what do you think when you run yours trains?

[jonadel]

At times when my friends ask me what I have invested I beg off and just say "I don't want to know" but when I step back and really look at the big picture I see three things:
1. A really nice used Corvette or a new Harley.
2. Tremendous hours of enjoyment that my wife and I have had building this empire.
3. Lots of pride in sharing this hobby with friendly visitors.

It's all about #'s 2 & 3.

Jon

[jwse30]

Willow and Mickeyg,

Lately, I've been having similiar thoughts when running my trains. My father passed away in February, and while he surely didn't have the train bug, he did do a lot to get me started in the hobby. Being executor of his estate, I haven't had much time to play with the trains lately, but even walking into the trainroom makes me stop and think of him. I think stuff like "I won't ever have to lie to you again about the value of that MPC starter set you gave me 30ish years ago" (anytime I mentioned my layout to him, he'd ask how much that set was worth these days) or "I'm glad I never got rid of those trains he gave me"

J White

[Anonymous]

I think of the 1960s and running the trains with my grandfather. The trains are the last physical connection I have with him. We used to go to his house at least 3x per week and run the trains.

[markperr]

Thoughts run rampant:

Wow, nice day.

Oh, darn, the tanker derailed (stop train)

Okay, restart

Oh Mandy, well you came and you gave without taking

Smoke on the water, Fire in the sky

Wow, the neighbor's wife is looking kinda hot since the baby was born

Darn, the tanker fell off the track again, Hmm???? (stop train)

Restart train,

Pool needs backwashing, I wi***he neighbor would finish building his deck. It's going on two years now.

Man, it's hot. I need a beer.

No beer? Maybe a soda.

No soda? Guess I'll just get a drink from the hose

What in the H%ll is wrong with that D@#N tanker????

Man, the pond is looking pretty bad. Maybe I should empty it and clean it.

Buildings could use a coat of paint



So you see, my ADD kicks in to high gear when I'm running trains.

Mark

[Jumijo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

Sometimes I think about a food train. Like filling the tank car with beer, putting a sliced up peanut butter sandwich on the flat car and some fries in the gondola. I think the layout might make a nice addition to the kitchen or even to the outside BBQ.

The outside BBQ train could bring in wet woodchips for the smoker and carry BBQ sauce in the hopper.

Beer and a peanut butter sandwich?!!!!

Maybe you should fill another tanker with Pepto![:)]

Jim

[FJ and G]

Sometimes I think about a food train. Like filling the tank car with beer, putting a sliced up peanut butter sandwich on the flat car and some fries in the gondola. I think the layout might make a nice addition to the kitchen or even to the outside BBQ.

The outside BBQ train could bring in wet woodchips for the smoker and carry BBQ sauce in the hopper.

[Anonymous]

I try to imagine how garden railroading would work out for me when the typical summer day is 115 degrees? Would my layout melt?

Then I thank my lucky stars for having my air-conditioned O gauge layout in my living room, my two train chairs that swivel, and a new ceiling fan that runs on remote. Yep, I am lazy...

[Jumijo]

"Is the smoke unit leaking"?!

[highrailjon]

I find myself singing the words of "Amazing Grace" to the tune of "Gilligan's Island".

[4kitties]

Usually I let my mind go blank, although sometimes when I'm running heavy PRR steamers I think about how places like Altoona and Enola would've looked in their heyday, and I wish I could've been there.

Joel

[Anonymous]

I wonder how dizzy my passengers are getting going around in circles all day long. Then, when I unload coal at a coal loader, I wonder how this company makes any money by having coal dumped from one car then unload it right onto another car. I wonder when the track gang will come out to fix a little kink in my rails. With no way to walk from one car to another on the passenger train, I wonder how well diner service is doing. How annoyed is my flagman at having to flag a crossing....when there are no cars coming. What crew put up those flashing lights at the crossing? Those must have been some big big men.

[AlanRail]

Well

My layout has grown far too complicated for my simple mind. So I worry about the trains not working or the DCS/TMCC giving a wrong signal and expensive engines speeding out of control crashing then falling to the floor.

Derailing... I think a lot about derails in switches; did I throw the right turnout??

I also think about how much time and effort I have put into building the layout and the rewards or return on my investment in time; akin to unrequited love, like being married for a long time.

I try not to think about the money that could have been better spent.

SH $ T I think I'll just sell the whole mess and get on with my life.

. . . . . .. Maybe not!

[marxalot]

A Friday afternoon musing... one of my better times...................

