I trust that our USA forum contingency is enjoying a very happy Thanksgiving with friends and family today. I do realize that Thanksgiving is not celebrated as a holiday throughout the four corners of the globe. Even so, I’m sure that there are things that we can all be thankful for.
With that in mind (and to keep this on the topic of trains) - from whatever part of the globe you are from - I was wondering what particular aspect(s) of MRRing are you the most thankful for or about? I haven’t had much time to muse over it yet myself. But I’m going to go ahead and post this anyway then come back later with my own answer(s).
My hope is that this will be an eye opening thread for all the good reasons…[:)]
Actually, I think I will jump right in and comment with one right-off-the-bat, then add to it throughout the day:
The “virtual” friends and acquaintances that I’ve made here over the past 3-1/2 years. I’ve learned quite a bit from all you train “geeks”. [swg]
The ability to look at this world of ours with a totally “new set of eyes”. Things that once went practically unnoticed are now scrutinized to see how it can be model realistic on a layout.
History, in general, has become more and more intriguing to me.
Tom
That’s EZ! The internet and this forum. I probably wouldn’t have gotten back into trains if I had to do all my searching and correspondence through snail mail.
I normally take a break from it when its a holiday. The break kinda gives you something to look for. Also my B-Day is Sunday, which sucks having it either on thanksgiving (when everything is closed), or on the black friday (when I don’t wanna go anywhere). I know I tyold my wife I have to go to the hobby soter saturday for some cars to weather, and she said 'I thought the subscription to Model Railroader Mag was your gift"? Ha!!! I told her that was the appitizer. Anyway, everybody have a good thanksgiving, and eat, and watch some football, and think of trains. [:D]
That, in my old age, I can finally do the layout I first drempt of over 55 years ago and failed at in 4 previous attempts.
That my wife gave me her music studio for a train room.
Pink foam. I can now do the scenery I have always seen in my head.
That I can still get the tables up and the whole family together for Thanksgiving dinner in the train room. (Pics to follow if I can find the missing camera.)
You people.
Sound
DCC
That I live in a country and a time when retirement allows this kind of enjoyment.
I’m thankful to the big guy upstairs for giving me good health, for sending me such a great gal that I’m married to that doesn’t nag or dog me about this hobby, and for giving me the patience and in a lot of cases the financing to build a layout…Have a Happy Thanksgiving guys!
Since a child Thanksgiving Weekend has always been a Model Railroading or Railfanning sort of weekend. A four day break in the school schedule was a perfect time to drag out and set up the trains. My first major N-scale layout was started on Thanksgiving eve in 1974. Two years ago I made an excursion down to Kiowa Kansas to get a picture of station before it was razed.
Since I’ve had children of my own, it has become the time when we go to the storage shed and break out the trains we plan to use for the Christmas season decorations. A tree without a train around it just isn’t a proper Christmas tree.
Tomorrow we will have a special exhibition where we open the club layout for public viewing.
I am thankful for living in such an affluent country that we can afford toys to play with rather than worrying about where our next scrap of food is going to come from, how to get out of the cold, or being worried about getting shot in the streets during a gorilla insurgence raid. I am thankful that our country still has a small amount of the values it was founded on.
What a good idea, Tom! [8D] And, thanx for launching the thread. My esteem for you rises to even dizzier heights than I thought possible. [:D]
As Tom and Larry have said, it has to be the people. The hobby is about our love of trains, and as you have said, as a group we are a tad geeky…oh, be quiet over there…you know we’re right…but, it would be bereft of any health and insight, I think, if we didn’t have this forum to communicate, clubs to attend, shows in which to scavenge, and so on…it’s about people. Who among us doesn’t love to talk about our trains, or someone else’s if we are balanced?
We Canadians celebrate our Thanksgiving in early October because it seems to fit, agriculturally, and because we don’t want another holiday impinging on the sober truths about war that constitutes our Remembrance Day on Nov 11. That you have Thanksgiving, too, is a great way of sharing our mutual heritage of pioneering this continent, and that we had interactions with people of good will, with minor exceptions, in the Aboriginal people who helped us to survive.
I am thankful for my ability to live in a nice home, in a nice climate, in a free country, and to be able to afford a luxury that is a sizeable layout populated with fine and interesting models that take me away from this flippin’ computer.