Has gas prices cut into your modeling?


PNKFLOYD

PNKFLOYD

Mikey
How has the price of gas affected you? Fewer trips to the LHS? More shopping on the web?

Personally, I have done both, and cut back on some railfanning trips.

I try to consolidate needed trips and find that shopping closer to home is often cheaper than going to Walmart for a couple of inexpensive items. I actually bought a bottle of glue with a web order rather than driving 44 miles to the LHS and another 44 miles back home. I did this for the last bottle of glue to browse the LHS and my wife got to visit the Old Time Pottery store.

This time I save about $35.00 in gas, $25.00 at the LHS and about $200 at the Old Time Pottery store. Now, if I can just keep the wife from going out when the next sale paper comes out!
Mikey
 
I have no hobby shops within any reasonable distance so all my shopping is on the web. What I have noticed is that UPS rates have really gone up since they added fuel surcharges. The good thing is that oil has fallen to $95 a barrel and gas is down 21 cents today as it becomes clear that Ike didn't cause major damage to the oil infrastructure. Gas will be coming down again with 10 days and I still expect to see gas below $3.00 a gallon by the end of the year.
 
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Ditto. I have one LHS that I go to for little sundries, such as scale lumber or paints, or WS ground foam. But anything like rolling stock and engines I order via the internet. Now, if I could just ensure that the shipper doesn't us any of the couriers that charge a brokerage fee, I'd be laughing.
 
I now make sure that I have a reasonable list before I head off to the hobby shop. My truck gets about 6 feet to the gallon so I need several reasons to make the drive now.
 
Believe it or not, I trained many moons ago on the old British Centurion main battle tank. It was designed and built in the early 50's. It used a Rolls-Royce Meteor V-12 that produced 650 hp, and it got the tank a whopping 5 gals/mi. Yup, that was five gallons (imperial, no less...) for one mile of travel on open terrain.

I do enjoy the LHS experience, as much as anyone, surely. But I live on a fixed income and must be thrifty. I also only drop in to the LHS if I am also visiting my sister and her kids who live just a few km away.

-Crandell
 
Sorry to hear your car got wrecked, Andy. I trust you came out of it OK.

Crandell, did you know the Israeli Army is still using Centurion tanks? Much upgraded, of course, including gas turbine engines, M1A1 Abrams electronic systems, and a 120 mm smoothbore gun. They claim the basic design is so sound they can't find anything to really replace including their own Merkava tanks.
 
Price of gas affecting my hobby money..... Not at all! I am actually doing more driving this year hobby related than I have in the past several years. I fought back. Needed to look at my aging truck. Decided that I didn't really want another gas guzzler but still need a truck once in a while. So I bought a car that gets so far between 33 and 41 MPG each fill up as opposed to the truck which got 16 to 20 per tank....... Kept the truck for those times I need one.
 
Jim, I knew of the Israeli Army use of the Centurion, but I did not know they had continued their use to the present. By the time I got to my training we couldn't keep the Borg & Beck transmissions in them for long, or else we'd blow the radiators and lay "smoke" all over the battlefield when we weren't looking to. :D It would have to have been a determined and costly re-design and rebuild to keep those things battleworthy. I always liked the looks of the Merkava, but I have never read a credible comparison of them with the KM Leopard II or the Abrams.

Ray, I am in the same boat truck-wise. I have a rural acre-plus and need a small pickup. My father gave me his older Toyota Tacoma last summer and we share it. Otherwise, I cycle and run for fitness, plus the usual gardening, and we use a Corolla for getting into town about 5 miles away. I see that GM is advertising vehicles mid-sized that are getting 43-50 mph, and I don't think they are hybrids. Not too shabby, if a little late.

-Crandell
 
I try to plan my shopping trips, hobby or otherwise, for the day I get a haircut or a "have to do" and all in a straight line to and from. Now, if I could only get my wife to understand the logic behind this and halt the runs to the store: need milk, need bread, need...

All together though, we don't use that much gasoline. She only works 5 miles away and I am usually content with working on the layout or piddling around the house with something. Now, when we go camping, that is another story at 10mpg pulling the RV. It kind of negates it all :eek: :D .
 
