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How Much of Your Stock Do You Actually Run/Use?


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I have way too much, but.....

 

Model railway stock is produced on the basis of a 'batch' process rather than continuous production. For example if tomorrow you started to model a West Country SR branch in the 1930s, you will struggle to find any Olive Maunsell BCKs other than through the second hand market as its been a good few years since Hornby made any. True they are likely to appear again at some stage in the future - but that could be many years off.

 

With most ordinary consumer goods it doesn't matter that previous versions are not available - as the latest one is usually just as good for the job.

 

As such I regard most of the stock I have purchased as 'future proofing' as it were and preventing me being restricted in future years if things cease to be produced.

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This feels like confession, I'm going to be brutally honest.

 

I don't own a layout, The last layout I built was when I lived with my parents some 8 years ago in the loft. What stock I did have then is mostly gone, having been replaced by newer, more modern stock. I have a huge 60ft long outbuilding that was built with my house extension purely to accommodate my long planned dream layout, it's been constructed nearly 2 years, and it's just full of boxes and non modelling related stored crap basically, it hasn't been touched.

 

I'm not a member of a club, there's not one local enough to me (that I'm aware of), so 95% of my 'collection' has never been ran, most of it hasn't been out of the box.

 

Over the years I've spent thousands on impulse purchases, that sit around for that one time I get the time to spend on creating this model railway vision I've had for the past couple of decades. I'll confess, somehow buying railway models, and railway modelling related clobber makes me feel better about the fact that I don't actually get around to doing any railway modelling, what an awfully depressing paradox when you think about it.

 

Yes, I'm an armchair modeller, not by design, but by circumstance (I'm self employed), I have a great amount of knowledge of how to do things, time spent doodling on the internet in a spare half hour will do that, but in practice very little experience actually doing it. Makes me feel a bit of a fraud really.

 

What really hits home is recently I had to value all my stock to get it all insured, the figures I came back with were startling, and I've done pretty much nothing with any of it, it's quite sad. And when I then have to take photos of 'how and where the insured items are stored', I look at the photos and get even more depressed at the situation.

 

One day soon things will change, I'll have a lot more time on my hands later this year as my business gets sold and handed over, I'll then be able to take a more casual line of work for a moderate income, and invest more of my time in the hobby that I love.  But until then, my modelling consists of admiring boxes....

 

IMG-4064-Medium.jpgIMG-4065-Medium.jpgIMG-4066-Medium.jpg

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Of the 50 locos that I own in 3 gauges I have run 4 in the last 6 months.

I have run 33% of my O gauge locos (only on 2m of track to see if it worked).

I have run 33% of my OO gauge locos (all Thomas and friends locos for my children).

I didn't run any of my 2mm FS locos (No working layout).

I didn't run any of my N gauge locos (No working layout). 

 

I must change these statistics! 

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For me, probably less than half.It tends to be the same models running around. I think mainly because the others have all got problems one way or another. Whether it be pickup problems, the front wheels coming off or just general noisiness, the newer locos I have tend to favour my running.As for some of the wagons and coaches, some of them have never turned a wheel under me.Makes me wonder why I invested heavily in them!

Ditto

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Like Nearholmer, keeping my railway operations to themes ensures all stock is utilised regularly.

 

A fictitious location set firmly in the Southern post-war to mid-sixties years, utilising various themes has the advantage of not having to stick to a strictly rigid geographical location but at the same time keeping chronologically accurate.

Services can thus work to/from any point of origin depending on whether the theme be Eastern, Central or Western Section; the inclusion of inter-regional workings adding variety.

 

This all without falling foul of unrealistic compromise

Edited by Right Away
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Like most people I used to have a significant amount of stock in boxes, but I've realised that it's daft owning them if they rarely get run or aren't on display. So now I've decided that if it can't fit on my layout or doesn't fit in with the current region/period that I'm modelling, then I'll sell it. Funds are a bit tight for me at the moment, so being stricter with what I own means I can sell stuff I'm not running to fund the purchase of new items that I'll actually use regularly.

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This feels like confession, I'm going to be brutally honest.

