Models or Railroads; What's your passion?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Being an introspective sort of guy, I find myself pondering such questions as "Why do I do what I do?’ and “Why is it that I do what I do for different reasons than other people who do it, too?”

I am a dedicated model railroader - there is no doubt - all evidence is that I’m an addict to this hobby. Yet, I am not a railfan - not even a little. I ride tourist railroads like any other tourist, and I enjoy watching a passing train like most folks do, but I do not enjoy studying trains. I have no interest in the way railroads operate, or how they evolve as corporations. When I look at prototype railroads and railroad equipment it is purely from the perspective of building credible models.

I don’t limit myself to model railroading, either. I’ve enjoyed building a miniature house (dollhouse, but more of a model than toy), model cars, boats, aircraft, etc. What I find is that my true interests are in building models, and that the prototypes are only important in that I want to represent them accurately/credibly.

I’m also an active participant in the forums and I see that many other participants are railfans as well as modelers. So, how do you describe yourself as a model railroader - railfan who builds models, model builder who chooses railroads as subject matter, somewhere in between, or something else entirely?

Ground rule: Let’s not turn this into a thread about who’s doing it right/better.

2

This could be a complicated topic.

I am somewhere in the middle. Or maybe there is a different category. I am a grown-up child that likes toys. However, I admit that I am more of a railfan than a modeler. I like toy machines that move. I want some realism, but I am not worried if I am not completely prototypical. I like building, but I am more interested in having my trains run smoothly. Whenever I envision my future layout, I always see how my trains will run.

I have a daughter that has started in Youth in Model Railroading. She’s the opposite. She wants to create scenes and dioramas. The trains just happen to go through them.

3

I’m a modeller, too. I spend far more time on my scenery than on the trains themselves. I’m interested in prototype railroading just because it’s inherently interesting. I don’t spend a lot of effort trying to duplicate real railroading practices, but I do find them a good starting point.

At this point, I’ve realized that my layout is not particularly interesting from an operational standpoint. So, I’ve begun planning an addition, which will provide some staging to allow for a bit more than just running trains around the loop. That’s fun in itself, of course, because I enjoy railfanning on my layout, but I’ll confess I’ve hardly run the layout for a month, concentrating instead on scenic elements.

4

I really had to think about that question for awhile. At first I thought I was a railfan who builds models but then I thought about it and have realized I’m a model builder who choose a railroad to build. I have no interest in how a real railroad operates and I’m not really one for switching. I prefer just to sit back and watch the trains run. I’m not so much watching the train but watching and appreciating the models. I prefer highly detailed models and that is were my passion is. I strive to recreate something as close to the prototype as I can. It doesn’t matter if its a box car or a building, I just have to detail the heck out of it. HMMM, who knew. [%-)]

5

Guess I’m strictly MR (ho) Luckily grew up in a railway town with steam(the end of it) so saw lots of train stuff, still stop and watch a freight go by, not too keen on diesels (just big metal boxes with a motor), so I fool around in HO logging, scratchbuild mostly, and find this forum a gold mine of information, plus some interesting people and a few laughs too. I can’t be a train watcher here as they decided to remove all remnants of the former railway except for the train station. This forum is one of the better things on the internet and seems to be getting better.

6

Interesting topic and one I had to really start thinking about.

I’d say that I grew up being a rail-fan–back when I was a kid I just loved watching trains anytime, anywhere. I got into model railroading in the late 'fifties, but not what you would really call ‘seriously’–that had to wait until I was in my 'thirties and had my own home and space to actually start building layouts.

But I will admit that my ‘railfanning’ urge has waned somewhat over the past ten or fifteen years. Oh, I still like to ride ‘tourist’ trains for the fun of it, and if I’m driving along and a train comes by I’ll glance over at it and smile a little. And if I’m riding up Interstate 80 toward Donner Pass or State Route 70 through the Feather River Canyon, I’ll still glance over at the railroad tracks to see if there’s anything coming by, but I have to admit that today’s railroads don’t do it for me like they used to.

I don’t know whether it’s the equipment or what–can’t put my finger on it–I can say that I don’t find anything very exciting about a solid train of double-stacks–freights used to excite me with the incredible VARIETY of types of cars, I don’t see that so much, anymore. And of course, I miss cabooses, LOL!

