Hello all, With the help of this board (and other information on the net) I've recently gained the courage to and went ahead with fixing up some of my noisier locos with pretty good results. I've also finally settled on what era and roads I'll want to model and I've sold off plenty of units that don't belong. However, I'm not at a point where I'll have a layout built in the near future. Due to concerns that I may move at any time (as well as budgetary concerns), I've confined my collection of locos and rolling stock to the size of a computer paper box. I'd say I have about 100-125 pieces. One of the aforementioned noisy locos is a late 90s Atlas GP40-2 that now runs like Swiss watch. My questions is: In this situation would you sell (have you sold) a loco like this? Any regrets? It does mean a little more to me now that I've fixed it. I'd consider either selling it or adding another 40-2 and a more modern consist as an out of era local when I have more than just a workbench. What would you do?
DONT SELL I sold off my collection of 14 locomotives and over 100 freight cars 10 years ago. I gave up my spare bedroom for my mother in law. Now i am building a new layout and regret selling. For one thing rolling stock has about Doubled in price. Most of the locomotives were converted to DCC. The rest were DCC equipped. I especially miss my pair of Western maryland circus paint gp 40-2's. So in my opinion, if you dont need the money. Dont sell Joe
As already stated here, I suspect that most of us would regret at sometime in the future that we sold a favorite locomotive whether it was because it did not fit the railroad or the era we modeled or because it did not have a dcc decoder installed. I am evaluating a similar situation about selling some non-dcc B&O diesels because of a pending move. They have not been on the layout as power for a train since I added dcc capability to my most previous layout. I am also focusing on my first love; the steam locomotives and that era. No answer, just stating you are not alone with this dilemma. The one aspect that is very clear to me, if I sell a locomotive, I will NEVER be able to replace it in kind.
I know the feeling. Switching to DCC and I have a lot of locomotives that will be expensive to add DCC. My favorites are three ABBA sets of LifeLike FA/B 1's. Two of these are PRR and one set is Reading. I may sell off one of the sets and right now it looks like the Reading set is on the chopping block. However, that could change. The issue is made all the more problematic by the fact that these locomotives will probably never be run again, at least in my life time. If they are, then the question would be could I afford them. I don't have that problem when it comes to my Atlas engines. Atlas seems to re run them more often than other manufacturers.
I recently went through the process of culling out my fleet, both rolling stock, passenger and freight, and locomotives. Things that helped me was to firmly lock in on an operating era and locale. Another thing that came into play was that a bunch of locos fell victim to the old split gear syndrome and just were not worth the time and effort, not to mention cost. Easy choice there to scrap them all. New layout plans and radius of curvature doomed some others and others simply would not fit my era. Freight cars too modern were sold keeping those that fit my chosen era better. And I still have a large fleet of assorted freight cars that are more than I can possibly use at one time on a new revised and smaller layout. Some things I have kept that I will never use as more of a collection and an estate. Some passenger sets with their power both steam and diesel were retained. And a number of ABBA sets of LL FA's were kept. I will retain just enough locos to operate on the newer layout, about 12-14 and a few spares. Also the decision on which locos to retain was based on parts support. I have reached a point in my life where trying to fix something that has no parts support just isn't worth the hassle.
I had a nice collection and sold it. It was at least 10 years of shopping. It changed my attitude. I kept the things I had built myself and I kept my very favorite items. I think culling a collection is worth doing sometimes. About to get rid of some more actually.
Anything you sell, you may never be able to replace, and it's a virtual gaurantee you won't be able to replace it for anything close to what you sold the first one for. I constantly see stuff I bought a few years ago selling for 50-60% more than I paid.......makes me glad I bought it when I did, even though some of it is still sitting unopened on a shelf.
There are a lot of factors. I am constantly "right sizing" my fleet. Personally I place a lot of value on "space" and clutter, and I generally don't get too emotionally attached to anything. If I don't have a direct use for something in the very near future, it will likely be culled out. There's other reasons to sell....time value of money, pending tech changes, etc. What if Atlas does some killer new motor or Bluetooth direct control becomes the new norm? New brighter better color headlights. A new kind of handrail paint. Keeping stuff...especially if it's sitting in boxes for ten years (and don't get me wrong...guilty as charged!) is NOT a zero risk proposition. Heat, water damage, theft....all kinds of good reasons to "liquify". So my initial inclination would be to sell it, notwithstanding other considerations. However, the fact that it "runs like a Swiss watch" is something I would look at closely. I only regret selling two or three locos, and that is because they just ran very well. Even buying new locos sometimes they just don't seem to run as well as others. So when you can grab hold of one that truly does, it does receive a second glance before it goes. One thing I don't get is the "Never be able to replace it" vibe that several have stated. It is extremely rare that I've sold something, had regrets, and not been EASILY able to find it again on eBay or at shows...and never at some premium either. (sometimes for much cheaper, in fact) And if it was hard to find, it was hard to find to begin with and I knew that it might be tough to find again...but again we're talking maybe twice that's happened. Now, heavily customized--or the aforementioned "Swiss watch"--then yes I can see that being tough to replace since it is not just dependent on finding the product SKU but finding it in that "state" as it was before. And again I'll counter...you performed the magic before, bet you can do it again. For me personally, it just isn't worth having a space/storage issue unless it is REALLY something you want and that fits your era/locale/theme.
Don't sell.. A 5 or 6 years back I was forced to sell some of my favorite locos to pay bills because the cr@##^ security job I was stuck in won't give me enough work to pay the bills. Once my fav, a Kato SD40-2 was gone I just lost interest in working on the trains and been struggling ever since to try to get back to my trains. Since then I've had increased health problems, largely the fault of that job and forced into bankruptcy and finally full disability because of that job. and I could go in to a full scale rant.. but I'll spare you all that. My point is, once you loose a loco or some other piece of equipment you love, it will break the hobby for you. I still have a layout, but it's been a few months since I last touched it briefly.. and it's in my bedroom. I'm thinking about do a last try as getting back going by replacing the SD40-2. although it will be a ATSF version not CP like the original was.