 

I don't own a layout, The last layout I built was when I lived with my parents some 8 years ago in the loft. What stock I did have then is mostly gone, having been replaced by newer, more modern stock. I have a huge 60ft long outbuilding that was built with my house extension purely to accommodate my long planned dream layout, it's been constructed nearly 2 years, and it's just full of boxes and non modelling related stored crap basically, it hasn't been touched.

 

"snip"

 

 

I know exactly what you mean.

 

I had to move back to the family home a while ago for various reasons, nothing serious (mainly financial and it was much easier for work). Most of my old layout was still up in the loft. But it's not really useable. That's for the future. I have had layouts when I've lived elsewhere though, including a small O Gauge branch terminus.

 

But at the moment none.

 

I am planning on something smallish soon though. My niece and nephew are showing a bit of interest so I want to get something up and running for them to see/play with before they get older. Even if it's just a train set on baseboards or a 6 x 4 roundy round.

 

 

 

Jason

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I don't have a vast collection,

 

2 EMUS

2 Class 08's

1 Class 25

1 Class 25/3

1 Class 47

(All 70'S BR BLUE)

 

Plus I have around 30-something coaches and wagons. My "Pointless Layout" (see blog for images) with a traverser allows for all this rolling stock to get a run, and it's only a two track oval. :-)

Edited by Ray Von
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Depends what era is currently lighting my fire....if it’s blue all that lot comes out....if it’s ews all that ...so it all has a run but might be a year between runs for each segment.

 

I’m a bout to embark on an early 90s theme so you may see sector stuff as well, told myself I’d never go three era !

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This feels like confession, I'm going to be brutally honest.

 

I don't own a layout, The last layout I built was when I lived with my parents some 8 years ago in the loft. What stock I did have then is mostly gone, having been replaced by newer, more modern stock. I have a huge 60ft long outbuilding that was built with my house extension purely to accommodate my long planned dream layout, it's been constructed nearly 2 years, and it's just full of boxes and non modelling related stored crap basically, it hasn't been touched.

 

I'm not a member of a club, there's not one local enough to me (that I'm aware of), so 95% of my 'collection' has never been ran, most of it hasn't been out of the box.

 

Over the years I've spent thousands on impulse purchases, that sit around for that one time I get the time to spend on creating this model railway vision I've had for the past couple of decades. I'll confess, somehow buying railway models, and railway modelling related clobber makes me feel better about the fact that I don't actually get around to doing any railway modelling, what an awfully depressing paradox when you think about it.

 

Yes, I'm an armchair modeller, not by design, but by circumstance (I'm self employed), I have a great amount of knowledge of how to do things, time spent doodling on the internet in a spare half hour will do that, but in practice very little experience actually doing it. Makes me feel a bit of a fraud really.

 

What really hits home is recently I had to value all my stock to get it all insured, the figures I came back with were startling, and I've done pretty much nothing with any of it, it's quite sad. And when I then have to take photos of 'how and where the insured items are stored', I look at the photos and get even more depressed at the situation.

 

One day soon things will change, I'll have a lot more time on my hands later this year as my business gets sold and handed over, I'll then be able to take a more casual line of work for a moderate income, and invest more of my time in the hobby that I love.  But until then, my modelling consists of admiring boxes....

 

IMG-4064-Medium.jpgIMG-4065-Medium.jpgIMG-4066-Medium.jpg

 

Nothing wrong with that - collecting till you have the chance to model something...

It’s like a caged tiger....waiting to be unleashed.....and it will be someday

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I realise that my strand of the hobby, old-style three-rail 0 gauge, is a bit different from most, but my approach to this might work for others: I run all my stock, or at least everything that isn’t under resto, but not all at once, because the layout would need to be about five times bigger.

 

The method is to run “themes”, and to change theme about every six weeks or so. My core theme is Southern, then I can run ‘pre-grouping south of england’, or early-BR, or “all clockwork”.’

 

Now, I don’t have to change all the scenic accessories, because I have barely any and am pretty good at turning a blind eye to anachronisms, but the same principle can be applied, even by changing the date-line by as little as, say, two or three years.

