I tend to agree that some have gotten overly aggressive with weathering but I've seen some outstanding jobs, where the model almost exactly matched the prototype photo. Like a pendulum, it will swing back toward the middle again. I still think that having more weathered car and engines, as well as the concept of general weathering of the scenery, has been a big advance for the hobby in the last 10 years.
What has happened to the hobby?
- Thread starter AFormerModeler
- Start date
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I tend to agree that some have gotten overly aggressive with weathering but I've seen some outstanding jobs, where the model almost exactly matched the prototype photo. Like a pendulum, it will swing back toward the middle again. I still think that having more weathered car and engines, as well as the concept of general weathering of the scenery, has been a big advance for the hobby in the last 10 years.
Agreed. My modelling scope increased 10 fold the day I stumbled across George Elwoods' fallen flags rr site. The myriad of photos started me on a road of building freight cars and locos I never knew existed!
Take what you will from the hobby, but don't forget to give to it as well, as most of us on the forum do bwo opinion. I like the hobby because of its cross-pollination with railfanning. In alot of cases, model rr'ers are also railfans. I don't model rr in the summer, and I don't railfan in the winter, so it's a year-round interest.
I agree with you about many kids wanting to play video and computer games more than model trains. However, if you come to any model train flea market or show, you'll see the kids and their parents all there. Come to Durand Union Station sometime, to see the HO layout. There are lots of visitors checking that out, as there will be seeing the Lionel layout at the depot, which was donated by the uncle of the singer Kid Rock. I think the biggest concern for many parents is the cost of the trains these days. It is a far cry from when I was a small boy.
"...they'll do like people way back in the olden days did." Way back in the olden days? The bulk of the actual model railroad hobbyists I know are still modifying/kitbashing their locomotives, rollingstock, structures, whatever, today! Little has changed in that respect amongst the serious hobbyists.
Let's face some unpleasant facts here regarding the question of what has happened to the hobby. Firstly, a lot of the newer people in the hobby need to come to grips with the fact that the hobby is indeed called MODEL railroading for a reason. That word "MODEL(ing)" is key to what the hobby is all about. How can simply collecting and running store-bought trains through store-bought scenery be "model" railroading? The fact is that while the sizes of the various factions (modelers vs. simply miniature train enthusiasts) in our hobby may be changing, the hobby itself is not altering, or evolving, just because of what some of the newcomers say since they wish it to be that way.
NYW&B
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I tend to agree that some have gotten overly aggressive with weathering but I've seen some outstanding jobs, where the model almost exactly matched the prototype photo. Like a pendulum, it will swing back toward the middle again. I still think that having more weathered car and engines, as well as the concept of general weathering of the scenery, has been a big advance for the hobby in the last 10 years.
PRR ron
New Member
It's mixed emotions to start back up in this hobby. My early childhood years were peppered with a 4x8 Christmas platform that seemed not to appear less and less throughout the 70's, 80's and 90's. The HO collection that I had from my father were relegated to being dusty boxes that were forever being moved around in attics and basements. Finally earlier this year, I made a strong effort to resurrect the HO stuff. But unfortunately, spring, then summer had outside chores, efforts and whatnots that were a bigger priority than being in the basement making a platform. Finally, I have gotten back, and, finally, 30, and in some case nearly 50, year old track and HO pieces are seeing the light of day.
And there comes more mix emotions. It is simple to get the old DC tracks up and connected, but some of the engines have seen better days and the storage was not kind to them. How sad. Yet a search on eBay, and I can have a workable replacement in my hands from an "estate sale" auction. Sad that someone is just unloading these pieces for next to nothing, but glad that I was able to benefit. And then there is the amazement, and trepidation, of trying to comprehend DCC and how to implement such on my own track and the amazing detailed engines like the K4 that I purchased. I have excitement to build a solid track run to run that new K4, but I to be discipline in getting the platform and layout correct first. It does slow me down with the cost of things, but then, I also only need to purchase a "cigar box" of trucks and couplers and I will have a whole freight yard of naturally weathered rolling stock from years of dust and newspaper wrappings.
