I am getting ready to turn 16, and this summer will be my first with drivers liscense. So a few weeks ago, I decided to gather up my savings and put them into a savings account that will go toward the summer. Some of this money, a small amount, along with some other pocket change, is what is able to be spent on MRR’ing now. The money I had saved was originally for a Digitrax Zephyer and some decoders, maybe even a new Dash 9 for my fleet. Instead of getting a job, I put the money into savings for the summer, unfortunatley. So MRR’ing is now secondary…for now.
I bet you’ll come back to it. You are at a point in life where there is a lot going on. I know when I was your age, my hobbies took a back seat to things like school, the opposite sex, a job and owning a car. The next 10 years or so will fly by like you won’t believe. If you end up getting married and have kids, model railroading may prove to be one of the few routes to maintaining your sanity sanity. I took about a 40 year hiatus but now that I have some disposable income and a small amount of spare time, I’m back with a vengeance and renewed vigor. My advice to you would be to keep in touch with the hobby and not quit cold turkey. You could find much worse vices to spend your hard earned paycheck and valuable time on.
Beegle, good for you! The ability to look at your resources and to save some of them for something later is a skill sadly lacking in many. It will serve you well.
Congrats on “almost” turning 16. Hopefully it will be a great time in your life and filled with many adventures to experience. Back burner is ok, as it seems that most of us have had to do that at one time or another. I put model railroading on hold for 30+ years, and am just getting back into it. I have read a lot of your posts and would hate to see you drift away from the forums, especially since I just got here.
Personally, I didn’t really get serious about model railroading until I was about 25. And even then I only dabbled in it until about four years ago. Now at age 43 I’m “REALLY” into it, I guess maybe because I have a lot more money to spend on it. My advice to you is have your fun and enjoy your youth because you’ll only get one shot at it. You can always come back to this later.
Tracklayer - The wise and all knowing sage (yeah, right).
Thanks for all the kind replies. I am sure Im doing the right thing, but model railroading won’t be forgotten by any means, because I still have SO much stuff in my possestion to work on the layout with without even having to buy anything. Some amounts of my limited income will still go into the hobby, just not as much as first thought a few months ago. Thanks again!
As others have said. Enjoy your youth. Do stupid things and regret nothing, only regret things you didn’t do. When you get older you might come back. I’m recently thirty and I came back from a 20 year off period half a year ago. So keep what you got or atleast the most important things and combine a good youthfull life aswell as a limited MRR life. There needs to be no contradiction.
You have just successfully passed a major reality check. As you move along your personal lifetime, you will certainly encounter more occasions to re-evaluate your priorities.
Your comments about continuing with the hobby on a low-expense basis prove that you are a confirmed model railroad addict. Congratulations! Welcome to the club.
I sincerely hope that you never have occasion to back-burner your model railroading for the most usual reason that I had to. Playing war with real bullets is NOT a fun thing.
When you find what you think is the right girl, don’t do somthing stupid like sell your trains to buy her a ring. Enjoy your summer. You only have a few left before life gives you a major reality check. (and they really do get shorter as you get older. Thought my folks were kidding when they said that.[:-^])
Thanks for the words of encouragement, and yes, now I get to drive to the LHS instead of begging my parents to take me. And never, neeeever would I risk selling the layout for the good of a she-devil, been there and done that three two many times, not with trains though, thank god.
When I was 16 I moved upgraded my automobile fleet from two Model "A"s (a 1928 and 1930) to an almost new 1970 Mercury Cougar. I got my first job in the summer. Started my own fireworks company over the 4th of July. That is the year we got our first swimming pool (the above the ground type) and I learned all about water chemistry. That is one summer I would like to redo. That is also when I got my first subscription to Model Railroader instead of buying it from the news stands. I never put model railroading on the back burner.
Believe me, the next 16 will go by twice as fast. I put MRRing on the backburner when I took a job farming at 12. I started at 6 & had an accident that left me in a wheelchair at 33. MRRing really helped rehab me & I got back in in 1998, right at a good time to get elbow deep in DCC & begin an all new love affair with MRRing. I was able to spend enough to get a good DCC system & some decoders before my cash ran low. I’ve done a lot of projects from my bed as I construct a 2X4 module table to set beside my bed to work on. I have 2 fairly well finished modules & a 10X20 trainroom with a double loop around the walls with a 9-track yard down one long wall. Life can take some unexpected turns & I’m sure glad that I didn’t do away with any of my MRR stuff. Tweet.
