How do you decide what to buy?

[DaveMFnC]

I go to Gulf Coast Model Railroad in Sarasota FL. I have a good relationship with the owner and manager. Both are an invaluable source of information and most always I get a great deal. I can come in with 15-20 dollars and get a wonderful deal on SOMETHING in the store. If you are in the Sarasota area give these guys a call. 941-923-9303.

[rogertra]

I have very little problems deciding what to purchase for use on my GER.

Why?

Because I have a history, in writing, that I wrote 20 years ago that took the GER from it's beginnings in the late 1800s right up to 1972, the year in which the GER was first set.

I have a roster for 1958 that details all the locomotives that the GER would have been operating at that time and I have a 1972 roster for that year as well.  I wrote the roster based on what the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National were using in southern Quebec during both those years without regard to what models were available at the time.  I have made two compromises.  Neither the RS-1 nor the "Russian" 2-10-0 were purchased new in Canada.  With the RS-1 I modified history and I've (finally) kitbashed the three 2-10-0s to make them look much less Russian and they are now used on a light rail and light bridges branch line down to a paper mill.

The other and most important word is "discipline".  I don't but anything that wouldn't typically be seen in my modelled area in my modelled time frame.

Although I freelance, I strive for realism.  I want people to look at the GER and think it's a model of a real railway.   Therefore, you won't see any articulated steam, you won't see any 4-4-0s pulling autoracks, you won't see any GER steam locomotive that's easily identifiable with an American railroad, like a Sunset Limited or a NW J or a NYC Hudson.  Ditto for freight cars.  No freight car with a post 1958 paint scheme.  Those have all finally been weeded from the railway and repainted or re-lettered.   I do the same for road vehicles and even building signage.  No Helevtica lettering fonts on the GER.

Anyway, that's a long winded explanation of how I decide what to buy.  

[richg]

I flip a coin. Works for me except when it lands on edge. I then flip the coin again.

Some times Obvious Man advises me.

Rich

[ABC]

Works for me except when it lands on edge.

You must frequent the twilight zone a lot if your quarter is always landing on edge.

[Joe323]

ABC Your showing you

Works for me except when it lands on edge.

You must frequent the twilight zone a lot if your quarter is always landing on edge.

ABC Your showing your age if you remember that episode. LOL

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Thats how I ended up with 120+ locomotives and probably around 400-500 pieces of rolling stock.....I have over 100 pieces of passenger equipment.

Gee. I may actually have found someone who owns more model trains than I do.

I'm too chicken actually to total up the contents of 15 computer paper boxes full of locomotives and rolling stock. Not to mention the baker's dozen of sets in their individual set boxes and the items "on display." ...

[mlrr]

ABC Your showing you

Works for me except when it lands on edge.

You must frequent the twilight zone a lot if your quarter is always landing on edge.

ABC Your showing your age if you remember that episode. LOL

One of the first eisodes I've ever seen and I was 10 but that in no way gives you any indication of my actual age, lol.

Back to the topic at hand:

I'm at the point where the rollingstock and locomotives I "need" have not been manufactured yet or are currently in production and not yet released.

My "needs" are more focused on infrastructure at this point (switch track replacements, re-configuration of station approaches and sidings, etc.

I'm also on a budget crunch (as is everybody these days) so I don't give myself the leisure others do when it comes to a model railroad shopping spree:(

[mf5117]

I agree with Jim b and don .get a repor with the shop owner . there is always lay away . my problem is i buy on impulse now being 48 yrs .when i was your age it took mowing 4 or 5 lawns to get $20.00 . or going to the hangers with my dad at night after supper and sign off a few 172's or maybe a bonanza . if you see something you like that's fits your layout or something you want , if you have the money buy it. if you don't barter " bargin" with the shop owner or it is a thing we call patience . at least you have the money to expand . coming from a military family i was always told want in one hand and @#$% in the other and see which one gets fullest fastest.  now i have so much that i don't have the room or really know what i want to do with it ,and it gets frustrating because i want it all staged and running ,but i dont have the room . another problem i have is ,i dont find out enough about the product .then i get it home then discover couplers don't fit or match ,hmmm plastic wheel set .sometimes my wants over shoot my needs .but the bottom line is i have it and nobody can take it away from me . jett if i was close i would take you on a shopping spree .... take care mark f   

[ABC]

I believe the episode was titled "A Penney for Your Thoughts" where Dick York (the guy from Bewitched & Going My Way) has the ability to read minds. Another good one is "20/20 Vision" where the guy breaks his eyeglasses and can see the future. Just for the record I wasn't born until more than 20 years after that episode first aired, but my dad saw it though.

[jettrainfan]

Mark, thanks for the very kind offer, i hope one day you do get your things back on track. Anything is possible you know

[Jhanecker2]

The "twilight zone" was one of my favorite tv series in my youth , also enjoyed the "Science-Fiction Theater".     Have to admit I worked in places that I expected to bump into  Rod Sterling at any moment . The Universe is stranger than you can imagine . I am currently thinking about what theme I am going use in creating a layout . Tempted to create a parallel universe .  John II.

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Tempted to create a parallel universe .  John II.

I guess my railroad does exist in a parallel universe, one where occasionally an 1872 wood-burner pulls a train of open-platform wooden coaches into a station where there is a '57 Chevy in the parking lot--and this isn't an amusement park or museum operation. ...

[mabloodhound]

If you are not opposed to five-fingered discounts, you won't have budget you funds, but personally I find it's wise to pay for everything I take out the door or else you'll have a bear on your tail before you know it.

Is this meant to be humorous? It is not.

I agree.   A very most inappropriate comment.   I'm surprised that ABC initiated this.   Should be removed by the author.

[Joe323]

I think the question should be How do you decide what NOT to buy? 

I have learned the hard way (Just look in the bin I gave the church for their junk er I mean rummage sale full of cheap Life Like cars with Horn hook couplers Train set power packs etc) not to buy junk so I look for quality equiptment that has reasonble detail (I'm not a stickler but I do not want toys either) that relavent to my 1970s era layout and that will hold up well under use.

Its a good thing I buy equiptment NOW and not in the real 70's when a lot of model railroad stuff (or even tinplate) was junk.

[jbsmith]

Sometimes on Whim and Impulse.
Sometimes after much forethought, planning and consideration.
Economics plays a Very important part too.