If you had to pick your top five modeling intrests....

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

All you have to do is pick your top five modeling interests.

It can be from a certain locomotive to a certain Railroad to a certain nation, anything goes.

Heres mine

  1. Anything with weeds instead of balast

2.narrow gauge, American and British

  1. Modern Grain Covered Hoppers

4.Short lines

5.anything on its last leg

So if anybody knows of a shortline with weeds in between the rails, in its last years of operation, narrow gauged that hauls modern grain hoppers that runs in between American and england, tell me [:D]

and everything does not count [:D]

2

  1. Structure Building

  2. DCC

  3. CB&Q and related railroads

  4. British Steam

  5. Quality time with my boys (Actually number 1)

3

  1. Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad

  2. Operating trains

  3. Truss rod cars

  4. Pickle cars

  5. Small quirky structures

Enjoy

Paul

4
  1. Engine terminals- I have too many engines in both eras.
  2. Yards- similar to #1, I guess, since they’re found together
  3. Scratchbuilding- I started modelling another era for the increased leeway I got from freelancing, allowing me to scratch build whatever I wanted.
  4. Short trains- no space for anything else, yet.
  5. Wisconsin railroads and landscape
5

  1. The Pennsylvania Railroad, in particular the Q2 duplex and the trains it pulled.

  2. Cabooses

  3. Cars and trucks, including commercial ones, 1940-1952

  4. Farms

  5. Steel

Alvie

6

  1. The New York Central and learning about the prototype

  2. Switchers - steam/early diesel

  3. Scratch-building/kitbashing/detailing

  4. Creating “how-to” tutorials for #3

  5. Lighting

7

  1. Designing / building bench work

  2. Wiring

  3. Laying track

  4. Creating scenery

  5. Prototype research
    Don Z.

8

  1. Small industrial engines (critters!).

  2. Scratch building and kit bashing, both rolling stock and structures, including - you guessed it! - critters.

  3. Putting DCC (with or without sound) in engines with very little space.

  4. Upgrading cars, i.e. replacing molded on grabs with wire grabs, KaDee’s, metal wheels, proper weight etc.

  5. The Canadian Pacific Railroad in the late 50’s.

Good thing the list was limited to 5 interests or I would be going on forever.[;)]

Dave

9
  1. Watching them run

2.Watching them run

3.Watching them run

  1. Taking still shot pictures

5.Taking Videos

10

Well, here goes.

  1. Branchline operations (standard or narrow).

  2. Scratchbuilding small, visually interesting structures, preferrably wooden.

  3. Small locomotives & switchers, steam or diesel.

  4. Small town life. Mayberry, Hooterville, or Hazard, there’s a common thread to life that has been lost to modern society.

  5. Southeast.

11

In order of preference:

  1. Locomotives (in particular, first generation diesels - e.g. S-2, RS-3, GP7, SW9)

  2. Vehicles (especially trucks, buses and fire engines)

  3. Structures (preferably kits that are easy to paint and put together)

  4. Freight cars (especially box cars, tank cars, and gondolas)

  5. Running trains

12

For those of us over 30, consider also that our particular interests tend to change over the years. I remember being fascinated with anything New York Central and Burlington Northern back in the late 70s.

  1. Stainless steel passenger cars

  2. Passenger locomotives, especially EMDs

  3. Seaboard Coast Line and Atlantic Coast Line railroads

  4. Diesel locomotive shop facilities

  5. New Haven Railroad

13

  1. Wisconsin railroads

  2. The Chicago and Northwestern

  3. Prototype superdetailing and painting

  4. Rebuilt locomotives (ex. GP9m, GP10, SD10, AS-16M, etc.)

  5. Bridges

14

In Model Railroading:

1). Steam locomotives.

2). Cabeeses

3). Wood outside braced Box Cars

4). Bridges

5). Railroad History, in particular the Northern Pacific.

15

  1. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s Sand Patch Grade.

  2. Passenger cars

  3. Early TOFC

  4. 1st generation diesels

  5. L-A-R-G-E industries

Greg

16

  1. Southern Pacific in 1927

  2. Not the mainline SP, but protoype based branch operations

  3. Pacific Fruit Express

  4. Industries related to perishables/citrus processing and shipping (read really large/diverse packing sheds!)

  5. Support industries revelent to the packing industry

Dave

17

  1. Building structures.

  2. Passenger Trains

  3. The Ontario Northland Railway

  4. Researching Canadian Railways

  5. Collecting a locomotive and caboose from every railway or railroad that interest me

18

An interesting question, which really got me thinking. While items 2 through 5 might shuffle in order some, I came to realize (somewhat to my own surprise) that my number 1 really has turned out to be my number 1.

  1. Researching the Monon railroad

  2. Painting & decaling locomotives & rolling stock

  3. Making a train and just watching it go

  4. Making buildings

  5. Building scenery

19

  1. The Upper Kiso Valley (aka Central Japan Alps)

  2. TTTO operation, 24/30, September, 1964.

  3. Creative trackplanning and construction.

  4. Creating unlikely rolling stock from unlikely materials.

  5. Scratchbuilding things for which kits will never be available.

unlisted. Having FUN!!!

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

20

  1. North American Passenger Trains

  2. Repainting locomotives for lines that never owned that engine

  3. Auto Industry (iron ore → auto distribution center)

  4. Michigan short lines

  5. Heavy duty flat cars