Hello gang. I realize this is one of those silly questions that gets asked every now and then, but a friend of mine was asking me earlier today what keeps me interested in model railroading. My reply to him was - EVERYTHING!.. There’s always a new engine or rolling stock to buy. Always something on the layout to repair or improve. Always a railroad, loco or rolling stock to be researched. Sometimes, I just like to sit and watch the trains go around. You just have to be a model railroader to understand.
Simply put I love railroads and modeling railroads.After all railroadin’ is in my blood seeing I come from a family of railroaders…From my Great Grandfather to my Dad and Mom(a clerk typist).Both Grandfathers,all my uncles and one aunt(a secretary).
I have asked myself this question many times. I don’t know.
All I do know is that I can remember the visceral feeling I had when I was three years old, maybe four, and saw my first train. It was perhaps related to the physics of trains, their sinuous motion, their size, their impact on the senses in general. They make the air and earth shake, they bear down on you and make you hold your breath, they sweep past, and then disappear around the next bend until silence returns, and you can hear the wind again.
Having something like a model of the real thing seems to be a desperate attempt to recapture some of the potential I had in my youth when everything was so wonderful, and during which I have recollections of happy memories.
“I” keep me interested in the hobby. It’s a great stress reliever, it allows me to escape reality for a while and be a kid again. When things aren’t going my way and life throws me a curve I always have the railroad to help ease the stress. When I have down time and theres nothing else to do I’m a workin’ on the railroad.
I completely lost interest about 10 years ago, when I had an HO scale layout. I tore that down last fall and now I’m in N scale, now it’s like a totally new hobby, though I retained some knowledge that applied from my HO days. I can run long trains and have sweeping scenery in a relatively small space.
Also, though I still run DC at the moment, moving to DCC is an inevitability to me and I see lots of possibilities with the new technology. If there was no DCC, I probably might not be interested in the hobby again.
I like building things, and this hobby sure has a lot of building potential (literal and figural). I used to build model kits (cars, planes, etc.), and still do from time to time, but unlike those other models, you can actually see your train models move and you can control them. I also find it a way to escape and be in my own world when I don’t feel like dealing with the real one. I also like to enjoy other activities, but when weather and health can keep me indoors from time to time, I’m glad to know that I can always sit at the table and escape into the world of 1:87.
There is such a wide array of skills and interests within this hobby. There are so many different aspects to get ones teeth into. It is possible to completely change ones activity and still be active in the hobby. Furthermore, in my experience the hobby has great appeal and interest to those that don’t participate in it I love it when friends, family and children visit the train room and for an hour or so just get immersed in the hobby.
If you want to be an artist, architect, historian, researcher, electrician, woodworker, computer geek etc, etc. you can. If you simply want to be “God of all you survey” you can be that as well.
There is always something to do, there are always new challenges to face, there are always new achievements to be proud of.
I have had an interest in trains from the time I was 2 years old.
Started with a Lionel set in the early 50’s then went to HO in the late 50’s and in 1971 transferred over to “N”.
Nothing is more challenging as a hobby and uses all of the skills one has or can develop, building kits or scratch building, carpentry, electric / electronics and math are just the tip of the iceberg of the hobby.
I think that the one thing that has helped all keep a interest in this great hobby is the computer!!!
The hobby can grow on one with all of the new items that come on the market almost on a daily basis.
C,mon fifedog. When’s the last time you attended a model railroader event. Just look at us handsome guys there. A person would be hard pressed to find some doofey looking geek railroad dork with pins all over his vest drooling over the latest BLI steamer.
To the chicks, its like attending a “Chippendales” concert[;)]
I consider myself lucky because I was born into a model RR family. My Dad had an HO layout that I remember watching as a 3 year old, and he built a new one every time we moved. My uncle and eldest cousin live in Europe and were both huge model RR fans - one had a computer-controlled Marklin HO layout and the other went into N. It must be in the genes.
What keeps me interested is the constant effort to do something new that I haven’t tried before. When I read MR or go to these forums and see the quality and attention to detail, I see it as something to strive for. My current layout incorporates all kinds of things I’ve never done before. Even if non-modelers can’t fully appreciate what went into the layout (design, carpentry, electrical, etc), I can, so it gives me a sense of accomplishment that is totally different from accomplishments in the working environment.
Perhaps more than anything else though, I like the hobby because every layout is totally unique. Operationally or artistically, I know that nobody else on the planet has the same layout I have, and that’s pretty cool.