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For me its been a mixed bag... hours have been cut at work (5 days to 4 days), so on one hand there's less money for buying trains, but on the flip side, there's more free time. Well I'm 25 and I figure, there's a good chance that retirement is not going to exist for my generation, so better to get those days off now!
I got back into this hobby after a long absence. When I disassembled the original layout I kept most everything. Yeah, I know, it is all code 100 track with with an MRC 7000 powerpack. A lot has changed and I'm sure I will be into DCC but for the present I will be using everything I still have to minimize cost. Yesterday I found my 100 pound plus container of hydrocal that my brother-in-law bought for me on the cheap a few years ago. Almost pulled my back out just lifting it into the car. Scrounging (sp) and saving stuff coupled with the great guys here on this forum to give advice will get most of us through these tough times. There is always something to do in this hobby and thanks to UP2CSX, Larry, Anton and the rest I will not hurt when I can't afford that new loco, controller, or fancy kit. My only problem now is to get back to work on the layout and quit spending so much time reading everything on this forum. Thanks again guys.
Dennis
Well, For some forty years I've been laying in supplies so when I retire, I can build away. I have a lot of stuff now as I'd planned so that when I retire I will require very little in the way of supplies. Then I got divorced, lost my basement. Remarried, and have no place now for more than a 2x4 foot, N scale layout, but am pulling a little retirenment to buy a six by twelve enclosed trailer for my hobby room. I'll have a nice around the traile layout, work table under it and shelves for storage. If I need to move, I'll just hook on and away I go. Most of my hobby stuff has been planned and spent a lifetime accumulating stuff. I'm 60, and will hopefully pull the plug in a year or so.
The economy has definately hurt my spending, but thank heavens I've spent a lifetime getting what I'll need.
economy isn't hurting my hobby, the wife is!!
I can't blame my mrr troubles on the economy, but mostly this nasty winter we been having. On January 2nd my wife slipped on some black ice and broke her ankle. That led to several hundred $$ in medical expenses [what the insurance didn't cover], but what really hurt was that she missed 3 weeks of work because of her injury. She doesn't get paid sick leave or vacation, and we depend heavily on her income. Then my region got hit with these twin blizzards last week, and she missed even more time from work! I was hoping to do a major rebuild of my layout; but after this major loss of family income, I'll consider myself lucky if we can just get our bills paid...
Bills paid and your wife is doing ok. I'm very blessed that I have a great job even if I'm not seeing raises over 2 years (because of budget cuts) but my wife started working a little over a year ago so now her classes (pHD study) are covered and we have a second income. My p/t real estate work isn't doing a thing other than costing me money but one day it will pay off. I'm very lucky I have time and money now I just need to get a home with a room large enough for a layout and not just build modules. I'm happy for now - and lucky!
Dave
Right now it seems the only economy that is imploding is the US economy.
Canada has bounced back, our dollar is currently at $1.05 per US$. Strongest it has been in several years.
I have talked to friends in Australia, Britain, Germany and New Zealand and all those economies have bounced back.
I know we are shipping things worldwide and our 2009 sales were up over the 2008 sales and it looks like the 2010 sales will be stronger still.
The only area we are not selling to and the only area where friends are still worried is the USA. I hink maybe Americas world dominance is starting to slide, they seem to be now where Britain was in the late 1700s.
It's all about consumer confidence. It's just not back yet.
Chinas economy is bad too because they rely on all the junk they ship to the US.
Not hurting my hobby dollars, I still have the same income as before so still spend as much hobby dollars a month, what hurt me most was having to move to a smaller apartment and tear down my layout which was fairly small to begin with...
Anyway, I look forward to building a new even smaller layout using the lessons learned from the previous layout.
Been Nothin' Since Frisco
So how badly is the economy hurting your ability to participate in the hobby? Can you still enjoy it the way you were used to before the economic downturn? Can you still enjoy the hobby at all?
For the past 10 months, 20% of my income is gone since we've been reduced from 5 days per week to 4. Overtime is a thing of the past, so no extra fun money there. Insurance costs have gone up, so even more money is taken out of each check.
The worst thing though, is that my industry is pretty much crushed. There is no new single-family residential development happening anywhere. Only the vacant lots that are on the ground are being sold. So, being at the front end where the projects are designed, is not a good place to be. It's going to take home builders selling off their inventory of vacant lots before any more subdivisions are needed. I figure I'll be in another line of work by then.
So, the short answer to the original questions:
- I can't really buy much new stuff.
- I always enjoyed scratchbuilding my own models anyway, so it doesn't hurt that bad.
- Absolutely!
I can't blame my mrr troubles on the economy, but mostly this nasty winter we been having. On January 2nd my wife slipped on some black ice and broke her ankle. That led to several hundred $$ in medical expenses [what the insurance didn't cover], but what really hurt was that she missed 3 weeks of work because of her injury. She doesn't get paid sick leave or vacation, and we depend heavily on her income. Then my region got hit with these twin blizzards last week, and she missed even more time from work! I was hoping to do a major rebuild of my layout; but after this major loss of family income, I'll consider myself lucky if we can just get our bills paid...
That,s kinda like us.....My hobbies are in limbo until I get working again. US dollare is always the last to rebound, and it
will rebound just when is the question! As for my new business I started, I really won't know how the economy has hurt it until April/May when the grass really starts to grow. I'm Blessed I started my company 3 years ago in the Black and remain in the black....Now some of my comp's are chomping at the bit, this long hard winter has got them scard the Mower/equipment payments are due and they ain't mowing!
#1 rule in business....Never run any business in the red, not even by one dollar in the red and you can weather the tide! I'm just bless I bought and payed off all I got before my layoff to that next season is streight profit! So all My Modeling moneys have been diverted and going to Advertising and Equipment/tools. #2 rule, if you got spare (in the black) money Advertise and get the word out! Also I hoping for a good Hurrican season...
I know that sounds bad but in my industry thats a blessing! FEMA pays well for clean up! BTW: I'm reading myself for that too!
I attended the Great Midwest Train Show yesterday for the first time in about 5 years and the place was packed with people. There were some good discounts but there were also people selling at standard hobby shop prices.
I saw about a 40-60 mix of people leaving with bags versus empty handed.
I didn't haggle but one vendor was pushing hard to get my SO to buy an N-scale traincam (of all things) and he was willing to come down in price quite a lot. Funny as she only stopped by his table out of curiousity, so he must have been desperate.
The economy has not hurt my custom building business at all. Still booked out 4 months with projects and many of them are high dollar. Overall the only time that I noticed a slow down was at the National Narrow Gauge Convention last September. Many of the vendors were not happy with their sales at that show.
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