Who Needs a MRR Anymore, When:

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Gary B said:
;)George Carlin once said the difference between an interest and a hobby is that the second costs you money. Maybe sir for you model railroading is more an interest than a hobby
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Fun fact (For those who didn't know)! George Carlin narrated the first four seasons of Thomas the Tank engine in the US!
Ahh...When the show was still good...
 
PowrCab said:
Some of you are missing my point (or, 'points' 😉)
I'm not saying anyone who hasn't yet begun experiencing the condition I'm citing is necessarily (or, Ness's Sara Lee 🤓) going to experience it.
It's likely that you simply haven't or even will never arrive at it.. And that is fine, if not enviable..
I'm citing a condition I and a number of others are experiencing; the feeling of being stuffed, full bellied and balloted due to all of the thousands of RR videos we have seen and heard, to a point where we're so satiated now that even owning our own trains is almost unnecessary; that, since the watching/viewing of trains is say, 86% of the ritual (if you will) of craving all things railroading (what it comes down to), why not just, well......watch videos and skip the cost-part of owning them anymore..!
Yes, of course having your own trains and MRR IS the point of it all; the presiding over and the running of them...But it's the high quality YouTube videos we watch now for hours and hours, day by day, due to our insatiable appetite for all things trains, something which didn't exist before the internet that has added a huge sea change to the hobby, instantaneous gratification just 1D removed from the real thing causing this 'condition' of balloted-ness with it all..
Time spent in the hobby of course has a lot to do with it..You may never experience this condition..But, I and some do, or will..
Yet, I too know it may be reversible through, well, uh.... (burp).... dieting !...... But, you know how diets usually go !
🏡🛤️🏜️
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We all respect what you are saying Power Cab (I want to say this now before things get heated! :D ). I think its just that most of us here cant grasp that, because we would rather just unplug the TV and stick to the Trains, before getting rid of them.
But alas, to each their own. I have heard, that some Modelers went over to modeling Digitally (TRAINZ).
 


PowrCab said:
Since the idea OF having a MRR IS to WATCH trains, it's as if ALL of the trains I see online have nearly taken the place of having to watch what would be MY OWN.
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I would disagree with you there and say the point is to BUILD and RUN trains.

If all I want is to watch then yeah, I suppose I could just browse videos.

But there's also something different about watching things "live"...
 
Rico said:
Yeah I see girls on the beach and all over the internet all the time.
Still fun to go play with the one I have at home though.
Same thing but different?
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NatFil.gif
 
That's the prob., Willie..
Just like craving food of one kind or another to a point over being overweight or ill (diabetes, high cholesterol) or having an addiction to drugs/alcohol, craving train videos can cause over-viewing fatigue, near impossible to quit..
True, it's nothing physically harmful..but just saying: The advent of YouTube has changed our 'diet' over train consumption..No, not everyone's and not yours, but a percentage, which I think is growing in number; again, causing a condition which was not possible to experience prior to it..
It's not a complaint..Online videos are a marvel.. but so are Hershey's chocolate bars or.... pizza !!... Ya juz can't quit !... 🏡🏢🏭 🛤️🏙️☀️
 


RhB Michael said:
Many European layouts are roundy-rounds. Most don't have the space for a point to point layout of any distance.
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A late reply:
1) A roundy-round, or continual takes more space in order to make the 2, 180 deg. or, 4, 90 deg. turns, or basic zig-zagged circle, figure 8, dog bone, water wing shape they basically make (2) A point to point design forces one to ops like the 1:1 scale by having a turntable or wye at one or both ends to turn engines/some cars. This activity alone is time consuming in a positive way because it's the same as the 1:1 scale. If you make it a switchback-switching-bridge route layout (like I describe mine was ) you can get lots and lots of railroading in a narrow space, with perhaps somewhat longer benchwork..
 
traiNscale said:
and for me the round and round is just so european style. :)
I almost call it the european style of modelrailroading.
and shelpf layout style is Northamerica style.

at least for me :)
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I tend to agree with that, yet I still see very very little 'point to point' layouts (my cup of tea as it causes one to have to ops like the 1:1 scale and wish more folks would do it that way)....
 
PowrCab said:
I tend to agree with that, yet I still see very very little 'point to point' layouts (my cup of tea as it causes one to have to ops like the 1:1 scale and wish more folks would do it that way)....
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then you have to follow my build. because i only have a point 2 point.
why? not enough room to go around.

cheers
 
Point to point is almost always more "realistic". However, there's also a big, really big, problem with that. Unless you're Rod Stewart, you probably don't have a million bucks to spend and a basketball court sized room to put your layout in.

So, let's consider modeling Amtrak. I like the Coast Starlight. It typically has about a dozen cars. Conveniently, Superliners are about 85 feet long. Close enough to 87 for this discussion. HO Scale is 1:87.1 So each car is just short of a foot long, probably more with couplers. Siemens Chargers are a bit shorter, but still close to a foot. So a 12 car train with 2 locos is 14 feet long for practical purposes. If your layout is an oval on a 4 x 8, you've got a dog chasing its tail.

Given the size issue, "round and round" layouts, as well as selective compression (5 cars rather than 12 maybe?) are the only way for people with limited space to have reasonable operations.
 
bob said:
Given the size issue, "round and round" layouts, as well as selective compression (5 cars rather than 12 maybe?) are the only way for people with limited space to have reasonable operations.
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That is why I run trains 2 or 3 carriages in length. The same when running freight. Run them at a gentle speed. No rush, the trains arrive at their destination. :)
 
I never run a passenger consist with more than 5 wagons. It doesn't look correct on this (mine) size layout. About the same length for freight, but the count varies with the length of wagon. Modern (Era IV and up) passenger wagons are 303mm over the buffers. That's nearly a 6' train with a locomotive. Totally acceptable in Germany too. You don't see too many 20 wagon passenger trains there, but there are exceptions.
 


For me my main focus was the building of the layout. Now that I have declared it as done, I find running trains around my railroad or shuttling my street cars back and forth of limited interest.
 
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