Trains.com

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Am I really insane?

5405 views
38 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    October 2004
  • 745 posts
Posted by HarryHotspur on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 6:26 PM
 BlueHillsCPR wrote:

 larak wrote:
Oh oh. Mischief [:-,].  My wife and I cut two five gallon buckets of low bush blueberry branches a couple of years ago. They work really well. Prototypical trunk thickness and markings.

 Blueberry bushes...blueberry bushes...gotta be some of those around here somewhere...Tongue [:P]

They can be hard to spot. Remember, blueberries are red when they're green. :-) 

- Harry

  • Member since
    November 2007
  • 1,089 posts
Posted by BlueHillsCPR on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 4:05 PM

 shayfan84325 wrote:
I went to see UP's Challenger locomotive and took a small dollup of grease as a souvenier (my wife thought it was a very strange thing to do).

She was right... Laugh [(-D]

J/K Smile [:)]

  • Member since
    November 2007
  • From: Utah
  • 1,315 posts
Posted by shayfan84325 on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 3:26 PM
I went to see UP's Challenger locomotive and took a small dollup of grease as a souvenier (my wife thought it was a very strange thing to do).

Phil,
I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.

  • Member since
    October 2007
  • From: Tennessee
  • 665 posts
Posted by Kenfolk on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 2:34 PM
I collect sample bags of synthetic landscaping ground cover...and more.

  • Member since
    November 2007
  • 1,089 posts
Posted by BlueHillsCPR on Monday, January 21, 2008 10:56 PM

 larak wrote:
Oh oh. Mischief [:-,].  My wife and I cut two five gallon buckets of low bush blueberry branches a couple of years ago. They work really well. Prototypical trunk thickness and markings.

 Blueberry bushes...blueberry bushes...gotta be some of those around here somewhere...Tongue [:P]

  • Member since
    October 2005
  • From: Ulster Co. NY
  • 1,464 posts
Posted by larak on Monday, January 21, 2008 9:06 PM
 AltoonaRailroader wrote:

No Bluehills that doens't make you crazy, now wandering around out in the woods trying to find the perfect little tree branches to make model trees out of is crazy, I haven't made it that far yet, but my wife keeps pushing me. LOL Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

Oh oh. Mischief [:-,].  My wife and I cut two five gallon buckets of low bush blueberry branches a couple of years ago. They work really well. Prototypical trunk thickness and markings.

 

 

The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open.  www.stremy.net

  • Member since
    August 2006
  • From: Saskatchewan
  • 2,201 posts
Posted by last mountain & eastern hogger on Monday, January 21, 2008 11:04 AM

Whistling [:-^]

Yes it is true,  We all have "Railroaditis".  It is very common you know.......Tongue [:P]Tongue [:P]Tongue [:P]

The only help that is available is by Dr. Flangeway and Nurse Fishplate, and they only visit on Thursdays when the Local arrives.  They are very busy so good luck on getting in to see them.

Most of us just give up and learn to live with it. 

We are a strange but great group.  Dontcha think ??????????

Johnboy out......... 

from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North.. 

We have met the enemy,  and he is us............ (Pogo)

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Monday, January 21, 2008 10:50 AM

Not only do I have the illness myself, I've passed it on to my children.  My 16-year old son came home the other night with a plastic baggy poking out of his coat pocket.  In the baggy I could see green plantstuffs.  Immediately on the Parent Offensive, I jumped up and yanked it out of his pocket, only to discover that the plastic baggy was filled with bits of evergreen trees from the neighborhood to use as scenery on our layout!

When we go walking, my children (I have 5, ages ranging from 18 to 9) point out various details of the streets, vacant lots, etc., telling me how they would model it on the layout.  Right now they are trying to figure out how to make a convincing Southern Magnolia tree.

What a creative and inspiring way to look at the world around us, eh?

  • Member since
    December 2006
  • 1,207 posts
Posted by stebbycentral on Friday, January 18, 2008 3:49 PM
 m sharp wrote:

It seems every time I enter a room, I estimate its dimensions using floor or ceiling tiles if possible.  Then I visualize what kind of track plan I could design for the room.  I do this in waiting rooms, restaurants, even church (I prayed for forgiveness), and bathroom stalls!  I must be ill!!!

