The Hobby- as to VALUE It provides?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

This IS NOT another “the hobby is too expensive” or “the hobby is dying” thread!!!

THANK YOU for the responses to my previous thread.

In my Thread “The Hobby- as Entertainment”, Mr. Beasley said:

" As an engineer, I even like to “quantify” the play value of my trains. A DPM or City Classics kit that costs, say, $20, will give me at least 20 hours of pleasure building and placing on my layout, complete with interior, lighting and surrounding scenery. That’s one dollar an hour.

Where else can you get quality entertainment like that for a dollar an hour?"

That got me to thinking as to HOW do YOU “'VALUE” your MRRing? This IS NOT about HOW MUCH IT COSTS/DOESN’T COST!!!

Please scratch your head, put on your thinking cap, get out your Slide rule, calculator, Abacus, dart board or ball peen hammer and duct tape and anything else you might use to help to determine HOW you VALUE the hobby…

I have to agree with Mr. Beasley that a kit, providing me with hours of pleasure assembling, painting, weathering, detailing gives me hours of INEXPENSIVE “VALUE”- but in addition to VALUE of $ per hour, I add VALUE in TIME spent in enjoying something I like to do, and add VALUE in mental challenge to “picture” and “determine the outcome” before it arrives {and sometimes to assemble without destructions, -oops- I meant instructions or in crazy illegible instructions!!!}, and add VALUE in the creative outlet it lets me have.

Like painter Bob Ross of the “Joy of Painting” PBS series- who thoroughly enjoyed his creat

2

Like most I get several values out of the hobby but,my real hobby value comes from from building structures and my “play” value comes from switching out cars at those industries…

This should be a rather interesting topic since we all get different values from our hobby.

Great topic! [tup]

3

I don’t really get much out of the building. The planning, yes, and certainly the fantasy or dreaming, especially when I embark on a new project. But it is the Gestalt of the hobby, with the whole being larger than the sum of all its parts, that appeals to me and gives me the value. The hobby has many costs, including this computer and internet access, shipping charges for anything I buy, all the materials and tools needed for constructing each layout, electricity, and so on. I have no idea what my dollar value is for the hours of pleasure, but it would probably be close to between one and two dollars an hour. It seems about right.

The goal, the great pleasure, for me, is running trains with sound and watching them move nicely around the track system I created. Can’t beat that, and I refuse to put a value on it. [8-|]

Crandell

4

Well, I value the planning, the building, the operation, and the visual appeal of the models and of the layout. There are times, especially very late at night, when I simply wander about the layout room, amazed by my good fortune.
Research of both the prototype and of what others before me have done is important, too.

However, the most important thing which I take from this great hobby is the measure of my own abilities (or lack thereof) and the realisation that I have still have lots to learn. That I’m willing to learn and seemingly still capable of doing so is, to me, priceless.

Wayne

5

As a hobby I can’t put a value on it since that is not what it is about, but as a place I can go and for a few hours I can be, do, say, believe and play as I want it is priceless!!!

6

When I look back at what happened, and consider what could have happened…

While I was model railroading, even if only from an armchair, a lot of my contemporaries (including some friends) failed out of school, got crosswise to the law, became major consumers of, `controlled substances,’ learned first-hand about being in jail…

Others got involved with females (I hesitate to say ladies) who were whelped, not born - with divorce, bankruptcy, child support/visitation wrangles…

Through all of that, I followed the rails and the little trains I put on them. Now I can look back and say that being a model railroader has preserved my sanity. (It also led to a VERY SATISFACTORY relationship that now spans 52 years…) In a word, priceless.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

7

I was surprised to find how much I enjoy building things. Also like Wayne I will stand in the train room at night and just look at things.

8

The thing I value the most in this hobby is the chance to get away from reality for a little bit and not focus on work, restoring cars, NHL lockout, who murdered who etc. I really enjoy building building kits and super detailing them and the enjoyment I get out of it is huge.

9

I would have to say that the value, to me, comes from the construction of the layout and the models themselves. I find it rewarding to have a vision of how I want a project, be it a layout or a scratchbuilt freight car, to turn out, and then making that vision a reality. I also enjoy experimenting and trying new things. Just this weekend, I’ve completed a kitbashed Peco turntable. It’s the first turntable I’ve completed, and it works, although not that smoothly. It was also the first time I’ve made plastic look like wood. It was quite a rewarding feeling. So I’d have to say that the value, for me, far outweighs money. You can’t buy satisfaction and enjoyment like this.

