Can I still afford this hobby?

To All:

As some of you know I have been on Social Security Disability for several years and rely like those of you that are over 65 partially on the income from there. In my case I have been blessed with a very caring and generous wife who knows that my hobby is therapeutic and supports it wholeheartedly.

Having said that you might ask why I am posting this. It was announced last week that we would be getting a very small increase in benefits next year of 1.7% which is the lowest since 1975. Being on this forum I felt that I needed some benchmark to make a comparison that would make sense to me. Here is what I came up with. In 1975 we had the good old shake the box Athearn Blue Box kits that sold for around $2.00 each, but the real thing that caught my eye and is used extensively on this forum is that the price of peanut butter rose in comparison 30% last year alone.

Yep, it all goes back to peanut butter!

I hope everyone takes this with a touch of humor as it was intended and has a nice day!

 

Frisco Friend:

Take a look at V scale. Once you set yourself up in it (purchase your "simulator of choice" core program/etc), it is the cheapest form of train hobby enjoyment there is. Period.

For example: How about purchasing a complete and fully sceniced "layout" (a really big one... like 42 actual miles long)... that comes with 12 or more engines... and something like 30 - 40 pieces of rollingstock... has about 30 or 40 customer locations to switch... and complete with ready-made operating sessions that total about 40 hours worth of entertainment? And when you're done with that 40 hours worth of supplied operating sessions, you can create your own, or modify one of the two dozen supplied operating sessions and continue to entertain yourself.

Want to get even more adventuresome? Then start learning how to build your OWN "layout" in V scale. The tools are included with the purchase of the core program.

Oh... and all this bang for the buck for much less than the price of ONE Kadee HO boxcar.

Like I said: Cheap fun.

Andre

 

I was thinking the same thing when I realized that I am going to need close to 200 sections of 36" flextrack plus over 40 turnouts! And I am also on SS, but the 1.7% increase will be eaten up by the increase in Medicare. But what's a guy to do?

I am lucky that I bought a bunch of kits, cars, locos, etc. over the years and if some of the bids made on that auction site that have been posted, are any indication, I did better than investing in stocks! That and switching from HOn3 to HO means that I have a bunch of stuff to sell. Although I don't have any $2.00 blue box kits, I do have 113 NG cars and 4 locos, plus related building kits (all long out of production) that should fund the new layout trackage and DCC control system.

An oh, nowadays eating peanut butter can be dangerous to your health, if the latest recalls are any indication.

 

Frisco Friend

I too am retired however am on Civil Service Retirement with 100% VA Disabled Retirement. I have tried to obtain information on any COL raise our way and it appears lf you get either the 1.7% or the peanut butter best enjoy it as nothing here! We will all survive. Any of the over 60 bunch having grief keeping trains operating, give me a yell and will lease you some low mileage 1st generation locomotives till we get thru all of this mess

Rick

 

I also am trying to survive on SS and my State pension, thank fully, I have just about everything I need in the way of models and supplies, so my present needs are not too great. The only thing I have to budget for is my DCC needs.

 

I too am beginning to wonder how much longer I am going to be able to remain in this hobby. Not Monetarily, rather healthwise.
LAst week I went out to the layout to piddle around and decided to work on a structure. During the process I sliced of the very tip of my middle finger on my right hand. THinking I would relax a little last night I went back out, started working on the same structure and cut an 1 1/2" gash on the ring finger of my left hand. Looks like I might have to find a hobby that doesn't require the use of Xacto knifes.

 

We all talk about cost a lot, but there is lots of things you can do that is low cost. Most hobbys have different levels of expense. Good thing is you can go at your own speed. One could spend hours of time on research, if you wanted to. Kits are fun, although I just do them for fun. Doughtful I could build anything as good as the ready to runs of todays time. My layout is only 10 by 10 so expense is optional, as I want it to be. Main thing is to have fun, we will all, most likely, lose some skill with age.
Bill Jackson

 

I agree that it is getting more and more expensive to get started or to stay in the model railroad hobby, but let's look at some facts. Let's compare today's cost to the "Good 'ole days" of 1960 when things were "cheap" and affordable. In 1960 the average hourly wage was about a $1.25 an hour, today it is about $11.25, ten times more. The dollar was actually worth a dollar on world trading markets. Today our dollar is worth about 9 cents, which is less than 1/10th its value in 1960. Considering in 1960 a new HO scale engine was $12.95 from Athearn, and a new kit car was $3.00 from Athearn, today it is a factor of ten times as much due to inflation. The same engine now costs you $129.95 and the car is now $30.00, and if they were still made in the USA as they were in 1960 it would be even more. Inflation is what has killed the hobby. So is it really more expensive today than it was in 1960, or has it always been a so-called rich man's hobby? Oh yeah, gas in 1960 was .25 cents a gallon, it's $3.49 a gallon now, an increase of 1396%. If you take into account the effects of inflation and the quality of the product, today's prices have held steady and the trains are a lot better with DCC and all the detail parts. Just my two cents worth, or is that 20 cents worth?

 

Yes you can. See this thread.

http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?5029-The-Highline/page3

 

One of the beauties of model railroading is that it is what you want to make it. Whether it be a roundy-round, Plywood Central or a 3,000 sq ft custom building filled with every brass engine made for a specific railroad, we all have fun. One can learn everything about a central branch line and try to duplicate as much as one can (Charlie Duckworths Bagnell Branch - sorry as it is a MoPac/RI layput) or do a George Sellios F&SM fantasy layout, or something in between, it makes no difference. I have as much fun operating a shelf switching layout as operating on the EBT. I much admire dricketts work on the Highline, but fiddling on the computer, doesn't do it for me, but it works for him and that is all that counts. If my version of the Highline looks just a tenth as good as his, I'll be happy.

As I look back it, my partially built layout in KC would have been a nightmare to finish and to maintain. I am not even sure how much I'll be able to get done on what I have planned, but I am having fun researching and figuring out the track plans.

I am very happy that my peanut butter hasn't been recalled as yet.

 

Ken,
Funny you should mention the 1964 Chevy Impala. I saw one of those for sale locally the other day. Remember "Cheech and Chong?" I might have to ask the guy what he wants for it!

 

Inflation adjustment or not, the core of the issue is that all things are going up in price, yet our wages are either stagnant, or shrinking on account of the increasing cost of living per year and other factors.

Andre