I see that a percentage of the population coming into the hobby that are maybe timed constraint and are part of a society that is more instantaneous than years ago. I am too. But I am now at a time also where I can, and do, enjoy turning off the TV and busy myself for hours on working on a "layout problem" and take quiet satisfaction in solving the issue at hand. That is the hobby to some of you, but it's not the hobby to all. Some just want to see the trains running with the sophistication of DCC and not the effort of having a NASA control room of DC blocked tracks. I see it both ways. Just that as I move into this exciting new era, I sadly leave behind the old memories of a simple time when imagination ruled over the toothpick / soup can water towers and rubber-band motored locomotives. But I do glow when I discovered at a train show that a couple of my rolling stocks are "rare" and cost $20 instead of $5. And for the hobby, we do have this fangle internet that allows us all to know of each other and the hobby's changes...instead of being quiet shadows in our respective basements, attics, train rooms. Everything has it pros and cons...
And there comes more mix emotions. It is simple to get the old DC tracks up and connected, but some of the engines have seen better days and the storage was not kind to them. How sad. Yet a search on eBay, and I can have a workable replacement in my hands from an "estate sale" auction. Sad that someone is just unloading these pieces for next to nothing, but glad that I was able to benefit. And then there is the amazement, and trepidation, of trying to comprehend DCC and how to implement such on my own track and the amazing detailed engines like the K4 that I purchased. I have excitement to build a solid track run to run that new K4, but I to be discipline in getting the platform and layout correct first. It does slow me down with the cost of things, but then, I also only need to purchase a "cigar box" of trucks and couplers and I will have a whole freight yard of naturally weathered rolling stock from years of dust and newspaper wrappings.
I see that a percentage of the population coming into the hobby that are maybe timed constraint and are part of a society that is more instantaneous than years ago. I am too. But I am now at a time also where I can, and do, enjoy turning off the TV and busy myself for hours on working on a "layout problem" and take quiet satisfaction in solving the issue at hand. That is the hobby to some of you, but it's not the hobby to all. Some just want to see the trains running with the sophistication of DCC and not the effort of having a NASA control room of DC blocked tracks. I see it both ways. Just that as I move into this exciting new era, I sadly leave behind the old memories of a simple time when imagination ruled over the toothpick / soup can water towers and rubber-band motored locomotives. But I do glow when I discovered at a train show that a couple of my rolling stocks are "rare" and cost $20 instead of $5. And for the hobby, we do have this fangle internet that allows us all to know of each other and the hobby's changes...instead of being quiet shadows in our respective basements, attics, train rooms. Everything has it pros and cons...
drew1125
Member
Hi all!
I just joined up here & this is my first post!
Guess I’ll dive right in…
I’m 49 yrs old & I’ve been a model railroader since 1992...I know that’s not an incredibly long time compared to some of you, but it has been long enough to have witnessed a lot of changes in the hobby…
Manufacturers, & commercially available products come & go, methods & materials change/revise, etc…
We ourselves change & evolve within the hobby… we age, our tastes change, our skills & abilities change, we learn new things, develop new ideas…
And let’s not forget that one of the (possibly THE) biggest changes to the hobby has been the internet…it’s had a huge impact on the retail end of the hobby, as well as the long established “model rr press” & publishing industry…
But even with all the upheaval & change, I certainly don’t see the hobby itself going into some downward spiral…
I’ve been exposed to WAY more new ideas & styles than I ever was back when I was waiting at the mailbox for my monthly subscription to arrive…
Now I can see modelers from ALL OVER THE WORLD with limited space, limited budgets doing AMAZING stuff…
And if some of you think scratch building is some “lost art” or “legacy”, you’re just not looking at the right web sites!
I mean…just using myself as an example…I started off with a RTR plastic HO trainset…Now some 17 years later, I scratch build almost everything, including locos & rolling stock…I don’t consider myself any kind of “master craftsman” or anything…I do it because I enjoy it, & as long as there are trains, there will be model railroaders, & as long as we're doing it & enjoying it, the hobby will flourish!
That's my humble opinion anyway...
I just joined up here & this is my first post!
