Buying a loco, even if you won't use it?

[Big James]

On my railway I model the former lswr from 1955-1965. If it run on the former lswr in that period I’ll run it on my railway.

 

But I also have a soft spot for industrials and certain preserved locomotives. So I also run it as a preserved railway at a later date. Which means lots of mk1’s with a smattering of grouping stock and one rake of birdcage coaches that’s how I get away with running what I want.
 

But before I buy stuff for the preserved section I always have a scout out first for the BR time period first as that’s the predominant period my railway is run in. 

 

Big James
 

Edited November 1, 2020 by Big James
Typo

[Steamport Southport]

Just now, Big James said:

On my railway I model the former lswr from 1055-1965. If it run on the former lswr in that period I’ll run it on my railway.

 

But I also have a soft spot for industrials and certain preserved locomotives. So I also run it as a preserved railway at a later date. Which means lots of mk1’s with a smattering of grouping stock and one rake of birdcage coaches that’s how I get away with running what I want.
 

But before I buy stuff for the preserved section I always have a scout out first for the BR time period first as that’s the predominant period my railway is run in. 

 

Big James
 

 

Even before the Hastings line was built?

 

  

[Big James]

2 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

Even before the Hastings line was built?

Pretty much. Trying to type with sausage fingers after a night shift isn’t a good idea. 
 

Big James

[daveyb]

I bought a Rocket, and I have ordered an APT... I was 10 when we went to the Rainhill cavalcade and these were stars amongst many, so i wanted to relive a memory. Similarly, my father worked for LT for 32 years and I remember watching red trains with Grandpa while Grandma and Mum went shopping in Barnet, so im ordering an Efe 38 stock train.

 

I live in Canada and have Gauge 1 for the garden and a small CP plank in the cellar so none of those are going to get run, but I will display them; the memories are priceless and the modern models are a fantastic sight. 

[fezza]

The dangerous choice is to model a "might have been" as that gives you licence to justify buying almost anything. I model the GC London extension after 1980 (assuming it hadn't closed of course). I can then invent a history that allows anything from Deltics, Hoovers, Whistlers, Rats, Cromptons, Scottish 27s... and the odd steam special. It is very dangerous for the wallet but coming up with a justification for historical oddities is enjoyable in itself. 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

My comments below are from the viewpoint that I do not have a home layout and I do not have a test track.

 

I have core interests and those locos/stock sit ready to run on my 'exhibition only' layout the next time it goes out on the circuit. 

 

Beyond that I have some locos which are very close to my core interest (more modern, out of period) and some completely left field locos that have some relevance to me personally, but they are all in showcases on display in my house/shed.

 

This is no criticism of others who think differently, but for me to have items which I don't use just stuck in boxes is a big no-no. A year or so I bought new showcases and from then onwards  - if I could not  display them then they had to go.

 

 

Edited November 2, 2020 by TEAMYAKIMA

[Reorte]

20 hours ago, 'CHARD said:

I've been 'correcting' my operating fleet since lockdown was imposed the first time round.  As I don't subscribe to the liberal application of Rule One, I have been trimming the edges removing the T&RS that doesn't conform to the operating timetable and timescales of the last couple of years of the Waverley route.

Isn't Rule One your railway, your rules? Wanting to be strictly accurate to a prototype is just as much having what you want if that's what you want as is running anything that's ever existed and a few that haven't.

['CHARD]

9 minutes ago, Reorte said:

Wanting to be strictly accurate to a prototype is just as much having what you want if that's what you want as is running anything that's ever existed and a few that haven't.

 

Run that past again!!!

 

I get what you are saying, really - everyone's Rule One is different, I guess, set at their own level of contentedness.

[Reorte]

10 minutes ago, 'CHARD said:

 

Run that past again!!!

 

I get what you are saying, really - everyone's Rule One is different, I guess, set at their own level of contentedness.

I think I'm trying to say that I've always regarded Rule One as "run whatever the hell you feel like." So if what you feel like is strictly accurate to prototype... In short, when it comes to your own railway there's no way you can want the wrong thing. Those after prototypical accuracy shouldn't criticise those who love running Rocket alongside the APT, and those doing the latter shouldn't regard the former as stuffy old farts who aren't having any fun. Rule One means we're all right.

[cypherman]

On 31/10/2020 at 16:17, Steamport Southport said:

Just saw this in the Jokes thread and sums it up pretty well.

