A survey why you've purchased the particular engines you have.

Usually, for me, it's:

 

1. I purchased it because I remembered it from my childhood and always wanted to own one myself, such as the Lionel scale Hudson and the Rail Chief set from 1990.
2. Different choice of sounds and from different times add variety. You'll often see my Lionel B-6 from 1989 with RailSounds 1.0 running alongside my Legacy Southern Crescent with Legacy RailSounds and the whistle steam effect.
3. Sometimes details and looks on one manufacturer is better than another, such as my choice to purchase the MTH scale Blue Comet rather than the Lionel, which has also been a favorite as a child.
4. For one instance, I've always loved the Hudsons (especially the Lionel ones) and thus interested in purchasing one of each Modern Era Hudson to give a very intriguing section in my collection.

I have bought all my O scale locomotives exclusively in B&O, Chessie B&O, and CSX because of childhood experiences riding B&O except for a couple of AMTRAK locos.  Also, most of my rolling stock is B&O or CSX.

 

In G scale, I went in the opposite direction.  I bought locos in all the other road names because I liked paint schemes or just that particular engine.

 

Price usually did not play any part in deciding whether to buy or not.  Not that I'm a millionaire or anywhere close but this is about the only thing I'm involved in.

 

Rick

Steam! I fancy steam engines the most followed by trolley cars, electric locomotives and just lately, first generation diesels.

Almost anything scale Milwaukee Road. Don

I buy only TMCC, almost all modern diesel, mostly UP, BNSF, and CP (predecessors included) and priced under $300. Dual can motors are a must. That translates into used Lionel and Atlas. No MTH.

I buy three totally different types of locos for three totally different reasons:

 

1) Memories: I've purchased postwar locos and rolling stock similar to all those I had as a kid or wanted as a kid: Lionel, Marx, etc.  I repaired them if broken and they run, but they sit on shelves: not scale and frankly most older locos don't run that well compared to modern stuff - at least not at the slow speeds I like.

 

2) Just like the loco: I buy new, scale, locos because I like the look of it or like the idea of the real loco - UP big Boys and Challengers and Turbines and E8s, ATSF Northerns, Berks, and Warbonnet F3s, Alleghenies, Yellowstones, PRR S-1, T-1, S-2, etc.   Many of these, particularly the big boys (whether a Big Boy or not) sit on shelves - I love to look at them, etc.

 

3) Runners: Out of all the locos in (2) above, some turn out to be good "runners."   Big Boys, Challengers, etc., will run on my layout but they overhang 72" curves, etc., so they look silly.  Even the biggest Northerns are a bit too big d.  I make a point of buying smaller scale less than 24 or 25 inches long including tender looks natural on my layout.  These I run a lot.

I'm kinda' like Lee, I buy them for a variety of reasons, and I don't need much of a reason.

If it fits into one of these three categories, then I will consider purchasing it:

 

1) Owned and operated by the PRR in 1948.  There were at least 39 different types of steamers and diesels (not counting variations like H9 and H10) in service that year, and I have most that have been made in scale sized O gauge.

 

2) Owned and operated by a railroad that interchanged with the PRR in 1948.  So far I have very few, and it will stay that way due to space and $$$.  I will get a few more Southern engines over time.

 

3) Engines with a 1976 Bicentennial paint scheme.  I collect these.

 

I no longer buy MTH for my 1948 era; I do not like MTH's sound system and I have found I do not use 90% of DCS' functions.  I have not heard the latest PS3 stuff so I may change my mind after I see one operate.

 

I also no longer buy older Weaver and 3rd Rail engines to upgrade; too expensive for what you get.  Most of the ones I have upgraded have PS2 and all sound the same even with different sound files.

 

So what is next?  My 3rd Rail PRR L1 should be arriving sometime this year (maybe).  I'm waiting for Lionel to reissue their Legacy E6 4-4-2 in a PRR post WWII paint scheme.  I'm also waiting for Atlas O to reissue their F3 phase 2 in the as delivered PRR paint scheme.  That will be all the buying for a while.

