Sometimes it’s hard to justify Model Railroading in hard economic times.
People are losing their jobs and foreclosures are high.
How can we justify a hobby that requires basically, a priveleged leisure time to pursue?
At least it doesn’t require additional gas to operate it like boats or cars; nor is it generally “seasonal” or weather-dependent like some hobbies are.
You do what you can do…with what you have…and the time you have to enjoy it.
Tom
until someone else has to take care of my needs and wants for me, i don’t have to justify anything.
look at the bright side, the more it costs, the less riff-raff you have to put up with.
oh well, maybe if i had less then others could have more. nah, never mind.
think i’ll do like Homer Simpson and if i don’t pay my mortgage then i will just take the numbers off my house so the bank can’t find it.
grizlump
Yes, it can be expensive, but there are many things one can do to keep costs down.
Yard sales are a great place to get a sifter or a used blender. With those you can use dirt and make your own ground foam or chop up dried leaves. Some RIT dye will go a long way coloring the ground foam or sawdust. Weeds and other dried plant material can make trees and bushes. Scratchbuilding using available materials can produce some credible structures.
One doesn’t have to have a fancy layout to have fun. Many folks like operations and only have plywood central and are very happy watching their trains run, switch and move along again.
What you do purchase from the hobby shop helps keep them in busisness. Makes it so the folks that work there can buy products and services that modelers provide at their work place. I do wish that there were more products available that were produced in this country, but such is life.
By having a hobby we are suppose to be happier, less stress. We do better at other things because we aren’t stressed. Family life should be better if you are not stressed. Saves on alimony payments and psycatrists bills…
True, I’m not buying a lot now, for several reasons. I am trying to use things I already have or are readily available at little cost. I’m still having fun and my skills are progressing as I go along. Just because my dream layout is still a dream doesn’t mean I can’t still dream and enjoy what I am doing.
Have fun, that is the important thing.
I lost my job 9 years ago. OTOH, I was prepared for it and retired. It ain’t my fault people spent more than they made, bought McMansions with virtually no down payment, used their houses as ATM’s, leased cars they couldn’t afford to buy and managed to run up credit card debt that represented a significant portion of their annual income.
My wife and I earned our leisure by spending less than we made and saving/investing the rest. It’s not like we haven’t taken some severe financial hits ourselves, but then again, we were never leveraged to the hilt like so many people were. I’m not going to feel guilty about it any more than I’d feel guilty about someone who wins the lottery and then files bankruptcy a few years later because they never learned how to handle money.
If I sound harsh, I don’t care. I’ve already spent money to help out relatives in jams they never should have gotten intio. Some of it would have been model railroading money, so please spare me the implication I should be wearing sackcloth and ashes to atone for sins I haven’t committed (or that one shouldn’t have a hobby because someone else is having a rough go ot it).
As far as boo-hooing about hard ecnomic times. Kalmbach Publishing, the NMRA, and Walthers were all founded during a Depression that makes the current time look a Sunday School picnic. Back in the worst part of the Depression, official unemployment hit 25%. It would have to more than double for us to get to that level of misery.
BTW, you might want to read Frederick Lewis Allen’s “Only Yesterday”. It’s about the decade leading up to the Depression. There are quite a few similarities.
Andre
It’s all relative no matter how you look at it. If your one of the people who still has his job and you’ve been at it for a long time and fell as secure as one can ever feel secure at any job as the day of working at some place from first hire to retirement are way long gone then why feel any different about being in the hobby and spending what you do. Regardless of the economic state of the nation as an individual who takes responsibility for him self and is not dependent on others for his health and well being only a fool would go out and spend money on his hobby that should go for paying things like the mortgage, health insurance, utilities, fod, clothing for your kids etc. Hobby money is supposed to be disposable income no matter what the state of the nation is.
I am feeling the crunch like many others are no question so I don’t move along on the railroad as fast as I used to. If i needed a bunch of flex track or some turn outs or what have you for the layout I simply drove up to the LHS and purchased what I need. Now a day I have limited income so anything I earn on the side after bills and essentials are payed for I put some away form my hobby’s I just find other things to do.It may be out of “the normal sequence” of building but I find plenty to do with what I have right here in the work shop. One great thing about this hobby which has never changed is that it helps bring out one’s own creativity. Sure there are plenty of ready to run or pre built items, ground covers and other parts of the railroad that are available to you for a price and quite frankly some are well worth the money but thats only if you have it to spend. There are a lot of great ground cover materials out on the market but as of late my new favorite is good old back yard dirt. It’s plentiful and free and I really am satisfied with how it’s looking. Extruded foam is the new medium of choice for many modelers but again quite pricey. So old school hard shell made form cardboard strips, news papers or paper towels soaked in
When faced with the reality that I will not able to use HO due to eye issues that required surgery which totalled about… oh round 15,000 done or so… I sold off all of my HO and seeded the money to get into O at a later date.
