Why We Model Railroad

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mydartswinger

mydartswinger

Member
Just for kicks, why not discuss why we do what we do. Why do we choose model railroading as a hobby? What do we enjoy about it? How did we get into it?

For me, it started while living in London, England while my father was stationed there when I was in the 1st and 2nd grades in the late '80s and early '90's. My parent's had purchased a Hornby Intercity train set (HST 125 powered and dummy locomotive with a couple of passenger cars). Also, while living there, I was exposed for the first time to the Ringo Starr narrated Thomas the Tank Engine series. Teen years happened, and, as I expect is the case with most, I got out of trains for many years (about 15 years). What got rekindled that interest was a conversation about model trains with a longtime friend of mine. 6 months after that conversation, I'm about 3 months into building a 4x8 HO layout, and an active member of a model railroad club.

Why I do it? I can do it at home on my own, or at the club with fellow modelers. There's also nothing like the feeling of seeing your own creation take shape. Going from just a thought of doing it, to creating the track plan and landscape plans, to building the benchwork, and finally making it come to life from an idea and a few parts and raw materials. Doing something that actually has a lasting reward, not just a quick buzz or a "special trailer".

Just sitting there and watching my trains run my layout is relaxing. I can let my mind drift off to another world, MY world. A world where my problems are gone, I'm free to think as I choose, dream what I dare to dream, and thinking of how I can improve on a good thing.

It also allows me to meet and mingle with other like minded individuals.

Sure, I can get this from other hobbies, but few of those hobbies combine electrical, mechanical, and carpentry aptitudes with art and the ability to do your hobby inside regardless of the weather. Even fewer of these hobbies also have such a minimal risk of damage to their surroundings.

Why do you enjoy model railroading?
 
Even though I've been fascinated by trains for all of my life, modelling is quite a new experience having only been doing it for less than a year. The part I like the most is taking something and making something else out of it.

There's an appealing whimsical "narrow gauge" look that I enjoy modelling the most, which has absolutely no relation to any prototypical reality.

Although I've kitbashed about 30 cars so far, I still don't even have a layout yet... but I know that I'll thoroughly enjoy modelling an equally whimsical setting in which to run the little whimsical trains. ;)

Greg
 
I am fascinated by trains. Particularly Baldwin Steamers. In real life and models.
I have also gotten into diesels recently so I like diesel models as much as steam models, maybe more.
I am fortunate enough to have an other half who is into trains as well, though favors the european steam/diesel/electrics seen in Germany growing up every other summer in Germany visiting German grandmother and family. Not so keen on the model American stuff, though LOVES the real 1:1 American steamers as much as I do!
WE do a lot of tourist steam railroad rides and have done steam cab rides as well. WE LOVE it!
What can I say, if trains were an addiction, Oh, wait it IS an adiction, though it won't kill or hurt anyone else, I can't get arrested for driving under the influence of trains... , I should check out "trains anonymous".
"Hello, my name is galaxy....and I am addicted to trains..." "welcome galaxy..."
________
Bong Pictures
 
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I remember my first toy train from my childhood. It was a HO scale 4x6 Tyco layout. That got me hooked early on and now there are other parts of the hobby I enjoy as well.

I've always loved assembling models and painting, even if I'm not the best painter. I've done model planes and cars and also figurines and have enjoyed them all. I absolutely love model railroad kits. I'll take the old kit boxes over RTR cars because assembling them is part of the fun.

I love electronics and wiring a layout is like a complex puzzle and very enjoyable to make something work by connecting a few wires together. I've worked with electronics and its great to see how much of that can be applied to model railroads.

I like woodworking and landscaping too, both are a big part of modeling trains. Benchwork can be a lot of fun to plan and build. I love using scenery to build imaginative landscapes. It's always enjoyable to take something you see and try to recreate it and then make it your own by changing this and that.

I love trains too. I don't mind being stopped in traffic waiting for a train because It gives an opportunity to see such a variety of railroad cars. I love the power of the engines as they rumble down the tracks and the blast of the horn at every crossing.

Model railroading puts a lot of hobbies I enjoy into one complete package and I think that's why I love it so much.
 
Very coll guys, keep 'em comin'.

Galaxy,
I too, prefer the european trains. If they were a bit easier to come by (in other than in Thomas and Friends or Harry Potter), I would be modeling them myself. However, they would be of British Prototype. Particularly the British passenger steam locomotives such as the Sir Nigel Gressley designs (LNER A3s, such as the Flying Scottsman, or the LNER A4s, such as the Mallard and Bittern), as well as the '90s Intercity (mostly HST 125s) passenger trains. I guess it all comes down to where we got our first positive experiences of trains.

However, since the US prototypes are so much easier to come by here in the States, I model modern diesel.
 
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I've always been into trains since the 1st grade when my parents took me on a steam excursion ran by the Ohio Central Steam. I got my first real train set that year. An Athearn HO Union Pacific passenger set with a well running F7-A, Combine, Dome car, and Observation car. Today, my senior year of high school, I'm working on my second 4x8 layout. Its not scenicked yet but it has a good amount of structures and other details. I love creating and detailing my own little world. Something that only I have control over and not dictated by prototype. I have a well running fleet of 5 locomotives and about 50 freight cars. I like when my friends see the layout and say "you built that?" My girlfriend also thinks it cute :D She even buys me things for it! Someday I hope to have a larger layout but for now I'll keep enjoying my own little haven :)
 
When I was young my father took me annually on a train trip from Denver to Aspen ... started the passion. Now, like others, it's a creative outlet for me that gives me a great sense of accomplishment. It teaches me patience, even today at 41, and allows me time to shut everything else out. I love the act of building, and love seeing a vision come to reality over time.
 
