I just cant stop!!!

[LD303]

sheldons right...once you get an idea of what\where\when you want to model, you can start buying locos and rolling stock to fit your layout......i bought ''on sale'' stuff when i started getting back into HO scale....and ended up with a pretty diverse fleet of power....most have been re-painted and decaled into what fits my layout....but i still have a huge fleet, im sure some of the older stuff and the less than quiet lifelike power will get sold, most likely so i can buy newer locos....lol   it never ends!!
   but the main thing is to have fun...lots of fun ....and share your hobby, i like to think theres a little bit of a train enthusiast in everyone.

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

My layout is going to be free lanced. But I want to get the motive power first so I know it will look right on the layout...Don't want to build a 4x8 and have a Big Boy on it. So I plan on building the layout around the locomotives.

[SteamGene]

Even freelanced, you shouldn't just grab anything for either motive power or cars.  You are wise to reject a Big Boy for a 4x8, but consider this.  What if you have a 20x20, but set in 1925?  Still going to bring out that ugly pig?  Better stick to some 2-6-6-2s and some 2-8-8-2s.  So you go with 1955 and it's a 4x8.  Hard to justify some 2-6-0s or 2-6-2s for mainline power then. 
Even if you freelance, you probably will base your pike on something.  If yours resembles the Norfolk and Western, you will have just a few types of locomotives.  The N&W ended steam with the 0-8-0, 2-8-0 (?), 4-6-2, 4-8-0, 4-8-2, 4-8-4, 2-6-6-2 (?), 2-6-6-4, and 2-8-8-2. 
The C&O, otoh had 0-8-0, 0-10-0, 2-8-0, 2-8-2, 2-8-4, 2-10-2, 2-10-4, 4-6-2, 4-6-4, 4-8-2, 4-8-4, 2-6-6-2, 2-6-6-2, and maybe a few remaining 2-8-8-2.  So which philosophy will you take?   Consider also the Pennsy, which had a N&W outlook towards variety until the very end of steam, and then went berserk!   First it had a raft of experimental steam, to avoid the diesel, and then about every variety of diesel known to man.   
So think about how you will freelance.
Gene

[Hoople]

I just can't stop buying engines! I bought numbers 49, 50, 51 at the GSMTS (VHTF IHC 4-8-2 in B&O $60 LLP2K 0-6-0 B&O $130 and a B&O 4-6-2 $40) and today I got numbers 52 and 53! (Rivarossi 2-8-4 RF&P $49.99(was gonna repaint it but it looks too nice in RFP) and a 0-8-0 C&O $150).

And lookin through the Bachmann Cataloge i found even more I want to get....the B&O 4-4-0 Royal Blue....hey bach-man any word on coaches for it since you guys use to make that era coach?....B&O Doodlebug and trailer...and the AFT GS4...somebody help me!!! haha

LOOK AT MIRCOMARKS AD! THEIR HAVING CLOSEOUTS ON BACHMANN!
$139 FOR 4-4-0 W/ DCC!

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

I got plenty of 4-4-0's...and i got em Cheaper then that....gotta love Employee Discount 

and Today i picked up two Athearn Kits...a Firestone Tank Car for 1.99 and a CP Box Car...


and my Main focus is on 1940-1955....i will have some Old Time equipment but it will be for a Musuem...and Today I won the debate on where the layout will be placed...Construction to start before or during this summer.

(and i don't stay prototypical....i have a B&O GS4, Niagra and Big Boy...along with others that the B&O never owned... I also am going to be using hte American Freedom Train T1 and GS4 on the layout on the musuem except on special occasions...then they will be pulling trains.

[chucknlead]

I may have redefined "freelanced". I started out with WM equipment, then B&O and Pennsy. I liked all the other stuff and wondered, do I have to model the Clinchfield to buy one of their coal hoppers? Do I have to model the New York Central System to buy their box cars and Baldwin Shark? It's my railroad and I decided to name it the Fallen Flag Railway System. I have a list of Class A roads from the late fifties, I plan to have one of everything at minimum. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Can't stop!!!!!!I don't want to!!!!!!!Need just one more....................!!!!!!!!!!

[LD303]

you can do whatever you want...and its correct......well maybe not a 4-4-0 pulling autoracks....but definitely Clinchfield hoppers on the NYC or UP boxcars on the BN, some gp38's and baldwin sharks heading up a train of boxcars and tank cars from any railroad you want, its all right and proper, just take a look at some of the power at the head end of trains in the 60's and 70's.......pretty odd combos...thanks to mergers and power pooling, so you go right ahead and do whatever you want....if the purists and rivet counters want to complain...stop at the next station and ask them to get off!!!!     above all....HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!

[Stephen D. Richards]

Here I thought it was just me!  lol  I bought into an old hobby store of model HO trains and then just went nuts!!  I'm rebuilding, building, repainting and restoring.  Your all right...I love this stuff!!  lol  And I can't stop......

[lanny]

Jim (and others) mentioned the 'slippery slide' from running locomotives to becoming a collector of locomotives. That sure happened to me when I first got back into HO modeling!

I eventually had lots of beautiful locomotives (steam and diesel of all sorts and all kinds of railroads, types, eras and mfgs.-mostly Spectrum, P2K, BLI and Atlas). Pretty soon I ran out of room to display them all. Then I started to realize that for me, 'running' was more fun than 'looking' ... ('to each his own') ... so I began to sell off most of those beautiful locomotives to concentrate on my layout and on ICRR late steam and early diesel modeling.

Modeling ICRR steam caused me to have to learn how (or at least to 'begin to learn how') to kit-bash. It was pretty scary the first time I cut into the boiler of a beautifully detailed new 2-10-2 HO model, which, as it came from the mfg, had virtually no resemblence to an ICRR 2-10-2 other than the drivers and boiler.

Now I have plenty of steam and diesel for my ICRR era (though most of the steam needs a lot more kit bashing and detailing). But that doesn't mean I couldn't be tempted to buy more locomotives :-).

Then the "I couldn't stop" bug bit me in a different way. Rather than continuing on Jim's slippery 'collector' slide, I 'bounced' over to the just as slippery 'caftsman resin and stryene rolling stock kits' slide. Ah! the fun of building something that looks as good and as detailed as nice brass (or at least, is supposed to look that good :-)

Kit  'building' is also a very steep and slippery slope ... I've got a growing stock of 'craftsman' resin and styene kits. I'm 'building' two or three at the same time. The other day I realized that I have far more 'kits' to build than 'room' to run or store them on my layout. But that's okay because 'I'm having fun' building and I'm little by little, adding to my model building skills (which aren't yet very well developed :-).

Jim, you said it best when you said, 'what a ride'!

lanny nicolet

[SteamGene]

Lanny,
'tis said that you aren't a real model railroader if you don't have at least one hundred untouched/unfinished kits. 
I try to stay right at that level. 
Gene

[lanny]

Wow Gene! Thanks! That means I can go buy some more kits! You truly have made my day! (but you've hurt my pocket book  :-)

Now, let's see, where are all those catalogs, eBay listings and on-line train store addresses :-) <--------- huge, happy grin

lanny nicolet