 

 

 

 

Hi all,

I can fully understand this. Besides model railways I also collect Diecast metal WW2 planes. I still buy some every now and then knowing full well they may never get out of the box. Currently I have over 300 of them and about 200 are on display in my office. I do try to rotate them round, But it is a case of remembering what I have. As for model trains, Yes I do buy a lot of broken model engines knowing full well that I may never get to run them. But I just love fixing and updating the older models. The older the better. I am currently just finishing off the 2nd of 2  Drummond engines using 2 1950/60's H/D N2's. Will they ever run on a layout. I do not know. But I have had a hell of a lot of fun doing them. A class 45 0-6-2 and a class  X 0-6-4. The class X is just waiting for transfers. So in my humble opinion it is not just running them that gives you joy. Plus some of them may just be really nice to look at.

Edited November 2, 2020 by cypherman

[HonestTom]

On 02/11/2020 at 07:40, fezza said:

The dangerous choice is to model a "might have been" as that gives you licence to justify buying almost anything. I model the GC London extension after 1980 (assuming it hadn't closed of course). I can then invent a history that allows anything from Deltics, Hoovers, Whistlers, Rats, Cromptons, Scottish 27s... and the odd steam special. It is very dangerous for the wallet but coming up with a justification for historical oddities is enjoyable in itself. 

That's my problem. The layout I theoretically have in the works is a fictional dock in East London. I've been trying to stick to locos and rolling stock that might have been seen in the London Docklands in the 50s and 60s, but the fictional aspect keeps causing treacherous thoughts. Like, "Well, you know the Port of London Authority were hiring locomotives in around the time the J70s were being withdrawn, right? The J70s that were maintained at Stratford?"

[fezza]

I have to admit a degree of angst when choosing stock and periods. I sometimes run my layout in 2008, but then worry about the fact my Central Trains 170s still carry the full Central branding despite the franchise ending. But if I set back to 2003, I can't justify Cross country branded stock. If only the real thing wouldn't keep introducing new franchises! I suppose that's why BR blue is a much safer era... even if you get odd things wrong it is less obvious. 

[newbryford]

I usually buy because I want to run it (most likely modifying it first), although it doesn't always pan out that way when modelling the current or near-current scene. In which case, it gets sold on to funs the next project.

 

But, there is one loco I bought simply because I've driven it and even considering buying the newly released N gauge version of the same loco. And I do not posses a single yard of N gauge track.

If an 0 gauge version is released, then that's probably going to be on the shopping list.

 

I have no intention of using them.

 

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

8 hours ago, newbryford said:

But, there is one loco I bought simply because I've driven it and even considering buying the newly released N gauge version of the same loco. And I do not posses a single yard of N gauge track. If an 0 gauge version is released, then that's probably going to be on the shopping list.

 

 

That makes perfect sense. I model Chinese HO but I have a showcase with 6/7 British OO locos in it, because those locos have some emotional link for me, Not in my case because I've driven the prototype, but just because that model evokes a memory. 

[Gibbo675]

8 hours ago, newbryford said:

I usually buy because I want to run it (most likely modifying it first), although it doesn't always pan out that way when modelling the current or near-current scene. In which case, it gets sold on to funs the next project.

 

But, there is one loco I bought simply because I've driven it and even considering buying the newly released N gauge version of the same loco. And I do not posses a single yard of N gauge track.

If an 0 gauge version is released, then that's probably going to be on the shopping list.

 

I have no intention of using them.

 

 

Hi Mick,

 

What locomotive did you have a drive of then ?

 

Gibbo.

[newbryford]

3 hours ago, Gibbo675 said:

Hi Mick,

 

What locomotive did you have a drive of then ?

 

Gibbo.

 

Clayton D8568 - in the sidings within Clitheroe Cement works.

I lived near to the works for 30 years.

Edited November 5, 2020 by newbryford
typo

[andyman7]

I think if we have the means a lot of us do this. My era of modelling is and always has been BR Blue. So how come over the years so many more modern trains and locos have been acquired, as well as steam and 1950s/60s outline models? With the modern stuff I have the excuse that my son likes it too, but the other week when picking up a previously ordered item, why on earth did I see the new Hornby Ivatt Duchess release in BR Green and end up buying it? I just have a thing for late BR Princess Coronation class pacifics.......

[RedgateModels]

APT-E

Class 25 with sound in green (loco was gifted to me but I them spent £100 on the decoder for it!)

Tornado

Kestrel

 

Four off the top of my head, there's loads more if you get down to the "will it ever run on your exhibition layouts?"

['CHARD]

1 hour ago, newbryford said:

 

I lived near to the woks for 30 years.

 

So that explains your love of Chinese food.

[60091]

Remember the Lima "all locos £19.99" sale many years ago? I fell victim to that and bought almost anything I thought there was a chance I might have a use for in the future. After 2000, I stopped exhibiting, layouts were dismantled and I moved to a smaller house. The vast majority of those locos were sold off without ever coming out of their boxes along with Hornby Pacers, Bachmann 158s and over 200 wagons, coaches and unbuilt kits. 

