While driveing my 18 wheeler from Mich. down here to NC last night, my mind drifted to model railroading, which I do quite often to help the miles go by faster. I was thinking, we call ourselves model railroaders, but what are we really? Well think about this. We are structural engineers, mechanical engineers, mechanics, land scapers, electricians, electronic technitions, painters, carpenters, and who knows what else, all rolled into one to build and operate our model railroads. Now with all this high tech knowledge we all use, most of us have no formal educational back ground to qualify us for these titles we bear, but doggone if we don’t get the job done. And on top of all that, no matter how we look at it, we are still little kids playing with our trains when all is said and done. Model Railroaders, nothing like us. LOVE IT !!![^][^][:D][:D]
Also Model Railroading can be an art too!
Bob Boudreau
Yep, forgot that title fundy!!
Painters, Sculptors… oh and the one Im stuck in right now… Draftsmen!!
Well said though… good post [:)]
I have never thought about all that, I guess we really are an elite class, huh?[:D][8D][;)][:p]
And if we had one of these in Model Railroading it would ruin it…a politcian.
Me, I am a CEO of my railroad.
And next comes brassiens and plasicians, (Republicans and Democrats) who fight about wether plastic is better or brass is better, and we’d have elected governers and mayors, an elected president and who knows what else.[:O]
We can build civilizations, destroy civilizations, and rebuild them again, each more perfect than the last. This is especially important if freight and people can’t get from point A to point B without derailing on a bad flextrack joint and plummeting 42 inches[:p]
Yup we sure are!!!
Willy,
I think you are overlooking something. When negotiating more trackage rights being a bit of a politician could be a good thing!!
Which boat?
Then come the nuclear wars. Uh oh…[:0][B)][xx(]
We could legitimately put ‘project management’ on our CV’s!
And I agree with Bob that there is form in our function. Some of us are Rembrandts and others are Picassos (I’m neither…[sigh]
I never thought of it that way, but I guess your right, Erie!! Pretty cool way to think about this hobby!
Don’t feel bad Crandell, I can assure you that you are not alone. I know that at least I am with you!!
It’s an intellectual hobby too, it forces you to use your mind in various types of problem-solving (ex. “What’s the widest radius curves I can fit in a so-and-so space…”). I’ve haven’t heard [yet] of a MRR going senile…[^]
I dunno Willy. From past experience and from what I’ve read here on the forum I think some of us have done some serious politic’n with the better half for realestate for layouts. [(-D][(-D] By the way, thanks all for your responses here, Ken
Yes, don’t forget, we are businessmen(and women) as well! We have to keep up with our inventory (Numbers of cars and locomotives), money (PayPal or how much we have in our wallet when we got to the LHS), and suppliers (Basically checking eBay to see what all is up for bid). And don’t forget, we have to operate our layouts according to a strict time schedule! Basically, we cram several different careers into one hobby. I believe that we deserve the right to call ourselves elite!
Multi-taskers, we might say!
uspscsx
Yes we are [:D]
We should lobby for a return to steam locomotives to reduce our national dependency on diesel fuel. Creates jobs for coal mining and a lot of jobs for maintenance. Less horsepower per engine means more engines in use for us to watch.
Just kidding of course.
Heck, while I’m at it, Seneca Falls, NY, is building a corn-to-ethanol plant supplied BY RAIL.
50 million gallons or 53 million bushels of corn per year.
http://www.nyfb.org/Grassroots/grass1204/biofuels.htm
YEAH! More hopper and tank cars coming my way!
Another side benefit of MRR is when you pick up the hobby you may not be very good at most of the skills mentioned, however as you gain new expierience you are forced to take on new challenges and learn those new skills. I can’t think of many jobs out there that cover such a wide spectrum of job skills as MRR. It forces you to open your mind to new things constantly making all of us better craftsman and people. And this forum is one of the mainstays of the hobby that allow us to expand our knowledge and skill level with kindly peer level supervision and guidance. And it gives us something to do with all of our hard earned money. I think I have had too much coffee this morning!
Terry