Have you all flip flopped on collecting/running desires?

For decades my collection was PRR by Lionel.  But eventually Lionel made too many Pennsy passenger cars, high dollar steamers with different road numbers, etc.  So that came to an end.

The shop I repair for buys collections and I was able to start buying some hard to get pre and postwar pieces that I previously had no interest in.

So now I have a 2341, 746, 2331, seventeen scale Hudsons. The 700E, 763E black, gray (with both tenders), four 773's and many modern era ones.  Also some really nice Madison cars, early 726, 726rr, 228 switcher set, and more.

I still buy some select Lionel Pennsy items to include fantasy paint schemes, ie. Bipolar, Veranda (just yesterday) and some big modern diesels.

Yeah, I flip-flopped and I kinda like it.

Yes. I had HO starter trainsets and a basic MPC set when I was a kid. As I got older I started buying more accurate, higher quality models and got rid of all of the trains that I still had when I was younger. In the last few years I have started buying some semi-scale O gauge stuff and I have had to really try hard to keep myself from jumping back into buying old Tyco and Bachmann stuff again.

Most of my Lionel 'collection' is all New York Central engines and rolling stock... along came Atlas and produced Raritan River SW's - which I couldn't pass up. I recently started adding some Pennsy equipment - A B6sb, GP7, and NW2, as well as a Nickel Plate GP and Boston & Maine NW2 for some variety.

Had a nice sized post war Lionel assortment early but moved on to other interests.  Got back into 0 scale in '94 and went on to replicate all my early Lionel traditional size locomotives and cars with exact same style / road name in full size scale replacements.

I found that full size 0 scale kinda sorta needs to go around the wall instead of an island platform.

Rather nostalgic to see my old favorites all grown up.

I had both Bachmann HO and Marx O27 as a "kid".  I preferred the HO given the detail and, despite lack of cash, did try to coerce my parents to purchase Bachmann items such as the cattle crossing and the Bascula Bridge.  (I ended up donating all my HO to the local Train Museum when it was recovered a few years back.)  The Marx sold on Craig's list for $25.00.  Big mistake since it had a great condition sound tender.

Oddly, the selling of the Marx seem to trigger something deep inside of me.  I bought the Lionel SD40-2 CSX Intermodal set (the nice one).  And, so the current epic saga started in earnest.  I'm knee deep in O Intermodal items now, and, of course, I'm back to HO scale.  Last night I ran my brand new Intermountain CSX ET44AH with my brand new ESU Cab Controller w/Remote.  It takes two MTH DCS HO locomotives to pull my rather massive consist where as only one of the Intermountain's is needed.  (I'm also out of room to add the remainder of the consist freight cars.)

If I had a choice in the matter, I'd take everything and magically convert it to S Scale.

Anthony

I was big into Standard Gauge.  There was an absolutely wonderful layout at the 2021 Fall York Meet.

I sold off all I had and I got back into O gauge.  I still love Standard Gauge, but it just takes so much real estate.

I get this feeling, I just started my permanent setup now that I have a place for it and find myself wanting to do Scale O only. Now I am going through all my non scale stuff and setting it aside for sale. I agree with notion about S scale I would do the same thing, seems like the perfect size.

Ian

I have to say, if I had it to do all over again, and there was a better product selection, I'd start with S-scale.  I agree that is about the perfect size for a home layout.  Also S-scale is large enough to still work on comfortably.  HO is too small and fiddly for me.  Forget about N-scale, I can barely see those!

In the early 70s, my dad got a hand-me-down S gauge set from one of his sisters, but with the unavailability of S gauge at the time, I got an MPC set for Christmas one year and also tried my hand at HO.  Found HO was too small and I was not one to model realistic things.  When I started looking for S gauge trains as a teenager, I started finding American Flyer prewar O gauge trains.  I bought them because I could afford them.  After getting out of the US Navy, I fell in with some other prewar Flyer collectors and have never looked back. 

The prewar streamliners are my absolute favorites!  I have some Flyer wide gauge (that is what Flyer called their standard gauge line) and appreciate it for its size, but as someone else mentioned it takes up too much real estate. 