So I would say that at the present time, my ‘railfanning’ consists mostly of going out into the garage and working on the MR.

I mean, UP #844 was in Roseville the other weekend, and I didn’t even go over to see it. Funny thing, I was at Railroad Hobbies in Roseville one of the days it was in the yards across the street, and one of the guys asked me if I was going to go over and see it. I shrugged and said, “Nah, too ‘plain’ looking for me.” He blinked, then chuckled. “Me, too,” he said.

So I guess it’s not just me, these days, LOL!

Tom [

7

Trains have fascinated me since my very early days-blame my Grandmother for that.I have had models of trains since I can remember and made my first serious attempt at a layout when I was about 10.

I joined the railway at 16,became a Driver at 21 and retired at 50-I’d had enough but I still have my model trains,my present layout is US.

I love reading railway history,I have a dedicated library of maybe 1500 books both US and UK.but since I’ve retired,I would’nt walk up the street to look at a train.

Steve

8

I would say I’m both. I enjoy railfanning, photography, and videography (all at the same time, so most of my videos have the signature “click” of an SLR in the background audio!) and know a lot about operations in general and also the schedules of local railroads.

But I also enjoy modeling, or at least building and operating a layout. I wouldn’t call myself an RTR modeler, but I don’t build much from kits or from scratch for my layout. Almost all of my equipment is used, which also goes for the structures and most of the other stuff. I focus on operations, so I use a roster of all Atlas and P2K locomotives, with the rolling stock with Kadee couplers and metal wheels. While the Athearn BB rolling stock isn’t that high quality, it’s cheap enough to build an operating railroad on, runs well with metal wheels and Kadees, and looks acceptable to me with weathering.

9

Phil,There are many ways to enjoy this hobby and that enjoyment is a personal thing.There are modelers that are not railfans and railfans that are not modelers.There are both modeler and railfan.

For me the hobby is many things to include railfanning…I gather tons of information while talking to other fans at trackside.I keep up with the current affairs of the hobby-what’s hot and what’s not so hot.

I railfan in order to stu

10

I’m more of a model railroader than railfan. While I enjoy building individual models, I really like building the layout as a whole. Since I’m short on time, I use RTR where available to speed up the layout building. I am interested in operating my layout, because watching the trains go around in circles gets old after a while - at least for me.

On the railfan side I have done a few tourist railroads and I’ll stop to watch a passing train, but I don’t sit out some where to watch trains go by all day nor do I have scanner. I do enjoy reading histories of individual railroads.

Enjoy

Paul

11

I see them as two separate things. Physical railroads and then the models of them. I don’t see it as an “or” type of question.

12

That is easy for me. Railfan who lives out their dreams in models. If I could be playing with real trains and real railroads there would be no need for Model Railroads. Of course it is hard to get the same action in 4 hours of operating a model railroad anywhere in the prototype. There is a reason it is called WORKING on the railroad. With a model one can just leave it when done. In the real world the trains must roll regardless. On yet the other hand if I had a Zillion dollars and could buy real trains like I buy models today, I could make a real railroad that could just be used for fun.

13

I supose I am a modeler. I wish there were more kits than RTR. In my opinion every thing should come both ways RTR and KITS. I started with Lionel as a kid but turned to HO for the building. Model cars were great but after they just sat there and R/C was way to expensive. HO has been great but kits are going the way of the dinosaur it seems.

Pete

14

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

First exposure to miniature trains was Lionel tinplate (really! Lithographed tin cars, with flat-hook sheet metal couplers) at the ripe old age of five - months!

First exposure to full-scale things that ran on steel rails was probably the Third Avenue L, or the streetcars that were ubiquitous in New York at the time. I probably didn’t notice prototype trains until later, but I remember seeing a Mallet when I was four…

My real passion is with the civil engineering aspects of putting a rail line through ‘interesting’ terrain. Since there isn’t much opportunity to do it full scale, I have to be satisfied with recreating some of the best I’ve seen in 1:80 scale. My choice of prototype locaton is hardly accidental.

