Just want to know what to expect.
Edited for Spelling
Personally, I think one reaches the “Expert” level, when they believe they have, and have been told by others that they have. It is a relative figure. You may never consider yourself an expert, but others may.
I guess a few NMRA recognitions, and a layout or two in Model Railroader wouldn’t hurt either.[;)]
i figure i’ll be an expert sometime in my next life
TrainFreak409, good answer!! i picked the last one. LOL!! now thats good!LOL!!
i am still learning alot!!!
It took me 18 years but by the time I was 25 I had forgotten most of it.
Hey! I just wish I knew half what I thought I knew 20 years ago. That applies to MR and most everything else in my life. “Vee grow too soon alt und too late Shmart”
[;)]
The greatest compliment I ever heard was " I hope to some day know half of what your uncle has forgotten". My uncle ruled Chesapeake bay yachting for years, occassionally remembering those forgotten things. His name was dave, not Mike!
Will
I dont think everyone will know everything in this hobby. There is new stuff being discovered every day!
Someone once said that if you read five advanced-level books on any subject for each of five years, you would be an expert…assuming you could retain it all.
I voted for one year because if you read all of those works, chances are you would be an expert if you could expound upon it all accurately.
Personally, I am an expert in MY railroad. I can wax eloquently for hours on what went well and what didn’t. I learned early in life not to do that, however. People will quickly come to dislike a person who undimensionally talks about one thing every time he meets others. Fortunately, I can go on at length with you fine folks, BUT HERE I"M NO EXPERT!!! [:(]
Already an expert–Ex being a has been and a spert being a drip under pressure
I think that I am going the wrong way. Every time I learn something new, I find another two things to learn about. [sigh]
REX
Where is the “Twelfth of Never” option?
I have an engineering degree (not from MIT) and I am considering going to work for a railroad, so I may know everything in about five years.
The more I learn the less I know, someday I’m hoping to learn enough to move up from J---------- to idiot and realy be annoying!!!
Well it’s neck and neck with John, Tony and the NMRA coming up the rear.
I do not know the correct answer. I just know that it is a lot longer than some posters on this forum and others think it is. i.e. - it is impossible before the age of 20. In my case I think it is somewhere on the high side of 60.
The more I read and learn the more I realize how little I know. I would say I am an expert at impulse buying at the hobby shop and at shows though, lol.
I assume you meant John Armstrong not John Anderson in your second choice.
I think you have to have a combination of reading and doing. There’s nothing like actually laying a little track to increase your knowledege. My suggestion is read a little, do a little and repeat. After some number of iterations you find techniques that work for you and develop an understanding of what you’re doing. At that point you have become an expert. Some might do it in a year, some 10 years.
Also, Model Railroading has many facets so you could be an expert in one area and a novice in another. You might know a lot about scratchbuilding a model with styrene and be clueless about dcc. You might be a whiz at building a layout out of 1x4’s and plywood and never done anything with foam. I think part of what makes this hobby so much fun is that there are so many parts to it and so many ways to do things that you never do learn it all.
Enjoy
Paul
Oops. I do that WAY too often. [:I]
I think I have it down, my girlfriend will come down stairs and say wow looks good. Then I see what you guys will post and see MR or RMC and other mags and feel like a total beginer again [:(]
Hoping that sleeping with MR under the pillow (actually I will read them and fall asleep with them across my chest in bed [:)] ) or doing the sublimittal with the How-to videos playing on the DVD at night.