Spending money!!![swg][(-D][(-D][(-D][:o)][D)] I seem to be doing that more often than anything else these days so I may as well enjoy it!!
Cheers!!
Dave
Can’t take it with you Dave, so it is full steam ahead on that front. The wife and I are really starting to crank up the spending as we figure we got 20 good years left and when we realized how fast the last twenty went by, it is peddle to the metal.[(-D]
I’ll take this thread off the rails – I was thinking of what I liked the best about the hobby. During the day, I have been ballasting a section of track, and decided that, of everything I’ve done, laying ballast is the part I dislike the most. I can never get it to my satisfaction. No references to any song.
I very much enjoy every aspect of the hobby.
One subject in particular that I don’t believe I’ve seen addressed yet is photography of finished scenes on the layout. This would include making “decent” videos as well.
The only “downside” of the hobby for me is sorting and keeping track of materials and detail pieces. I’m getting better at this, though.
Sometimes I get to the layout room and have no idea what “project” will find its way into my hands. Just the other night I was approaching a recently scenicked area and decided that I “needed” a signal bridge.
I went through my “stock” of on-hand bridges (I probably have a dozen or so different ones ready to go, less the signals themselves) then remembered I have an etched metal kit from Showcase Miniatures on the shelf. So for the last two nights I’ve been building a “craftsman-level” etched metal kit.
All in good fun.
Favorites:
Passenger operation; detailing engines and rolling stock and adding DCC sound and lights; creating visually interesting scenes with details and LPPs*; using lighting to full advantage including structures and locomotives and rolling stock; building all kinds of structure and car kits; re-vamping and adding DCC/sound to old brass engines; painting and lettering then weathering engines and rolling stock.
Photographing all of the above!
Spending time on the forum to share in all the fun! I don’t have visitors often, maybe four-six times a year but I do like to share the photos here [Y]
Toward the bottom of “my” list is building resin car kits and doing “tiny” decal work, especially the frustrating delicate work.
Cheers, Ed
- LPP = Little Plastic People
This is a great question because our hobby has so many facets. I love tinkering, doing electric and electronics. I really love doing scenery. I hate ballasting. Did I mention that I hate ballasting? And really, sometimes just seeing trains run around and around is the best thing - it is healing.
Honestly, there is no wrong answer here - and whatever you find to be the best is great.
Thanks for this discussion.
Operations, absolutely.
That is very true.
When I look back at my list I threw together, I saw that I left off operation.
It has been so long since I had a layout, I completely forgot about running the trains!
That says a lot.
-Kevin
I like running the trains.
Getting the local freight made up in the yard while the engines in my industrial yard do their thing and get the empties set to come back. Sending out the through freight while “the transfer job” brings out the return train. Then running the through crew back while the engines in the industries set up their customers.
I normally have 2 engines running at any given time, sometimes even 3 for a short time, or even 4 (again, for a very short time). This is on a 4x8 HO layout with an L-extension for the yard. I use a Samsung tablet with 2 loco controls displayed side-by-side (Roco z21 software app).
I’m not one for lots of scenery details, structure building, etc. For me, “it’s about running the engine”. That’s what it was like for 30+ years “on the big engines”, and that’s how I like it on the small ones, as well.
A lot depends on what mood I’m in. In general my favorite is structures. I did get a little burned out for a while on them though when I was doing a large area for the club. Recently I have been scratchbuilding much of Black Hawk Colorado. I have enjoyed that- right now I am working on the station. I also really enjoy scenery and detailing (although rockwork I have to be in a mood to do- but that is finshed on my layout!!) that being my second choice. After that is assembing car kits. Least favorites are electrical and benchwork- that my back has to be in a mood for.
I have not built a structure kit in a decade. These are something I am very much looking forward to getting back into again.
-Kevin
This thread is very interesting and a fun read. Most of the posters are far ahead of me. I’m into old stuff that has minimal interest today.
I love giving new life to old Mantua 4-6-2 and 2-8-2 steamers. Sawing, grinding, and filing those old metal boiler castings and adding lots of CalScale castings and brass wire rod pipes gets my juices going. Then re-motor and re-gear, that’s moving along.
