Chat Room For Younger Modelers

[danrunner]

AT THE REQUEST OF OTHER YOUNGER MODEL RAILROADERS, I WANTED TO CREATE A YOUNGER PEOPLE'S MESSAGE BOARD TO DISCUSS ALL THINGS RELEVANT TO US. THIS INCLUDES OFF-TOPIC ITEMS, BUT SHOULD HAVE A GENERAL THEME SURROUNDING TRAINS AND YOUR LIFE AROUND THEM.

OLDER CONTRIBUTORS ARE WELCOME--ALWAYS--BUT MANY OF THE TOPICS HERE MAY BE OF LITTLE INTEREST TO THEM.

WE'LL TRY KEEPING ONE FOLDER GOING, BUT IF NEEDED, WE CAN CREATE A NEW ONE FOR A WEEKLY CHAT.

[Brutus]

Why under 40? Why not under 45?

[Anonymous]

O boy this going to fun to watch.

[danrunner]

DAYOFTHEROPE,

Here it is. Now its success will depend on the other readers and whether they want to keep in going.

One thing that I'd like to talk about is how hard it is to find time to work on my layout. With a 19 month-old, a wife, and careers in flux, it's hard.

Also, I had to choose between PC and PS2/gaming consoles and trains. I don't have the time or money for both--and some days i'd love to play a little shoot 'em up to release some tension.

What are some of the dilemmas you, the younger modeler are facing in the hobby? Time? Money? Spousal support? SPACE?

Let us know and let's get going.

[danrunner]

Jim,

Under 45, sure.

under 60 sure.

Day of the rope had and under 30 rollcall, I upped this to 40, but ALL are welcome. And I'll drop the 40 from the title.

[Bob Keller]

Our average reader is 57 I believe, anything up to 56 years, 11 months might be a good age ...

[Anonymous]

I'll be 29 tomorrow. A thread which would cater to more of the younger people here would be ideal, since the majority of them have not been around in the postwar period nor have the large elaborate layouts that the majority of the older members have. Most young people are still trying to start careers, family for those who are married or have kids, and the like. Of course for me personally it doesnt matter, its nice to talk to everyone.

I have no family, no kids and no spouse, and live alone, so therefore I dont have to worry about the extra responsibilities and restrictions. My only challenge in this hobby is getting a decent job and making the money to buy the things I would like to expand my railroad with. I like video games too, but havent been playing them much as I used to.

Chris

[Demon09]

As far as danrunner's questions regarding obstacles between my trains and i, I'm a freshman college student, so im on a tight budget.... many of my purchases are low end items that are on clearance sales and the like, or gifts i might receive..... I spend most of my time writing papers (as an english major i write constantly) and when im not working i have to help fix up the house, make dinner, and take care of my family (with a single mother, ive taken the lead role in the house-which is odd judging that 2 of my brothers are older than i am....), and in the summer and fall i will be student teaching at school so i will be gone almost all day......im working on developing my creative aspects as well, scenery is a little tough for me still.............. oddly enough a lot of people i know admire this as a hobby (especially the young women i know)....... so my obstacles are all across the board, time, money, energy/ motivation after a long day......

[danrunner]

Trainmaster, Demon09,

Welcome. Trainmaster--I was single until 33. Finances were always an issue with train purchases. I still remember w/ pride ordering MTH's UP ready to run set and waiting for it to arrive. Awesome. Being single has its advantages, but if you don't have a house, space might be an issue. It was for me. Condos w/o basements suck for train operation and collecting--no space.

Demon09--I've taught HS and MS English for the past twelve years. Time management will be a big issue for you. Between designing lesson plans and grading homework and papers, you'll be putting in LONG weeks. Engli***eachers--good ones--seem to never put in less than 60 hours a week. While others can put their jobs away as they pass through their office's front door, you'll be bringing yours home with you EVERY night. As you know, there's no pay for all of that work you'll be doing at night. It's simply part of the job.

Make the most of your summers off and plan to do only little things to your layout through the year. Holidays will be your friend.

Great to hear from both of you. Please contribute often.

Dan

[Anonymous]

Some of the conversation here brings back old memories....Tim

[Demon09]

Thats pretty much what i expect with teaching.... unfortunately the programs i am involved with this year have caused me to forefeit my summer and much of the fall, and i plan to graduate early with my masters so the next few summers/years will likely be filled with work........Thankfully the time i do get to run my trains or check local hobby shops and resale shops for treasures are my escape from the hectic lifestyle...........