 

Ron

 

(PS: I do have one modern era diesel consist for those visitors that want to see one. It is a SF intermodal set.  No more.)

I buy them because I like them. If MTH, Lionel or any other scale builder builds a engine I like then I will buy it. 

 

They must be command and with the most up to date sound system. 

Road names don't matter

 

i just like cool trains

N&W

Scale

Steam 

Command Control

 

Pretty much covers it...

 

In the process of purging anything that doesn't fit the criteria.... I am retaining a small roster of assorted conventional locomotives for running on the club modular layout.

 

because I like them. I see them in the catalogs,Greenberg books, or in person. If it's in the junk box, all the better. Taking something made before I was born, and bringing it back to life,hunting for the parts, is the best for me. 

The two modern steamers I have,MTH RK M1a because of what it is, WBB J was the best value for me, but I'd trade it in a sec if a forlorn 746 project was found.

I'd have to say one if my childhood memories of watching later "The Adventures Of Superman" opening credits with the Southern Pacific E-7's influenced my love of trains including the EMD E and F units.  I was able to see the later days of Penn Central's passenger trains being pulled by E-8's and later on Amtrak's E-8's.  That led me into purchasing MTH and Weaver E-8's, MTH FP-45's, F40PH's, and Genesis locos because I am primarily an Amtrak collector and operator.  I did start to express interest in B&O and RF&P as I couldn't wait for MTH to produce the E-8 in Amtrak. I purchased my first MTH E-8 ABA sets in those road names which lead into the purchase of Weaver and MTH aluminum passenger cars to be pulled by them.  I chose MTH because the ABA sets are great value for the money since you get two powered A units and a B unit.  In addition to my diesel purchases, I bought a Lionel B&O Scale B&O 4-6-2 "President Harrison" Pacific painted in blue and grey with gold trim.  If I were to buy more steam engines I would again lean towards something unusual with other than a black paint scheme.

 

 

Up until about a month ago I only bought Milwaukee Road because I grew up in Wisconsin where the Road ran and where I had the experience of riding on the Milwaukee Road passenger trains. But I recently bought an MTH premier Norfolk Southern SD70ACe for a few reasons. Number one, the Milw. Rd. was gone by the late 1980's and I wanted to run a diesel that was 21st century, secondly I really liked the way NS painted the 20 diesels for their 30th anniversary and third, for realism, I wanted an engine that that was compatible with all the new types of freight cars out there. My most modern Milw. Rd. diesel is a GP9.

Now, I watched Superman on TV in the 1950's, and I never saw any diesels at all in the

opening credits; what they was "faster than a speeding bullet" then was a GS4 Daylight 4-8-4. Another model RR'er that I know remembers the C&NW E-4 Hudson at the opening.

 

Apparently there was variety.

 

BTW, I purchase steam mostly, by a big margin; I also like big electrics, like the NYC P-2.

Where i grew up on the Gulf Coast dieselized very early, so I never saw steam in action

around my home town and I -certainly- never saw any big box cab electrics.

 

It's not always about nostalgia. 

Started out from scratch a couple years ago wanting Lionel, Steam, Passenger & Conventional.

Ended up with MTH, Modern Diesels, Freight & DCS. Decided steamers were nice, but I like the modern stuff better. As I'm sure you all know, steamers very pricey and I'm trying to put together a layout during all this too. Also retired & on fixed income.

After lots of reading books, websites, train catalogs and finding this forum, I decided to go with diesels in the BNSF road name and MTH & DCS gave me a lot more bang for the buck. May add some UP & Santa Fe in the future. Those are the 2 main roads near me and what I will mostly be sticking with.

Exception is the GE EVO diesel, the lights got me, had to have one.

Currently have about 6 or so engines on order (all MTH) and a bunch of cars & car sets, all MTH. Delivery of all this takes me into early next year, that is if current shipping dates are correct.

