i model because i use to be a person who ly cares about card games. but now modleing is my hobby![:)] and all that is true,how about you![:D]
I have a very stressful job ,like many others. Model railroading is my own little world,where I can call the shots. Besides what the heck else is this much fun other than making a baby.[:D][:D] Got a 13 year old and don’t want anymore, so I’ll stick with model trains.
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
I model because I have to. I was raised on a farm in MT with no TV,no Video games, but a great environment anyway. When I was’nt farming and building roads with my Tonka stuff I was building little villages with ships and cars etc. from clay. About the age of ten my uncle came home from Germany with a Marklin set and I never looked back.
I model. Therefore I am…
Just like working with my hands, modeling has so many aspects that keep the hands busy.
A little DesCarte there. I am with Patrick a little in that I like having my own little world. It also fits the artist in me. I can’t paint, but I can model, and after WWII making model airplanes lost its charm. The poet said, “Only God can make a tree.” but I can model one. Only here can I be a volcano and do plate tectonics. There is something magical about it all. And more I am sure.
i model because i loved trains from the tender age of 5, and like dragonriversteel said the only other thing thats fun besides making babies is trains, and this keeps a young guy like myself (26) out of alot of trouble if you know what i mean. plus this hobby is ever on going. plus this hobby keeps the mind stimulated, and it keeps you with a young spirit at heart.
I model because my grandpa got me started about 9 years ago, and I love Trains!!!, and it also keeps me off the streets.
Victor
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]
I need a creative outlet. Right now that means trains. It’s a good fit.
I think it is the quest that keeps us young and hooked looking for something better. I am a 1:1 car guy by heart and a drag racer. I would spend $10,000.00 to cut 1.0 second off my 1/4 mile time after 12.0 ET. Now it was racing and for money, but why did I need to go faster? I was bracket racing and ET and MPH was in a bracket. I could make as much running a 14.0 as a 10.0?
Then there is the Audiophile grade stereo, new the rear in the garage would cost around $20,000.00 today. Yes, I have a good hear and can hear the driffrenes betten a Keff Q75.2 and a DQ 10 Both sound great but it is the quest for perfect.
To sume it up, it gives us something to think about, and work on with are hands and some times a Big ----ing hammer. Right now I am pulling OK the engines are pulling 30 cars, geting ready to added 10 more to see if I can make 40? Why, like a 25 foot train iss short, back straight is only 19 foot?
Cuda Ken
Because of these simple words…
It’s my passion!
I like the comprehensive character of this hobby. You do a little bit of everything. It is very much an art.
I seem to have been born with the affliction. I model plains, trains & automobiles, but mostly MR.
I have found it to be a great hobby. it offers so many different aspects that you can never really get bored with it.
Kit building, painting, electrical, wood working, operating, to watchign the real thing. Always somehtign to offer in this hobby to just aout everyone.
More than anything else in this world I want to be creative - and modelling allows me the opportunity to do that!!
Because it’s fun!
Chuck
I really like the satisfaction of doing a good job with a modelling project. MR is very mind-expanding for me. I’ve had to learn a lot of new and updated techniques, and the technology has gone through several generations since my last layout back in the 1960’s. I used to play a lot of Flight Simulator, but the physical aspect of actually holding and building real things, as opposed to virtual things, is just a lot more satisfying.
Besides, trains just make me smile like a little kid. I like that feeling.
When I first got hooked (not that long ago), I thought it would be interesting just to learn and apply the skills needed to put up a plausible layout. As I got drawn in, the unexpected happened – I was getting history lessons about railroading in general and about the area I wanted to model. Growing up in the 50’s in the anthracite coal region of PA, I didn’t really understand the importance of the region and its railroading in the early days – how it influenced the economy of an entire nation and created kind of a sub-culture. As a kid, hearing an adult say “he works for the railroad” conjured up a bit of awe and some envy for the lucky guy who was a real railroader.
I want to re-capture some of those glory days in my plan, not as an exact prototype, but with enough elements that make the finished product recognizable. I think it’s natural to get nostalgic as we get older and to desire to revisit the past. My layout gives me the opportunity do accompli***hat with a mix of history and my own memory. Turns out being a student of history is very rewarding.
I love to tinker with things, it’s the way I release my tension. I’ve had trains since I was 4 years old, and have been building models since I was 7 years old. During my teenage years I started customizing model, cars with wild paint schemes and super details.
In my 30’s and 40’s I was into building and racing radio control cars. I really enjoyed assembling, painting and tweaking them then getting a chance to race them competitively. Man what an adrenalin rush when your stuff is running with the best in the class!
Now I’m in my early 50’s and I’ve found building a model railroad keeps busy building benchwork, assembling and painting kits of all types, maintaining my locos, running electrical connections, and of course running my trains.
So you ask ”why do I model”? My answer: Because I enjoy it!
Bill
To tell you the truth, I don’t really know the answer. There is some magical thing for me about that little plastic train making it’s way through the world that I built. The locomotives, the freight cars, the cabooses just “speak to me” in an unexplainable way. I liked what Mr. B. said: It just makes me grin like a little kid… every time.