Hobby Question

[CBQ_Guy]

I guess you could say model railroading was my first hobby because I got my first Lionel train set around the Christmas tree in 1956 when I was three years old. Over the years I got interested in MANY things, but the four I seem to keep coming back to, sometimes years later, are interests in electronics, computers, music and MODEL RAILROADING!

Oh yeah, one of my interests I spent six years of my life on was playing bass guitar in a couple local (Chicago) rock bands in the sixties. That's how I met my wife and this summer we'll be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary!

Your interests and opportunities will change, and come and go over the years. Some you'll embrace, some you'll let slip and come back to maybe years later, and some you'll get away from forever. Just give it time (you've got a lot ahead of you) and just go with the flow, as we used to say, "Do your own thing"...and most importantly, have FUN!

[PistolPete]

I started with model building, cars, tanks, ships, collected some coins and stamps, which I still have, the last 20 years I was mostly into military board games I thing I have 60 different ones, I first did some trains in the early 80, I pulled them out of storage last year and most of my hobby time is now spent on trains with some computer wargaming thrown in. I do have some tanks ant other military equipment modeled in HO included in my final layout plan.

[Anonymous]

Now that you mention it ,I remember getting a TYCO sprit of 76 train for Christmas that year also. I had not thought about that in a long time.

[Anonymous]

I got my first 'train set' ,( Tyco,"Spirit of '76", of which I still have all the cars, but lost the loco)in 1974 or '75. Unfortunately, I really didn't care for trains, so it went into a box. For a few years, I inherited some HO stuff from my uncle, and relatives would buy me cars. When I was around 11, I discovered scale models and built 1/48 aircraft and 1/35 military, mostly WWII stuff. Around 9 years ago, I re-discovered, if you will, my trains in a box and decided to bring them out. Now I can't stop. I think that all those years of modelling have prepared me for this by teaching me skills and patience while being cost effective. The price of a decent quality scale model is low compared to some railroad accessories. So you can mess up a paint job and practice without ruining something of high quality. I'm 37 now, and have found that the rr keeps me from going completely insane, I think.

[preceng]

My first was models. I started building them as a child. I continued through my teen years. I got pretty good (if I can say). I even sold some truck models to local trucking companies, for which I built trucks that looked like their stock.

The next two started about the same time. Cars and photography. My dad had an Old's 442 that I tore apart then rebuilt. I worked and saved and bought a '69 Z28 that occupied much of my time (what a car). Got interested in photography about the same time in high school. Year book, school paper, etc.

I got married and went to school for engineering. I continued ny interest in my hobbies but did not have much time to devote to any ... climbing the corporate ladder. I turned 40 and decided that I needed a real hobby again. A friend of mine has trains (and I had always been facinated by the local science center's exhibit). I also thought it would be a good thing to pursue with my daughter (then 6). It was also a good fit with my past hobbies and technical training.

My only regret, and the actual point of my trip down memory lane, is that I wish I started sooner. Don't be reluctant to try many things. Most of them acrually benifit your career as a model railroader.

Have fun

[rambo1]

I love trains too .But I also started with modelcars and aircraft .Aircraft I know like the back of my hand and now I am learning about trains . I think it is the best hobby in the world. Thanks for trains!. rambo1.......

[Hawks05]

playing motorcycles? do you mean riding them? i would but the bikes we have aren't meant for 2 people really.

the thing is with guitar though he tries to tell me how to do everything and i want to learn and figure it out for myself so because of him trying to teach me everything i kind of backed away from that.

thats why i like model trains. he has no clue how to do any of it. like how to fix things and build the kits, which are pretty easy anyways. plus guitars to him is his stress reliever kind of like trains hopefully will be mine.

i didn't think this many people would respond.

[Anonymous]

Hello Hawks05,

This is simple, If your Dad is playing motorcycles, go play with him. If he's playing guitar, go play with him. There's going to be many many years ahead of you to play trains and cheri***hose times.