 

One of the distinct advantages of tinplate is that there wasn't that much available at least until recently; you had Hornby, maybe B-L, with the Big Four railways, so you were limited.  The advent of 'modern' models increased the stock but I am a Hornby loyalist with LMS and GW leanings which obviates the need to buy LNER or SR trains.

     While this keeps the stock down, an amazing number of items line the shelves on each side of the layout.  While they are certainly getatable, usually the favourites get preference although they all get circulated every so often.

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For me, probably less than half.

 

It tends to be the same models running around. I think mainly because the others have all got problems one way or another. Whether it be pickup problems, the front wheels coming off or just general noisiness, the newer locos I have tend to favour my running.

 

As for some of the wagons and coaches, some of them have never turned a wheel under me.

 

Makes me wonder why I invested heavily in them!

 

It's a nagging worry...

 

Theoretically I have 3 layouts.

 

Blacklade was intended to have two periods - 1985-90 and 2000-6. The latter was to provide a fall-back position for various stock I'd bought in connection with a club project I was involved with, in case the project fell through or my stock (effectively RTR place holders) was evicted in favour of more prestigious items from other sources . In the event personal circumstances (including a redundancy) meant I ceased to be involved a couple of years before the project folded.

 

In practice the layout has been to three exhibitions and two or three small events , always as BR Blue, because I have a full deck of cards for that. Everything serviceable in that period runs at some point . I now have a number of post-privatisation items stopped with problems , and I have a sinking suspicion that I haven't run a post-privatisation session at home in about 4 years. 

 

Along the way I decided to have a "funny period" c1958 to give the various kettles and out of period bits a chance to run. This resulted in a programme to build a suitable coaching fleet on the cheap (I was out of work at the time) . And the "funny period" now gets run nearly as much as BR Blue at home - it needs 3 sets of coaches + NPCS and I've only just reached the dizzy heights of 4 sets + NPCS; and I've only just reached the point where I have more serviceable locos than I need.

 

Meanwhile there's a significant residue of locos that haven't turned a wheel in years because they don't have a decoder, or are otherwise unserviceable / no good . I will not be running a BR Blue Lima 09 again when I haven't even put a decoder in the Bachmann 08..... 

 

Never mind the unbuilt kits, donor locos/bodies and the part-built projects

 

And I struggle to manage more than 6-7 proper home running sessions  a year with Blacklade, though it goes up occasionally as a test track and programming track as well

 

The Boxfile was built with a little more discipline . I have 4 small shunters , and all work and are used. I'm just short of 4 "tranches" of 7 wagons, plus a few unsuitable strays (eg one Single Bolster, and the Ipswich GE sand wagon with 3 link couplings).

 

Having had a good sort out 12 months ago, at least 2/3rds of the wagons run reliably and can be used (The unreliable ones were used until I did some systematic checking of what fell off in the hoist road and what didn't)

 

But the Boxfile is run even less than Blacklade. And I've just ordered a bargain Peckett , and I have an embarrassing number of unbuilt loco kits (about 5 I think)

 

Tramlink has been boxed up under a slowly growing pile of magazines for a decade , with one serviceable and one unserviceable LRV

 

And then there's the trams from the teenage tramway (and the unbuilt kits) , the 3mm vintage stuff not looked at for a decade, the residue of the stock left from Ravenser Mk1 n a stock tray, and the N gauge stuff , arising from a Dapol 5 door Frieghtliner 66 I was given as a souvenir (and had to add some suitable companions for a possible project)..

 

Not to mention the 009 I acquired last year for a probable layout project...

 

This is after consciously locking-down my new RTR purchases and "new projects" quite determinedly over the last 8 years.....

 

It's not the investment in money that worries me, it's the time invested in this lot, compared with the time they actually spend running.

 

Buying a DCC Concepts rolling road a little over a year ago has helped quite a bit - quite a few things have been dug out and given a good run to get them going , or simply check they work. (How can you run a class 29 on a boxfile? - with a rolling road)

 

But still I have a nagging sense I've invested a lot of time an effort in stuff that doesn't get used.

