I just read an editorial falshback from 1944 about the art of deception. It states that (if we do our part as modelers) we can imagine the prototype and get lost in the prototype world.
I just see really cool models.
I knew I was defective.
Getting lost in it your modeled world is a big part of the hobby to many, me included.
that’s OK…i’d rather deceive myself and have fun doing prototype models than being perfectly normal and living a very dull hobbyless life…[:D] never was any good at
" normal" anyway…chuck
I am excellent at deceiving myself. Now you say, if I just imagine…
I think I can save a lot of money this way.
Seriously though, I can understand how one could become engrossed, or lost, in the modeled world. For me this is one of the enticing aspects of mrr. A chance to creat a historic situation with a hint of fiction.
Where and what did you read?
Respectfully,
Jacob
“The Art of Deception” by Frank Taylor Dec 1944 reprinted in Nov 2003.
I think I am “Lost” in the hobby from time to time, the wife has to jerk me back to reality once in a while.
My wife “jerks” me back to reality all too often.
No wonder I can’t imagine my 0-6-0 is a 4-8-8-4
LOL
BB
;Deception. Happens all the time for me. When I see my model NYC subway, PRR E7 or CNJ caboose I picture myself as a kid again taking the train to NYC with my dad - even if the model is just running on a test track. Same thing happens when I see some pictures in various books (CNJ in Color, Trackside in Philadelphia, The NYLBRR etc). It’s the coolest thing and probably why I love this hobby so much.
I use my model railroad to take me back in time. Hey, I’m old enough to miss big steam hauling long trains up mountain grades. Would I want to go back there in reality? Probably not, because I’d miss a lot of the stuff I consider second-nature today (like PC’s). But it’s neat to go back to the ‘40’s with my big, smoke-bellowing articulateds and miles and miles of wooden reefers and 85’ olive-green Pullman cars. It’s when Progress also meant Big, Noisy, and Dirty.
I think it’s cool.[:P][:P][:P]
Tom
I don’t know about “deception”. But this hobby certainly allows us to nurture the “child” in us by creating a pretend world. Creativity is one of the most important traits in progress. It is also strongly linked to good mental health. This hobby is very popular among those that are hightly creative people. Just look at the number of us at this forum who are musicians! This is a great way to keep the child in us strong and happy. Have fun “playing” with your trains! [8D]
does a Marine Band ( C) blues harp count as a musical instrument?..[:D]
MOUSE:
Having an engine pulling cars as though they are real requires IMAGINATION, (not Deception). THINKING they’re real is Deception.
Would your wife be happier if you played with Doll’s? (Don’t mention size - no no.)
Have you made it to Gilbert’s in Gettysberg yet?
Just look at the number of us who AREN’T muscians! I wish I had the talent to be a musician! My creativity came out in other ways. Years ago as an “on air personality” and programer in the radio business, more recently as a creative, solution finding sales person. Over all those years as a railfan and model railroader. I can only admire the modeling skills of the Allen McClellands, John Allens, Tony Koesters, and Chuck Hitchcocks among us, but I enjoy my trains. Just this week I SOLVED, read that s-o-l-v-e-d! two electrical problems that had been like the plague recently. Winning at that game was quite a buzz!!! Although that may not be creativity as much as dogged determination.
;o)
I can trick my mom into thinking MRR mag photos of Pelle Soeberg’s desert layout are of the real desert. She doesn’t seem to notice the uncoupling pins or the fact that it’s in a model train magazine…[:p]
I can’t deceive myself though.
I’m a musician. 2nd chair euphonium for the WMSSB! (Whitewater Middle School Symphonic Band)
Funny you mention that. My wife calls my train hobby “building a doll house.”
I have not made it to Gilberts. It is a 3 hour drive one-way from here.
I grew up being engrossed in imaginary worlds–comic books, roleplaying games, computer games, the Society for Creative Anachronism (think of it as a medieval version of Cowboy Action Shooting, with swords instead of guns), the gothic/industrial nightclub scene–for me, it’s all about creating neat fantasy worlds in which to play. I want my model railroading to come alive, to inspire, to be a little world I control and which is hopefully engrossing enough and compelling enough to invite visitors and onlookers to enter my little world for a while.
I can’t imagine that you don’t get a taste of that, SpaceMouse–you do CAS, but what’s the point of dressing up in silly costumes to go plinking, if not to try to get a bit of a sense of what that era, those experiences, those lives, were like? Is that not what a skilled model railroad tries to evoke–not just a collection of models, but a sense of place and time?
I suppose that will come in time. The creativity going into my layout is making the most of a design faux pas. The things I am identifying most with are the whimsical scenes like the one in my signature. You don’t suppose I’m more influenced by Furlow than Armstrong, do you?
It has been known to happen. But it isn’t unknown for a layout to include both beauty and operational realism–witness the John Allen, again.
“I suppose it will come in time”? Okay…I was immediately caught up by the miniature world of model railroads as a kid–I didn’t need to grow into the idea of playing in a fantasy.
Again–you do CAS, do you just consider all those cowboy outfits practical clothing, and the single-action blackpowder firearms nothing more than utilitarian firearms whose appearance has no significance or import? When I say “the Old West”, do you think merely of the direction on a compass?
Assuming the above statements are wrong (and I think they are) we are talking about IMAGINATION AT WORK here. And if your imagination works, you shouldn’t need to “grow into” looking at your model railroad as a little world. Maybe you just have to stumble onto it.
Maybe that’s the piece you’ve been missing all this time.
Is the imagination enhanced by dressing the part? I still have my old stripped “engineers” cap.
BB