The traffic density and variety is a bonus.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

15

When I reflect on the question, I find myself conflicted on how to answer. So will go this way. I love to watch prototype trains. I was born into a Santa Fe family, and I also worked for Santa Fe during college and for a few years afterwards. Then they made the mistake of sending me to IBM school (1960’s) to learn computers and programming and design and all, and then not giving me a decent salary to match all the great knowledge and opportunity, so in 1970, New Years day, I moved to Kansas City to accept a systems design position with the Federal Reserve Bank of KC. On the side, I pastored small congregations (I had my degrees from seminary and was ordained). Then retired early.

Now, all this is to say that I have always been a railfan, but not in the way many are. I won’t drive 600 miles to see a special diesel or car unless I just want to take a trip. I have my 3 deck Santa Fe in the basement, I enjoy operating on it, but I also enjoy building kits and the periodical kitbash. I would rather spend my time with the models today and less chasing trains which are becoming boring anyway.

So, I guess most of my passion is in the hobby/model portion, and much less in the proto. Of course getting old plays a part also.

Bob

16

Well growing up across the street from a railroad, I enjoyed trains long before I was a model railroader or even had an electric toy train. Of course our local kids TV show was “Lunch with Casey” featuring Roger Awsumb as Casey Jones, a railroader who stopped by the yard office to have lunch with his pal Roundhouse Rodney.

I didn’t really become a model railroader until my Dad became the mailman for Woodcraft Hobby, who had a 15 minute TV each Saturday. Eventually I got some HO trains for Xmas when I was 13 and have been in the hobby ever since.

Living along a rail line I had it easy - the trains came to me so I could take pics from my bedroom window!! Now I live a few miles away from a train line…but instead of being on a slowpoke branchline, I live along two Twin Cities - Chicago mainlines. I don’t do to much photography but do like seeing the high speed “toasters” roar by with long stack trains etc.

BTW one issue is most of us don’t model “today” so as the period we model gets further away, there’s less pull to go try to photograph trains. After the last (steam engine, F unit, Alco) is gone from the line we model, railfanning might become much less interesting.

17

I enjoy both model railroading and railfanning, however it’s usually one or the other. Rarely am I doing both at the same time.

The problem I’ve always had with model railroading is that getting every detail ‘just right’ takes the fun out of it. I like accuracy, but the whole idea of super-realism just becomes completely overwhelming that I wind up taking a break and moving on to one of my other (non-rail) interests.

As for railfanning, I like watching trains pass, but that also gets boring if done excessively. (how many NS and CSX wide cabs can you stand?). I’m more interested in the history of railroads and their lines, but even this can be an exhausting pastime in which to study.

Overall, for me it’s all about moderation and not concerning myself with what everyone else is doing. That may sound asocial, but it works for me.

18

I’m almost exactly like the OP on this. More modeler than Railroader. I do like railroad history and my layout seems to be slowly drifting back in time. It seems to have settled around 1910-1925. I couldn’t tell the difference betweena SD70MAC and A SD80 whatever. Lifes to short to have one hobby so I like woodworking, model planes,papermodeling of steel warships,and shipmodeling in general. BILL

19

I tend toward the modelling side—at thiis point. Maybe on the next point. I’ll be operating!! Heeheehee[:-,]

20

Great Topic. I was just thinking about this the other day after having got back into the hobby after a long, long hiatus. I was trying to decide what I was really going to do with what I’m doing? [%-)]

I’ve always enjoyed seeing a train. I had my “own” HO railcars and engine when I was about 9 or 10. Before that my Dad would setup the American Flyer once in a while.

When I was in my early teens, I “secured” a corner in a dark, unfrequented part of the basement where I proceeded to build an 8 by 8 layout. I had all the track laid but never got around to finishing the scenery. Mainly because my middle to later teen years began to be occupied with the more “interesting” occupations of young manhood… [}:)]

Now, quite a few years and kids later, I’ve started an N scale layout. I’m enjoying the research of the various prototypes I’m modelling, and I now have quite a collection of books. I really enjoy the building process. I’m very intrigued by operations using DCC. However, I’m not sure yet I’d even “operate” the layout if and when I finished it. That will remain to be seen. In the meantime, I’m thoroughly enjoying “building” again. Another thing I’m looking forward to is exploring the use of my computer in helping me run trains.

Right now I’m a “lone wolf” modeler and haven’t really thought about involving others. Perhaps at some point I will, but right now, I’m happy just putzing… [2c]

Bob O…