Guess I’ll dive right in…
I’m 49 yrs old & I’ve been a model railroader since 1992...I know that’s not an incredibly long time compared to some of you, but it has been long enough to have witnessed a lot of changes in the hobby…
Manufacturers, & commercially available products come & go, methods & materials change/revise, etc…
We ourselves change & evolve within the hobby… we age, our tastes change, our skills & abilities change, we learn new things, develop new ideas…
And let’s not forget that one of the (possibly THE) biggest changes to the hobby has been the internet…it’s had a huge impact on the retail end of the hobby, as well as the long established “model rr press” & publishing industry…
But even with all the upheaval & change, I certainly don’t see the hobby itself going into some downward spiral…
I’ve been exposed to WAY more new ideas & styles than I ever was back when I was waiting at the mailbox for my monthly subscription to arrive…
Now I can see modelers from ALL OVER THE WORLD with limited space, limited budgets doing AMAZING stuff…
And if some of you think scratch building is some “lost art” or “legacy”, you’re just not looking at the right web sites!
I mean…just using myself as an example…I started off with a RTR plastic HO trainset…Now some 17 years later, I scratch build almost everything, including locos & rolling stock…I don’t consider myself any kind of “master craftsman” or anything…I do it because I enjoy it, & as long as there are trains, there will be model railroaders, & as long as we're doing it & enjoying it, the hobby will flourish!
That's my humble opinion anyway...
Last edited by a moderator:
iomalley
Barely-employed Brakeman
Agreed. My modelling scope increased 10 fold the day I stumbled across George Elwoods' fallen flags rr site. The myriad of photos started me on a road of building freight cars and locos I never knew existed!
Take what you will from the hobby, but don't forget to give to it as well, as most of us on the forum do bwo opinion. I like the hobby because of its cross-pollination with railfanning. In alot of cases, model rr'ers are also railfans. I don't model rr in the summer, and I don't railfan in the winter, so it's a year-round interest.
Larry Launstein Jr
Member
The customer base (AKA 'the market') has changed. Successful businesses follow the dough. When the dough begins to dry up here, you scout around and find out where more of it is flowing. The younger blood meant for the hobby, the really new folks (and not those somewhat seasoned by Dad's old layout and ideas) are used to shopping for stuff on shelves that requires scissors to cut into blister pack, insert batteries, and play away. Trains now have to compete against virtual reality-like games with intense graphics and sounds.
The manufacturers have come and gone in some cases, and in the comers have also arrived some new ideas. Broadway Limited got sound into steam in the first big way. People began to do serious imagery of refined modelling based on improved ideas spread by the internet. With a desire to improve imagery, especially the realism, the models themselves had to improve in appearance. RP-25 wheels became the standard, and Proto 87 is probably going to supplant a lot of that older standard in the next few years when more people show off models in imagery with highly realistic details...such as tire profiles, flanges, and turnouts.
Also, people who earn $75-200K a year are plentiful. After they get a motor home, a pool, and a snowmobile, they look for some other diversion. It may be RC, trains, fancy internet gaming....but they want easy diversion, and they like to be able to wow their friends with the 'best and fanciest'.
DCC has come into its own in just the past maybe four or five years. Forums such as this are often replete with questions from people, not just newbies, who want a DCC question answered. Somehow, to those more than a few months in the hobby, pizza cutter flanges and poor molded details on boilers just don't seem to jive with 'digital'.
In a nutshell, it is a confluence of forces that began when the first RTR Christmas card and tree decorations came on the market...no more stinging popcorn.
(To that last, some of you are more like. Understood. It that was what made Christmas, or your hobby, change away from that is going to be hard on you.)
-Crandell
I agree with you about many kids wanting to play video and computer games more than model trains. However, if you come to any model train flea market or show, you'll see the kids and their parents all there. Come to Durand Union Station sometime, to see the HO layout. There are lots of visitors checking that out, as there will be seeing the Lionel layout at the depot, which was donated by the uncle of the singer Kid Rock. I think the biggest concern for many parents is the cost of the trains these days. It is a far cry from when I was a small boy.
I think there will always be the craftsman element to the hobby. There will always be those who want models of something nobody makes. They want something in a roadname very few people have heard of, an extremely rare paint scheme, or they'll make up their own roadname.
There will be those who want to make a structure look like a specific building they've seen or something they envisioned in their own mind. If there are no kits then they'll do like people way back in the olden days did. They'll take already existing stuff and modify it either by repainting or kitbashing or they will take sheets of styrene, balsa wood, sheet metal and who knows what else and literally make their own buildings piece by piece just like Dean Freytag had to do to make steel mills on his layout.