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^^^^^

But did you enjoy the time invested ? We don’t have to live up to any great ideal.

 

At the moment one of my greatest pleasures is my doc sound 47 just sitting there making noises . On bare bullhead on bare boards I have modellers block with !

 

Doesn’t matter - I like it

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I buy models to suit the layout. When its had its day, the stock goes too. I was going to say collecting IMHO seems pointless - its not.  Collecting, primarily RTR model railway stock is though, if all its going to do is live in a box. Seems a total waste of money to me.

Kit building I get - the process and enjoyment of making it is probably worth the cost in itself.

 

Each to his own tho....

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I buy models to suit the layout. When its had its day, the stock goes too. I was going to say collecting IMHO seems pointless - its not.  Collecting, primarily RTR model railway stock is though, if all its going to do is live in a box. Seems a total waste of money to me.

Kit building I get - the process and enjoyment of making it is probably worth the cost in itself.

 

Each to his own tho....

Make your mind up , is it pointless ? Or each to their own ? 180 degree contradiction . I’d never decry anybody’s interest however arcane as long as it makes them happy

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Kit building I get - the process and enjoyment of making it is probably worth the cost in itself.

 

Each to his own tho....

I agree to a certain extent, I spend a great deal of enjoyable time making and painting scenic models for my layout(s) and some times fixing up second hand models that I'll perhaps never use!

 

If I'm honest, that is what makes up most of my actual time spent on the hobby - you've got to run your trains though!

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Make your mind up , is it pointless ? Or each to their own ? 180 degree contradiction . I’d never decry anybody’s interest however arcane as long as it makes them happy

 

Huh?

 

I didn't decry anybodies interest??... I expressed an opinion.

 

I said I "can" see the point of collecting (just not RTR model railways)

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I have stock for use on Club and friends layouts. Then there is a large pile of stock just waiting for my layout to be finished.

 

I hardly run my O16.5 stock (layout packed away in the garage) and I should sell my O gauge stock as the club layout it was built for is no more.

Hey ho! Each to their own I suppose

 

Baz

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Usually about 25% of my H0 stock mostly on our group's exhibition layout and about ten percent on my own layout but at the moment it's 0%. I'm very aware that it's been almost a year since I last actually operated my H0 layout. Though very portable it used to be a more or less permanent fixture on the large table in my "studio"  so available for a bit of wagon bashing whenever I felt like it. However, it's been displaced by an H0m layout I'm working on that's making very slow progress so though I've done some quite satisfying scratchbuilt modellling of buildings recently I've not actually played trains for ages. For H0m I reckon I've got about all the stock I'll ever need and am not looking to acquire more but for H0 rather a lot bought in haste for a planned main line terminus which is the next project but has been for rather a long time. Even that won't need all the stock I have so a clear out is long overdue.

Edited by Pacific231G
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As the vast majority of my stock is kit built, I tend to buy kits that I actually need and which suit the layout.  I'm a slow worker, but even so I've now got to the stage where I cannot justify the presence of certain locos and stock on the layout.  But then I remind myself that it's my layout in an alternative universe and so all is well again (but if someone pernickety came to see my layout there's some stuff I would hide!)

 

DT

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As someone else has said, I have tried to buy only what will be relevant for my planned 00 layout (BR South Eastern 1980's) but have bought at least twice the number of the same classes of locos and EMU's that will be needed, to future proof, in case of terminal failure, accident, atrocious attempt at customising/weathering or whatever. I have been caught out in the past by not buying something, believing it will be re-issued at some point, never to be seen again.

 

Consequently, only half my fleet will ever be chipped at any one time. My concern is whether stock which has sat in a box for maybe ten years, will still work (even after some maintenance) when ultimately needed. 

 

On the other hand, I do not yet have enough wagons and a few loco-hauled coaches, as many are still sitting as kits, or awaiting bashing/part scratchbuilding. My 16mm garden layout should be completed this year, which also requires a number of rolling stock kits to be finished, so little will happen to the 00 stock for another year or so.

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