Mike

No you're not insane.  You just need a hobby...Big Smile [:D]

I have figured out what is wrong with my brain!  On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!

  • Member since
    November 2007
  • From: Utah
  • 1,315 posts
Posted by shayfan84325 on Friday, January 18, 2008 3:30 PM
 concretelackey wrote:

 shayfan84325 wrote:
I find myself casually dividing the size of EVERYTHING by 87.

CASUALLY?????

MY FRIEND, YOU HAVE ISSUES!!!!!!Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

Ken,

It gets worse!  I also have been known to divide prototype weight by 658,000 to determine the HO scale weight (658,000 is roughly 87 cubed).

Interestingly, many brass locos come pretty close to scale weight.

-Phil

Phil,
I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.

  • Member since
    November 2007
  • From: south central PA
  • 580 posts
Posted by concretelackey on Friday, January 18, 2008 1:06 PM

 shayfan84325 wrote:
I find myself casually dividing the size of EVERYTHING by 87.

CASUALLY?????

MY FRIEND, YOU HAVE ISSUES!!!!!!Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

Ken aka "CL" "TIS QUITE EASY TO SCREW CONCRETE UP BUT TIS DARN NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO UNSCREW IT"
  • Member since
    November 2007
  • From: Utah
  • 1,315 posts
Posted by shayfan84325 on Friday, January 18, 2008 12:34 PM
I find myself casually dividing the size of EVERYTHING by 87.

Phil,
I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.

  • Member since
    July 2004
  • From: Lewiston ID
  • 1,710 posts
Posted by reklein on Friday, January 18, 2008 10:44 AM
I bin tryin to figure out how I can get four FEMA trailers into a square configuration for a nice walkaround size Z scale layout in two to three levels.
In Lewiston Idaho,where they filmed Breakheart pass.
  • Member since
    September 2007
  • From: Charlotte, NC
  • 6,099 posts
Posted by Phoebe Vet on Friday, January 18, 2008 10:27 AM
 TomDiehl wrote:

 BlueHillsCPR wrote:
We live on a double lot and plan to build a new house on the vacant one "someday"...the other day I told the wife I was going to keep the existing house where it was rather than removing it.  " Can't you see it honey?!  Layouts on three floors, all interconnected... Bow [bow]

That's going to be one heck of a helix system. Shock [:O]

I used to have a 3 story helix for humans.

Well, OK other people called it a spiral staircase, but it's the same principle.

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada
  • 578 posts
Posted by Blue Flamer on Friday, January 18, 2008 10:22 AM
 TomDiehl wrote:

 BlueHillsCPR wrote:
We live on a double lot and plan to build a new house on the vacant one "someday"...the other day I told the wife I was going to keep the existing house where it was rather than removing it.  " Can't you see it honey?!  Layouts on three floors, all interconnected... Bow [bow]

That's going to be one heck of a helix system. Shock [:O]

Just think though. You could have a bunch of trains running and never see the same one passing through a scene more than once or twice a month. If that.

Yeah!! [yeah]Wow!! [wow]

Blue Flamer. 

"There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"." Dave Barry, Syndicated Columnist. "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes." Doctor Who.
  • Member since
    September 2007
  • From: Charlotte, NC
  • 6,099 posts
Posted by Phoebe Vet on Friday, January 18, 2008 10:22 AM

 E-L man tom wrote:
PhoebeVet, as a fellolw EL fan, I have been suffering for years; I look at individual structures, freight cars, locomotives how they're weathered, how many windows in cabooses, even what the doors look like on such things as stations and other structures, even on cabooses - - Man, that dirt would sure look good on my layout - - I'm gone!

The Erie Lackawanna went to Boise?

LOL  It never came here to Charlotte, either.

I grew up close enough to watch, but far enough away to not hear, both the Lackawanna, later Erie Lackawanna, and the Delaware and Hudson from my bedroom window.  Their tracks ran about 100 yards apart past the Binghamton Brick Yard.  My telescope and I had a clear view of both sets of tracks.  I used to ride my bicycle to Bevier Street, and watch them humping cars.

My wife's grandfather worked on the Lackawanna, as did the father of a close friend.