There will be those who want to make a structure look like a specific building they've seen or something they envisioned in their own mind. If there are no kits then they'll do like people way back in the olden days did. They'll take already existing stuff and modify it either by repainting or kitbashing or they will take sheets of styrene, balsa wood, sheet metal and who knows what else and literally make their own buildings piece by piece just like Dean Freytag had to do to make steel mills on his layout.
"...they'll do like people way back in the olden days did." Way back in the olden days? The bulk of the actual model railroad hobbyists I know are still modifying/kitbashing their locomotives, rollingstock, structures, whatever, today! Little has changed in that respect amongst the serious hobbyists.
Let's face some unpleasant facts here regarding the question of what has happened to the hobby. Firstly, a lot of the newer people in the hobby need to come to grips with the fact that the hobby is indeed called MODEL railroading for a reason. That word "MODEL(ing)" is key to what the hobby is all about. How can simply collecting and running store-bought trains through store-bought scenery be "model" railroading? The fact is that while the sizes of the various factions (modelers vs. simply miniature train enthusiasts) in our hobby may be changing, the hobby itself is not altering, or evolving, just because of what some of the newcomers say since they wish it to be that way.
NYW&B
blownoutcylinder
Active Member
I suspect that the hobby is not going to 'change' as much as some people think. I was reading a bunch of MR's from the late 1950's and mid 1960's that I picked up from a local trainshow and there were squawks in the magazines about how TV was going to demolish the hobby and then---horror of horrors!!-- the pinball arcade was doing damage to the hobby. Then things like the walkman came along to bash the hobby around. Sheeesh!
--you should have seen the comments---OI
I do think that the areas that may change would be in terms of RTR doing the new brass dance as it were, that is, going into the stratosphere in terms of price, and the rediscovery of doing the scratchbash thing---
But it is also true---some people have kind of gotten a little fuzzy around the edges when it came to some aspects of it--
--you should have seen the comments---OII do think that the areas that may change would be in terms of RTR doing the new brass dance as it were, that is, going into the stratosphere in terms of price, and the rediscovery of doing the scratchbash thing---
But it is also true---some people have kind of gotten a little fuzzy around the edges when it came to some aspects of it--
diburning
AlcoHaulic
Kits are great, but they require time and patience. With the shake-the-box kits such as Athearn blue box and MDC/Roundhouse, they aren't too hard to build.
Athearn Blue Box kits in my opinion are the easiest to build. Put it together, add some extra weight, put in some decent couplers and metal wheels, and you're good to go. Some of the older kits may have issues with the coupler height being too low.
Accurail - Everthing is self explanatory. They are as easy, if not easier than the Athearn Blue Box kits. They are better than the Athearn Blue Box kits because they are almost always the correct NMRA reccomended weight.
MDC/Roundhouse is a nightmare. The coupler height is always too low. All of their cars come with 33" wheels regardless of prototypicality. In some models, 36" wheels would fix the coupler height problem, but the cars are tooled in such a way that the 36" wheels would catch the underbody meaning that the underbody would need to be filed, or 33" wheels must be used with the trucks shimmed up. Some models still need to be shimmed even after 36" wheels are installed. MDC/Roundhouse cars are also ALWAYS underweight. (about half an ounce for the box cars, more for others)
Bowser cars are a little more difficult to put together and will involve quite a bit of gluing. Some of their cars may be underweight.
Walthers kits - They are decent looking and not too difficult to put together although coupler height may be an issue, and the non-standard coupler pockets may need some work. Some gluing may be involved depending on the model.
Proto 2000 - I haven't tried them yet
Intermountain - Their kits will take you a day to put together. They are very detailed and will take a lot of skill and patience. Throw out the trucks though. Intermountain trucks are a hit or miss.
Athearn Blue Box kits in my opinion are the easiest to build. Put it together, add some extra weight, put in some decent couplers and metal wheels, and you're good to go. Some of the older kits may have issues with the coupler height being too low.
Accurail - Everthing is self explanatory. They are as easy, if not easier than the Athearn Blue Box kits. They are better than the Athearn Blue Box kits because they are almost always the correct NMRA reccomended weight.
MDC/Roundhouse is a nightmare. The coupler height is always too low. All of their cars come with 33" wheels regardless of prototypicality. In some models, 36" wheels would fix the coupler height problem, but the cars are tooled in such a way that the 36" wheels would catch the underbody meaning that the underbody would need to be filed, or 33" wheels must be used with the trucks shimmed up. Some models still need to be shimmed even after 36" wheels are installed. MDC/Roundhouse cars are also ALWAYS underweight. (about half an ounce for the box cars, more for others)
Bowser cars are a little more difficult to put together and will involve quite a bit of gluing. Some of their cars may be underweight.
