The difference between myself and a lot of modelers.

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

An on going and constantly renewing thread within this forum is model builders Vs RTRers. The RTRers espouse they do not have the time to build. The builders espouse they don’t want the manufacturer building the model they want to build themselves. My question on this subject is where did the hurry come from? The only hurry I ever feel about my hobby is when can I get down to the layout or work bench and work on the latest project! Once I am down there, I would like time to slow down. However, just the opposite occurs.

I started my layout in 1988. There was some hurry to get road bed and track down and wired so I could run trains. This didn’t take too long as I worked on the layout in stages and always made sure I would be able to just run trains, if that’s what I wanted to do. All the track is down and operable now and has been since 1990 or so. Scenery, backgrounds, structures etc. are progressing and I would guess that the layout might be 1/2 sceniced and 3/4ths of the hardshell is done. I am very O.K. with this. It’s my hobby and I don’t care if the layout ever gets done! The enjoyment comes from the doing, not the getting done. You may think I am not goal oriented and your danged Skippy, at least with this part of my life, as the goal here is enjoyment.

So, this is where I am coming from. I don’t want ready to run, as it just don’t fit into my enjoyment of the hobby and I have concerns that it will change the future of this hobby and that is the modeling! For those whom disagree with me, this is certainly your prerogative. However, disagreeing with me isn’t going to change my perception of how this hobby works!

I am interested in your opinions, ill-informed as they may be. (That is a joke, for you whom couldn’t tell!)

2

I agree with you whole heartedly, the most fun from the hobby is to be able to say that you built it yourself. It also is great for releiving the stress of a hurry up lifestyle. I would rather build things myself than have all this RTR stuff shoved at me that costs twice as much and all looks the same.

3

I agree with you 100%. I build a little at a time and run trains same time. There is so much that can be done with the hobby there should be no rush. It’s a hobby not a devine calling. It should be fun and not rush work

4

I guess I agree and disagree with you (is that possible?). There are some things that I definately do not want ready to run. Structures for one. I love building them, painting them and bashing them every now and then. Rolling stock also. I’m in love with the “shake the box” kits. They are inexpensive which allows me to “play” with them ie: kitbash, repaint, detail etc and if I mess it up - hey, no big deal. RTR. Track. I’ve tried handlaying and can’t get the hang of it. Give me flex track and ready made turnouts. (Of course there are some that say flex track isn’t RTR as you have to make a roadbed and ballast - hmmmmmm interesting thought). Locomotives? I go both ways with that, I enjoy putting together a kit as well as placing it right out of the box onto the layout.

I don’t think there is anything as a strickly RTR or “model making” hobbyist out there. I’m sure there are folks that will say that anything other than cutting your own ties and laying rail is “not modeling.” Is kit building assembling a “shake the box” which takes only a few minutes, a knife and a screwdriver or a LaBelle craftsman kit which is basically scratchbuilding with a plan? There are still some diehard hobbyiest out there that think that a computer isn’t really yours unless you build it component by component (remember Heathkit?)

Not to start a war, but I think that each person not only has to establish what they want to spend more time on, what they want RTR and what they want to build. For me the joy of having some RTR stuff (DC powerpacks, DCC, track) is that it allows me to spend more of my hobby time building other things (structures, painting rolling stock or whatever).

I will agree that the joy is in doing. The question is what one enjoys doing.

5

I guess the quick answer to your issue is, if you don’t want RTR, don’t buy RTR. I haven’t had the RTR folks proselytizing at my door while I’m trying to work or watch a football game, so I guess I haven’t noticed a controversey raging.

Everyone approaches this hobby differently. Except for a few DPM buildings, nearIy all the structures built or planned for my layout are my own design and scratchbuilt. However, I have little interest in scrachbuilding or assembling rolling stock or locomotives any more than is necessary. Modeling the 1917 era in N Scale means a lot of what I need has to be scratchbuilt or kit-bashed but I’d buy RTR in a heartbeat if it were available. It has nothing to do with being in a hurry. It has everything to do with using my time as I want to.

That’s my approach to model railroading, and since I don’t give a hoot that your opinion differs, you’re safe from my trying to change your perception.

Wayne

6

I read somewhere in these forums,
If you don’t have time to it right the first time, when will you have time???

And a friend of mine has this expression,
Hurry up and wait.

Ken.

7

For me a good chunk of the fun is building and modifying kits. I have bought ready-to-run items before if the price was right (and “used” is pretty much “ready to run” in my book) but prefer kits, since I don’t have to disassemble a kit and typically I do end up at least partially taking apart RTR stuff for repainting, detailing, etcetera.

