Nope, still not giving up.


nekom

Member
I rushed into this hobby, I'll admit that. I nailed some track to a piece of plywood and used some e-bay junk lot santa fe engines to pull some junk rolling stock. It didn't work very well. But I had to see a train go in a circle, isn't that always the first goal? I bought some split cork for roadbed, improved my benchwork, invested in some better rolling stock and some knuckle couplers and it worked a lot better. Except those junky locomotives kept derailing. FINALLY bought a nice Bachmann GP-40 in Conrail paint from the local hobby shop, which was actually the CHEAPEST locomotive they had there at about 40 bucks, and I couldn't believe the difference. It didn't derail randomly, didn't decouple for no apparant reason, actually MOVED at slow speeds instead of an almost on/off sort of a deal. I really wanted to repaint those old junk locomotives and use them but I think I'll be discarding them. You really do get what you pay for, don't you? I can see why some people might get discouraged early and just say "SCREW THIS!", but I put a little time and money into it and I'm just thrilled with the results.

So I guess my point is, it it NORMAL for this to be so addictive?
 
ah yeah...if you were a fisherman....hook.....line......sinker.....your done!

but model railroaders terms.....HIGHBALL time!

your inner child has come out lol....welcome aboard! no turning back! THIS IS WHY IT IS CALLED THE WORLD'S GREATEST HOBBY....which has so many, many, many facets to it!
 
It's unfortunate that many start in the hobby with cheap train sets that work like you've described. They think all model railroading is like this and become discouranged and give up. Too bad they couldn't ban the cheap sets!
 
nekom
Your going about it the right way believe it or not. You have to learn to walk before you can run. Your going thru what we took years to learn. Now you will understand why some things work and some don't. You have to experiance it or you'll waste allot of money on items you'll not use later...As far a addictive......This is the best legal drug there is!!..when you get pulled over by the police you won't find yourself on the hood in cuffs because you was seen leaving a hobby shop!!...BUT you do have to explain to your better half why you now need to spend money on the better stuff! ;) Oh yeah and it only gets worse!!!... Withdraws are a B*%#$H !!! :D
 
As far an addictive......This is the best legal drug there is

Actually, after trying some of the illegal ones when I was young and stupid, I like the feeling and experiences of model railroading alot more. The only weed I care about now is the ones growing between the tracks or which real world ones I can use to make model trees.;)
 
It was just a foreign concept to me that the difference between old junk and quality stuff is SO major. I went to far as to get a small level, file the ends of some pieces of track down so that they were absolutely flush, everything I could do and the old locomotives still derailed and were jerky. I put the new one on and it just runs seamlessly.
 
Well what you will learn here in this hobby is that even "junk" has its place in the MRR. Some of use can take a "junk" loco or rolling stock and rebuild it or in proper terms kitbash it by taking different parts to make it work for your needs. When you spend more time here on this forum you will learn that plus if you go to Train shows, swap meets, read model railroad magazines, or go to a LHS or even a MRR club.
 
It's not an addiction at all, it's in your genes. Scientist have found that a few of us have what is now called "The Model Railroading Gene". For some of us it happens at an early age for others it comes later in life. :D
 



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