I wonder just how long a fellow or gal should consider themselves a newbie? What is the path to becoming a model railroad savant? Certainly it is not the NMRA AP program.
Is one’s skill measured in our modeler’s vocabulary?
Is it feet of flex track, glued, screwed or nailed?
Is it number of operating sessions attended?
Is it the number of hand laid turnouts built?
Just curious what you think?
Joe Daddy
Midway through my Junior year as a newb.
Good question. I’ve been in the hobby for over 5 years now and still I consider myself a newbie in some areas of the hobby. Anything to do with DCC, laying track, wiring and assembling buildings I’m great at. Scenery on the other hand I’m new at.
I’ve been a model railroader for 3 years now and I still consider myself a newbie. I operate regularly on two layouts and have invites on a couple more.
Although I’ve done a few things, some pretty well. there are lots of basic things I’ve never done. There are lots of my skills that are “rough.” Just his weekend I weathered my first car.
When I look at the layouts I aspire to though, I’m a babe in the woods.
As long as I need to ask questions…So this title may take awhile to get rid of!
It’s all relative, If your talking to someone that is newer then you are, your an old hand. If your talking to an old hand your a newbie. Get it? Clear as mud?
Gee whiz what a question! Ok,let’s see then…I been in the hobby 57 years and still learn something new every day.
While I am not a overall newbie there are areas I know very little about,so I would be a “newbie” in that area.As far as over all modeling I consider myself as a advance modeler in my chosen areas of modeling but,will never consider myself as a “expert” because I do not believe in “experts” because ours is a ever learning hobby…
Hey there Joe Daddy,
While I have been in and out and back into the model railroading hobby since the 1970’s I have never measured my experience level in terms of modeler’s vocabulary, amount of flex track put down, or op sessions attended, or haid laid turnouts.
All I can say is that I am and will continue to be a lifetime student of the hobby. And try as I might to help others along with way with what I have learned through my own experience I try to share that through my PD website and occasional postings in this and other railroading and train related forums.
Like others have posted, there are some areas where I have little skill or experience, such as in electronics and signaling are two subjects where I need to sharpen the saw so to speak.
I suppose once I reached the point of being able to help others and answer others questions then the “newbie” status passed me up, but there are some areas where I may feel like a “newbie.” Another for instance, I know very little about the 7.5" or 1.5 gauge live steam variety of outdoor railroading, but have attended a few op sessions as a guest and in that arena I consider myself a “newbie”.
Now that is a great quote.
[#ditto] I’m in the hobby about the same length of time as Brakie, but only in DCC for a couple of years. The minute someone starts talking about CV’s, ohms, etc. I get lost in a hurry!! We’re all newbies in some way.[:)]
Nobody ever completely “arrives”. There’s always something to learn about this beloved hobby of ours. (That’s what makes it so great! [:)]) So, in that sense, we’re still all newbies in one way, shape, or form.
Tom
“Newbie” is more of an Internet term than a model railroading term. The term I see most often, especially in pre-Internet model railroading literature, is “beginner,” which works–the new model railroader is beginning a journey that can last the rest of their lives. There is no endpoint at which one can say “I have learned all there is to know about model railroading.”
I’ve been at it for about 35 years, but only started “trying” to get serious in the last 4-5.
I think it’s when you start looking at the stuff you buy and think “Will this fit my layout theme?” “Is this the right era and prototype for what I’m doing?”
That could happen the first year or it could happen 30 years down the road.
I figure you are no longer a newbie when your first layout is complete. Then you will have done one of everything.
Design
Benchwork
Trackwork
Electrical
Scenery
Running
After 30 some-odd years in the hobby I still consider myself a newbie in many areas and am a long way from considering myself an “expert” in any area - unless you want to include areas such as “dropping the small detail piece and not being able to find it” “I know I read something about that somewhere - now where is that back issue” and “sorry, hon, didn’t mean to spill the paint there” - those are areas that I’m expert at lol. Of course I always say that the day I stop learning something new - that’s the day to bury me six feet under.
I do find it interesting, though, that when reading articles written by those we consider “experts” the articles more often than not discuss something “new” that the “expert” learned. Perhaps that is why this hobby is so exciting and interesting - there’s always something new to learn right around the corner.
I’m an old man but still a young modeler !
Beginner might be a better term…newbie or “noob” as they say these days, I generally reserve for someone new to a group. So we started off with newbie and I would say that after you’ve had your hand at every facet of the hobby, you’re not a noob anymore. [2c]
I don’t think being a newbie has anything to do with not having any thing else to learn. As long as time progresses there will be new stuff to learn. Just because one doesn’t know about those things doesn’t make them a newbie. Nor do I think it has anything to do with calendar time. Some folks will always be in the newbie categorie while others will be there only a few months.
To me there is a point where one can participate in meaninful dialog about model trains, without having to stop explain every “jargonish” term . That is where I think they cease to be a newbie.
What kind of locomotive do you have?
Newbie answer - it says Pennsylvannia on the side.
Not Newbie answer - An F3 diesel.
I’ve been a model railroader for over 60 years now, and some people have asked me for suggestions, recommendations and even clinics - on things that I know.
OTOH, there are a lot of things I DON’T know. So there are still plenty of areas where I’m still a rank newbie. So be it.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I agree. Most hobbies, when you know the jargon you’re not a newcomer.
When people ask your advice the second time you’re an expert.
When you stop learning something new in the hobby you’ve passed on.
Enjoy
Paul
It’s all about the post count Joe-Daddy!, til you have several thousand snarky non-answers and lots of flame wars to your credit you will always be a newbie! and being a know-it-all done-it-all helps a lot to! LOL, seriously though personaly i hope i am always a newbie, otherwise if i had nothing to learn life would be kinda dull.