After that I would like to get a Legacy system and some Lionel diesels to go with it, maybe even some cars & car sets also (really like Lionel sound better). Hopefully Lionel will have some BNSF stuff in their future catalogs.

If not broke or dead by then, '50s era diesels & passenger sets (probably UP & Santa Fe) from either or both manufacturers are next. Then maybe even a steamer or two.

That's easy, I buy my trains because I love them. 

What I am buying now is almost entirely Milwaukee Road steam, or steam that I can logically redecorate as Milwaukee Road. I have quite a few Milwaukee Road electrics and entirely too many diesels. I also have a few SP items because that is the local favorite road here in southern Arizona, and a UP 4-12-2 just because it's huge and cool. 

 

I guess you could call the Milwaukee Road collecting a form of nostalgia, since I used to watch the Hiawatha go by when I was a kid. 

 

One thing that motivates me is having something different from what everybody else has. The Milwaukee Road fits that description, as well as collecting ETS tinplate and the new MTH European items. I don't own a Daylight or a Challenger or a J3 Hudson, but I do have an ETS Beyer-Garratt and a Seetal (Baby) Crocodile. It's fun to be unique.

D500, they shot a couple of seasons of Superman in Color. They used stock shots of the E-unit because they were in color. In the black and white seasons they use the GS shots. Don

I think price is the major deciding factor with me. I mainly stick to Santa Fe and BNSF. I would love to have a new legacy SF northern but I simply cannot spend that much. But when I found a Atlas O SF RSD-4/5 with TMCC and RS for $125 I did not hesitate to buy it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I wandered away from tinplate to HO, because of the tremendous variety of

rolling stock, I collected Colorado roadnames, railroads that ran in Colorado,standard guage, C&S, D&RGW, FW&D, CM, D&SL, tracking down old kits, and also picked up

other roads that were regional, such as the Rock Island, Mopac, and Burlington, generally, and still, staying away from the mega-roads like U.P. and ATSF.  I even bought a few HO diesels.

Upon discovering that in tinplate they had made stuff I had never seen, I set out to

collect some of that, immediately abandoning HO and a layout begun.  I try hard to

stick to the first, HO, theme, still, now in O three rail but avoiding diesels and concentrating on the steam era.   It's not that I don't like some diesels, those found in that centerfold in the 1941 Locomotive Cyclopedia...i.e., Rock Island, MoPac, and black, vs. yellow first generation Grande power.  Having acquired some but certainly not all of my childhood "omissions", I now would buy more if anything made fit the "theme", those roads, that era, and mostly branchline power.  That money gets spent

instead on scratch and kit building.  My last loco purchase was the WBB 4-6-0.  Those

after that were announced and canceled. 

Most of my engine purchases now are for the Reading Railroad, grew up in north side(Riverveiw Park, Hain Ave.) of Reading PA. I have the new SD-70Ace Railking model from MTH in Norfolk Southern Heritage paint for the Reading Lines on order from Trainworld.

I like some steam engines, not all, as they have to appeal to me, like the Reading T-1 4-8-4. The diesel engines I like ar emainly the SD-45's and GP-35 to GP-40, and GP-60.

I bought a nice Santa Fe passenger set by Williams for $400.00 about 10 years ago, six El Capitan pasenger cars and three F-7 (ABA) diesels. Never been there but I like the Santa Fe from seeing them in movies.

 

Lee Fritz

Looks of the equipment mean a lot to me in considering a purchase decision. If it is an engine, it must be Legacy. I am not particular to any road name.

Seems like I'm answering this question the same way I answer my wife's "don't you have enough engines" or "why are you buying another engine."  My collection of 20 engines was accumulated over the last 12 years as follows:

 

1.  Inheritance - I have the privilege of owning all 6 of my grandfather's PW (semi-scale/O27) engines and sets, 4 steam and 2 diesel, plus a trolley and gang car.  I also have my father's 1666 2-8-2 from the same era, so there's my first 7.