"You should be digging it while it's happening, 'cos it just might be a one shot deal" Frank Zappa.

[Anonymous]

The short answer to your question "was this your first hobby?" - No.

I started building plastic car models when I was about 8. With the help of my Dad I built my first "Hot Rod" when I was 15 - 1927 Tall-T with a Chrysler 600 hp. Hemi engine. It was road ready by the time I got my licence at 16 and drove it to and from school and work while I was in high school. By the time I graduated high school I was building 1/4 mile race cars - lots of fun but expensive. After I got married and our first child came along, the cost of racing was too much. After a couple years I got into flying R/C planes and built my own skin over woodframe model. Six months of building the plane and 5 minutes of flying time until the first crash sorta spoiled that fun. I spent 20 years in the military and while in Europe I got into WWII modeling for a while but lost intrerest after returning to the US. Built my first RR layout in 1985-86 then in '88 I was sent back over seas this time to Greece. I kept a couple locos and some of the rolling stock but sold the layout to my neighbor. While in Greece I got back into R/C's but this time I stayed on the ground. I built off-road buggies and got into racing them. I still have an intrerest in off-road R/C's and now have a couple 4x4 trucks. I don't race them in competion like I did the buggies, I just play with them sometimes on the weekends. After I retired from the US Air Force in '91 I started building wooden ship models. Last year, spring of '03, with near 45 years of model building, I decided to build another RR layout.

I am 54, medically retired (if you're interested see my profile) and have a lot of time on my hands. So I am building my second RR layout a 5x12 HO with Santa Fe as the main road. I recently started building a ship model, the American Clipper Ship "Flying Cloud", and sometimes my grandson and I run the R/C's.

[Anonymous]

When I was about 4, my dad had a big Lionel layout. I too could only watch, not touch. Then when I was about 9, dad bought me an LGB starter kit. I got into model railroading, and tried my first "Garden layout." As I got older, dad and I built an indoor LGB layout (WAY too big for the small 10 x 4 we built.)

I kinda went my own way in the hobby, and started a huge HO layout when I was 17. My cousin and I spent days at a time building this ugly, oversized, un-planned layout. We laid track and ran trains, only to tear out whole sections (with a chain saw at some points.)

Looking back, we learned more about model railroading than we could have imagined. Adulthood came, time became non-existent, and four years went by with no layout at all.

Long story short... a couple of false starts, and one bad design later, I have now built a true professional layout, benchwork up. This one is modular, so when I move, it can travel with me intact. Model railroading is my therapy, my art, and my love. My wife can sit for hours and read while we watch some movie for the umpteenth time, while I work on a project, or run the trains. It keeps our sanity, and is a source of mutual pride.

[Anonymous]

Had dozens of hobbies throughout the years, but i always come back to Model railroads.

Jay

[RhB_HJ]

Started with electric trains when I was 7 (before that I had wooden ones at 3 and a windup at 5).
Started playing guitar at 15, when I earned my own money to buy one and pay for the lessons. Played in bands or solo (rock, blues, folk and MoR) til I was 28.
At one time or other I had an electric, a six string, nine string, twelve string guitar, a five string banjo, an autoharp, a bass guitar and a mandolin.

Never stopped model railroading!

Have a whole bunch of other hobbies but model railroading is still Numero Uno!
Just wish I would have more time, because once you make a hobby your job the tendency is that you do the customers' work first and your own when you find the time.
[;)][:(]

[Anonymous]

I got started in trains when I was about 2, and got my first train set when I was 5, so I guess it was my first hobby.

[JeremyB]

Hi there

I have always loved trains But my other hobbies are WWII and F1 racing. actually last night I saw Spiderman on TV and got to thinking that I might start collecting spiderman comics again. Does anybody know how much they cost anymore,it's been a while

[Anonymous]

Yes, from my first rail set, I've been into model trains. I left for a while in my teens when I found out what women were for [maybe in my twenties too] but I came back to my first love, Trains.