Insurance paid it all. Fortunately.
We used the time to wrap up any other medical issues I have and we have adequate information on hand and started taking debt down one by one. Living within our means.
Trains are last after everything else is paid. Sometimes no trains that month.
But little by little we are getting Trains going again and even enjoying a brass project or two on a small scale.
The collapse of the Nation has led to pricing that is very attractive. I managed to win a few items on ebay recently that did not cost very much at all. Still I go to the shop once in a while. Orders have slowed, but they are still put in occasionally.
Shooting became a new hobby and all things that go with it in my State. That took away alot of our spending money for about a year or so.
Then continue to pay down one debt, make home replacement of obsolete equipment and reduce our own outflow of necessary bills each month. The house is free and clear except for taxes each year which really amounts to nothing hardly.
We identified bleeding money as it were and stopped it. Fired one cell carrier because bills kept rising each month, we switch to another with a fixed bill and no commitment outright. We can drop them at any time or the satellite. Trains? Always last after everything else.
I am medically retired and wife is part time. We still have a budget in the black first week of each month after all the bills are planned and paid.
Cannot complain too loudly.
Also due to our loss of income we will drop our tax load by several brackets as well so essentially it wont matter. It will in about 4 years. But we are trying to get ready for that.
Never forget your neighbor and help a
Oh by the way, funeral services, arrangements and life insurance plus living will directives are all in place and paid for up front years ago. So that if I go, Spouse simply makes a few phone calls and move forward with her life and vice versa. Everything is in order. And I like it that way.
I don’t see any reason to justify MY model railroad spending because SOMEBODY ELSE is having a hard time.
People are losing their jobs. I can’t lose mine - but then, full retirement isn’t a job.
Foreclosures are high. My mortgage is slightly inverted - so I’m making extra principal payments to bring the debt down to something less than the market value of the house. I can do that and still show a positive balance at the end of the month.
Since the one thing I have is time, I can either spend it working on a model railroad or waste it trying to find content between the commercials on television. And, as I said to start with, I don’t have to justify anything. My wife is cool with my model expenses (which aren’t that much - I did my major ‘expensive item’ buying years ago) just as I’m cool with her hobby expenses (which are actually higher than mine.) As for other people’s opinions about our lifestyle - they are welcome to have them, as long as they keep them to themselves. I neither want nor need them.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I’m tired, I’m grumpy…and I might tick some people off with this, but here goes.
First, WHY would anybody need to “justify” model railroading, or stamp collecting, or having an antique car, or ANY hobby???
IF you have the means to pursue it…then pursue it. If you don’t, then take care of the necessities (food, clothing, shelter) first and back-burner the hobby until you do. Yes, the economy sucks…it’s likely to get worse…much worse. Yes, a lot of people are in the crapper financially. IF you are so moved, then donate to your church or other worthy charity/social organization to help.
But, again I wonder…why do you feel you need to “justify” being able to partake in something you enjoy?
Life is meant to be enjoyed. By all means, help those who need help…but one should not feel, or be made to feel, guilty about being able to enjoy something. By all means, be fiscally responsible with the money you have, but to abstain from a hobby that can be as expensive or inexpensive as the individual wants…out of a sense of guilt; life is just too darned short for that kind of nonsense.
I also reject the premise that the hobby requires a “privaledged leisure time to pursue.” Spending a few hours knocking together a car kit is “priviledged leisure time?” How is that any different than someone watching a few hours of crap on TV? Or volunteering for a cause they believe in??
Chris 
I don’t think it will affect the hobby at all. Sure some people are out of work, but you learn to cope. But those people are only a small percentage anyways. The people that have jobs will still spend money on model railroads, like me.
This hobby is insanely expensive. I try not to gripe but good grief. its especially expensive modeling DRGW.
I guess if you model CSX, NS, BNSF or UP you can find some deals because of the mass quantity of stuff out there in those roadnames - Its a joke for DRGW, just expect to pay dearly.
As a result of the global financial crisis, I had to fold up my business a little over a year ago. Since then, I have been searching for a job, but as a 54 year old, I am regarded too old for the job market, at least in my neck of woods.
Living off social security, I have no money at all to be spend on MRRing and I am confined to armchairing. Thanks to the generosity and friendship of a fellow forum member, I am still able to read MR and have daydreams of the layout I will build, when times improve. There is little hope, though.
Model railroading has accompanied my life for 47 years now and not being able to even by a cheap box car kit really eats me up.
I like scratch building. And this is not so expensive.
