What Do You find to be the Most Enjoyable Aspect(s) of Model Railroading


Greg@mnrr

Section Hand
Over the weekend I was thinking about my layout and model railroading and what model railroading means to me. I know one individual who enjoys the buying and selling of model railroad locomotives and rolling stock while another is strictly a tracks on plywood modeler and enjoys watching his trains run over the rails, minus scenery or structures. Several others are rail fans and their layouts are of second interest to them.

I know the construction of a model railroad along with the track laying, wiring and scenery are my primary interests. I planned my layout for over a year and was emailing a person who I never met in person, busy exchanging ideas on layout design with a very experienced modeler to didn't mind spending the time working with me. You might add the social side of the hobby and meeting many hobbists at model railroad shows, open houses, on forum site and at hobby shops. This hobby is very rewarding and never ending in the areas that one can enjoy when building and operating their model railroads.

What do you find to be the most rewarding aspects of model railroading?

Thanks.

Greg
 
Well, apparently my favorite part is planning and trying to get my train room into some semblance of what I want so I can actually begin construction. I hope this changes some time in the future, but I am always optimistic.
 
I would scenery, and learning new techniques. I haven't got there, but I think I'm really going to enjoy scratch building. I enjoy a lot about the hobby.....Except soldering. I'm mediocre at best!
 
I think for me it's kit building, either structures or rolling stock. This would be followed closely by upgrading or converting rolling stock. On my work bench right now I have an Athearn rotary plow that's being upgraded (and repaired due to my ham-fistedness) into an accurate representation of the prototype. I also have two Bachmann 0-6-0's awaiting decoders.
So many projects, 10-1/2 years till retirement! :(
 
Well, apparently my favorite part is planning and trying to get my train room into some semblance of what I want so I can actually begin construction. I hope this changes some time in the future, but I am always optimistic.
That's about where I am. I was gifted an old modular layout that one of our club members had sitting in his basement. His son picked it up from another club in WI that had lost their home when the city piers that be changed hands & the new administration wanted to put the building(city property) to a different use. It sat in the basement for 20 years, so he just wanted to get rid of it. I'm slowly clearing it down to the benchwork & starting from scratch(new track, wiring, etc).
 
This is a tough question to answer because I don't think for me there is really only one answer. I enjoy the planning and design stage, albeit a frustrating task for me but I think I get the most satisfaction out of doing the scenery and trying to get it to look right. On the other hand, I kind of enjoy laying and ballasting track as well as well building the structures for the layout.
 
I think I am in the same boat as Tony. It is a hard question to answer. There are so many aspects of the hobby.

Having started my layout over 30 years ago, I have not only done a lot, but learned a lot. It was a long learning process and I have gained may skills over the years and still have so much more to learn. I really enjoyed custom painting and detailing not only freight cars, but locomotives. it building and kit bashing is another thing I enjoy. I was at first intimidated at the thought of scratch building, until I tried it. It is nice to have something unique and different on the layout.

Scenery was another daunting thought. I had enough track up to where I could run a train back and forth and was dreading the thought of starting scenery. Once a bit of hard shell was up and some ground cover added, I found out that it wasn't as hard as I thought. I now probably have 95% of the scenery done, but I still have a lot to learn and will go back and improve on earlier parts of the layout.

Another interesting thing was researching the area where I wanted to model, the area right where I live. but set in 1957. What rail customers were around and what rail customers could have been if a railroad would have been there to serve the area.

Staying true to the time period that I chose was important to me. There is nothing around the layout that is newer than 1957. I think I got a bit carried away with my vehicle collection, but vehicles are one of the easiest ways to set the time period. I have well over 200 of them. Tried counting a number of times but lost count.

Running trains is another thing that I really enjoy. My layout was built for switching, when the tracks passing through the layout only once, leaving plenty of room for structures and rail customers. This did severely cut down the length of a main line run but I enjoy switching and can live with that. Each town was built intentionally with a switching problem. It can take a couple of hours to complete switching out cars in one town. Guess I don't need a long main line after all.

Now that all of the structures are on the layout without any real room left for any more, I want to concentrate on adding smaller details and mini scenes. I wanted to try to capture that small town feel set back in the 50's and hope that I managed to get it right and now want to add to the town.

All in all, I pretty well enjoy all parts of the hobby.
 
I would scenery, and learning new techniques. I haven't got there, but I think I'm really going to enjoy scratch building. I enjoy a lot about the hobby.....Except soldering. I'm mediocre at best!
Mediocre would be an upgrade over my soldering skills(or lack there of)!! ;)
 
Oh yeah, I forgot the electronics side of the hobby ... if it goes beyond lighting and track power, I hate it; although, I don't mind the assembly of lighting and soldering. Should have also mentioned painting trains as well, especially after I did my Private Train. Not all that good at it, but enjoy it none the less :)
 
Don't worry Amtrakking, the novelty will wear off :) When it does, you'll find lots of other things that will become just as, or even more, enjoyable ;)
 
I had to think about this for a few days because there's so much about the hobby that I enjoy. It is easier to say what I am not fond of, soldering and tree making. After actually running trains, I think that my favorite part of this hobby is structure building and detailing. I don't mind spending a week painting individual windows on a Walther's or DPM structure. I especially like laser-cut wood structures. Next for me is track laying and ballasting; after that, I enjoy painting unpainted figures.
 
As much as I hate to have to admit defeat --- and surrender to the fact that I will never have the time,space, and money for the layout of my dreams --- I really gain great enjoyment just seeing what others have been creating and working on.
I have a hundred different projects, sitting in boxes, started in SIX different scales which I know that I will never finish - but, just the planning gives me a hope in the hereafter in which I will have a large, well detailed layout in which I will have mastered all the electronics needed for the same.

I do know that I do not want to buy any decoders with factory installed smoke?
 
I like Building Models, an aspect of the hobby that is falling by the boards in this modern, "Must have it now, world"! I also enjoy doing research on the hobby and prototype.
 
For me, it's the cheese. When I see that little train come from the staging yard, chock full of all that cheese -- well, I just have to smile and thank my lucky stars that I'm a modeler.
 



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