When would you stop collecting

[spackz]

Hello,

 

After recieving a Bachmann G2A, Austerity and Hornby Class 31 this week it got me thinking when do I stop buying, with a Class 85, 28,105 and 24(my 4th) on pre order I'm getting close to completing my stock list. Without turning into too much of a wishlist what models do you need that'll mean your collection is complete? is there a limit? Be it for your layout era/location or just as a collector, it can include whats already out there, announced and probable future announcements.

 

For myself it's the 4 classes mentioned above plus original condition Baby Deltic, NBL 21, 26 and maybe a 40.

 

Cheers

[Diesel Dayz]

I don't think that you ever stop collecting. I know what loco's I really want to buy, but, there's always the 'out of the blue' purchase, the impulse buy that screams 'buy me!' an example of this is. I'd already got an EWS liveried 60 and a Mainline liveried 60. Saw a Loadhaul liveried 60 and bought it.

[Jack]

i limit myself to 50 in OO and 5 in O ... otherwise things get out of hand and i can't play with them all. Once i hit those numbers i have to consider whether anything old can be sold to make way for something i want. Since i model SECR in O not hitting the upper limit is easy as i have to build everything myself ...

[Superrams]

I don't think you ever stop collecting either.

There always seems to be something coming onto the market that takes my fancy

I have a predominantly DRS based layout,and my idea is to buy all the RTR models of which there are lots, and i also repaint loco's into DRS colours.

I was looking at Heljan's Class 33 this weekend,and although it wouldn't look right on my layout,they are superb models,and i will buy one in the future just to add as a collection piece.

I also have St Paddy with sound. Again not for my layout,but for a collection. Super loco with it's distinctive sound !

 

And so on. Keep spending my friend !!

 

John

[Karhedron]

I agree, collections are never completed only abandoned (or bequeathed).

 

I am modelling the WR aroudn Bristol and while I have a representative selction of rolling stock, I recently got a hankering for the ex-LSWR Terrier "Portishead" that worked in the area. Simmilarly ROD 2-8-0s sometimes worked the north sommerset and I am sure I could easily persuade myself if one were produced RTR. I have no doubt that manufacturers will continue to find new and inventive ways to part me from my meagre pennies.

 

"City of Truro" hauled a special on the line in 1957 too (come on Bachmann, hurry up with shrinking it to N gauge ).

[Horsetan]

Never!

[Wherry Lines]

I try to be fairly strict when it comes to collecting models. my layout features loco's/dmu's and rolling stock I saw at university, so if I didn't see an example of a particular type whilst there, I won't buy a model. This has the added benefit of keeping the layout authentic looking.

 

However, the only time I would buy an additional model is if it had a connection to the area I live in. This was the case for a Dapol B17 (shedded at 32C), and the model represents the loco at this time). I also have a Union Mills B12 for the same reason.

[Allegheny1600]

Never!

 

 

Wot he said!

For me, it's relatively easy seeing as i model US, Euro and UK outline - there will always be something out there that takes my fancy!

Bad luck, my wallet!

John E.

[Gwiwer]

I could never say a collection is complete so long as manufacturers continue to provide new items or, perhaps in the longer term, I have the ability to scratchbuild something else.

 

But there is a practical limit to what is needed to operate the layout and I am already at the stage of "No more "800's" required" and "Defintiely no more Duffs". I had reached the latter point well before a GWR150 green one became available so that was duly added and has resulted in the withdrawal of similar but IC-liveried Lima item.

 

So there is a certain amount of buying and selling going on.

 

I don't need any more early Mk2 TSO coaches either, having taken full advantage of the low prices offered on them recently. But if Bachmann would kindly issue a TSOT in the 65xx Mk2C series ............

 

......... it would save an admittedly quite easy conversion job!

[malcolmy]

Hi,

 

I used to just buy all sorts of new releases. At the time I modelled a fictitious preserved railway, so virtually anything was possible - e.g. Canadian Pacific alongside the Porterbrook Deltic etc.

 

I then decided to be very more focussed and build my SVR based Arley layout. So with the help of eBay most of my non-SVR linked locos went, and now my collection is all SVR-based or visited.

 

So what am I still missing? Waiting for the new Hornby 28xx, I'll need a 56xx for 6634 when it's finished, then a WD 2-10-0, WR 15xx, I also don't have a Class 50 yet, and with 4 on the line I ought to have at least 1! Then there's all the carriage stock to get right. Need Hornby to bring out the Hawksworths in GWR livery - but only open thirds! LNER open thirds, LMS port-hole stock, GWR toplights etc. etc.

 

So even with a very constrained brief I still have many things I could get as and when they become available.

[Dave777]

This comes back to a concept I've mentioned before on here in some other buried thread - the 'rolling stock library'. The idea is to create a 'set' of fairly generic items that allows you model an era and to build a series of layouts to run them on.

 

For example, for a future 70s blue diesel OO project I've got...

 

Class 31

Class 47

3 x Mk I full brake newspaper/parcels

6 x 16 ton minerals

2 x brake vans

4 x box vans

3 x Presflos

 

...and the Class 47 only added about because it was going cheap. The idea however is that you could transplant or run that across several layouts from an inner city to countryside setting, and from a variety of locations across the country. To me, that 'set' or 'library' is fairly complete, so... I've stopped collecting.

 

I've got four main libraries...