But you need some money if your want-list is bigger.If you want to buy engines.
Wolfgang
I don’t have to justify my hobby to anyone but my wife of 43 years.
In particular, I don’t have to justify it to YOU.
If you are so concerned, how do you justify having computer and Internet service in these terrible times?
My definition of a recession is: When the economy gets so bad that you are forced to do without things your grandparents never dreamed of having".
The time I spend in my basement, at the kitchen counter, or isn’t privileged leisure time - it’s time that I have earned after a 34 year career or hard work and a whole lot of sacrifice. I get really tired of reading comments like this because the money that I spend on the hobby as well as other pursuits helps support people that are working, helps keeps businesses viable, and provides some sense of satisfaction.
I do feel very bad for people who have lost their homes and jobs through no fault of their own. This has been one of the most difficult recessions in history and so many have suffered great hardship. Even some of the posts to this thread indicate what some people have gone through. But to criticize people for spending money and time on something that brings some small anount of pleasure in times like these is short sided and doesn’t require any justification.
Compared to other hobby’s I have had, this is not to bad. But there are times when I still amazed how I can spend $50.00 and walk out of my LHS with some wheels, couplers and a few sections of flex track. But, they will last most of us for a life time.
There are plenty of ways to save money in the hobby, E Stupid, HO Yard Sale, swap meets, using scrap lumber and being creative when it comes to detailing your layout.
How do we justify the luxury of having a hobby when money is tight? A person needs something to look forward to off set the worries of the rest of there life.
My [2c] worth, Cuda Ken
I have a solid, steady, reliable job. I’ve worked all my life. I bought a house in 1980 and I’m still in it, and I don’t owe a dime. I don’t buy overpriced cars with satellite radio. I don’t own a boat or an airplane, and I don’t play golf.
On the other hand, I have a daughter in college and we plan to get her out of at least her undergraduate years debt free, the same gift my parents gave to me. We’re close to retirement now, and I have very little confidence that the government will do much for me.
I think it’s important that those of us who can afford to spend money on the hobby do so now. As we’ve seen, banks don’t always do wise things with their deposits. So, take some away from them and spend it at your LHS. That’s called “consumer spending,” and it is the biggest single component of the American economy. Properly done, consumer spending will help bring the economy back. It will employ the staff of the LHS, and the UPS driver that delivers stuff from Walthers, and all those good folks in Milwaukee, too. A few cents will end up with BNSF for transporting that container of trains from Los Angeles, some will go to the shipping company, and some will end up helping some couple in China feed the one child they were allowed to have.
Economists suspect that there is still a lot of money “sitting on the sidelines” waiting for the economy to move decisively in one direction or another. Sure, if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, this isn’t the time to splurge on locomotives, but if you have discretionary income, the very best thing you can do with it is to spend it and keep the little guys in the hobby going.
The most interesting questions usually does not start with “how”, but “why” 
Here is an example:
Why do you feel a need to ask others how they would justify how they spend their time and money?
Is it a case of misery looking for comfort in the company of others who also cannot afford to spend as much as they would like?
Or is the “we” really supposed to be " I ", as in “what arguments do you think I should use to convince my spouse to let me buy expensive toys, even though money is tight?”
Or something entirely different?
Here is another example:
Why do you think Model Railroading demands “privileged leisure time”?
Grin,
Stein
I have to echo the comments of Chuck, Andre, Phoebe Vet and others. I don’t have to justify anything. It’s my money, I earned it. I was responsable and hard working my whole life, and will not “apologize” for what I have.
My house (big, fancy and 110 years old) was restored largely by my own hands and is paid for, my cars are paid for, etc, we don’t buy things we can’t aford, we don’t live beyond our means, we don’t live on borrowed money.
As for the “globial crisis”, I have preached against the policies of most governments for decades, along with others warning of these problems or worse - but what do I know?
I was prepaired, it’s not my fault others are not.
As for spending on the hobby, I spend a lot compared to some, and little compared to others. I have a large pecentage of I need and want for the layout I am building. Just like other areas of my life, I don’t buy things I don’t really need or want. My spending, even on my hobby is very logical, not emotional. I don’t collect, I have very specific modeling goals and I generally only buy items that fill those goals. I find this gives me much more “bang for the buck” in terms of fun per dollar.
In nearly 40 years of model railroading, I only own about two dozen items that are outside the theme of the layout and have only “liquidated” about a dozen items having bought them and them changed my mind about wanting or needing them. Compared to 110 locos, 600 freight cars, 100 passenger cars, etc, that is a minuscule percentage of “purchase errors”.
Maybe I am so secure because I have lived my whole live with that kind of thinking and personal discipline.
"A man’s first responsabl