The Phoebe Snow on my layout is pulled by F3s, as she was originally on the Lackawanna but when I was riding her, she was owned by the Erie Lackawanna and was pulled by E-8s.

You don't by any chance work at Boise Locomotive, to you?

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Boise, Idaho
  • 1,036 posts
Posted by E-L man tom on Friday, January 18, 2008 9:57 AM
PhoebeVet, as a fellolw EL fan, I have been suffering for years; I look at individual structures, freight cars, locomotives how they're weathered, how many windows in cabooses, even what the doors look like on such things as stations and other structures, even on cabooses - - Man, that dirt would sure look good on my layout - - I'm gone!
Tom Modeling the free-lanced Toledo Erie Central switching layout.
  • Member since
    February 2001
  • From: Poconos, PA
  • 3,948 posts
Posted by TomDiehl on Friday, January 18, 2008 9:56 AM

 BlueHillsCPR wrote:
We live on a double lot and plan to build a new house on the vacant one "someday"...the other day I told the wife I was going to keep the existing house where it was rather than removing it.  " Can't you see it honey?!  Layouts on three floors, all interconnected... Bow [bow]

That's going to be one heck of a helix system. Shock [:O]

Smile, it makes people wonder what you're up to. Chief of Sanitation; Clowntown
  • Member since
    November 2007
  • 1,089 posts
Posted by BlueHillsCPR on Friday, January 18, 2008 8:52 AM
We live on a double lot and plan to build a new house on the vacant one "someday"...the other day I told the wife I was going to keep the existing house where it was rather than removing it.  " Can't you see it honey?!  Layouts on three floors, all interconnected... Bow [bow]
  • Member since
    February 2007
  • 649 posts
Posted by AltoonaRailroader on Friday, January 18, 2008 8:38 AM
 BlueHillsCPR wrote:
 loathar wrote:
 DeadheadGreg wrote:

hey bluehills.....  those first steps are eerily similar to the real ones, lol.  i was kind of shocked to see that anyone here would have any knowledge about that area...  Closing in on 1,000 days myself..... 

 

Little over a year for me! I feel like having a beer to celebrate!!Tongue [:P]
(Did you get those pics I sent ya?)

aav-Tank cars?? That's just plain silly! You know TP rolls are used for grain silos!

You guys! Mischief [:-,]

I googled them.  Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

So far I have not gone beyond step one in my personal program.  I have admitted I am the problem.  Shock [:O]

Does cruising the back roads looking for likely tree weeds count me in as crazy? 

No Bluehills that doens't make you crazy, now wondering around out in the woods trying to find the perfect little tree branches to make model trees out of is crazy, I haven't made it that far yet, but my wife keeps pushing me. LOL Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

  • Member since
    November 2007
  • 1,089 posts
Posted by BlueHillsCPR on Friday, January 18, 2008 7:38 AM
 loathar wrote:
 DeadheadGreg wrote:

hey bluehills.....  those first steps are eerily similar to the real ones, lol.  i was kind of shocked to see that anyone here would have any knowledge about that area...  Closing in on 1,000 days myself..... 

 

Little over a year for me! I feel like having a beer to celebrate!!Tongue [:P]
(Did you get those pics I sent ya?)

aav-Tank cars?? That's just plain silly! You know TP rolls are used for grain silos!

You guys! Mischief [:-,]

I googled them.  Smile,Wink, & Grin [swg]

So far I have not gone beyond step one in my personal program.  I have admitted I am the problem.  Shock [:O]

Does cruising the back roads looking for likely tree weeds count me in as crazy? 

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, January 18, 2008 7:29 AM

One of the water towers in the VA at Little Rock is replicated on the boiler house in terms of paint and rust patterns on the support beams. Not necessarily the entire tower.

Ive had this sickness for a very long time. I realized it when I was evaluating the UP rail and ballast for weathering patterns last year and taking note of the various nuts, welds and nikpicking doo dads.

  • Member since
    February 2007
  • 649 posts
Ohhhh noooo
Posted by AltoonaRailroader on Friday, January 18, 2008 7:26 AM
 selector wrote:

Your brand of insanity might be a nice break from mine.  For many months now I have not been able to drive or walk anywhere without taking hard looks at rock surfaces, bark, tree shapes, the colour of rails, the bluing of distant hills, clouds.