Walthers kits - They are decent looking and not too difficult to put together although coupler height may be an issue, and the non-standard coupler pockets may need some work. Some gluing may be involved depending on the model.
Proto 2000 - I haven't tried them yet
Intermountain - Their kits will take you a day to put together. They are very detailed and will take a lot of skill and patience. Throw out the trucks though. Intermountain trucks are a hit or miss.
logandsawman
Well-Known Member
I had a train 40 years ago, and bought one over Christmas for the grandchildren. I found out that it was something I wanted to do again, work on a creation of own. After putting together a couple scale log cabins (from scratch), I started really getting into the scene, not necessarily the rail cars. I bought some neet kits, a hydrocal feed store annex (1984, dusty box) and freight station. They each took over 20 hours and were more satisfying then the made from scratch log cabins. I guess I am into a world I can create and afford, rather than the big world that someone else is in charge of.
malletman
Alcohaulic
I grew up at the end of the golden age of PFM brass and playing with/modeling with Athearn BB engines and kits, Mantua diecast steam ect. As I got into my teens and mowing 10-15 yards a week during the summer, I started getting into building craftsman kits and modeling the steam Logging era. This was pre Bachmann shay era. Your choices were the horrible running MDC kit that took lots of tinkering to get to run right, the AHM/Rivarossi Heisler, or PFM/United brass imports. Via my mowing income followed by my first real jobs and thru my college years I build up a nice roster of PFM shays. Going from looking at those wonderfull ads that dominated the back page of Model Railroader for so many year, to owning several models from them. Back then the prices for those models were higher than today. Now I can buy nice older brass, wood craftsman kits for much less than the RTR stuff currently on the market. Do I bad mouth the new RTR stuff, DCC and all the electronics? No, its just not for me. I think its great and quite amazing to see what can be done with sound and DCC compared to just a few years ago, but at what cost? The hobby has definatly taking a turn for the worst cost wise, atleast to a newbie that doesnt quite know the ins and outs of finding models at the best price, or parents trying to get thier child into the hobby. Maybe I am stuck in the good old days, or maybe its just like many others that are out there I actualy enjoy building models. Not just opening the box, sticking it on the track and expecting instant gratification that is so rampent in our society. Spending several enjoyable hours building a wood boxcar kit, or Labelle passenger car, sitting at a tv table watching tv with my wife is a great way for me to relax. If I come to a fustrating part or just cant get things to work, I put it down and do something else, or go to bed if the hour is late. But the finished product when I get them done is well worth the work to get there. Same for fine tuning my old brass engines, installing new motors when needed, painting and decaling them. Granted if someone, Blackstone comes to mind, does a nice Colorado and Southern Mogul in HOn3 diecast, I will be preordering a couple the day they are announced. Then I can give my old brass engines a break once and a while. This hobby is what you make of it, its more diverse today then it once was. Much like Ham Radio, which I am also involved in. I had to get my License the harder way, 5wpm Morse code to upgrade from Tech to Tech+, then another code test to get my current General License. I built a couple of the Heathkit radios when I first got started in the hobby. Now I run a small mil spec Yeasu 2m mobile radio in my truck and a Kenwood 2m/440cm hand held. One day I will get back on the "HF" bands when my hobby funds allow me build a station at our new home. Hobby dollers only go so far and after life's necessary items we cannot escape, there is only so much we can each afford to spend. For me its split between the trains, ham radio and antique cub cadet garden tractors. Trains is my winter hobby, and the radios and tractors are the summer hobbies for the most part. Above all, keep it fun as its only a hobby and should help us relax, slow down and enjoy life. You cannot take them with you when its your time to depart this life, so enjoy them while you can. I know my wife and I do! Cheers Mike and Michele T
Selector
Well-Known Member
There was a time when people made their own everything. Then, when massed production made them so much more cheaply, freeing people to do other things besides manufacturing parts and putting them together for a greater whole, that part of their life changed.
There is a lot to be said for 'the way it wuz'. We use hindsight bias to colour our views of the past and we see the best parts. Twenty years from now, we'll have the same concerns over yet more changes and the accommodations we have to make for them, and wonder what happened to the good old days of 2010.