 

2.  Cleveland theme - I started adding 6 semi-scale by focusing on the RRs that went through my home town years ago......a NYC LionMaster Hudson, a PRR Pacific, an EL SW-8 Switcher, a B&O F-3 (gotta have an F-3 on every layout, right?), a Nickel Plate Jr. Berk, and a Williams Chessie Hudson.

 

3.  Round out with 4 classics (or replicas)- a Santa Fe warbonnet passenger set, a Williams replica 726 Berk, and a Williams PRR GG-1.  I also felt like I "had to have" some GPs, so I added a pair of Wabash GPs (7s or 9s, can't remember), Wabash because I liked the color scheme.

 

4.  4 for the kids to run without my heart palpitating - a Williams girls set, a Lionel NYC dockside switcher, a Williams NYC 4-6-0, and a Thomas the Tank Engine are great runners for the girls, nieces, and nephews, and I won't get upset if anything happens to them.  These run around the Christmas tree.

 

14 conventional, 7 with TMCC/RS.  There's one other not listed that will go up for sale this fall as it doesn't fit.

 

Since I'm strictly semi-scale, the only thing on the market that I think is missing is a streamlined steamer.  I'll probably add a Williams 4-8-4 at some point in the future.

I left HO, and jumped with both feet to O. I went with DCS, then into TMCC. I now will only buy WBB engines in 3 rail, I am selling all of my command engines because of too many problems with the electronics. I have made the switch to 2 rail and joined a local club to run my 2 rail. What 3 rail trains I have left will be for christmas time on the platform. I hope to sell 75% of my 3 rail trains, as I am not going to buy anymore. I have a goal to buy 8 more 2 rail engines to give me 10, and a few more weaver freight cars.

I like small locomotives-especially switchers.  I have Lionel Docksiders, Lionel 0-4-0s, Williams NW2s, an Atlas SW-8, and some MTH SW-8s, 9s, and an SW1500.  I have RMT Beeps and Bangs, too.  Hopefully, when I get a layout built, it will be modeled after a shortline.  The Maryland & Pennsylvania, and Stewartstown are my chief inspiration.  For passenger work, I have an MTH doodlebug. 

The loco that made me change from HO to O scale 3 rail.......MTH RK N&W J #611. I have been in the cab of 611 when it was at the old Roanoke museum and also rode behind her in railfan service.  So when I saw one of my friends 'new' loco I told him it was nice and I'd love to have one but don't have the cash for O scale. Then he told me it was $299 and I had one the next day......and thus my conversion to O and one of my favorite locos.

1. Must be dcs.
2. Looks
3. Must have been or currently be in
service in the Eastern US.(sometimes I cheat and pretend a UP unit is leased to NS)
4.Be in my very tight budget.

1) BNSF owned/operated and common on the rails in the past 10 years. (eliminates all atlas)

2) 1:48 scale (eliminates most Lionel and all of Weaver)

3) not AC (ie, no SD70ACE or ac4400, etc)

 

I've begun to break rule 3 as of late.  (ah, well...)

I fancy CNW and ATSF motive power and rolling stock, though I've moved toward more generic where possible. My position as the self-appointed Information Minister of the Isle of Denial keeps my era pre-1995, though I do have some Heritage Units which were captured in raids of predator railroads.

 

The other thing I like is certain pieces of equipment that were historically significant like the Turbo Train and the PRR S2 Turbine, and SCRRA (Metrolink.)

For me my dad's Lionel trains a prewar tinplate pass. set, postwar 671 turbine & 6250 Seaboard NW-2 started me on O gauge trains. He worked shortly for the B&O then he worked for the Patapsco & Back River RR which was Bethlehem Steel's RR at Sparrows Point MD. 

 

So those factors helped add to my love for Lionel trains and when I started working for a living in the 70's I added some more Lionel MPC engines to my collection. I guess I'm split between steam and diesels and I stopped stopped buying trains in the mid 80's. I also had all of Lionel's postwar operating accessories and cars so they played a major role in staying with Lionel when I started buying trains again around 2003. 