10

While it takes some money to be in the hobby, the value is in the creativity - planning and building. The value is in the opportunity to be in my own world, to do things that I want to do the way I want to do them. The value is in watching the trains run and/or operating them. The value is in the tinkering with things - engines, track, switch machines, etc. - to get them working.

I don’t know the dollar per hour cost over the years, but it’s not important. The joy the hobby brings to me far out weighs whatever I have spent.

Enjoy

Paul

12

Gidday, Heck “Philosophy Friday” Galaxy style. [:D]

My first response would be the same as my post in “The Hobby- as Entertainment”. It can be an escape from my day job.

Secondly while you do not wish this thread to develop into a “arm waving , handkerchief wringing” “the hobby is too expensive” thread , with the US $ currently around the 80 cent mark compared to the New Zealand $, (it was for along time around the 52 cent mark) and that postage/ freight can add another 3rd to the list price then I have to be careful in my purchases. (This is not a complaint,no one twisted my arm to take up modelling the North American prototype, I could have taken up twiddley-winks or “pooh sticks”, its just a reality, besides it’s FUN.) So a lot of my purchases are freight car kits, more bang for my buck.

However what I can’t put a value on is the time and effort that other members of this forum contribute by sharing their views, information, knowledge and general comments on this hobby. "Priceless". (To be fair sometimes things can get a little fractious but what family doesn’t)

So thanks to all for adding to what I value in the hobby. [tup] [B]

Cheers, the Bear.

13

Hi

I don’t think it can be quantified and valued in the normal engineering or economic sense.

A hobby is a life style choice so I think it has to be looked at from a philosophical point of view to find its true value and meaning.

Cue the Philosophers [:)]

Because it is a thing that often brings a slow down, calm and sanity to an otherwise mad mad rushing world.

It can also transport us to a simpler better time and place. or into a well ordered world that is ours to control.

Also non believers just don’t understand or see what we see.

regards John

14

Great Guys!

YES, this thread COULD have some of the same answers as the “The Hobby-As Entertainment” thread…but I am looking for the value you place on the hobby-and not in monetary means.

We all talk about “values” and try to teach children “values” we share and watch TV that shares our values and elect officials whom we think have the same values as we do.

The values we place on/in the hobby are very important to us. I am trying to see what we would say to a news reporter who asked us “but, but what VALUE do find in the hobby?” how, with the whole world watching {or at least a few million people}, would you answer that…

Keep 'em coming!!

[8-|]

15

I started my relationship with the hobby before I started school. When I left “The Little Train That Could” and “Tootle” behind, I switched to Lionel catalogs and then…wiring diagrams. More than anything else, the hobby was my entry point into engineering, and helped me develop the kind of hands-on experience most guys didn’t get until they were on their first jobs.

Last night, as the sun went down and the room started to get dark, I just ran an Alco RSC-3 around with a short freight. I sat on the far side of the room, listening to the engine sounds and watching as the headlight beam pulled the train around the curves, as the line of boxcars passed, allowing the streetlights to shine through for a moment as the gaps between the boxcars went by, It’s a great way to end the day.

16

I have been in the hobby, in one way or another, for fifty some years and that means a very sizable collection of parts, kits, various junkers, accumulations for projects which have not taken place, or were purchased from other modelers at swap meets, raw materials such as strip wood and styrene materials from Evergreen and Plastruct etc. There is also a sizable supply of scenery materials, glues, paints, tools, track, and the like. This is in addition to rolling stock and completed structures.

I bring this up because in my opinion you tend to think differently about “value” and “cost” when the expenditure is fresh in your mind versus having access to an accumulation of stuff to work from where you have no clear notion of when you bought it or for how much. Last winter I finally got around to an old IMWX kit (very similar to Red Caboose or Intermountain) that I had bought maybe a decade earlier. Thinking about the cost of that purchase just never enterred my mind. if I had just bought it that morning I probably would have been thinking about increasing prices “so don’t screw up those grab irons” and that sort of thing.

At some point you (or at least, I) stop focusing on what stuff cost when you are working off of an inventory. In most cases I bought it far more cheaply then I could buy a replacement today. Rather I really try to focus on how much enjoyment I can get out of a given item. If a relatively complex kit such as Intermountain or Red Caboose takes me the better part of a weekend to assemble, I consider that time well spent and hence money well spent. If I spend the same amount of time trying to improve a ballasting job I did years ago, to me that is virtually “free” enjoyment since the materials are “just sitting there.” Yeah they cost money but my wallet has long since forgotten the experience.

I think the real value to this hobby is that there i