Given the reaction to price increases from varied manufacturers I am kind of curious as to how much people put into their trains on a regular basis. I think if I average it over a year I probably put in about $1500.00. I could easily buy more but then I would be divorced. It has been pointed out to me that Horses are significantly more important than trains. I have suspected that for some time but I did not know that until sternly advised quite recently...
How much do you spend on this a month?
- Thread starter Pete V
- Start date
D&J RailRoad
Professor of HO
I'm still in the constuction mode for the D&J Railroad so the monthly layout is a bit more than typical. Last month I spent about $700 on lumber, hardware and tools for the construction. I also spent about $400 at MB Klein on impulse drive and another $100 at the Timonium train show. The advantage is that I'm the only one I need to take care of and I don't have a mortgage or car payment.
Selector
Well-Known Member
I have a total to date, since entering the hobby just after New Years in 2005, of about $15K, and that includes about halfway through construction of layout #3 at present. That figure, divided by 85 months, comes to just under $180. To me, as a retired person on a modest pension (and yes, I really do thank my lucky stars for my choice of work so long ago...it made a difference to me today where so many are struggling. I never forget that!), it looks like a lot. But, in the grand scheme of monthly expenses, it is peanuts. Our Corolla's gas bill each month is about $150, forgetting all other ownership costs for a vehicle, not the least of which is replacement. We spend $100 each month on coffee, whether our preferred brand brewed at home or purchased at a kiosk/outlet. Milk costs us about $30 each month. Meat about $150. Cable/internet/phone services (bundled with our cable service) costs us near $150, tax included.
Looked at over time, hobby costs look irresponsible often, even irrational. But as a reasonable portion of one's living costs, it isn't much for the pleasure and use of time it offers us. Looking at it another way, if an emergency happens, the total costs to date might look like a colossal waste and lack of foresight. But the $180 kept for even a whole year is unlikely to make the difference between insolvency and security, between health and grave illness, and so on.
Looked at over time, hobby costs look irresponsible often, even irrational. But as a reasonable portion of one's living costs, it isn't much for the pleasure and use of time it offers us. Looking at it another way, if an emergency happens, the total costs to date might look like a colossal waste and lack of foresight. But the $180 kept for even a whole year is unlikely to make the difference between insolvency and security, between health and grave illness, and so on.
I never gave it much thought as I only spend what I can afford to spend at any given time. The warmer months I spend very little on the trains and put it into my hot rod or bike and related costs for them. Winter time the trains get the cash which is between $75 to 100 a month sometimes. The only constant every month for the trains is the monthly magazines. Having accumulated probably more stuff than I need over the last 30 odd years I find there isn't much I really have to buy other than supplies like paint and scenery items. Even at that a trip to the LHS for just some paint usually ends up bringing home a building kit or some piece of rolling stock. So lately on a yearly basis I'd guess around $700 to $800.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
I've tracked closely over the years and the answer is too much, and wish I had twice as much to put in. And I haven't even started layout construction yet.
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Well as I have said in other posts, I have been in the hobby for 50yrs. My spending habits are variable, since I have enough to supply a small train shop. I spent $40 on it in Feb, and that was the first purchase in months. Over the years I have averaged about $2000 a year, with some years where there would be months between buys.
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I suppose I am just wondering out loud. There are constantly threads about buying this RTR car set and constant intimations of purchases of engines in apparent volume that it looks to me like it would add up faster than the national debt. Price increase don't hit me quite so hard since I don't really buy that stuff much anymore either. I find scratch materials to be pretty inexpensive. Windows and such from Grandt line can certainly add up but I have bags of them from the last 20 years.
I do certainly think it would be really pricey to be starting from scratch again though. Just the lumber is daunting. I was lucky to have a tree farm and a giant saw on site. There aren't ever any articles in MR on how to make your own plywood though...
I do certainly think it would be really pricey to be starting from scratch again though. Just the lumber is daunting. I was lucky to have a tree farm and a giant saw on site. There aren't ever any articles in MR on how to make your own plywood though...
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
Oh nothing could add up that fast.
