I really haven't had any impulse buys, as everything I have purchased or will purchase is on a want list of items. I have factored in a reason for every item to be used on the lay-out. fatalxsunrider43
I bought a pair of Athearn FP-45s in the orginal Santa Fe passenger scheme. My local hobby shop offered them to me at 25% off, couldnt resist...
My impulse buy (just came this evening) is a Bachmann H16-44 in B&O dress. Glad I did. I had assumed these units were "toys". This one's pretty nice, even though it arrived new from woo woo woo heavily overlubed. It runs really well, and the body shell and handrails are actually great. These are on sale, and I'm gonna get two more (one for parts - how prototypical is that?) and make me a pair of ACY pullers. The couplers will need replacing with MTL low-shank types; the pilots are gloriously naked of detail(!). We won't mention the Pemco GG-1 from 1981.
Thanks to a friend here i will be the proud owners of two beautiful two-truck Shays!! And the dw said it was ok..Both!!! Anyway in November i get my Christmas presents and they come early this year!!:tb-biggrin:
For the last few years, I've been strict with my buying, only staying in my modeling time frame of '89 to '90. Last week I got me a few C44-9W's in SP speed lettering. Don't know what I was thinking, but I sure do like 'em. Mike
I don't know what got into me today, but I just saw that Fifer Hobby had the Kato F7's for the Super Chief numbers 38 and 38C, so I also had to add a pair if B Units! Not sure why I did it, because I have a whole lot of ATSF F7's...........
It's been over two years since I bought anything. I vaguely remember it was some 40' containers. I don't have any well cars I don't have any desire to run a container operation I don't know anything about container operations I have no idea what I will do with them - cept sell them at less than I paid for them.
You can set them on the top of 50 foot flat cars ot both on a 89 foot flat car. Both are prototypical in the early days of container traffic, and there are still a few left around today every once and a while on the UP in central CA.
Kevin, Thanks to this thread, I realized what motivates me to purchase what I do, particularly in the last few months. In the past three months, I have acquired no less than 30 locos and about 20 passenger cars. What motivates me are inspiration, impulse, and planned wish list. The deep down motivation is that over the past 3 years, I have sold off a portion of my extrememly large collection (not the formal type of collection) of locos and rolling stock on eBay and personal sales. This was to finance a few months of living when my disability retroactive ran low and until my pension/social security was to start. Mission completed 8/2009, then stopped selling but bought nothing for several months to repay indebtedness incurred to continue living and pay bills. When it was all over, I realized I sold off some stuff I didn't seem to miss at the time, but ended up really missing now. So over the past few months, along with the fact my pension/soc sec are more than needed to live, I have been replacing some of those locos lost, and now only have a couple on the wish list, like a Big Boy, Challenger, LifeLike Mallet, and a ConCor 2-10-2, then it is finished. While browsing ebay and swap meets, I did make some purchases on impulse because the prices were too much to walk away from, and because I positively experienced Model Power Steamers, and an LHS featured an estate sale of which sold Atlas/Kato diesels in pristine condition in their boxes for $20-$30. After all how can one guy resist the temptation to purchase a perfect Dreyfuss Kato/ConCor Hudson for $70? I have "calmed down" over the past 45 days and now enjoying what I purchased, installing MT couplers, etc, and regret not one purchase. The theme for the balance of the wish list is deliberation and enjoying the hunt. This adventure offered me a new interest in modern diesels like SD70's and Dash 9's and in other roadnames which fancied me. This hobby seems to expand for me almost every day. Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman
For those who want to kick their impulsive habit you can try to convince yourself that it is "just plastic". That is what I did to give up buying this stuff. It really is just plastic and I have plenty of it that won't fit on my layout anyway. I can only run so much stuff at one time. I did pretty much the same thing with donuts. I convinced myself that all donuts taste the same and that they were not that satisfying. I now eat fewer than 4 a year and always feel yucky afterward.
My Impulse Buy: Micro-Trains Halloween Train. To give you some sense of how much of a stretch it was, Halloween is absolutely, bar none, my least favorite holiday, with the possible exception of May Day. Halloween generally wins out though because not many folks celebrate May Day hereabouts. And yet, the artwork of the cars just grabbed me and didna let me go. Heck, I would've gone for the Pumpkin hopper as well except grafitti AND Halloween together is just too much for my tender sensibilities. I really, really hope it looks as good in person as it did in the pics.
LHS had a brand new Walthers "Jims Repair Shop" kit for $7.50 and Con-Cor "Cambria Electrical Substation" for $15. Can't pass that up.:thumbs_up:
Guilty as well- 2 DPM freight warehouses and a piece of flex track I have no place for. Also some wood chip cars last week.....
Some time ago I saw a Kato "Warbaby" marked as "in stock" on my German etailers page. Since the "almost impulse" Intermountain Cab Forward did so well, I added the next SP engine to the (PRR - N&W - NH - NYC - etc.) fleet. There are here officially for "permanent testing". Both are great engines.
So if I go to a train show and make an unplanned purchase of a Kato Sd 40-2; does that make it an “Impulse Engine”? And if that Sd 40-2 turns out to have a bent motor shaft; does that make it a “Warp Drive”? Yes, I am this big of a nerd.
I went for one of these too, also doesn't fit the present era or roads I model, but it's just so unique and cool! Have drawn the line at steam though.