8

I think of the layout as scratchbuilding/kitbuilding project. The parts are the cars, the locomotives, the track, the roadbed, the benchwork, the wiring, the structures, etc. Just as a boxcar project can include RTR parts such as brake wheels or grabirons so can my layout project include RTR parts such as locomotives and boxcars.

Heck there are people who have RTR layouts, professionals come in and build the whole thing. It really comes down to what do you enjoy doing with your hobby time.

One of the nice things about this hobby is I can kit build, scratch/parts build, and RTR as the mood strikes me (all of which I have done and will continue to do), it doesn’t have to be all one or the other.

I agree RTR will change the hobby, I think it will attract more people and I think larger layouts will get built as a result. Just as plastic kits allowed modelers to have bigger fleets of cars, RTR will allow them to have bigger layouts.

Enjoy
Paul

9

Hi, Mark

First, congratulations on starting a good, honest-to-God discussion topic.

I agree with you in part. I love building. I have enjoyed every phase of the construction of my layout. Since I’m still in the early stages, there is more to do than I can even begin to count. I want to ad a couple loading docks to a DPM warehouse. I need to bash a DPM kit to use a a view block to cover the fact that the trains really are just running in circles. I have spent the last month building less than a foot of sidewalk. Last night I poured plaster for a street. I have spent about 6 weeks trying to get the color of the streets right.

I could go on for a long time, listing the things I have built or am building. On the other hand, I took a P2K GP-18 apart to lube the gearboxes last summer and still don’t have it back together right. I will get it but I have several other engines (including another GP-18) that work just fine so I will get to that eventually.

When it comes to building/bashing rolling stock, no way! I don’t have the patience or skill to do that and am not interested in learning. Routine maintenance I can handle (sort of, see last paragraph) but that’s as far as it goes. Maybe when I’m retired (three years and counting) I will feel differently but for now, get the cars on the track, run trains, and build scenery. That’s all I’m interested in.

End of speech. I am getting off my soapbox, dismantling it, and using the lumber to build another part of the train table.

Tom

PS my granddaughter is 18 [:D][:D][:D]

10

In regards to models, I purchase what will work for me. In regards to the layout, I am in the camp of Steven Priest in that I would like to have the layout complete with in a specific time frame. To me, a completed layout is much more fun to operate.
Ch[xx(]

11

This topic does bring up a question, Was the original intention of model railroading (in it’s infancy) to promote model building?? I’m pretty sure early on there were not too many companies making materials or kits for bulding things, so I would believe if you wanted a building or bridge you actually had to make it, this sort of sounds like the “chicken or egg theory” I’m referring above to H.O. only. Another theory may be in the LIONEL era making buildings by hand was a spinoff to present day kits and materials, anyone have factual information on my wild theories???

12

I simply don’t understand why there has to be this ongoing debate of RTR vs. building kits / kitbashing / scratchbuilding.

Yes, I admit, I would prefer an option when it comes to a cheaper price for cars like Intermountain, Red Caboose, Kadee, and would purchase kits if available. The problem is, I already have a pile of said kits, and they have been sitting on my shelf for over six years!. The ones that I bought RTR are on the railroad, and hauling revenue freight. [:)]

I also enjoy building my model railroad, but I definitely look forward to the day when it is sceniced and done, and then I can get back to what I enjoy, detailing and painting motive power. I haven’t had a chance to do that either, as there is a railroad to build.

If people enjoy kits, great. If they don’t care if their railroad is ever built, that is fine too. Personally, I want my railroad to get built, and there is enough stuff to kitbash, scratchbuild, modify, paint, weather, install, scenic, etc. that I will take advantage of RTR it wherever I can, as long as it meets my needs.

Personally, I don’t find building Intermountain or Red Caboose cars very enjoyable to build. They are time consuming, small parts tend to disappear into the black hole called my workshop floor, and I can think of other things I’d rather do in the hobby. When I complete something like a WFE reefer, I don’t get a great feeling of accomplishment, all I see is another 23 reefers to put together, and realize that it is over 40 hours of work to get them complete.

regards,
Jerry Zeman

13

Guys, the answer is quite simple, you do as you like personally. Yes, there are other factors that enter in, like money, skill,TIME, desire to see it done, etc. etc., but it always comes down to each person’s drive and desire. Some love the layout of a great track route through mountains, across great bridges, etc. Other love scenery, building the mountains and rivers, striving for as much naturalism as possible, and then taking the great pride in what they have achieved. Others love to “run” the railroad, scheduling, making consists, etc. It is as varied as New England weather. But we all have one common denominator…we love model railroading!!

grayfox1119[:D][:D]

14

For me, it starts with something I want. If it’s available only RTR or in a craftsman kit is irrelavent. If it’s available more than one way, price creeps into the equation. Frankly, I find it incredible that RTR can be cheaper than a craftsman kit, but it usually is, and so therefore I will get the RTR in that case.