This forum was a great idea, by the way...

What styles of trains are people running? Diesels, steamers, TMCC, traditional...... more freight or passenger? modeling the modern era, or something 30 years or more into the past? And also, any pics available? Sharing pics on this forum always inspires new ideas for me, so i can only assume it will for others too.....

[tumbleweed56]

I am 34, married and have three young daughters (7, 5, and 2). My biggest challenges in regards to this is hobby are time and money (what a surprise). Luckily my dad gave me his Postwar trains from when he was a kid, so I really have more trains then I need. My goal right now is build a small, permanent layout that the kids and I can play with.

One of the best parts of this hobby is that I can do it with my kids. My girls love to run the trains, blow the whistle and operate the accessories. Like others who have commented on this topic, I use to have multiple hobbies but I had to scale back. Being able to play trains with my kids made this hobby an easy choice.

As for layout style, I am a toy-rail fan. I appreciate scale modeling, but it is not for me. I love operating accessories (as do my kids) and trains that are bright and shiny. No weathering, ballasting or realistic scenery for me. Just lots of action!

One challenge that I have run into is that since I never had O gauge trains as a kid, I never knew how most of the accessories were suppose to operate. In addition to books and magazines, this forum has been a great asset in helping me to get things up and running.

I am looking forward to seeing how this thread works out.

[danrunner]

What are your other hobbies?

Earlier I mentioned competing hobbies, and that's true for probably most of us. I have had several hobbies and will talk about them here. What are yours?

Mine included running--marathons and 10+mile races until my back surgery 1.5 years ago. I've always had back problems and should have known better. It was by far my favorite hobby and I miss it terribly. I still hike and take walks and camp and enjoy the outdoors, but I miss those weekend three-hour runs. Reading is another one, although in today's climate it's an unfashionable one. I used to be a pc gamer and loved shoot 'em ups like wolfenstein and doom, but those crooks at the pc/software companies force you to constantly upgrade your equipment to play the new games. I have 3 games in my closet I can't play because my 2 y.o. pc isn't fast/advanced enough--ridiculous. I gave up and retired from pc gaming. I was going to get a PS2, but have been trying to limit my hobbies with my young family. Lastly, I like to lift and exercise, but I have to be careful because of my back. Only certain things will not aggravate my herniated discs.

Railroading has bee my therapy since my back surgery. I loved trains always, but my injury forced my hand into trying some less strenuous hobbies. I do love my trains!

[Demon09]

I know how the bad back thing goes.... I'm only 18 and I have the spinal problems of someone who might have worked in a coal mine for 40 years or something along those lines.... There are a lot of irresponsible drivers in Chicago, and I have been rear ended 5 times.....

As far as other hobbies, I play the bass guitar and regular guitar, work on my car, plan and work on simple remodeling projects around the house, and (although I haven't had the time to work on them lately..) I am writing 2 books..... God only knows when I can fini***hose though.... As far as your mention of PC games I only seem to have a passing interest in any of them... The only one I seem to come back to though is Microsoft's Train Simulator, because it lets you simulate driving locomotives, so its not far off from the model train hobby.....

[Brutus]

Try the Railroad Tycoon games?

[Demon09]

Not yet, I looked at a few of them but they seemed more like arcade games almost, at the time I wanted the realism behind train simulator..... I probably will pick them up at some point though, because as someone on the CTT forum mentioned it allows you to build a digital layout that runs like a real business....Sounds like a fun concept to play around with... Interesting perspective too......

I assume you have this game? Any reccomendations as to what version to get, I think I heard that there are several versions.....

[Anonymous]

Railraod Tycoon 2 Platinum Edition kicks butt!

[Brutus]

I have 2-Gold Edition and RT3. 2-Gold comes with the added missions and you can also download new ones from various sites on the internet for 2 and 3. In 2 you could micromanage your consists and deliveries better, because you could flag certain cargos to be dropped at specific stations and held there until a train going somewhere that wanted them showed up. This way you could have feeder lines collecting produce, grain, coal etc drop off at small (cheap) stations on a main line, and then have trains with specific destinations regularly collect the cargo at those stations, deliver to the desired station/industry, and then return, dropping off the product of your industry on the way for good measure.

In RT3 this is all automated, and while it makes the games go faster, it's also a little harder to beat some of the missions.

The problem with the RT games is when you lay track, you have to pay careful attention to grade. Then, adding the station might make the game raise or lower the grade and totally mess up your run! Save before you build anything!

