How much did you spend for your collection?

I don't know and I really DON'T want to know.  

 

I think Lee has it right when it comes to this hobby in terms of how much his trains are worth.

 

Ed Boyle

Partner

Special Projects Editor

O Gauge Railroading magazine

 

 

 

Jerry

For insurance purposes, I DO know....

Considering this is part of the World-WIDE- web, I am happy to share that I have two trains I paid $10 for, but they don't work 'cause the cat peed on them shorting them out. Oh, and I have a cheap layout of a few cardboard buildings made by kids, badly.

FrankM.

(no disrespect intended.)

Not something I really care to discuss, and I really do not look at it that way. I look at how much enjoyment my wife and I get out of the trains.

 

JoeG

Enough to have had over 62 years worth of fun.

And it still is!

The amount of money I have spent was spent in my many years of happiness. The dollar amount means nothing but the fun I had and still have is priceless.

Dangeres tread.  I can say I have spent more money on other hobbies I have.

Good post makes one think

BUT when you look at all the fun and education and "bonding" time with your kids or grandkids it doesn't matter.

My hobbies don't take up all that much $$. TRains, nice bicycles, some model airplanes I am happy!!

I tell visitors I have spent about the same amount someone would spend on another hobby,about the same as a nice RV or a tricked out bass boat.

laz1957 your right. I think we will all be OK as long as we don't put anything on our front lawns. Bob is up and feeling good and he needs to full up that new TRAIN ROOM.

Still spending so it is fluid-which I like.  I have traded and bought and sold so no real way of knowing. With the trains I have something to show for my $$, don't have to feed and clean up after them every day or take them to a vet and, to some of us-old is good !!

What I have and run are P/W, MPC, Kuhn era trains and a few early 90's Mainline accessories. I have very little modern era trains and zero TMCC, DCS or Legacy. Today it is best described as the simple less expensive but highly reliable trains. I guess that I could upgrade to push button operation but what is the point? Once the settings are made on the ZW's, the trains run and that's it! The limited switching that I do can be handled from the transformer. Grades by insulated blocks on the accessory taps. 

As to how much my train collection is worth? Answer: Far less than they were when I purchased them and going down in value yearly like a falling lead balloon. 

Really good post! I know my collection is not worth monetarily what I have paid over the years, however, the fun I have had and the opportunity to release my creativity can not have a price assigned to it!  

I'll answer your question honestly.

I keep a spreadsheet of what I've spent.   At the height of my buying the total was close to $60,000.

I've since pared down my collection and pretty much stopped buying altogether.   After I sold most of the stuff off,  my spreadsheet reports that I currently have $7,804.29 in o-gauge trains and supplies. I don't keep track of what I lost selling off things.

If you think this is a lot of money,  I agree.   If you think this is a lot of money for o-gauge trains,  then you are not being realistic.

I'm into standard gauge now,  and although I  don't have a current running total of what I've spent for that,  I'm trying to keep it down.

I'm a rookie compared to the majority of you guys, at being involved with this in the last two years I realize that my small collection with trains, is definitely the most expensive hobby I've been involved with.  I've had HO racing cars, photography equipment, a large comic book collection, airbrushes, drawing equipment, watches, yet my trains have run past all of them easily...... and there are more years ahead.

My lawyer advised me to take the 5th A on this one!

 

-Pete

We have the right to remain silent. Anything we say can be used against us by our wives and or financial planners. 

Less than the National Debt.....But not much less

Money is private.

I eschew obfuscation

Doing my best to catch up to you Frank. Have asked the wife to get a second job to support me -- for better or worse, right? -- but she's not going for it. Just eye rolling and dirty looks so far. 

Original cost unadjusted for inflation over the past thirty years, $25,878.48, excluding shipping, for locomotives and rolling stock. $592.73, excluding shipping, for catalogs. North of $1,200 for power, track and accessories.

 

 

 

 

What, me worry (about anyone figuring out my real name and coming to take it away ha haaa)?

May be $100,000 (like many others who may have spent even more)   for ALL RR stuff!!!! I don't know

 

Now, may be $25000 in RR stuff left????

Hi Bob • This question is why aliens don't visit the USA.

Cheers from Michigan

 

Hey Rich, have the voices been talkin to you too, or is it just Me?

 

Doug

Seven lights in the sky, right behind my house, all looking right into my basement train room.  I wonder.

 

Well, fire up one of Lionel's steamers, push the horn and play the whistle and let the smoke billow everywhere    ...May be the aliens will think: what the heck are these Earthlings doing with these noisy toys on fire? Let's get out of here and find another planet

LOL, probably about the same as one semester of college for my daughter!

 

Seriously though, I don't keep track as I use "fun" money for these purchases.  This is disposable income, if it wasn't spent on trains it would be spent elsewhere.

 

In addition, 4 - 5 years ago, I took a lot of the trains that were in storage under the layout and bought a small trailerable sailboat.  Enjoy having both the trains and the boat!

 

Jim

I agree...I am buying less and less these days and enjoying what I already have.

 

Jeff Davis

Well Jim, this opens up a new set of questions.  Did you barter the trains for the boat?  Did you take the trains to the boat so that you could set up a layout on the boat and run them whilst sailing?  This could be newsworthy.  A man sailing and running trains at the same time.  Talk about multi-tasking.  

LESS THAN THERAPY . . . . 

 

Have we run out of threads?

THESE are fun or funny questions that although we may think about them we really dont want to know the answer . . . unless you have the mind of an accountant.

 

Can fun ever be measured in cost?

 

When I am building something that has never been built before, it takes a lot of time and experimentation to succeed. Which means that there is a a lot of wasted cost getting to the goal. So is that money that I should count as being spent? 

 

 

Fun years!

I think I have spent more on photography than on trains and it is not pro level equipment, both still and video. the two hobbies go well together, however.

on a similar note

 

i recently returned from a vacation and met a guy who restored tractors and during the conversation it became apparent that it was an expensive hobby

 

he said it was very expensive, but actually cost twice what he spent on purchases and restoration expenses

 

i must have looked puzzled because he smiled and said his wife paid the bills

 

when she made a check out to pay for those bills attributable to his hobby expenses, she made a duplicate check made out in her name for the same amount

 

smart woman

 

j

 

 

 

 

I look at it this way.  It's a literal lifetime hobby, for me anyway.  And even though I have a pretty good idea what I've spent, it just doesn't matter.  I'm having a great time.  Rich