 

So when I started buying trains again Lionel played a major role in what I bought. I also got caught up into the scale trains as well. Now almost all of my motive power is well rounded between steam and diesel with some electrics added in. My main power influences are Bethlehem Steel, East Coast RR's, Legacy, Vision, TMCC, Classics, SP, UP and engines that stand out to me as beautiful engines like the MR S-3 and the Vision Hudson.

 

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of lovely engines out there made by the other manufactures that I would love to have. But I only have so much $$ so most of my motive power is Lionel.

 

The Fairbanks Morse Demonstrators by MTH are the locomotives that pulled my interest back into O scale  "collecting" ...

 

The other fine FM locos available (including Lionels properly painted Trainmaster Demonstrators ) are what caused me to sell my HO FM collection and all of my G Gauge collection  Illinois Central locomotives and cars  ...

 

"Old Eyes" and "fat fingers" convinced me that my N Scale FM collection will be just that , a collection ....

 

plus ,  a 7 yr old son liking Thomas and all of the old operating Lionel cars he gets to "push the buttons" to operate on trainshow layouts we visit  is what brought me into actually start planning a running O layout ...

 

A loop for Thomas with a siding for my sons operating cars , a "Timesaver" switching module for dad .... as my son gets older , the operating cars and locations  on my sons loop will end up included into the Timesaver industrial yard ... 

 

a real reason to spot cars on a siding should keep our intereest for yrs to come ...

I purchase engines using simple criteria. My engines need to be simple (conventional for reliability), good looking (colorful) and have an old Eastern Railroad name. With my collection I am just about at my limit so I have not purchased a new engine in two years.

I seem to have 6 criteria for my engine buying habits:

 

1) I like models of steam engines (and the occasional vintage diesel) that still exist, and if they are still operational, even better (NKP 765, PM 1225, PRR 1361, Bennet Levin's PRR E8's, etc.).

 

2) I like W&ARR and anything relating to the "Great Locomotive Chase."

 

3) I like PRR steam.

 

4) I like Cass logging locomotives.

 

5) I like 4-4-0 American locomotives.

 

6) I like engines that strike my fancy (ones that don't fit into categories 1-5).

 

Some engines even fall into several of these categories which tends to move them up on the favorites list.

 

Andy

I grew up next to The Milwaukee Road's Northwoods Hiawatha tracks in Wisconsin so I now collect Milwaukee Road trains in several gauges: O, Standard, G, HO, and N!  

 

Picture shows my "orange wall shrine" to The Milwaukee Road in my old Vienna, VA home.

 

Bob

 

That is one beautiful Milw Rd collection .....

Bought "pig iron" because I grew up in the 1930s and 40s and rode steam on the Southern and N&W. First train ride was in August 1932 from North Carolina to Dennison, Ohio. I was 6 months old and went to visit maternal Grandparents [I remember it well].

 

Models are steam and early diesel era up until 1953 [Southern] and 1960 [N&W]. Small layout nowadays, running nothing larger than a Mikado, Mountain or Pacific. Tend to favor 2-8-0s and 4-6-0s. Big Clinchfield, Southern and N&W iron rests on the "dead track"[railrax].

First, all my engines must be dual motored, because I have a heck of a grade at one point.  A GP-30 is my all time favorite diesel, and GM&O my favorite road-since my dad and uncle worked for them 40 years and myself about 9 starting just after the merger with 'that railroad which I will not name".  And for passenger service, it had to be the Daylight with E or F units pulling it.

#1- I've tried to get one example of each postwar engine.

#2- East Coast roadnames.

#3- MTH 0-4-0 Docksider because it was the first REAL steam engine I saw as a kid, the MTH Railking (1st run) UP 4-6-6-4 Challenger because I always wanted a mallet, and the WBB BL-2 for the same reason. 

They all seem like very good reasons to me, as does everyone else's.