? Is it when you simply have as many as you actually need to run the "service" (which in the case of a single track branch line might be just 3 or 4, while a huge main line junction station might require 35 or 40) or is it, as when your loco yard is full, when (as someone else said) most of your locos never turn a wheel or when (as with me - after the lottery roll over win of course  ) you have 74 Westerns, 101 Hymeks, 71 Warships etc?
Obviously its up to the individual to say "no more" but just curious as to how other people decide when they have sufficient motive power on their layouts.

[D1042 Western Princess]

The only regrets are a few Lima locos that I bought early on, when I didn't know better. They are a bit oversize and don't all run.

I recall those days, particularly when most of the wagons/vans seemed to be in fake liveries and the coaches 1.160 and locos over 1.148!  But at the time it was pretty much all we had (apart from kits) in British N. Thankfully those days are long gone.

[Ray Haddad]

Never too many. As said earlier, the only limit is my wallet. Poor, pitiful, moth eaten thing.

Any locomotives not in use for a while are retired after being cleaned and lubricated. Then, they occasionally come out of retirement to perform for me, for which I offer both praise and applause. They love it.

My trains are my people. Never forget that.

[jonclox]

Ive recently bought  a GF 08 and a Dapol 57 because I prefer smaller locos. Theres no rational thinking behind the purchases especially as they are DC and I am converting (with many errors) to DCC. In time I may well covert them both or get them done for me. I don't tend to buy all that often and I think I only have about 10 DCC locos and the same amount DC

[Claude Dreyfus]

I probably have too many Japanese locomotives; especially when the bulk of my running takes place on Kanjiyama now which ain't very big. Most of my loco purchases have been quite targeted, to the point where my 40-odd locos cover only about 10-15 different classes...I have 7 EF64s for example. UK models are mainly sentimental and don't really follow any pattern; I have 6 Dapol 73s for example...

[Dorsetmike]

I might suggest there are as many answers as we have members. It is surely and individual assessment, some of us will base it on layout size, others will define limits on what could justifiably run on our layout in our chosen time period.

Other factors have already ben mentioned ranging from storage space to size of wallet, all in all you may as well ask "how long os a piece of string".

[Newportnobby]

My answer? Waaayyyy too many (not prepared to say just how many)
However, I justify this by running two eras (late steam and/or early diesel) with 2 main running lines and a separate busy branch line/goods yard/loco shed/industries etc. The other issue is that as manufacturers release stuff, I tend to get them rather than lose out when they are no longer available.
Also, variety is the spice of life (I'm told)

[johnlambert]

I like the comment about having twice as many locos as you need and half as many as you want.

According to my spreadsheet I have 16 steam, 7 diesel locos, 6 DMUs and 1 EMU.  I suspect I've not added some of my latest purchases so I need to update the list.  On my current layout I can accommodate three locos, one DMU and stock for up to 5 trains.  The advantage is that I can run trains from a variety of eras, although I've tried to stick to stock that would have appeared in the region.  I do try and give everything a run on a regular basis and sometimes ask, "do I need to keep this?" to try and make sure I don't hang on to stock I don't need.

There are still a few gaps in my collection but it does feel as though my loco buying is slowing down.

[BudgieJane]

I have half the fleet I want and twice the fleet I need.

This is because there are certain trains that I want that are not available and probably will never be made in N  (Javelin, Pendolino, Electrostar, etc). So to compensate have bought other trains that were 'nice to haves' but not really what I need e.g. London Midland Desiro when I wanted a SWT Desiro.

When I asked about the possibility of Electrostar models, I got a huge hint from the GF folks at Ally Pally today that they could be looking at releasing a SWT class 450 Desiro.

Of course, when a 12-car EMU is only six feet long, you can easily fit quite a few on any layout that is larger than the smallest.

[James C]

Having "too many" just gives you a good excuse to make a start on a second layout