Well I start out thinking about what I still have to do to get rid of the HO layout in the basement so I can run my Marx and newer stuff ( I'm a floor runner now) but it isn't long until I'm remembering running a train on the floor of an old house on the west side of Cleveland about 47 years ago...... and the people who lived in that house.......... most are gone now.... but how they cared for me........ and man those cold winters in Cleveland.............. but mostly the people in that house....the memories wash over me................. most are pleasant but not all, but hey, this is life.............. I can watch that train run and see em' all..............an old German grandfather who drank like a cuss but was not mean (a truly amazing thing)....... an uncle who never had a job but ended up caring for his mother and father when no one else could......................they all liked my trains and liked the table on saw horses in the basement and using Christmas light to illuminate the houses......................the pride my mother had in anything I built.... no matter how poorly done......... ah......... mothers!! Anyhow, you don't know me and I don't know you but this is what I think about........ and truly enjoy about running my trains........

Jim

[Heartman]

My brain gets little shutdown time, so in the summer when I cut grass, I think about nothing but making straight lines. In the winter, I watch the trains on the layout going straight down the tracks. Those two times I can block out everything, & just concentrate on just what I'm doing and nothing else. It's my "unwinding" time!

Dennis

[underworld]

Hello Andre,

I think like Chief Eagles....I am the engineer.

Buckeye I think you think even less than you think!!!!! [:p]

underworld

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[laz 57]

JIM DUDAS lady friends cutting grass.
laz57

[cnw1995]

I play old time radio tapes sometimes so it sets a mood - last week, I listened to a series of Your Hit Parade broadcasts. I like to think about what it must've been like to ride or run a crack passenger train or how hard it was to work freight in the 1930s or 40s.

[Anonymous]

I'm the conductor, telling the engineer what to do.

Usually, I have to do it myself, anyway, so I am thinking about the paucity of modern labor.

[ChiefEagles]

I'm the engineer. [:D]

[Anonymous]

To those you mentioned that they were too young to remember "the steam days"...yes, today's steam "tourist lines" are great (like Strasburg, PA), but nothing can compare to a steam passenger express running at 70mph. I used to watch them for hours on end in the early 50's on the LIRR.

[prewardude]

QUOTE: Originally posted by andregg1

Wow
I feel almost the same like us.
Glen Miller and the steam age is perfect to remember. but I'm 33 year old so I don't have memories of those years.
And when I run my diesel I think about the development, progres, hope.
to run my train is for me a therapy for relax and think about peace.

Andre,
I'm only 36, so I have no first-hand recollections of the steam days, either. For some reason, though, I'm drawn to that era like a magnet. Always have been. I'm not talking about just the railroads of the time, but that whole era in American history. I can't help but think that in spite of the bad economic times, it must have been a better time to live, in some ways. Then again, that's just me. [sigh]

[andregg1]

Wow
I feel almost the same like us.
Glen Miller and the steam age is perfect to remember. but I'm 33 year old so I don't have memories of those years.
And when I run my diesel I think about the development, progres, hope.
to run my train is for me a therapy for relax and think about peace.

[Anonymous]

I'll add this post DRINKING BEER get it (look at my previous post)

Jim D.
a.k.a.SOCKO

[Anonymous]

My son and I enjoy watching our trains run on our SHAMOKIN SHORT LINE (not prototypical). He'll deliver frieght from his SANTA FE to interchange with the PENNSY ---(( SHAMOKIN ))--- and we'll both take turns on the local and spot or remove cars from the local manufactures. Or biggest customer is the local beer distributer.

Jim D.
a.k.a.SOCKO

[prewardude]

My favorite thoughts come about when I'm running Standard gauge: "So THIS is what it was like to be a kid in the 1930s!" [:D] I just wi***hat I could still walk down to the tracks to watch the steamers run, and watch the hobos riding by. It must have been something...

[eZAK]

My RR is basically a scenic/excursion type, so I can run any era engine with any era cars.
My biggest concerns are maintenance and how to make money.

After all, I need to preserve this bit of history for future generations.

[selector]

"Please make it through the turnout....PUHLEEESE!"

[Buckeye Riveter]

QUOTE: Originally posted by wrmcclellan

On the other hand, to take the title of your post literally, when I am running trains, I do not think much at all! [:D]

And I think even less [|)]

[Anonymous]

I think about what to build/ buy next. Hopefully, this will pass. My 2 month-old, small (5x8) layout / train table is short on "real estate" space, so I don't ru***o fill it up. I also think about how my Grandchilren will react when they see the latest so-and-so I've added. Joe