TonyWalsham said:Had to look that up. No sir, I am the real thing. A pedant.
Nice to know you are not a sciolist ;)
But back to the topic at hand, I do have to agree that large-scale garden startup is costing more than I had expected. Rolling stock is about as expected. Track was a surprise at first. But golly, trackbed, buildings, switches, these will surely add up.
I’ll be happier once I get the first loop completed.
Oooh look! Benderboard on sale at Home Depot!
David-
Hands down you get the “Big Bird” award for most creative response.
tac said:Richard Smith said:
Well you CAN do a railroad hobby on the cheap!I remember reading an article one time written by a fellow in the U.K. It was about the exciting hobby of “train spotting”. The object was to take a notebook and pencil down to the local depot, rail yard or trackside and write down the numbers of all the locomotives and any other items of interest along with their time and location. Later they would gather together and compare notes sometimes going back for months. “Oh yeh, ol’ number 97 was there at 3pm on June 27th. Fancy that.” I don’t know if the hobby was confined mostly to the U.K. or if it was practiced in other countries but you have to admit it was cheap! hehe! Certainly too exciting for some of you though I’m sure.
Too with all the new electronic gadgets you could make an otherwise cheap hobby quite expensive not to mention some of the young’uns might not be familiar with proper operation of the pencil anyway.
Yup, over here in UK the derogatory term ‘anorak’ was coined for those that followed this rather odd pastime, from the item of clothing worn to protect them from the elements.These days, an ‘anorak’ is another form of a ‘geek’ or ‘nerd’.
A pal of mine used to collect all the Ian Allen ‘trainspotters’ books, and proudly show me his latest ‘number’ acquisition. He was so excited that he didn’t ever notice the instant glaze-over in my eyes…
To me it’s like collecting twigs - ‘Gee whiz, I’ve never seen THAT one before!’, and every bit as productive.
I’m certain in what remains of my own mind that the GFO didn’t place us on the earth to collect train numbers, just as I’m certain that there are trains in heaven.
tac, ig & The Runaway Train Boys
Sssssshhhhhhhhh, with the twigs. Everybody will want one…
tac, ig & The Cemetery Loop Boys
Ah, but your not alone. I’ve been collecting twigs for years. A very good hobby it is. Quite inexpensive; gives good exercise from stooping over to pick them and once you have amassed a large collection, you can reduce your home heating cost by burning your duplicates in the fireplace or wood stove.
I had a most extensive and beautiful twig collection…Sadly I lost it all in a fire last year.
Those lucky enough to live in this region - quite a strip down the west side of NA - can also collect Ponderosa cones. hehehe
tac said:
To me it's like collecting twigs tac, ig & The Runaway Train Boys
Richard Smith said:
[b]Gee Terry......I sorta.....kinda.....thought you admired my twig collection...[/b] :(
tac said:
Sssssshhhhhhhhh, with the twigs. Everybody will want one.... tac, ig & The Cemetery Loop Boys
Jon Radder said:
Ah, but your not alone. I've been collecting twigs for years. A very good hobby it is. Quite inexpensive; gives good exercise from stooping over to pick them and once you have amassed a large collection, you can reduce your home heating cost by burning your duplicates in the fireplace or wood stove.
Mark V said:
I had a most extensive and beautiful twig collection...Sadly I lost it all in a fire last year. :(
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:Boys, I'm afraid we have a "runaway" on the main :D Ralph
Those lucky enough to live in this region - quite a strip down the west side of NA - can also collect Ponderosa cones. hehehe
“Sssssshhhhhhhhh, with the twigs. Everybody will want one…”
Reminds me of a limerick I learned as a child:
A man dining out in Depugh,
Found quite a large mouse in his stew,
Said the waiter, “Don’t shout or wave it about!
OR the rest will be wanting one too!”
:lol:
Best,
David Meashey
And back to our subject! I will continue in LS and enjoy what I have and build and/or rebuild as necessary over the years. No, I don’t have a large income to spend but I’ll save my money as it comes in and will try to spend wisely!
