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A rich mans hobby?


jimbob
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Following on from a comment l made in another post l wondered what other people thought about the cost of our hobby, indoors or out?

You don't get much change out of £100 for a loco now and over £200 if you want DCC and sound. Coaches are topping £40 and wagons £20+ an 8 Coach train with loco can easily now cost you £500 to buy.

Off course clubs offer a way having access to a model railway without the cost of building one although thats not the same as having one at home and there interests may not be the same as your.

Pre owend stock is a good way of cutting the costs but theres every chance that that bargin buy turns into a total disaster once you get it home. Myself , locowise l now try to by new rather than from say e bay, theres also the problem of reto fitting for DCC to be considered, although l do buy pre owned from Hattons and have a good hit rate with one or two exeptions. Having said that l have bouught most of my rolling stock via e bay with much better results than locos and if your not bothered about it being MIB there are some good bargins to be had.

As some one who has returned to the latter in life l don"t have a collection built up over the years which als adds to the cost.

I'm still working at the moment although not always full time and not well paid. I turn 60 this year and may consider taking my pension early but although l would be OK money wise could l afford this as a hobby?

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Well I think I just look in the wrong skips!

I do find some of the costs of new items rather daunting, I tend to buy used items from eBay, I've also discovered quite a good little used model railway items stall in a market hall near me, thankfully I've never disposed of a lot of the loco's and rolling stock I bought back in the 90's, plus I have a fondness for older Triang items, which as long as you don't go for the collectable stuff can be reasonable, but new DCC with sound modules? I can't see me going there any time soon!

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The great increase in prices may well push many back into some form of scratch building, buying second hand chassis and the these days building bodies out of plastic card rather than brass. Sadly today's children no longer seem to have the skills " craft design and technology" does not seem to give the "making " abilities that woodwork and metalwork did. Though if you gave them a PC and 3 D printer they'd no doubt produce something.

To others the price increases may frighten them off, but when I go to a show the first thing I do is raid the second hand stalls, since I model things of the past it is rare they bring something out new that I want, though Im still awaiting the USA tank.

My other main hobby is sailing which many think as is expensive but I can sail all year round, having paid £100 to one club and £50 to the other for FAMILY membership. Which is cheaper than many MRCs, I then crewed for other people and have got good enough to be allowed to sail other people's boats such as these http://www.yeomankinsman.org.uk I'm actually helming the one on the right of the picture as you look at it.

I suppose joining an MRC would get you some enjoyment in modelling as you would help on club and possibly other people's layouts and as you build up skills you would be asked to help more whether this would give you the same enjoyment as owning your own layout I don't know.

I joined my current club just over a year ago and as soon as they found out I was an electronics technician I was given the job of sorting out a layout a member had bought, this has taken me since then to get the first train running last week and my part on this layout probably has another month to run with just a few bits to sort out and then write up the layout book so anyone else can fix it!.

My own shed was completed some years ago externally, except for changes and some trim, the interior is now rapidly approaching completion , so I shall soon be able to model at the MRC and then have some where at home to put it. But if I was retired I doubt I would be able to afford the size of layout I am producing, so I have less than 8 years to get the major expenses over. Then it will be much less costly but more time consuming actual modelling rather than buying.

Oh boy can I get long winded!!

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I wouldn't say it's a rich man's hobby even though I'm a relative newbie to the hobby. Some mistakes could prove rather expensive I suppose if you don't know how to do something but that's what this site is for.

If I take into account my other hobbies, motorbikes and classic cars, then this does seem like a very cheap hobby! I've bought all my track second hand and have found some amazing bargains. The majority of my rolling stock is also second hand. Although I m only running dc at the moment I have been able to collect more than enough track to do 3 complete circuits of my garden with a few sidings in the shed and outdoors and more than enough spare for a 4th loop should I decide to go down that route.

I have also got enough locos, rolling stock, etc to make it interesting with very long or short trains and all for well under £600!

I know this cost could rocket should I decide to go down the dcc route but when I look at my mk1 escort which cost me £500 27 years ago, then I restored it in 1995 at a cost of over £3000 and it's now ready for doing again which will probably cost in excess of £8500, then there's the running costs, etc, etc!! If I was to show an interest in buying an old escort today £10000 would be needed!!

Then there's the hyabusa that costs me more a year to insure than my train layout cost to buy!!! Then there were the trials bikes I used to compete on which cost £2000 just to throw at a rock face!! My Mrs is thankfull for my interest in this hobby as she knows I'm only in the garden and not going to get injured!! :D:D ( unless I attack my finger again with the jigsaw during construction of more baseboards) :lol::lol::lol::lol:

Anyway!! Enough of my babbling I'm gunna play with some trains!!!! :D:D:D

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It can certainly be an expensive hobby if you crave the latest products and have to be one of the very first to get them. Prices of new loco's and rolling stock have significantly increased over recent years with a corresponding increase in the price of second hand models but it's still possible to find decent bargains if you're patient enough. I notice one of the major online retailers currently offering some brand new Bachmann class 47s for just over £70 which is less than some similar second hand models. Whether the liveries would be suitable I don't know but it's always worth having a look round for the best deals.

It was almost 4 years ago now that I first commented on what, at the time, were some substantial price hikes in the cost of certain models and I wasn't so sure back then that I would be willing to pay that much for a single loco, coach or wagon. Over the ensuing years I have done so and it's become something of the norm for me now. I just accept that that's how much these things cost. You either pay it and get the model you want or you miss out altogether due to the often limited numbers available.

I'm sure that most of us at some time have items that are no longer required and we end up sticking them on eBay, paying all the associated eBay and Paypal fees for the privilege of selling them on to someone else. It would be great if, when we had items we wished to dispose of, we could list them on the forum at a more reasonable price for other members with a method of payment that cut out all associated fees. We've tried introducing sales/wants onto the forum before with very little success so eBay is unfortunately often the only resort.

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I agree with Mick that if you must have the latest products this can be come quite expensive but as a whole I think we, who are interested in this hobby, are partly to blame for the cost. People who are unable to pay for new stock are driving the prices of used stock up and a few people look at things on ebay that sell and decide to advertise the one they have for an inflated price thus causing everyone to jump on the bandwagon. We all need to learn to keep our cash in our pockets for a while and stop buying to drive the prices back down! :lol::lol::lol::lol:

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Depends, I don't have the budget, so am enjoying tackling the scenery using local plants and rocks for free. The scenery is why I model, not for the modeling of the engines.

I love that in modeling its the time you put into it that makes an impressive layout. A nice engine is a nice engine sure, but a shop brought windmill is easy to spot, the really beautiful layouts I see are when its clear much time taken to go to an minute level of original detail and some good thinking in the design.

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I agree with Baimor, I have noticed a big increase in the price of s/hand US stock recently both on Ebay and at swap-meets. We are lucky I suppose in so much as we don't really need anything either loco or rolling stock wise, in fact we could move some on,..............now there's a thought :lol:

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