[mls1621]

I am the youngest of three children. My father bought each of us a train set for the Christmas tree. I got mine when I was four years old, for the Christmas of 1949. It was a Lionel GG1 and three Pullman cars.

At that time, it wasn't model railroading and it wasn't a hobby. It was something we did at Christmas.

My first hobby was building model airplanes, then on to model cars. Boats held no interest for me so I didn't get into that. The key was building and modifying the kits to make them look more real.

Over the intervening years, I've ridden motorcycles on the street and in the dirt, I still miss dirt riding. I even tried my hand at hang gliding for a time.

At age 50, I came back to trains, but this time it was "model railroading". I have an N scale layout well on the way to completion, but I'm still modifying and even scratch building some things. Whether it's a steel arch suspension bridge for my layout or a trestle, concrete arch bridge or hot metal cars for my neighbor's layout, it's still modelling.

Model railroading may not be my first hobby, but it's the first one that seems to have a life of it's own. I get the most satisfaction from it than the others, I get to design and build or just copy as best I can from photos taken at a nearby steel mill.

Sorry for rambling, I hope this answers your question, Josh.

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

My Dad had a large ho scale layout in the basement. This is when I was under 10 years old. I was allowed to watch but not to touch. One day my Mother came home from a flea market with a big box of Roco mini tanks and a few Airfix soldiers. I beleive that it also had some scenery and buildings with it. From then on my little brother and I did 1/72 scale WW Two wargame modeling. As time went by, and each of us got married and had kids, wargaming went by the wayside a number of years ago. I did work on my Dads layout when I was a teenager, but by then he had lost all interest in it. This year I decided that I was going to have a layout (with DCC control) and I have been working on it. I have got the benchwork under way and I now am working on the roadbed.

[Hawks05]

same boat here. i have at least a million baseball, football, and basketball cards. i'm hoping to get some b-ball cards tomorrow trying to get some rookie cards.

being in high school everybody has to have a PS2 or something so i play that to.

i finally decided to fini***hat caboose and i think i have took a picture of it. i was trying to use up the last of my disposable camera so i can get the pics developed and show my friend on saturday. i also decided to put together a CP hopper i got for christmas. that went together in no time.

[EL PARRo]

I've always loved trains my whole life, but model railroading wasn't my first hobby. My first hobby was collecting baseball cards, which I still do, but not nearly as much since I seriously got into model railroading. Even now, I have three main hobbies: model railroading, video games, and collecting baseball cards. The one that I am into the most is either model RR'ing or video games, it's hard to say because I really love both, and baseball cards are in a distant third.

[Hawks05]

here's how i got this thread idea. i was watching American Hotrod on the discovery channel just now and then i look out in our 2nd garage and see my dad working on something for one of his motorcycles. then i look in the living room and see mine and my dads guitar's sitting there. then i think hmm i should really finish painting that caboose i started on 2 weeks ago. so here's the thing. i'm a teenager and i want to find something that i can do for awhile. i know MRR will be one but the point to the thread is, was model railroading the first hobby you chose or was it something that you came to after awhile. i know i'm only 17 but i realy want to learn how to work on bikes and i'd like to play guitar. i've grown up around both so i know some stuff about them. i just started model railroading about 4-5 months ago so i'm learning which i really enjoy and i'm getting to try new things i probably wouldn't have done if it wasn't for this hobby.

so was model railroading the first hobby you really got into? was it the one that you just had to do and be involved in?

this summer hopefully i'll be able to go and try for a motorcycle license but i want to learn some about that. being in high school and having a job doesn't leave me a lot of time much anymore, plus i try to get to every home girls and boys basketball game so thats like 3 hours once or twice a week. i try every night to read some stuff on here then i have homework.

this sounds weird but has you probably have read you can see what the question is.

was this your first hobby?