I too was first introduced to trains by Thomas the Tank Engine. One of my all-time favorite shows, but definitely it was better when it was part of Shining Time Station if anyone remembers that show. My aunt used to take me on a train ride from our Johnstown, PA home to Altoona, about a 45-minute ride if I remember, every year for my birthday. We would visit the Horseshoe Curve and the Altoona Railroader's Memorial Museum. That kept me interested in trains and my grandfather had a lionel train set, the Nickle Plate Road. Can't remember exactly what kind. My dad used to set up HO scale trains in our basement around Christmas time, but that was never enough for me. I fell in love with model railroads again about two years ago when my aunt purchased two Pennsylvania passenger coaches for me for Christmas and I have been trying to get back into the hobby for some time. I think it has something to do with the power that trains stand for, being able to control something that seems like such a huge icon of the power of innovation. Trains are so cool because they allow us to express creativity. There are many reasons to have a model railway, but these are my top reasons.
 
I remember Shining Time Station, but only vaguely (pretty much just Ringo Starr and George Carlin as Mr. Conductor, and very tiny). My strongest memories of Thomas were from watching PAL format video cassettes of Thomas the Tank Engine. This was about the time that STS first aired in the US. My kindergarten year was on the downhill slope when STS first aired. I moved to London, England that summer. That's when I got my first taste of Thomas. I spent most of my time during the years that STS aired overseas, so I didn't get much of that show.

One thing that does surprise me, however, is that there are some people who are very familiar with Thomas episodes (even some are model railroaders), but are oblivious to the fact that most of the locomotives seen in the series are of British prototype (though there were a few that popped in and out in later years that were from other countries, such as Hank, who was a PRR K4).

Here's a couple of pics of Thomas the Tank Engine character's prototypes.

Thomas's prototype is the black and white photo. He's based on a London Brighton and South Coast Railway 0-6-0 E2. Not quite the prettiest loco around.

On the other hand, the other pic is of Gordon's prototype. An LNER Class A3. The one pictured is one of the most famous of the A3s, the Flying Scottsman. A very nice locomotive.

Sorry, got off a bit on the Thomas stuff.
 
Actually there was another locomotive in that series that looked alot like that b&w photo... can't recall the name. I wanna say it was Stepney. I don't really recall. I know that many of the engines looked strange to me and perhaps that's why.
 


Also another point of interest about Thomas.

For the Day out with Thomas events, they use a rebuilt (and madeover) Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST Locomotive.

Attached are the pics of the Thomas from Day out With Thomas and a "normal" Hunslet.
 
I was mesmerized by steam locomotives when I was three years old. We would often drive past the switching yard at the Sudbury mines owned by INCO. A couple of years later my father took a job for nine years in the altitude of the Peruvian Andes mountains. For the first five years, there was only steam.

Then, many decades went by...enlistment, marriage, more education, career change, and finally retirement. Wife bought me a Christmas train set, an On30 set from Bachmann. It was like giving an alcoholic a spiked lemonade. I was hooked!

Why the HO models I have. Because my imagination has always been strong, and I like to challenge myself to learn things. I had to develop carpentry, electrical, soldering, and track laying skills, not to mention learning how to weather rolling stock and make trees. Oh, and learn what imagery is all about, too.

Now, the imagery is at least as important for me, but I sill love the subject of trains, mostly about transition era steam....big steam.

Crandell
 
Selector said:
Why the HO models I have. Because my imagination has always been strong, and I like to challenge myself to learn things. I had to develop carpentry, electrical, soldering, and track laying skills, not to mention learning how to weather rolling stock and make trees. Oh, and learn what imagery is all about, too.

Crandell
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I too like to learn new things on my own, another reason I love this hobby so much. There are many skills required and always something new to learn.
 
I really don't have much interest in real trains, or model trains for that matter. Back in May, our basement flooded. It's just a storage basement and all we had in there was a bunch of junk. We threw most of it out and had a nice clean basement, but it isn't the kind of basement you can do much with (old house). One day I was down there organizing my tools and admiring how nice the clean basement looked. Boom! A thought out of the blue came to me to build a model railroad.

I'm just the kind of person that grabs hold of a hobby with intense interest, learns about it, then abandons it. Past hobbies have been photography (including darkroom processing), cycling, wine making, car restoration, bass fishing, guns, and probably a few I've forgotten about.

I'm actually surprised but my interest in this hobby hasn't been as intense as other hobbies. I spend maybe 6 hours a week building the layout. I've only run about an hour around my layout when I first got the track laid and haven't even run the train in the past month. I'm actually hoping this is a good sign. I've burned myself out on past hobbies quickly. I'm hoping the slow start to this one means I'll hang onto it for the rest of my life.
 
Janry, are you my long lost twin? :eek: I have pretty much the same proclivities as you mention, including running red-lined with something until I literally drop it like a hot spud and look for something else. My wife complains about that side of me all the time. The running hard and hot spud part...I mean....:D
 
Selector said:
It was like giving an alcoholic a spiked lemonade. I was hooked!

Crandell
Click to expand...

I had to quote this, such a funny comment Crandell.

For me, why I got into Model Railroading. It started when I was a little kid, I would go watch the trains go by near my house, we lived near what is now a BNSF mainline.

I always got a trainset every year for christmas, the tyco ones. I would add a small mountain, a bridge trestle, and put it on a sheet of plywood. I didn't' realize how much I missed playing with the trains until I went to a local train show about this time last year. Like Crandell, I was hooked!
 


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