How many of you who lack a layout compensate by "overcollecting"?

Kieffer your great story brings back memories of my Dad and flea markets and looking for antiques and trains.

You may be overcollecting if:

You ran out of track space for all of your trains years ago.

You've run out of shelf space to display trains that won't fit on your layout.

Your display shelves are two tracks deep and you don't remember what's on the back rows.

You buy more trains without knowing where you will use them or display them.

You can't remember when you last operated certain locos on your layout.

You have a lot of "collectible" trains still in boxes and you can't remember what they all are.

I know some folks in these conditions and I might be getting there myself ...

Kieffer,

Oh my gosh!  I can relate.  My Dad loved bargins.  He used to say, "I got a heck of a deal on it."  And "It" could be almost anything.  Before his health declined we went to toy train flea markets together.   He of course liked the early postwar and prewar tin plate the best.

You're right there is something genetic or at least whatever it is rubs off.  It's that sense of finding a little treasure before someone else does or uncovering a diamond in the rough. 

Rick in Mpls.

Guilty!  Now I have so many boxes, I don't have space to build a permanent layout.  Talk about a Catch-22!

Living with a few old boards from a G gauge layout and some Fastrack.  

It's the inertia of design for me (and the challenge of learning RR-Track v5.0).  Someday!

Ron

Just got back from the Big E with my arms full of stuff, I guess I'll just keep over collecting. Oh we'll.

And what does it mean when your shelves are 4 deep?

Scott Smith

I don't know about you, Scott, but I am not over collecting.... I have hardly started....

I visited a guy last weekend who was selling his collection. He still had his PW stuff from his childhood and it was obvious he'd been planning and collecting for awhile. Opened a closet door to reveal shelves stacked floor to ceiling with train boxes and even more trains in the other parts of the closet. Then he showed me his train room, a small walk-in attic he'd finished out, added ventilation, and even made room for a small work bench. Was working on what would have been a neat layout when he ran a power saw into halfway through his index finger six years ago. He hadn't touched any of it since and has now decided to sell it all, most of it never having been on the track!

i still run on the carpet central but, seeing how my collection is reaching critical mass, and knowing my 7yo might discover cars and girls eventually, I've decided that my focus in 2013 will be on less on collecting and more on layout building...

redrockbill

I think I maybe a overcollector,

The only track space I have left is the track stacked on top of track.

I don't have room for any shelves.

Since I have no room for shelves, I can't have rows on the shelves.

I do buy more trains, and I do have a idea where I would like to use them.

It is easier for me to tell you which locos I have used.

Most of my trains are still in their boxes, OH! I can't remember where they are all at..

I just wish they would stop making trains that I like. And maybe I can stop dreaming of places where I can put all of my trains. Well until then I guess I can buy some more.

Overcollecting? When my family is starving, when my electricity is cut off, when I no longer have access to the internet, I might reconsider my position. Until then, I will support thousands of people worldwide connected to producing model trains.

Years ago a department store in town had it's yearly model car event. Something like the 'model car week' or something. It was men's business, mainly adults there, the ladies a more or a less patiently waiting minority. I remember a guy, holding a box in his hands.

It was a model Mini Cooper. His lady commented that he 'already had a Mini Cooper toy car'.

"Yes dear, but this one is the light blue version", he replied. She gave him the sceptical look.

He put the box back on the shelf. I felt deeply sorry for that fellow. He had a big blond moustache that made him look like a tired walrus.

(No, I don't want to rouse the old theme of ladies, 'obstructing' their men's passion!!).

I guess he was overcollecting. But not that day.

Kieffer