I would not necessarily say that I flip-flopped, but I refined my interests early on to focus on prewar Flyer O gauge.  My interests have changed little over the past 30 years.  I do enjoy repairing and running the prewar Flyer O gauge and the few wide gauge pieces I have. 

I've flip flopped a number of times. I started out collecting and operating only postwar Lionel, than I started to add MPC era 9700 boxcars and some Railking. Around 12 years ago I started to buy more scale items and gradually sold off most of the postwar and MPC stuff. Know my youngest son (10) has taken an interested in Postwar Lionel and resparked my interest. So we've been buying a few pcs. I guess what goes around comes around.

James

Yes and no.

After becoming a scale devotee in N scale during my college days following my childhood days with Tyco in HO, I roamed into toy trains a decade later. But over time, I found myself buying O scale versions of my favorite N scale locomotives and was picky about accurate scaling.

However, I still straddle the fence. At home, I have a 3-by-8 O-27 layout for fun, smallish trains and an N scale layout for realistic models. I also run my scale-oriented O gauge trains at the Milwaukee Lionel Railroad Club, with its large curves.

I started off with simple Marx tin-plate but then in 1958 discovered HO. It looked like 'real trains'! O gauge was done! Around about 2012/13 a lady sold me a collection of post-war and I started running it in my display window and got hooked on collecting post-war but since retiring I have become more of a builder and runner rather than a collector and have sold off some of my post-war items. Most of my acquisitions are now slated for 'projects'.

I never was bit by the HO bug as I had a friend into HO and I saw how hard it was to put them on the rails compared to my childhood O27 Marx.  I fact I could have cared less about any gauge model trains as I was into U control model airplanes, building, flying, even making fuel.  My interest got my brother and several neighbor kids into U control planes when I taught them to fly.  I also was in model boats and one with RC with tubes and 67 volt batteries for the transmitter.  I help we lived on a bay and had a pier and a small boat to chase them.

I got into toy 027 trains as I had the old Marx 027 and had two young children that needed a train under the Christmas tree.  I have stayed away from scale and larger trains as I had to have a smaller layout for lack of space and moving every five years or so for my jobs.  I had a portable floor layout the  went down on the den or living room floor for month or two in the winter and could be moved in mattress boxes for employment.

I have never been into scale much but like to keep things in proportion.  With my toy O27, really S gauge size, I have one HO trolley on Main street, run mostly O27 and have recently gotten to Lionel 2046, 671 and 2055 as the biggest engines I run.  Some times I will run all Marx 999, 666, 333, 1998 and small Lionel 2-4-2 and maybe 2-6-4, 2026 engines with lots of Marx tinplate cars, all the ones the layout started with.

I have been off and on trains for the 44 years my layout has been around.  In my working years trains were a winter hobby mostly and now they share my all purpose room above the garage.

Charlie

My journey seems to have come full circle.  It started in the 1960s with my dad's hand-me-down Marx 999 and some 6 inch tinplate cars (which I still have), but then in 1968 or 1969 (not sure which year) I received my first Lionel set (a used orange NH Alco and some "common" post war cars) for Christmas.  During the 1970s I would save up allowances and "odd job" money to purchase Lionel/MPC from the local hobby shop, and of course Christmas would usually add a few items as well.  Everything was pretty much on hold while in college, but then when I got out of college and landed a job in the mid 1980s, it was when Williams, Weaver, Lionel, 3rd Rail, and others started making the scale engines and I was hooked.  Then came kids (expensive little buggers), so not as many purchases.  But soon my son wanted to play with daddy's trains, so out came the old Lionel/MPC items (I had sold of a lot of them to finance buying the scale items, but not all of them).  Soon he got his own set for Christmas (Pennsylvania Flier and some extra track and cars), and then I started liking the traditional items more and more.  I bought some of the Disney sets (also a Disney fan), a traditional sized K-line GG-1 and traditional sized passenger cars to go with it, and that started the ball rolling, and now the scale stuff is boxed up sitting on shelves in the basement, and the grandkids and I enjoy running the traditional sized trains on carpet layouts (ever changing and planning the next "empire").  I've pondered selling the scale engines and cars -- oh, I'd probably keep a scale PRR K4s and heavyweight passenger set and maybe a few other items, but my enjoyment is running the traditional sized trains like the ones I had as kid.