I get excited finding an old heavyweight passenger car - kit built by someone in the 1950/60s that needs TLC to get it operational again. Those card stock or metal sides and wood roofs are neat to restore. I look at my roster of heavyweights and just smile as it is hard to find even two matching green cars.
I guess I’m still a kid of the 1950s that loves the models of those times.
And to top it off, I’m into direct wireless control via WiFi or Bluetooth. A Bluetooth controlled upgraded 1960s Mantua Pacific pulling a consist of old wood and metal heavyweights - now that’s a sight!
Steve in Texas
Viewing and admiring Mels fiddly work![:D]
I’ve always loved miniature things, especially mechanical things. Starting at a young age with Matchbox cars, then Hot Wheels and HO slot cars. Then I got my Tyco train set and built my first layout. I just love the miniature world that can be created, and then watching the train movement. And trying to make it as realistic as possible adds to the enjoyment, and all the techniques that go into creating miniature realism.
Operations. It doesn’t matter the type: car card/waybill, switch lists, turn-based, fast clocks, timetable and train order, whatever the type of operation. As long as it follows some rules and is based on reality, I’m happy.
Better yet, operations with as many people as possible. At my club, I’m the Operations Chairman and before 2020, we would routinely have 20 operators at a 2-hour session every other month. Afterwards, we have a critique (AKA the Liar’s Club) where we talk about what happened and ways to improve it.
We have a dispatcher, trainmaster, station master, and multiple yardmasters, plus up to 8 local freights and half a dozen mainline engineers or so. When things go well, it’s so pleasing to see. When things go wrong, it’s funny…in retrospect.
Hi Steve,
I enjoy doing the same thing with old freight cars. A couple of years ago I scored a set of four Star Line stock cars. Star Line ceased production sometime in the late 40s or early 50s. Whoever built these kits was a real craftsman. The assembly was impeccable. There were some broken joints and other damage that needed repair, and I had to remove some of the cast framing in order to get the new trucks to work properly, but they turned out just fine. I am very pleased to have a few models on my layout that were built by an expert and are probably close to 70 years old by now.
Your locomotive work sounds really interesting too. How about some pictures?
Cheers!!
Dave
I read every reply, and can relate to most. I think, like Mel, it’s what I’m into at the moment. It’s mostly about BUILDING.
A few have mentioned a little about automobiles. If I ever got out of trains, I’d still build HO light and heavy commercial rigs. And probably dioramas, but the layout fills that desire.
I really enjoy building critter locomotives, but am put off by lack of electrical pickup reliability. If and when I go to DCC, it will be for the keep alive aspect primarily. (Hornblower, we need to talk!)
Structures! I’ve never bought a craftsman kit. I scratchbuild to that level of quality though. I have 2 structures on my layout that are models of 1/1 local landmarks. I love it whenever anybody who has seen the 1/1 “Crane Shed” in Bend Oregon (torn down in '04) lights up at seeing it in HO (at five actual feet long).
Track planning is the only thing I do NOT like! It’s a necessary evil. If I was going by Kevins numerical list, it would be about negative 35. So glad that’s over.
Inventing and engineering, and refining, even if only at my level. Does anyone remember “The Corrugator”? A long fought challenge, but when it rolled out that first sheet of corr aluminum, and it looked right? I still smile. Only model builders can understand the RUSH something like that gives.
Scenery, track laying, wiring, even ballasting is enjoyable when I’m in the mood each takes. I can dread having to hand lay another curved code 70 turnout to fit a specific need, but then get completely absorbed in it, like be up till 5 am until its operational when the right time comes.
Yeah, everything’s my favorite in turn, except track planning. Dan
Favorite (or most enjoyable) part of the hobby…METALZING passenger cars!
My favorite part is turning the room lights down low, turning on all the little lights in buildings and such on the layout, and operating a local freight. Other than that, I most enjoy making vignettes to be found like easter eggs, laying track, building benchwork, and creating interior scenes in buildings.
The part where there are no stalls, shorts, derailments or unintended uncouplings when running trains.
Rich
I would like to point out that you do a tremendous job of documenting the process of building a model railroad; from room prep to building benchwork to scenery; and everything in between. I have learned so much from watching and reading your posts and blog. Thank you for doing this.