Now that I've listed 95%+ of my inventory, I was just wondering if my collection is similar to other peoples' collections? How is yours the same or different? More/less specialized? More/less road-name specific? Etc... etc... Inquiring minds want to know. :shade:
Mine is "eclectic". For Locos: Mostly modern diesel, with bullet trains, small steam, and a boxcab. For Frieght: A lot of 40' box cars, covered hoppers, gondolas and flats. Very little intermodal except for 10 TOFC. Lots of shorty beer can tank cars and 70 ton ore cars. A preponderance of GN for road name. Oh, and lots of cars I have bought from you.
I'd say... -It's pretty similar size-wise...about the same number of locos, and I probably (maybe) edge you out on cars due to some unit trains I have, but overall pretty close. Similar overall numbers of structures and vehicles as well. -Differences: I have two shoe boxes full of modern intermodal containers. And I've a bunch of Digitrax goodies. And a lot of misc. junk...if that's truly all you have, I'd probably have that many more pages of stuff like wire/cabling, styrene, detail parts, etc. -We do have a couple of the same cars...the carbon black covered hopper and ATSF ACF covered hoppers for two examples. -Very different era-wise. Yours looks to fit mostly a 60's-70's timeframe I'd venture to guess, mine is late 1990's. -Mine is probably a not more roadname specific, but more "division" specific. So yes, very BN/BNSF on my part, (noted a lot of ATSF in your collection) but the cars are all over the map (geographically, not era-wise) based on things I've seen personally or through research of the era/area.
You know me, mine is nearly 100% D&H covering several eras and the size of the collection is getting larger every year.
Mine is not that large,even though I'm sell some on Ebay to thin it down some. Have other hobbies so I try not to carried away but I do living close to WIG-Wag which dosen't help,LOL. It is nice to walk in to a storewith only N scale all around.:thumbs_up:
I just got started in the scale in November, although I've been involved with model trains in one way or another since the early 90's (when I was 5-7 years old). This is what I've got: http://www.ottergoose.net/Hobbies/Model/ Mostly covered hoppers and box cars, with some other fun stuff thrown in. I have 3 pairs of locos, one each of BN, CNW, and SOO, w/ an MRL for color.
Well... you give an oportunity to boast. 40+ locos, diesel and steam aprox 800 peices of rolling stock plus or minus. Not totally sure 6 con-cor limited sets Key Imports GS4 Daylight (worth a line by itself) probably not fair, because part of the hobby for me is horse trading N scale stuff, so I seem to accumulate alot of stuff. But sure is fun for me.
My inventory is on a beat up copy of dBase III Plus (!!!!!). Hey, it still works... I would say that despite my efforts to focus, I haven't.
Hey N_S_L, what ARE your metrics? i.e. it looks like you have "several hundred" freight cars and "several dozen" locomotives...what are the numbers of items you have? That might help in the comparison. I truthfully don't know my exact counts at this time. Based on the last time I had a fairly accurate number, and given I've sold off quite a bit and purchased a few more things (at a lesser rate) I'd guess I have around 30 locomotives and 350 cars. I'd say that generally most modelers I know are heavier on the locomotives-to-car ratio than I am.
My Metrics? Not sure, what I have listed is 95% of my locos & rolling stock. The remaining 5% is in-work projects. ATSF heavy - with "mini-focuses" in: autoracks, longitudinal hoppers, piggys, tankers, and cattle cars. Then a "secondary mini-focus" on cars that I thought looked cool. My last endeavor was to create the fictional "Atchison & Topeka" (pre ATSF) line with heavy Ag. rolling stock.
My N Scale collection is about that size but focused on all NP stuff, where my Z Scale collection is 3 times that size and about that kind of mix. I try to do NP in Z, but it is not there yet. Give me a few more years!
Not a large layout, so not a large inventory. All my locos are what ran through my area (NYC, Erie, E-L, LV) and the time frame is 40's to 60's. I have steam (NYC 2-6-6-2, Erie 2-8-2 [x2]), and first generation diesels (NYC F3 ABBA, NYC Sharknose ABBA, NYC RS3, Erie FA/FB, E-L F7 ABBA, E-L GP7, GP7tt, U25B, SW8). My rolling stock is heavily weighted towards NYC, Erie, E-L and LV coal hoppers, with mostly 40' box cars, but the occasional 50'ers from the Eastern roads. As the D&H also ran trains through the area, it's only a matter of time before a 4-6-6-4 Challenger gets added
My inventory has grown into its own nightmare. I used to hve a spreadsheet, but its about 4 years out of date. I have 10+ large white car transport boxes of cars, I imagine I have about 4-500 freight cars, and about a dozen passenger cars. My engines are all weathered and were seen in the Boston line in the mid to late 1990's. This includes over 100 locos in Conrail alone. At last count, I owned 17 different B23-7s in CR... all different numbers. I also enjoy kitbashing and painting locos, so I have amassed a large inventory of Boston area short lines such as Bay Colony, Mass Central, Grafton and Upton, Provedence and Worcester and MBTA. Doing individual models is inefficient for my plans, so I have resorted to fleetbashing entire motive power types. I am working on four 44 tonners right now. I have fleetbashed 8 C30-7As and 3 C36-7s. I group paint trailers and containers for various trucking companies (48' Xtra, Strick, EMP etc.). I would say about 30% of my motive power is kitbashed or custom painted, 5% of my rolling stock is and 40% of my passenger equiptment. I have a sizable vehicle inventory. At last count, I had close to 500 models. This has become my collecton since my rolling stock is unboxed, weathered, and housed in large cardboard container cases. My layout plans involve a basment sized layout (when I get a house), so this explains some of the macro style inventory.
on a side note, Its too bad you are giving up the hobby. I hope you find somthing that makes you happy as trains do for me.
Dan, Your modeling techniques, are similar to what I was doing... kitbashing, unboxed inventory, and weathered (sort of).... ...and that I will definately miss about this hobby. Now, who else? How about a first time poster? And remember the emphasis is "how" your inventory is stocked, not "how many" (since financial status varies greatly amongst us). What's your focus?
