A little advice for any newcomers to our hobby if I may. Nothing real original here, it’s just that reading of cudakens recent frustrations reminds me of something I see every once in awhile.
All of us longtimers in the hobby are thrilled to see new people start in the hobby and as we can see on this forum a lot of model railroaders are willing to help out any way they can. Many of them have already given good advice to Ken on the thread he posted.
But in a general sense, I see something in my shop that worries me, and since it is human nature in a way perhaps there isn’t anything that can be done about it.
A new person will start in the hobby, spend a bunch of money, build a layout in 3 months and come back in and announce “I’m done. Now what?” (Despite my best efforts to explain that layouts are never really supposed to be done…) Or perhaps like Ken they are having some trouble and are considering getting out of the hobby already.
We are thankful that some of you new guys show such enthusiasm for the hobby when you begin, but please watch out for the burn out that may accompany such excitement.
I’ve used this analogy in the store at times and no one has been offended so I will use it again here. Much like I basically grew up in this hobby, I also grew up in church. When I was younger I would see people who never went to church before and they would come in and be “on fire for the Lord” and show such excitement for their new faith, something that a jaded young man could not understand because I was so used to it all.
Then inevitably something would go wrong in their life, their faith would be tested, not doing some things turned out to be harder than they thought, and next thing you know they no longer go to church. What happened to that initial fire and passion they exhibited? Burn out. Too much too fast.
(I know that we’re not supposed to discuss religion in public, I just don’t see a clearer way to explain this phenomenon.)
To add to what’s already been said… Don’t be afraid to screw something up. Stuff happens. Use it as a learning experience of “what not to to” next time.
Obviously I know I’m going to need patience–there’s a lot involved in the hobby, and given the intricacies, lots can go wrong, but I doubt I’ll get frustrated enough to give up when I get started. I agree, reading the MR books and following these forums the last few months has helped load my data base and hopefully that will help. There’s so much available in HO now (comp. to 027–my dad’s set when I was growing up) I think I’ll remain interested enough not to get burned out–being 53 probably doesn’t hurt either.
And NO you can not build a perfect layout the first time, or the second or the 20th time.
All layout designs are subject to change. Do not believe that you are locked into a design from a book once you start or from a CAD program. If you see a way to make the layout run better then by all means make the changes.
This to me is a piddle hobby. I piddle here and I piddle there. Sometimes I may not touch my layout for weeks. Then I may work 2 straight weekends on it. All of a sudden there is an urge and bam. There is always something interesting going on. I have remade my layout at least 10 time and will continue to do so. History, building, wiring, etc. etc. there is a lot of different things to do.
I know a Swiss fellow, older, crusty, deadpan expression and Ahhhnoold’s voice, the whole thing. He has done more things than you can shake a stick at. He tells me that he gets bored easily. He tries something new two or three times a year, masters it to the extent where the “uh, oh!” creeps in, and he is back looking for something else.
That may be a bit extreme (although he seems perfectly happy inside his skin), but there are so many things competing for our attention these days that we find ourselves torn between fence-mending, the real kind, and indulging ourselves with our hobbies. Perhaps, when things get rough or unpredictable, as happens when we are learning new things, especially in our multi-skilled hobby, it just loses its appeal for a bit. Best to stop, mend that fence, and maybe change the oil in the car, and come back when you have had a rest. Typically, it is only a matter of days, but I hear of some who are away for what seems a whole lifetime.
I agree, Mike, we should all walk away and do something else several times a year.
Just my 2 cents. (longtime 1957) modeler, shop manager, manufacturer plant manager). I see too many try to do too much to fast. It took me many years to learn, and I certainly don’t even begin to know it all. I see people with a pile of locos, boxes of cars, the biggest best DCC and they are way in over their head.
Take your time, read books and magazines, visit a club (or join), shop at different places and most of all, Stop and smell the roses!
I would have to agree with everything that has been said so far. I’ve been a newbie for the last 20+ years. More of the armchair variety, as I have yet to build my first layout. I’m hoping to start construction before the end of the year. Sometimes I have gone years with no thought of the hobby, then I’ll see a magazine or something that gets me started again.