My dad owned a hobby shop that specialized in model trains for almost 50 years. So me or my dad has extensive train items including HO scale, O Scale (2 Rail), G Scale, S Scale (my dad's original train sets from when he was a kid), actual railroad artifacts (lanterns, maps, headlight off a steam engine, whistles, signs, etc.), and probably a little of everything else. Also at my parents is a 7 1/2" gauge engine and some track we started to put down in their yard. My dad even went as far in the 80s to buy a full size railroad work speeder that he was restoring but sold it around 1990.
My goal is to someday have a large HO scale model railroad.
It is what you learn, after you know it all, that counts.