I recall one of those times as a kid, where my parents had friends over, where they could set aside the challenges of raising kids and chat with other adults. You know... one of those moments where parents say to their kids, "Okay, you go off and play and leave us alone so we can talk."

It was one of those moments where I overheard my mom say that I was like a cruise missile... that once I got focused on something, I didn't change my mind or lose interest in it at all.

Over the years, I've come to see how true and insightful that overheard comment was.

When I got back into trains later in life, it started back up with a Lionel 027 starter set... the sort of trains I had as a child. And I've never changed my mind or flip flopped on it. Even with the advent of TMCC, when it first came out I thought it was pretty cool, but it wasn't for me. The 3-rail scale stuff has never held any attraction to me what-so-ever.

Now to change gears slightly, we've all heard that phrase "The magic of Lionel." TM Books used that phrase a lot in their train videos. For me personally, the magic of Lionel trains was viewing toy trains that weren't anywhere close to actual scale in detail or proportion, running on 3 rail tubular track, setup on a green painted plywood board with oversized accessories and undersized Plasticville buildings...

AND YET somehow in my imagination (and maybe yours too), they appeared to be real. Even with at-that-time technology - things like air whistles and bicycle buzzers were hyped up by the Lionel catalog text to be just like the real thing.

In my view, the magic of Lionel has been dead for quite some time. Now replaced by the digital circuit board technology of Lionel. The trains that once required your imagination to be seen as real, have been replaced to a large degree, by trains products that require little or no imagination to be seen as real. An exact replica of a PS1 boxcar requires no imagination to be seen as real. A molded plug double door boxcar does.

So maybe guys like me don't matter much to the current Lionel company. As of a couple years ago, it was stated that the traditional starter set products are still what keeps Lionel in business... BUT you'd never know it by looking at the current catalogs, by seeing what's being promoted OR even included in the print version of the catalog. No more Ready-To-Run catalogs.

But on my train layout, nothing has changed. In my imagination, the 027 trains I have look just as real as anything currently being built to order today. I suppose Lionel needs what they need to do to remain in business. But as for me, call me old school, but telephones were made for talking, not for running trains... even if you can now run your trains by talking into your phone.

I might be in the middle of a flip now.  While I enjoy three rail o scale and have all my life, space constraints prevent me from building out a layout that does any justice to my desired operating scheme or running larger equipment.  A recently discovered bin of HO stuff i picked up years ago, another someday project, has resulted in a 7 x 1 foot shelf layout that is a blast to operate.  A fleet of freight cars weathered with kadee couplers can be had for a fraction of the cost of o scale products.  I am looking forward to the spring thaw show just to see what can be had.  This might be the start of something since the next house will more than likely not have a basement and be even more constraining for o scale.  We will see.

Born with Lionel, got duped into H0 in my teens in the 60's after being told "scale is the only way to go", but always missed the operating cars and accessories, as well as dependable operation. Finally got disgusted and went back to Lionel - thank God I never got rid of them like so many here did!

@brianel_k-lineguy posted:

I recall one of those times as a kid, where my parents had friends over, where they could set aside the challenges of raising kids and chat with other adults. You know... one of those moments where parents say to their kids, "Okay, you go off and play and leave us alone so we can talk."

It was one of those moments where I overheard my mom say that I was like a cruise missile... that once I got focused on something, I didn't change my mind or lose interest in it at all.

Over the years, I've come to see how true and insightful that overheard comment was.

When I got back into trains later in life, it started back up with a Lionel 027 starter set... the sort of trains I had as a child. And I've never changed my mind or flip flopped on it. Even with the advent of TMCC, when it first came out I thought it was pretty cool, but it wasn't for me. The 3-rail scale stuff has never held any attraction to me what-so-ever.

Now to change gears slightly, we've all heard that phrase "The magic of Lionel." TM Books used that phrase a lot in their train videos. For me personally, the magic of Lionel trains was viewing toy trains that weren't anywhere close to actual scale in detail or proportion, running on 3 rail tubular track, setup on a green painted plywood board with oversized accessories and undersized Plasticville buildings...