15

I’m in the middle on this. I’ve been model railroading ever since Athearn and Varney were metal car kits with six zillion parts apiece, the kits from Model Die Casting meant DIE CAST, Silver Streak kits consisted of painted and lettered car-sides and what looked like a miniature lumber-yard of other parts, Walthers passenger cars meant that you spent more time sanding down the curve on the roof than you did building the rest of the kit–did I have fun? You betcha! I’ve still got those cars and they’re still on the tracks (albiet now with P2K and Kadee trucks) cut into my Accurail, Intermountain and Red Caboose consists. I’ve still got some trusty old Roundhouse ‘screwdriver’ locos that I built from kits chugging around. I enjoy them. I’m glad I bought them, I’m glad I built them. I’m just as proud of them as I am my new BLI’s with the sound of the steamers I grew up with. But I’m 65 now, the eyes aren’t what they used to be, there’s some quivers in the fingers that weren’t there back in my '20’s and '30’s, so those little plastic grab irons on the Intermountain kits don’t go where they’re supposed to, half the time, and why bother putting on brake rigging that I can’t even SEE anymore? Hey, I’m not sentient, and I’m certainly not lazy, and I’m still kitbashing structures like crazy, but THANK YOU, Red Caboose for that Western Pacific PFE reefer that I can just take out of the box and put behind my loco and get operating. Because the time I would have spent putting you together, I can now spend on Sculptamolding that canyon and getting the river bed ready for the Realistic Water so that the train of ready-made cars can go over my kit-bashed Microscale Tall Viaduct and actually cross over a RIVER, instead of those molded pink foam forms. What I’m saying is, I like it both ways. Whatever saves me some time in one aspect of the hobby means I can devote that time to another. Relay some track in the yards, make sure those turnout points are solid–Hell, try building some of Aggrojone’s furnace-filter pine

16

I made this analogy once before, but perhaps it bears repeating: I wouldn’t consider paying someone to build a “custom layout” for me any more than I’d pay someone to make love to my wife for me! Quite frankly, my time just isn’t THAT valuable…

I mean, even if he’s more skilled than you are, you don’t even get the satisfaction of saying you tried!!

17

[#ditto] You have to try in this hobby after all it is model railroading so wether you kitbash build a shake the box or scratchbuild you are modeling,which means you are creating something not simply purchasing it. If a bank account is all it takes then why isn’t Donald Trump and Bill Gates model railroaders because they could certainly purchase the best darn layouts on the planet.But would they have fun or have the pleasure of completing something with their hands instead of aquiring it with a platinum amex? trolleyboy

18

I would not care about RTR versus kits if it were not for some model train manufacturers convert partially (Athearn) or completely (Walthers) to RTR. I would assume that Walthers cars are made in the same plant(s) their kits (of the same prototype) used to be made in. Would it be too expensive to package some fraction without assembling them? Athearn’s latest newsletter said that in regards to the kits, they should have “a full slate of models in production”. Hopefully this year was slow due to the move to a new plant and next year they will produce more. Maybe even some of the RTR stuff not offered as kits.

I have heard it said that the RTR will bring more people to the hobby. However, it will probably keep people from it. I was shopping at a hobby shop a little while before Christmas. There was a woman in there looking at the trains. She muttered something about a $25 gift certificate would not go very far there (by the way, it looked like she left without purchasing a gift certificate). So, while there will be people that like the idea of not having to assemble anything, there will also be people who are interested in trains, go in and see all of the RTR prices (not many kits in hobby shops anymore) and decide on another hobby.

19

ericsp- other than collecting Hot Wheel cars, I don’t know of too many hobbies that 25$ would go very far in. I’m afraid the days of the cheap hobby are limited. I still find BB kits for 5-7$, but these used to go for 3-4$.
I agree with those who said it’s how you want to spend your time, I’m not a carpenter, my attempts at benchwork really are bad. So I use styrofoam and pre- milled pieces that are easy to assemble. Love building structures tho, I’ll gladly scratchbuild them and take as long as I want to. And RTR cars are fine and dandy with me, they look pretty good to my eye. Due to their price, I might only buy 1 or 2 a month as compared to 5-10 BB kits, but I don’t need any more than that. I ,like some others, have about 45 kits waiting to be built.
It seems to come down to what you like to do. Just like a hobby should be.[:)]

20

Ya I totally agree with DeShane. I like puting in the handrails and other stuff on locomotives. Generally I hate RTR, especially RTR structures. Most of the structures on my layout are DPM. I like their simple design but it’s also fun to build more complex models and scratch build. Oh by the way does anybody have a good scratch building plan for a modern building? thanks