WHAT DOES MODEL RAILROADING DO FOR YOU

[Anonymous]

Besides the model building, the electrical work, scenery, etc... It gives me a reason not to watch so much TV. It also keeps me from getting bored overall.

HMH

[cnw1995]

Boy, Walt, thanks for sharing this memory - I can almost imagine what it was like to be there.

[Anonymous]

It causes Me to savor fond memories of past Christmases. I shall share one of those now. When I was about Ten Years old We lived in a small three rom apartment, My older Brother had an American Flyer passenger Train which had a cast iron locomotive and all the rolling stock had four wheels. Just a circle of track,which was then three rail "0" Gauge. We made a Christmas layout using a sheet of cotton on the floor. Put our circle of track down. Ripped a hole in the cotton and inserted a mirror to serve as a pond. The
train did not run as it needed new brushes or something,which was beyond our ability to fix;so we just sat the train on the tracks.
We had a number of little houses and a church which we got at the Dime store for --a dime each, We had some little plaster animals. ducks ,chickens etc. We spent hours arranging the village. We sprinkled ground up coal for a street. We arranged the houses perfectly to our tastes. Put some ducks on the Mirror lake.and had am imaginary utopian
Christmas village.
Monday morning we went to school and Mother went to work, We had no Dad,He had been Killed at work on the Railroad. All morning in school I could only concentrate on our littlr village,and I could hardly wait till lunch break so I could go Home and look at our creation while I ate My sandwich and soup.
The only lock on our apartment Door was of the very old fashioned "Skeleton Key variety.
which everybody had.and they were all the same.
So when I finally arrive Home and entered the apartment;I discovered we had had some
uninvited visitors. Some neighbor children,obviously not yet old enough for school had
entered our apartment and enjoyed themselves by playing with all the neat stuff under the tree. When I arrived Hom it had all been removed from under the tree and placed on the floor beside the sheet of cotton. Obviously,whomever had enjoyed our layout and played withall the neat things. decided to not return them to the original locations. They
opted to make a hasty retreat and just left things neatly arranged on the floor.
Nothing appeared missing,and We never did find out who the culprots were, we could
only guess. So we never said anything about it to our neighbors, We simply enjoyed rebuilding our littlr village onc again. We could only imagine How much fun those littlr tykes had playing with our layout. 1936
Walt Cameron

[Anonymous]

Hmmm...besides draining my wallet? [:D] It kepts me out of trouble! What a wonderful release and escape! There are so many diferrent things to do. I can turn on the transformer. Sit back with a cool drink and travel almost anywhere my imagination will take me. The trains actually helped me quit smoking. I added up the cost of my nicotine habit and transfered the cost to my rail addition! My collection grew much quicker.

[railman]

finished or not, it's very nice and good for the imagination to sit back and do some serious "hand waving." (i.e. imagination) When the trains are running, the scenery is done (in places), it takes me back to the glory days.

[Anonymous]

The thrill Of seeing 3 or 4 trains inertwyning ( Is that spelled right?) together intheir own independent tracks is lust as fun to me as going to Disney world[:)]

[CSX FAN]

Mostly it help relieve the stress of work, But more importantly it lets me be with the kids.

[Anonymous]

The hobby allows me to be creative and make use of mechanical abilities. My job does not allow for either. I enjoy the building and repairing a bit more than operating. Operating is fun but I enjoy bringing the rusted engine back from the grave or the cracked box car from the scenery pile or just customizing an old car that needs a breath of fresh air.

[Anonymous]

After a day of screaming and prodding the employees i manage i just like to relax and run my trains and sitback and think about my next step will be in the building of my empire. Most of all i am just having a hellva lot of fun...

Dave

[Anonymous]

Ditto to all the above!!!!!

[Dr. John]

I enjoy seeing what I can create with my meager skills. I get a real sense of satisfaction getting a train to run, a switch to work, adding scenery, etc. It is three dimensional art.

[cnw1995]

Didn't it used to say on top of the MR masthead - model railroading is fun? I like the chance to be creative, work with my hands, make my own 'little world', and watch it 'run' with lights and sounds.

[lionelsoni]

It's all toy trains, TMCC. I say that toy trains are to dolls as model railroading is to action figures.

[Anonymous]

I greatly enjoy the scenes of a town and country as the train passes through it.

[Anonymous]

Toy trains (I hestitate to call it "model railroading") provides an escape from the demands and frustrations of working in a harsh corporate environment (think Dilbert). Envisioning a scene in one's head and then actually creating some semblence of that provides immense satisfaction. Unlike providing yet another report as to why we are behind schedule without ticking off the management which is the true cause of the delays. Creating and then enjoying a little fantasy world can be an excellent stress release valve.

[Anonymous]

It makes me happy!

[3railguy]

Model Railroading lets me relax and use my manual skills creating things I enjoy looking at. I get the greatest joy out of running stuff or looking at it on the shelf.

[Anonymous]

[8D]I like to sit and look at the the layout and think ,what would look good.A tree there ,or a house over there, or a building on the side of the mountain near the pond .Model railroading ,let's me use the skills I have learned over the years.Such as landscaping ,framing and roofing.That is why I like to scratch build . model railroading lets me open my mind to a different level of skills.It blows my mind sometimes when I come home and see what I had made ,and my freinds are just amazzzzzzed[8D]

Al