Now, no matter how good a new release looks I would only buy a loco if I can convince myself that I'll build a suitable layout for it in the future. Plans for a small NE layout c1965-7 have more recently seen me buy an Ivatt 2-6-0, a Q6 and a Class 24. all of which have been sitting in their boxes for several years. 

I now model n gauge and have been very tempted by a Metrovik and the new Clayton but the cost of n gauge locos  has become a very effective brake on speculative purchases.    

 

Edited November 5, 2020 by 60091

[96701]

As a 12 year old on holiday with my parents, we happened upon an abandoned steam loco, so I had a climb on it and my dad took a photo of me standing on it.

 

Many years later Hattons advertised that they were going to produce the self same loco, so A trip to Warley was planned where I was scanned. (I'm a poet and didn't know it). 

 

Here is the end result.......

 

 

 

I have nowhere to run the loco nor anyway yet to display it, but hey?

Edited November 5, 2020 by 96701

[cypherman]

On 05/11/2020 at 23:18, 96701 said:

As a 12 year old on holiday with my parents, we happened upon an abandoned steam loco, so I had a climb on it and my dad took a photo of me standing on it.

 

Many years later Hattons advertised that they were going to produce the self same loco, so A trip to Warley was planned where I was scanned. (I'm a poet and didn't know it). 

 

Here is the end result.......

 

 

 

I have nowhere to run the loco nor anyway yet to display it, but hey?

Hi all,

96701 you have hit the nail right on the head there. The perfect reply to all of this is "But hey"..........

[The Johnster]

On 31/10/2020 at 03:41, Neil Phillips said:

Such has been the pace of new model introductions over the past couple of decades that I really can't think of anything else I need to complete my individual collections, although I'd have to find a way to afford a Class 120 DMU - however even that would have to be one of the nine centre headcode units, I used to see them all the time down in the sou' west so one of the more numerous marker-light units would never do.

 

The one loco I have with absolutely no need for is a Deltic - I've always admired the things (who didn't?) and, prompted by the MLI mag on the class, decided before visiting a large exhibition a few years back that in the unlikely event that I could find a decent Bachmann early version 55020 Nimbus on sale for £70 or less, so I could recreate 55003 Meld seen and photographed near Swindon on a Paddington - Cardiff special in October 1975 and already had the nameplates for, I'd have it..........took me less than 15 minutes, £2 under budget! Sometimes Fate decrees that you're meant to have something  !

 

Right now I'm hours away from taking delivery of a Heljan 1366 pannier tank from Rails - like The Johnster's 94xx, anticipated to be my own last-ever loco purchase. Yeah, right........been here before recently, more than once!!

Re the 120s, biggest open goal in RTR, can’t recall offhand who, but somebody does 3D bodyshell prints with Shapeways, all types including buffet trailers and the headcode West of England sets.  They look pretty good, too; Lima or Bachmann 117 underpinnings and plasticard interior details and you’re ready to go.  Not cheap, but a way to achieve your headcode 120.   

[Halvarras]

4 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Re the 120s, biggest open goal in RTR, can’t recall offhand who, but somebody does 3D bodyshell prints with Shapeways, all types including buffet trailers and the headcode West of England sets.  They look pretty good, too; Lima or Bachmann 117 underpinnings and plasticard interior details and you’re ready to go.  Not cheap, but a way to achieve your headcode 120.   

 

Interesting - I've even got a spare Lima blue Class 117 3-car set with no identified purpose. Will investigate - thanks for the heads-up!

[robmcg]

On 02/11/2020 at 21:27, TEAMYAKIMA said:

My comments below are from the viewpoint that I do not have a home layout and I do not have a test track.

 

I have core interests and those locos/stock sit ready to run on my 'exhibition only' layout the next time it goes out on the circuit. 

 

Beyond that I have some locos which are very close to my core interest (more modern, out of period) and some completely left field locos that have some relevance to me personally, but they are all in showcases on display in my house/shed.

 

This is no criticism of others who think differently, but for me to have items which I don't use just stuck in boxes is a big no-no. A year or so I bought new showcases and from then onwards  - if I could not  display them then they had to go.

 

 

 

Oh I just like owning excellent models, and even indifferent ones if I like the prototype. All live in their boxes. I have a diorama where I set one up at a time to photograph, test-run for possible re-sale, and simply enjoy looking at them when they are out.

 

I think I have a bit of a collector's urge, I don't think I need 13 Bachmann 9Fs.... or 8 Ivatt 2-6-2Ts.

 

Also I enjoy searching and buying, more than selling... with inevitably quite few boxes about.  Often I regret selling such and such..  because it cannot be bought cheaply anymore.

 

Cheers.

 

 

Each to their own.  

 

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by robmcg
typo