I’d never before been interested in die cast cars and trucks in the 1950s before building my last layout and getting them at Wally-World. Now, it’s sort of become a sub-hobby.
Never before have I been that interested in cloud formations, geology, types of trees, bushes and weeds…
Never before was I interested in learning about micro electronics…
Never before was I interested in wood working…
And on and on.
One thing led to another and now I’ve completely rebuilt my basement, using skills developed from model railroading. I’m much more confident about doing handyman jobs; I’m much more observant of the world around me; and I’m a lot happier with this toy train hobby.
Who said that toy trains has to just be about Christmas trains chugging around the tree once a year?
You’re right. If you’re creating a world inside your house, you first have to know the details of the big world. besides that, it’s fun to see that your hands can make whatever your mind is thinking…
That’s what’s so great about this hobby Dave, IT BREEDS OTHER HOBBIES!! In trying to model the real world, we end up studying the real world. What about photography? I think you missed that one. Then there are all the hobbies that go into the creation of the layout, wood working, electronics, and model building just to name a few.
Try that with stamp or coin collecting, (both of which I do, but on a VERY limited basis) and you’llsee why this is# The World’s Greatest Hobby
Yes, there are so many things I missed so on and so on and so on and so on.
Working with clay, working with tin to make structures; photography, even learned HTML so I could do a train webpage; study of geography; ergonomics, as in making a people-friendly layout, with lots of room to walk around; working with gears and mechanical controls; I could probably be here all night discussing these things.
I really can’t think of any other hobby with so many spinoffs; I really don’t want to hear about it if you tell me that you are bored with the hobby. If so, perhaps you are a boring person!
Dave, I consider us both teachers here, and on MR as well. You and I share the same philosophy, but have slightly different but complimentary styles. I said it before, but it was lost to history when the topic came down, you and I are like “peanut butter and jelly”.
Maybe this is one of the reasons I like these forums so much, they allow me an opportunity to continue part of what I was doing at enterTRAINment. I can still hear Don Varda’s voice saying Tom McComas’ words on the video.
I like your coffee klatch on MR; a take-off on the Chief’s “Coffee is always hot” here on CTT. If I wasn’t so busy I’d post some there; and may from time to time. For a while last year I was posting on Trains and I do recall Mookie, the train granny. As time permits, I may revisit both forums.
Right now, it especially is fun to post because I’m in the toy train layout construction process. Besides that, I like to challenge people with thoughts and ideas to bring out creative juices and such.
As always Dave, Right On! I like that about the “train granny”, that’s her!!! She’s also the top poster, but her content is very different from ours. It only takes a couple good conversations a day, and post count goes through the roof.
Hey gang, jump in here any time, this is a great topic.
I visited your train webpage, Dave, and I’m all oh and aah about it. It’s really a great layout. Those clay houses, how do you get the idea for that, I’ve never seen them on any layout before. It’s amazing that it is in gauge 0, seen the size of it!
Keep on the good work!
If you & Dave are like PB&J, does that make him Forrest & you Bubba? [:D][;)]
I’ve only been in this hobby seriously for a year now. I’ve found these forums & I’ve made some good friends. I was getting into wood working anyway, but it’s a good compliment to the trains.
I used to be into photography back when I got out of college. After I graduated, my parents through a party for me & I bought myself an Olympus OM-10 SLR with the proceeds. I used to take that thing everywhere & I exposed roll after roll of film. Most of the pictures were decent, but hey, I’m no professional. I’m sure a real photographer would have picked my composition & other elements to bits.
I stopped carrying the camera because it had a metal body & zoom lenses & it weighed a ton. I’ve got a 2 Megapixel digital camera now that I don’t use often enough, and a cam corder that I’ve also stopped using so much. I’ll probably use them more once the addition & the layout get started.
These days, my wife’s the family photographer.
I got into air brushing with my R/C cars, but I haven’t had time to do much of that these days, either. The compressor’s so loud, and to be honest, I got a small one when I should have bought one I could use with a finish nailer, too. Oh well, live & learn.
This is a great hobby. Last night i came home tired after a 16 hour shift. THrew in some laundry and ran some trains to kill time between wash cycles. Had a new lionel F-3 A-B-A pulling a string of MTH Santa Fe streamliners. Then as they were running i did some switching with my Reading GS-1 from weaver. Moved 4 sets of 2-3 car strings all over my layout. My cat who loves all things railroad came tearing down the steps and up onto the rail road to watch the action. Even though i had to get up the next morning at 5:45 i was so relaxed by the the time the laundry was done i slept like a baby.
This is a great hobby. BIll
As we need to populate our road ways on our layout, we started looking for die cast cars.
The harder I looked the more I found and just couldn’t say no to them. So now we also have a die cast car collection. I’m not sure which is bigger, but I run the trains almost every day.
This is only part of my collection. There is six more shelves of cars and turcks.
Just like Bill, I also unwind from the daily stress of work with my trains. Even if its only 15 minutes, it works. There was a time, I wouldn’t touch a computer when I got home, because of how much I use them at work, but the Forum has changed that.
My wife gave me the digital camera for Christmas, so now I am enjoying share with you all, my layouts.