as I was working on my layout a question came into my mind. What do you find the most rewarding/frustrating with respect to all the aspects of the hobby?
In my case the part that was extremely rewarding was when the 40+ freight train complete with a pusher on the rear made it around the layout without a glitch a number of times. [:P] The frustration comes with the colour matching. [banghead] I look at the master pieces that other members on this forum create and post and wonder how do they get such realistic colours to blend as good as they do.[%-)] With this I am referring to the colour of the rock formations, streets, even the colour of the grass and trees as well as the bases of bodies of water.
Then of course there is the subject of altering the appearance of the rolling stock. That is one aspect that actually scares me to do. It is truly amazing the skill some modelers have in weathering their rolling stock.
So how do you feel when you work on different aspects of your layout?
the most rewarding for me in our hobby is, when I get out my camera, take a picture of a scene and it looks the way I had been attempting to catch. I have a strong imagination and I´d like my “setting” to look as real as possible. For me, model railroadig is operation and scenery.
The frustrating bit is soldering/wiring… Even though DCC has reduced that to a minimum, it is a nightmare for me. I am always happy when a feeder wire sticks to the rail, only to find out that I can redo a day´s work either due to a short or wires coming loose again… [banghead]. This is the time when I use words they would not let me post here…
I’m still very new so what I like the best is when anything I do works! Whether it be my trains not derailing or my home made grass looks good it all makes my day. What I don’t like right now is not being able to get any work done. That’s mainly because it’s summer and there’s too much to do that doesn’t include trains.
The most rewarding thing, for me, is the satisfaction of backing my designated derailment checker (a string of cars with pizza-cutter and rhomboid flanges, powered by D50380, which will derail almost anywhere for any reason or none) at well over track speed through a newly-assembled puzzle palace of hand-laid specialwork.[^]
The most frustrating? Probably the fact that, now that I can devote lots of time to the layout (fully retired) I’ve developed some physiological problems that limit how long I can work standing up…[sigh]
To build, detail, paint, and decal a passenger car using brass or styrene car sides. I find it takes a lot of time and patience, but once they are complete and rolling on the rails, I get a nice little high from that.
Most rewarding? Completing wiring a circuit, and it works, whew!! Or finishing scenicking a section of the layout, or a new building. Most frustrating? Completing wiring circuit, and it DOESN’T work!
Most rewarding is two fold. First is the friendship with the members of the club I belong to. Second is when I finally got my new BLI 2-8-2 DCC with sound programmed and running. Most fustrating-- programmomg BLI loco
Most satisfying is when I finish a project–pick one!–and it works!
Most frustrating is trying to find things that roll off the table and land in a spot that makes me go—now, how the (insert fave comment here----) did this get there? Oh, running a close second—transitioning----[soapbox]
I’m still “playing with trains” after about 55 years, so obviously I have gotten more rewards from them than frustration. Your question is interesting and I’ve given it some serious thought.
In my case, I believe the rewards are two-fold. First, I get a real kick out of completing a project - be it a car, structure, backdrop, scenery, or whatever. I guess its a combination of pride and accomplishment, but seeing the result of my efforts usually “hits the spot”.
The other reward is more subjective, that being the recreation of my ideal memories of the '50s - primarily of railroads (obviously). I spent a lot of time as a kid alongside the C&NW & IC tracks and was just blown away by the immense display of power and beauty. Yes, I witnessed steam up close and personal, and all I can say is “WOW”! So as I look at my trains/layout, I still get a charge out of them as they bring me back to those days.
On the other side, there certainly has been some frustration. My standards are fairly high and when I can’t meet them (i.e. in building a kit or laying down scenery or whatever), I will keep at it until I get it right. I confess that over the years, there have been a few projects that were just “eliminated” as a result of my frustration.
I’ve also been sort of frustrated as my hobby interest tends to go in spurts. I can work on the layout for hours and days on end, and then find myself not even entering the layout room for days at a time. I’m not sure why this is, but I do find it frustrating.
I would have to agree with everyone else on here. The reward is getting something done and it working as it should, the frustration is when it doesn’t. Although the frustration has to somewhat drive us all, considering that we’re all still doing it, and of course, there may be the fact that we have more rewards than frustrations.
Most frustrating: getting a manufacturer or retailer to respond to emails. In particular, I’m trying to buy the Korber HO General Light & Power kit. The company is now owned by JustTrains and they apparantly don’t want my money. I know I can call, but I work 10 hrs a day. An email takes 30 seconds. A phone call can take up to 15 minutes if the company even has a phone number. Come on folks. Poor customer service has killed a lot of companies and it’s killing yours. If you’re not going to respond to emails, don’t publish an address.
It is a good question and I appreciate all the answers so far.
Frustrating for me might be every time I introduce a new engine, almost always a steamer, and find that it doesn’t like a short section of my tracks that every other engine I have accumulated over the past five years doesn’t seem to mind…any more. I recently had to tear up 3’ of nicely groomed track so that the tender on a new BLI UP TTT-6 would track properly. Now, for my token modern diesels, I have two Genesis SD-75M’s in Warbonnet livery, and one of them derails at several places. The lead truck seems closer to the frame than the rear, but I don’t think that is the problem.
For rewarding, it is every time I fix something myself that is of a sufficient degree of vexation that I actually bother to deal with it…such as ripping out a whole 3’ section of perfectly groomed track.
I guess this is what the hobby is to be for me. I can live with it.
Most Rewarding: There are many projects/tasks (designing, benchwork, electrical, model building, etc.) that make up the hobby.
Most Frustrating: There are many projects/tasks (designing, benchwork, electrical, model building, etc.) that make up the hobby.
I really enjoy all of the many ‘facets’ of the hobby. To me, that’s what makes it interesting and rewarding. I also understand a model railroad is never complete, but sometimes it seems like I will never even get close to finishing it. There are days when I get overwhelmed because there are so many things to do. I sometimes end up walking away from the hobby for several weeks and then I get nothing accomplished [sigh].
Overall, I find the rewards do outweigh the frustrations. Model railroading is still my favorite hobby!
For me the most rewarding thing is that it is all mine. I plan it and build it from trackplan, through benchwork, trackwork, wiring, scenery, etc. the way I want it. A lot of my life is necessarily teamwork, meetings, etc., so I like the change of pace.
The most frustrating part is that I’m not in the trainroom working on the layout as much as I would like to be.
Rewards: Being able to create a little world of your own imagination in miniature form. Having a fun hobby. Oh yes and all the colorful diesels of the ‘fallen flag’ roads.
Frustration: As an n-scaler, not being able to have luck with switcher engines running on the layout. They always conk out when hitting a turnout. Must be bad luck on my part as supposedly there are top quality switchers in N scale now available.