 

N gauge LMS

N gauge 70s blue diesel

N gauge 60s steam

OO gauge 70s blue diesel

 

...and they're all fairly complete. Bits get changed as better products come out (latest one: Farish Black 5 goes in, Farish 8F comes out) but new purchases outside of that require a new 'library' to be built. For example, the recent Class 28 Co-Bo is a loco I love so I'll be getting one of those, but I've very little (if anything) that can be run with it, so that will require it's own set of rolling stock.

 

Essentially it's a way of keeping the spending under control and stop it running away with itself! Yes I could add to the 70s OO gauge set as the new Bachmann Class 37/0 looks great... but do I really need it?

 

 

[Mucky Duck]

I shall cease collecting when I have acquired all the locomotives during 1962-68 that were assigned to Newton Heath MPD and all

steam and diesel locos, EMUs and DMUs that ran through, or terminated at, Manchester Victoria during the same time period.

Then and only then shall I be truly satisfied!

[gc4946]

A lot of my OO locos are based on where I and my family lived over the years.

 

In the case of steam, I really only need a NBR "Glen" 4-4-0 and a City of Truro 4-4-0 named City of Birmingham to complete my collection.

 

With diesels and electrics, the biggest gaps are for those named locos where no-one produces nameplates or transfers, I'm limiting my collection to those that had Birmingham in their names, I still don't own the following:

47301 Freightliner Birmingham

86251 The Birmingham Post

90008 The Birmingham Royal Ballet

and a Virgin DVT

 

also 91017 Commonwealth Institute, named 1993-1996, where I did a student placement.

 

86251, 90008, 91017 and the DVT's nameplates aren't available commercially.

[Thomas]

When they screw down the lid , not to soon I hope, with all those new models on the horizon !

[halfwit]

Modellers will never stop collecting as long as manufacterers keep putting shiny things (and not-so shiny things) in boxes!

Even if you get everything for your scale/era/interest you'll just change tack...

[The Black Hat]

This is certainly meant to be tongue in cheek, but I dont want Southern engines, or EMU Mk1 stock, or any other EMU. I dont want a Blue Pullman, an 04, or a ROD version of it. A class 85 electric might be a god send for some, but its not for me, neither is a Midland region 0-6-0 although Id crave a J21 should one follow!!

 

On balance there isnt too much forthcoming that Im after... so I might stop collecting when this lot is due while I go back to University.... excellent timing from the main manufactuers!

[Dan Griffin]

i would consider myself a slight collector to be honest. i model 1980's1990's. but have a 66,deltic, kestrel, falcon and a kit bashed blue pully. a j94 in london brick livery,and 3 or 4 kitbashed industrial steam locos. these are my 'collected' locos, not the day to day layout stuff. these sit indoorrs on 'display' and get a run from time to time or guest at a model 'open day'.

i also have a few steamers. for specials, a britannia, k3, 9f and soon a 60009 onion from Hornby. at the end of the day if you really fancy somthing, buy it. its your layout. there are prototype inspirations for everything, even a RFd 37 stood in the platform next to a ho gauge obb taurus loco!!

[tinsley-toton]

When the wife realises locos cost more than £20 each

(Must keep remembering to shred the receipts)

 

T-T

[Sweeps]

I think it's a bit of an age thing. I used to drool over the latest Tri ang releases in the 1960s and knew that with birthday's and Christmas I'd only ever get to about 12 locos. Now we're like kids in sweet shops and I feel I've got to get everything I fancy, as the limiting factor of finance has to an extent been removed (I don't smoke only drink occasionally and it's my only hobby) even though I'm only ever going to run each of them for a short time. I do wish I could stop sometimes, but a loco takes my fancy and I've got to have it.

[sjp23480]

I see no need to stop collecting - I regard my collection as an asset rather than a liability.

 

Thanks to the wonderful world of ebay, if I tire of anything it is relatively easy to recover my investment and on occasion even make a small profit!

However, I do sometimes wonder if/when that particular bubble will burst??

 

In the meantime, everyone's a winner!

 

Steve

[Jenny Emily]

I'll stop collecting the day they prise the controls for my model railway out of my cold, dead hands. Seriously, there's always another model that makes me want more. Sometimes it comes from the most unexpected direction - a BR Blue era modeller, I have a G2A, just because. Oh and a LB&SCR Terrier, southern N class...... There's always something shiny to catch my eye.

[Horsetan]

I wonder if anyone's stipulated that they be buried / cremated with their collection?

 

Just a thought....

[John B]

I wonder if anyone's stipulated that they be buried / cremated with their collection?

 

Just a thought....

 

You'd need an extra large plot, Ivan..

[Claude_Dreyfus]

The problem for me is that I am still researching the joys of Japanese railways. Which means quite often I see a picture of an interesting looking train; then realise that it operates within the geographic and chronological constraints I have tried to set myself to prevent me from making myself bankrupt, and finally discovering that not only does someone makes a model of it, but that one of my regular haunts has it for sale!

 

It's not helped when something particularly sexy*, quirky or cool suddenly appears that makes me deviate from my constraints...something with which Japanese railways seem to abound!

 

 

 

 

* check out the Izu Resort 2100 'Black Ship Train'

 

 

[Horsetan]

You'd need an extra large plot, Ivan..

 

In Heaven, there always be enough time to build the kits.

 

In Hell, there'd be no need for a soldering iron.