My wife says it is most disconcerting while we are at 60 mph in traffic.   Then she says I never listen to her.

I must be coming down with the same thing. Shock [:O]I'm on the verge of starting some scenery and prepping myself and I've caught myself look at rock cut outs and out croppings, the shapes, size and color of trees, and just plain contours of the land around me.......etc. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!  Please don't help me, I'm crazy!!Confused [%-)]

  • Member since
    September 2007
  • From: Charlotte, NC
  • 6,099 posts
Posted by Phoebe Vet on Friday, January 18, 2008 7:06 AM
 MisterBeasley wrote:

  However, if you find yourself on a beach full of thong-clad ladies, and you're staring at the sand and thinking of what a fine scenic material it would make, seek professional help immediately.

 

Hi.  Want to come to my basement and play with my "Big Boy"?

Dave

Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow

  • Member since
    August 2004
  • From: Amish country Tenn.
  • 10,027 posts
Posted by loathar on Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:57 PM
 DeadheadGreg wrote:

hey bluehills.....  those first steps are eerily similar to the real ones, lol.  i was kind of shocked to see that anyone here would have any knowledge about that area...  Closing in on 1,000 days myself..... 

 

Little over a year for me! I feel like having a beer to celebrate!!Tongue [:P]
(Did you get those pics I sent ya?)

aav-Tank cars?? That's just plain silly! You know TP rolls are used for grain silos!

  • Member since
    February 2001
  • From: Poconos, PA
  • 3,948 posts
Posted by TomDiehl on Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:34 PM

The one truth that will make these all unnecessary:

"Sanity is overrated." Big Smile [:D]

 

 concretelackey wrote:
 BlueHillsCPR wrote:

I wonder if we should have our own 12 step program...?

1.   Admit we are powerless over our model trains--our lives had become unmanageable.

2.   Believe that a Power greater than our layouts could restore us to sanity.

3.... Wink [;)]

 

#4. I can put a helix over there.....

#5. Focus on a activity NOT related to modeling trains.....

#6. That old MRC power pack would look great on the wall for the ceiling fan control switch

Smile, it makes people wonder what you're up to. Chief of Sanitation; Clowntown
  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Southwest US
  • 12,914 posts
Posted by tomikawaTT on Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:30 PM
 MisterBeasley wrote:

Welcome to the club.  You've got a case of Modeller's Eye.  It's one of those things you can usually live with.  However, if you find yourself on a beach full of thong-clad ladies, and you're staring at the sand and thinking of what a fine scenic material it would make, seek professional help immediately.

What about looking at your mother's antique clothes horse and imagining how to rearrange the pieces into a mountain range???  (Nah.  It would never work.  Contours are too soft!)

OTOH, if you look at that beachfull of bikini-stuffers and start imagining them in railroaders' pinstripe overalls, you really are insane!

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Delmar, NY
  • 671 posts
Posted by DeadheadGreg on Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:25 PM

hey bluehills.....  those first steps are eerily similar to the real ones, lol.  i was kind of shocked to see that anyone here would have any knowledge about that area...  Closing in on 1,000 days myself..... 

 

PHISH REUNION MARCH 6, 7, 8 2009 HAMPTON COLISEUM IN HAMPTON, VA AND I HAVE TICKETS!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!! [quote user="jkroft"]As long as my ballast is DCC compatible I'm happy![/quote] Tryin' to make a woman that you move.... and I'm sharing in the Weekapaug Groove Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world....
  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,481 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Thursday, January 17, 2008 8:27 PM

Yeah, when I'm on a highway overpass, I find myself checking out the details on the building roofs by the road below.  I have a recently-acquired interest in the colors of rocks by the roadside.  Certain fine-structured plants in my wife's garden fascinate me.

Welcome to the club.  You've got a case of Modeller's Eye.  It's one of those things you can usually live with.  However, if you find yourself on a beach full of thong-clad ladies, and you're staring at the sand and thinking of what a fine scenic material it would make, seek professional help immediately.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Users Online

There are no community member online

Search the Community

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!