I really like these games, though, and I've played all the way through both of them numerous times.

[Anonymous]

I'm 30, a grad student and married with a 17 month old. I have a very small and carefully selected collection. I spend too much time on here and too little on my barely existing and very temporary layout.

One of the areas of the hobby I enjoy most is researching: history, model products, techniques and so on. I really recommend carefully planning ahead over impulse purchasing to anyone on a budget.

I am happy doing my own thing and try to take opinions posted on forums with a grain of salt. If you like what you are doing, great, more power to you. Just because they older that doesn't mean they are any smarter. Just look around here for a few days and you will see what I mean.

I would like to see more layouts that take chances. I have one layout that has a sci-fi theme. I also use a toy monorail and constuction set called Rokenbok. When I showed pics around here it was met with a profound apathy. "It doesn't have 3 rails and wasn't made in 1950 something. Does not compute."

Oh well, they say you can't teach old dogs....at the same time there are complaints that the hobby is greying. Something seems to have to change but the resistance to any thing of the kind is very strong in this hobby.

[Anonymous]

sorry double post

[danrunner]

emaandy,

The area 51 and rocket/missile sets should go well with that theme. I've seen layouts based on area 51, and they're great. I love that xfiles/ sci fi thing myself. Another fun one a few years back would have been Y2K.

I would love to have an area 51 area, but I truly love that folksy, toy train look with clunky, brightly-colored accessories. I want my layout to look like it's 50 years old. Does that make me a loser?

Dan

[Anonymous]

Danrunner,

I never called you or anyone here a "loser". I was only telling my experience here when I showed some pictures of a project of mine that were a bit different than other work I've seen here. I am just saying that it seems that there are some perameters that are placed on what is accepted as acceptable "toy trains". Those perameters may be a limitation if a wider audience for the hobby among younger people is desired.

When I was a child there were still some interesting to children mass marketed Lionel sets at toy stores(like the L.A.S.E.R. or the Black Cave Flyer and in HO the Tyco Turbotrains). There are not any anymore in these accessable stores. The last of these offerings I remember at a big store was the Safari and the Constuction sets in 1998 at Toys Are Us. The Constuction set was what brought me back into this hobby. Without this type of offering it seems it would be harder to re-introduce younger people back to the hobby later on.

Anyway I thought this area was ment for younger hobbiests. 1950 is just as alien to me as 1910 is to you. I wasn't around.

FYI the era I research is 1910 - 1930. I am trying to make a model of a shortline logging railroad in upstate New York.

[danrunner]

NOOOOOOO! E, I'm joking. I KNOW you're not calling ANYONE A LOSER. i WAS KIDDING. Please accept my apology for my sense (or lack ) of humor. You seem like a really cool dude. I was cutting on myself that I'm an old Fuddy-Duddy. Your posts are great. I love those classic layouts, but I like those sci-fi ones too.

Please accept my apology for joking around.

Please keep posting and don't feel you hurt anyone. It looks like I'm the one who did a litte hurting.

Sorry. And let's have a laugh about the misunderstanding!

Dan

[danrunner]

Building on emmaandy's desire to pu***he envelpoe of railroad design and go in some interesting directions, check out this Hamburg Germany site.

Leave it to those Germans to do some incredible things. Click through the photo albums. The one of America is awesome. Imagine adding YOUR trains to their scenery. This site has definitely given me some ideas.


http://www.miniatur-wunderland.de/data/cms/en/500/

check it out

[Anonymous]

No hard feelings to you too I hope.

There is room for many here. I would in fact like to see these definitions expanded to be more inclusive that is all.

[Anonymous]

I looked at the link and that really is a huge layout.

[tschmidt]

emmaandy,

The Area 51 train is fun. Now there are about 6 add on cars to go with it. Three of them are in the curent Lionel catalog. I would love to see pictures of a layout built around this train. If anyone has picsthey can post I'd love to see them.

TomS

[danrunner]

TomS

Your wish is my command. You may have to join the Yahoo-Lionel group, but there is an awesome Area 51 layout.

I knew I I saw one somewhere!!!

Dan V

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LionelLayouts/

[Anonymous]

where have i been? how did i miss this topic!
i feel like ive been left out! hahaha

[tschmidt]

Dan V

I checked the Yahoo Group but didn't find pics of the Area 51 stuff. All I found was the talking about it. I am a member and signed in but no luck.

TomS[alien][alien]