Tempus edax rerum. "Time is voracious." Or, as another philosopher said, "Qui non proficit deficit." I think it was Seneca. "Who does not advance falls behind."
-Crandell
There is a lot to be said for 'the way it wuz'. We use hindsight bias to colour our views of the past and we see the best parts. Twenty years from now, we'll have the same concerns over yet more changes and the accommodations we have to make for them, and wonder what happened to the good old days of 2010.
Tempus edax rerum. "Time is voracious." Or, as another philosopher said, "Qui non proficit deficit." I think it was Seneca. "Who does not advance falls behind."
-Crandell
stationmaster
Crusty Old Geezer
Crandell, first one must define advancement.
I too have my roots in day long since past. And I must agree with Mike, the hobby is pricing itself out of the reach of the newcomer. And it is not to my amazement that we are losing out to products such as video games. Advancement is fine, jumping over a cliff is not. Many newcomer are like lemmings, jumping from that cliff. And the days of truly modeling are fast coming to an end. Why build it if one can get it in a box on a shelf? Pity. For modeling is the true joy of the hobby. Running trains is the icing on the cake, the added benefit. In which would one take more pride, gain a sense of accomplishment, getting kudos for an engine, or car, that one spent a few hours, maybe days, building or the car that just arrived from the hobby shop and just placed on the rails?
Those of us with over 30 years in the hobby, I have just achieved my 50th year, have seen great technological advancements. Namely DCC. Probably the greatest thing since someone decided to put an electric motor into our trains. Now we can run multiple trains at the same time, on the same track, throw switches, hear our trains without a complex wiring schematic or fearing a "Gomez Addams Episode". These are some of the things we only could imagine "back in the day".
Is it advancement to be able to buy "RTR"? We are getting away from the modeling aspect and becoming more "guys who play with trains". here is even canned scenery, track that is already ballasted and on roadbed........ Why not call our hobby "canned railroading" instead of model railroading? The former term seems to be more fitting than the latter. Is that progress? Gotta think not. My opinion of these "canned" railroaders is like someone who prepares a meal in a microwave and calls themselves a chef or a cook.
Give me a mix of the old and the new, mostly the old, as I will add the new to only enhance the experience. Like Mike, I will choose my own direction and probably be in good, if not great, company. Probably grounded in the old, with a sprinkle, a dash, of the new for "seasoning", like in a great prepared meal. But, in the end, I will remain a "model" railroader and not one whose efforts, basically,come from a "can".
Bob
I too have my roots in day long since past. And I must agree with Mike, the hobby is pricing itself out of the reach of the newcomer. And it is not to my amazement that we are losing out to products such as video games. Advancement is fine, jumping over a cliff is not. Many newcomer are like lemmings, jumping from that cliff. And the days of truly modeling are fast coming to an end. Why build it if one can get it in a box on a shelf? Pity. For modeling is the true joy of the hobby. Running trains is the icing on the cake, the added benefit. In which would one take more pride, gain a sense of accomplishment, getting kudos for an engine, or car, that one spent a few hours, maybe days, building or the car that just arrived from the hobby shop and just placed on the rails?
Those of us with over 30 years in the hobby, I have just achieved my 50th year, have seen great technological advancements. Namely DCC. Probably the greatest thing since someone decided to put an electric motor into our trains. Now we can run multiple trains at the same time, on the same track, throw switches, hear our trains without a complex wiring schematic or fearing a "Gomez Addams Episode". These are some of the things we only could imagine "back in the day".
Is it advancement to be able to buy "RTR"? We are getting away from the modeling aspect and becoming more "guys who play with trains". here is even canned scenery, track that is already ballasted and on roadbed........ Why not call our hobby "canned railroading" instead of model railroading? The former term seems to be more fitting than the latter. Is that progress? Gotta think not. My opinion of these "canned" railroaders is like someone who prepares a meal in a microwave and calls themselves a chef or a cook.
Give me a mix of the old and the new, mostly the old, as I will add the new to only enhance the experience. Like Mike, I will choose my own direction and probably be in good, if not great, company. Probably grounded in the old, with a sprinkle, a dash, of the new for "seasoning", like in a great prepared meal. But, in the end, I will remain a "model" railroader and not one whose efforts, basically,come from a "can".
Bob
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