In my case yes it has seriously trimmed my modelling. I used to visit around 30 different shows and exhibitions per year. One of the good things about living in the UK is there is usually at least one show within 100 miles every weekend. So far this year that has been cut to 5. For me an exhibition is my LHS. So much of what I need is fairly niche and can't just be bought at most retailers. The UK has a much larger 'cottage' industry which tends to be found at exhibitions. For some of these, its the only way to get their products.

I've always been a tactile shopper. Meaning I like to see and touch what I'm spending my money on. Something that mail order and web shopping lacks. I'd say that due to trimming out most of the show trips, I've cut my hobby spending by around 60%. At least now I may get started on the boxes of unbuilt and part built kits.
 
I hardly ever went to a hobby shop because it's 55 miles away. I use to drive my truck everywhere & now I drive the wife's good on gas HHR by GM.
This week I had to go to the doc in Sarasota, Fl., So I went to the hobby shop across the street. Couldn't afford to buy anything there.
The hobby shows in my area are starting in Nov. & I expect to go to at least 2 this year. Normally I hit 5 before March of 2009. Gas prices have made me spend more on line. I don't need anything for the layout & need to get rid of the stuff I haven't used for the last 5 years. Maybe I'll take some of my stuff for trade in Nov.
Larry
 
Crandell back in the early 1980s Chrysler made a car (Doge Omni Miser) that was rated at 52 MPG on the highway. We owned one and it was a great little car. I actually got 52 MPG towing a small pop up camper from NYS to Washington DC one summer. The technology is and has been available to provide considerably better gas millage in vehicles. My Dakota could be getting 28 or 29 MPG. We just have to get over the 0 to 60 in 3 seconds mentality.......
 
My Dakota could be getting 28 or 29 MPG. We just have to get over the 0 to 60 in 3 seconds mentality.......[/QUOTE]
Ray
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When I ride w/someone that has a gas guzzler they have a tendency to move away from a lite at about 3mph, which drives me nuts. They say that it saves a lot of money at the pump, yeah, but what about the guy behind you that has a heavy foot. Same thing on the interstate w/the slow movers, Saving Gas or they think it does. I go to the store a lot less than before the gas hike, but I don't do 3mph for the 1st 1000 ft.

Larry
 
Larry said:
When I ride w/someone that has a gas guzzler they have a tendency to move away from a lite at about 3mph, which drives me nuts. They say that it saves a lot of money at the pump, yeah, but what about the guy behind you that has a heavy foot. Same thing on the interstate w/the slow movers, Saving Gas or they think it does. I go to the store a lot less than before the gas hike, but I don't do 3mph for the 1st 1000 ft.

Larry
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Actually Larry I was talking about the need for grossly overpowered vehicles. Although I do confess that I will slow down way before a light to eliminate the need to come to a full stop (something I learned from trains BTW). Not sure why we are supposed to barrel up to the light, slam on the brakes, and then accelerate at full throttle......:confused: ;) :D
 
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It's made me cut back on all sorts of things, not just modeling, ten years ago i could buy whatever, now,,, no chance at all, i can just about justify buying dinner at work, we never go out for a family meal, anything else i have to sell something to fund it, it's as simple as that. next step is to cancel the pension payments, it's a bad move but the value of the fund is falling so i may as well cut free and save wasting a fortune.
 
Steve B said:
... anything else i have to sell something to fund it, it's as simple as that.
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When I got back into the hobby in '05, I went through a "buy it just because I like it" phase. Now my MRR hobby is on a pay-its-own-way basis: if I want/need something for the railroad, I have to sell some of what I already have to pay for it. Current case in point: I want to add a peninsula, so I've sold a bunch of freight cars, still in the boxes, to finance it.

I have thought about selling "stock" in the railroad to friends, relatives and acquaintances ... :rolleyes:
 
Rex,
Wife and I are with you. We combine trips when we can. With work and family we use to run between home and town a few times a day. I would say we have cut that in half. But it all seems to even back out when we go camping 2400 miles at 10mpg. But over all I think I am spending more model railroading than in years past.
 
Gas prices have only affected my railfanning really. And I have 2 cars, a 2005 vw jetta gli (turbo, loves gas!!!) and a 1998 ford f150 with a v8 (loves gas even more). If i have the jetta i get 25mpg, if I have the truck, lol, 11mpg!!

And even at $75 to fill up the truck i still drive it everyday and fill up once a week.
 
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