Paul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcuHOU0VnC8
Eevry time I think its getting expensive, I’ll watch something like this and be brought back to earth…literally :lol:
I dug out the old fish’n poles, take nice long walks around the lake (up to 4 miles).
Don
Victor Smith said:20 G's up in smoke. There's a lot of those on U-tube, including a model B52 crash.
Eevry time I think its getting expensive, I'll watch something like this and be brought back to earth...literally :lol:
JB
Yes there are. 
The moaners and groaners should head to the shop where the flyboys congregate and find out how they do it. All that money up in smoke! Do they hold regular burials or just get the next machine they have in their collection and have a go? 
HJ,
I had a ‘friend’ back in the 1980’s in the early days of radio control helicopters, who would regularly destroy a set of rotor blades. At the time, a replacement set of blades was around $500.00. A very expensive hobby, but the thought of replacing rotor sets did not discourage him. I gave up on the hobby as the need to pay for replacements exceeded the rewards from the hobby.
We appear to have a lot of “It cost’s too much” complaints lately. As an avid R/C’r (yep, jets) I hear it all the time.
Want a “jet” that costs less than 20 grand (99% do by the way)? Then buy an EDF ducted fan complete with radio for well less than $300.00. I’ve seen 'em for less than $200. My boy flies a $35.00 helicopter around the house every day.
TRAINS: There are thousands of starter sets sold every year under $200.00 (Big Haulers) complete with everything you will need. I know a guy who literally ran two Bachmann sets he bought on ebay under $200 for both! He used cheap Lionel track outdoors for two years before replacing it with used he picked up along the way.
Doing it “right” is not cheap, but it really shouldn’t stop anyone from doing it. I try to give inexpensive examples to anyone who asks me about how much any of my hobbies cost. What will scare a newbie away is telling them how much you paid for an Accucraft “K” live steamer without telling them about the Ruby.
Quote
You know this whole thread reminds me of “the sky is falling, the sky is falling”. big_smile lol
It seems to me that there is an awful lot of whining going on about the cost of LS trains when what it really boils down to is a matter of choices. I too used to fly R/C aircraft and helicopters. Could easily burn through a couple of thousand dollars a year there. For those in the snow states and Canada how about snowmobiling. If you live in the mountains and want to ride the deep snow machines you could easily spend ten to fifteen thousand for a machine, and then you need a way to move it around. Every time you take it out is easily a hundred dollar bill, if you don’t break anything. Or how about boating, cost of a boat, trailer, vehicle to move it around or a dock to store it at and you’re into thousands of dollars a year again.
My point is, anything you want to do is going to cost you money, no matter what it is. Personally I think in the grand scheme of things that large scale trains are relatively inexpensive. Sure, there is a high initial investment for the first couple of years, but then the costs go down dramatically. Once you have your track and some rolling stock then your purchases become much less. Maybe a locomotive one year or a few cars another, but eventually you will reach a point where you really don’t need anything else. Cost is negligable, but the enjoyment factor is still there.
It all boils down to a matter of choices. You can’t obviously do everything.
I love my trains and no matter how much costs go up, I won’t be quiting any time soon but with retirement only five years away ( I hope) all my major purchasing will be done by then.
E. Paul Austin said:
And back to our subject! I will continue in LS and enjoy what I have and build and/or rebuild as necessary over the years. No, I don't have a large income to spend but I'll save my money as it comes in and will try to spend wisely!Paul
Well, what passes for riotous livin’ these days…
Still got all my steamers and a select few of my sparkies in 1/29th and 1/20.3. In fact, as yesterday warmed up, we got out ALL our remaining modern diesels and had a great whine/growl-up - V colourful, too.
The only thing I’ll be buying this year is a higher output controller to go along with my big output Aristo power unit.
And that’ll be by trading something else.
tac, ig & The Workhouse Boys
Absolutely, spend wisely!! In a similar scenario, I’ve been thinning out my guitar collection for some time aspiring for a new Gibson. Well, the day came today and I have the new Gibson. Was it expensive? Heck yeah, but worth it? Heck YEAH! But it took patience, planning, a little sacrifice and self control of the impulse spending and that will get what you really want.