AND YET somehow in my imagination (and maybe yours too), they appeared to be real. Even with at-that-time technology - things like air whistles and bicycle buzzers were hyped up by the Lionel catalog text to be just like the real thing.

In my view, the magic of Lionel has been dead for quite some time. Now replaced by the digital circuit board technology of Lionel. The trains that once required your imagination to be seen as real, have been replaced to a large degree, by trains products that require little or no imagination to be seen as real. An exact replica of a PS1 boxcar requires no imagination to be seen as real. A molded plug double door boxcar does.

So maybe guys like me don't matter much to the current Lionel company. As of a couple years ago, it was stated that the traditional starter set products are still what keeps Lionel in business... BUT you'd never know it by looking at the current catalogs, by seeing what's being promoted OR even included in the print version of the catalog. No more Ready-To-Run catalogs.

But on my train layout, nothing has changed. In my imagination, the 027 trains I have look just as real as anything currently being built to order today. I suppose Lionel needs what they need to do to remain in business. But as for me, call me old school, but telephones were made for talking, not for running trains... even if you can now run your trains by talking into your phone.

@brianel_k-lineguy,

So you clearly have not flipped in your desires, at any time.  I admire your tenacity.

I'm also sad at the same time because Lionel has apparently, in your opinion, left you behind.

Your perception of Lionel's offerings puzzles me.  There have been plenty of starter sets released since the "electronics" era began, most without fancy electronics, and most not massively detailed, or overpriced, even by Lionel standards.  Perhaps you're not taking the time to find them.  Yes, in the Big Book catalogs they're always toward the back, but they are there.  And yes they don't always look like those offered to us back in the day, but they grab and hold the attention of kids just as well today as yours did back then.

If they didn't we would know it.  You wouldn't see kids at train shows fascinated by the layouts that our colleagues carefully construct and display, or in the few remaining hobby shops that still exist, or Mom's and Dad's posting on this forum for help with issues when they set their first layout up, or families who've become railfans chasing steam locomotives across the country, or so many children playing with Thomas, then Polar Express, then Hogwarts, and then, fortunately, beyond.

I believe by studying your posts over time we see that you've still maintained a strong tie to what you like, most probably because so very, very much of it is still accessible.  Yes it's "used" but with toys nothing's more important than saving an old classic from oblivion.

When the next Big Book comes just close your eyes and turn to the starter section and skip the expensive fluff at the beginning.  The starter sets still do make most of the money, they still do inspire the kids to join us in the hobby, and they still can provide a lift to those of us who first opened a Lionel catalog many, many, many years ago.

The world is passing us by and leaving us behind.  Lionel with its long history as a foundation, and doing the best it can with what has come from that, is trying mightily to keep up.  Yes, it's not perfect.  But, all things considered, and in my humble opinion, it's doing a fairly good job of it.

Thank you for being so tenacious.

Future newbies in our hobby will appreciate it, as most of us already do.

Mike

I have a bunch of HO from when I was young.  Mostly Athearn blue box stuff and some early Bachmann Spectrum.  Sometimes I think about selling all the O-gauge stuff and going back to HO.  I have the room to do it with nice wide curves and probably even a 4-track mainline like in the PRR’s heyday.  

I really like the sounds and features of O though, and as I get older, bigger is easier to see.

I also have a modest collection of Gilbert era Flyer.  I have fond memories of it as my Uncle always had his set up for Christmas.  If S were as popular as HO, the decision would be made.  But alas, I feel S-scale is too niche and there isn’t enough variety for my tastes.  I think GRJ is spot on that’s it’s the best scale.

Started out in HO and then switched to O guage with all command PS2 engines. Built a layout about 25x11' and had two levels. By the time I had it pretty well sceniced I realized I wasn't really into operations. I also dabbled in N scale then. Years before I had taken a Lionel post war #2037 off the hands of a local store about to close. I had taken down my layout and had downsized to a small 5x10'. One day I thought I'd try out that #2037. To my pleasant surprise it ran beautifully!! I was hooked. Since then it's been all post war. Still have the command stuff but seldom run it. Now recently I'm working on putting together cataloged sets. Have nine completed now between 1946-1955. Adding some Flyer in as well. Not sure I've flipped I prefer evolved.😁

O