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


After arm-chair Model railroading I think weathering and all it entails is actually my favourite part of the hobby.
 
I'm finding the entire process fascinating! Building the table, planning and building the road, running the trains, adding scenery, the electronics aspect, researching, models, learning about prototype rail systems, all of it! For "just toys" it can get to be overwhelming at times but very rewarding when each part of it functions as you envisioned it would!
 
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
I've been doing a ton of other things lately and began metal detecting of all things but i have also returned with a vengeance to model rail. Today I spent a couple of hours mucking around with some older stuff I have . I might wander a bit but I cannot even contemplate not having model trains in my life . It's unthinkable..
 
I'm still working full time and have a kid, so my time is limited. I've only completed two layouts as an adult (a couple very simple ones as a kid), and my latest is about as large as I can fit in my basement - 138 sq feet in an L shape with about 170 linear ft of track. The planning of the construction and the research for the period specific trains I wanted to run were the most enjoyable. The daunting tasks of building, gluing foam, roadbed, wiring, soldering, ballasting, and scenery was sometimes enjoyable (when I found out I was more electrically/artistically capable than I thought), but mostly just very tedious without the time and energy the hobby requires.

Finally near the end (as if a layout is ever "finished") I got to enjoy running the nine different locos as I originally imagined about four years ago. That is now more fun than the planning and the few times I enjoyed building it. I can sit there for 2-3 hours running trains and not think I should be doing something else. It's that idea of a little perfect world I made where things run well, on time, in sequence, etc...the things that satisfy detailed oriented people that are drawn to the hobby in the first place. Now there's just a few tweaks here and there with buildings and scenery...details that might keep changing just to keep a new or fresh look to the layout. Running the trains with precision, and appreciating the history behind the industry from 1830 to now...that's what it's about for me.
 
appreciating the history behind the industry from 1830 to now...
That is a nice way to say it. So few people realize how our modern life style was "invented" or "enabled" by the railroads. I think about it every time I look at a clock that shows me railroad "standard" or "daylight" time.
 



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