Oh they really make a difference for me. When Walther's did their runs of one part to a set a month I was able to get them all. Then they hit with the Empire Builder with three paint schemes (orange, blue, and green) and I was just able to do those too. Then they started the 20th Century set before the Hiawatha was done, and really raised the price. Then they started the Cities Of set before the 20th Century was done (not to mention to do all the Cities Of requires many more than one train set). And the Broadway Limited set started before that was done, and now the El Capitan set. Plus they snuck in the Plated Super Chief. Even if I was willing to pay the increased prices my pocket book would not have been able to keep up.
And none of that counts BLI doing the California Zephyr set hitting at the same time as the Empire Builders. sigh.
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cabledawg
New Member
I have about $1k into just rolling stock and locos, but 90% or more was bought used, so I'm not seeing the price increases like most folks. I think with lumber, track, DCC decoders and systems, I've got about $3k into this hobby. Seems like alot, but like others here, I just get a few things every month.
There are way I agree with that and ways I don't. It seems to me that the shelf life of various models is really getting far more limited as production releases seem to be limited to orders on hand. I see structure models I got easily in the not too distant past from Cornerstone and others as unavailable. I don't know that I really mind that since I don't want to see everyone's layouts looking eerily like everyone else's. I am still preferential to kitbashing and scratchbuilding anyway but many are not.
Reliance on outside manufacturers is certainly becoming a problem in my trade. As manufacturers make it easier and easier for new people to get started doing things which used to require some serious knowledge of the materials, I do think it also quietly steals their ability to innovate with those raw materials as their only supplies. We have in glass, become easy consumers of pre processed color, cane and sparkley things but the whole tradition of making glasses from raw materials is being lost before my eyes. Every one's glass begins to look like everyone else's. I wonder with railroading if something similar can be taking place and then leaving the railroaders as totally dependent on spiraling prices based on ever more increasing attention to detail done exclusively by outside sources and not the final consumer.
Then again maybe I just think about this junk too much.
Reliance on outside manufacturers is certainly becoming a problem in my trade. As manufacturers make it easier and easier for new people to get started doing things which used to require some serious knowledge of the materials, I do think it also quietly steals their ability to innovate with those raw materials as their only supplies. We have in glass, become easy consumers of pre processed color, cane and sparkley things but the whole tradition of making glasses from raw materials is being lost before my eyes. Every one's glass begins to look like everyone else's. I wonder with railroading if something similar can be taking place and then leaving the railroaders as totally dependent on spiraling prices based on ever more increasing attention to detail done exclusively by outside sources and not the final consumer.
Then again maybe I just think about this junk too much.
I have a drawer full of all the receipts of this layout's purchases (8.5 yrs). I don't dare add them up unless the rescue squad is parked in the driveway. I must confess that I have mentally added up the larger items and they alone are enough to cause me to: "Whoa, Man!". However, when thinking of my old hobby of bass fishing and those hobbies others choose, it is still reasonable....and better yet, MR is year around, rain or shine, hot or cold .
All this said, I wouldn't be in any hobby right now if I were just starting and had to pay the current prices.
. I must confess that I have mentally added up the larger items and they alone are enough to cause me to: "Whoa, Man!". However, when thinking of my old hobby of bass fishing and those hobbies others choose, it is still reasonable....and better yet, MR is year around, rain or shine, hot or cold .All this said, I wouldn't be in any hobby right now if I were just starting and had to pay the current prices.
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It depends......Sometimes you use what you have accumalated and build for a while,than a train show pops up or an open house and you can spend about 50 or 60 dollars easy. i guess if i added up all what i have or had ................i think i could buy a new car. but this is over a period of time . When its your time to go........he who has the most wins..................
Dave S
Tree Farmer
It depends......Sometimes you use what you have accumalated and build for a while,than a train show pops up or an open house and you can spend about 50 or 60 dollars easy. i guess if i added up all what i have or had ................i think i could buy a new car. but this is over a period of time . When its your time to go........he who has the most wins..................
50 or 60 bucks?
At the Big E train show last month I blew 300 bucks and barely avoided breaking out the credit cards!
Of course it was my first show and I am just getting back into the hobby..