You might be a Model Railroader if....

[andrechapelon]

Your grandchildren call you "Choo Choo" instead of "grandpa".

Andre

[NSlover92]

If you ever have dug through a dumpster on your familys farm to save cardboard boxes for strips for scenery. Mike

[dale8chevyss]

People are throwing things away at work and demand to save them because you can use them on your RR.

[Packer]

I've done a few of those.

[stokesda]

This topic comes up once in a while. A couple of years ago, I coped and saved all the good ones from a thread. Here they are... enjoy!

*You've ever sold a perfectly good freight or passenger car, only because the new superdetailed one you just bought makes the old one look bland.

 

*You really agonize over decisions like, "Should I buy flowers for my wife or turnouts for my new staging yard ? or Do I need to buy flowers to get these turnouts in the house?"

 

*You see a piece of plywood, and your first thought is to imagine what kind of layout could be built on it.

 

*You honestly feel that, if your wife buys a new video tape, that entitles you to buy a freight car, and a new outfit for her means an engine for you. Fair is fair.

 

*You've ever gotten into a debate over whether Kato is pronounced "kay-to" or "kah-to."

 

*You've ever worried about spelling the coupler "Kadee" or "KD."

 

*You've ever traced the route of a wire under your layout by pulling on it.

 

*Brass isn't something you polish, it's something you paint and weather.

 

*You spend more on your model trains in a year than some Third-World nations spend on the real thing.

 

*The latest issue of Model Railroader arrives on the same day as your federal tax refund check, and you open the magazine first.

 

*The latest issue of Model Railroader arrives on the same day as your state tax refund check, and the only reason you open the check first is so you'll know how much you can afford to spend as you read the ads in the magazine.

 

*You've ever bought a freight car you had no use for, just because it looked so cool, and then bought more just like it, so it wouldn't look out of place.

 

*You've ever been tempted to send flame e-mail to someone whose only wrongdoing was outbidding you for that special engine on eBay.

 

*Your spouse gives you some old newspapers, a bag of foam and a box of Hydrocal for your birthday, and you're speechless with joy.

 

*You hate watching The Addams Family because of what Gomez does to those gorgeous trains.

 

*You've ever suggested that your wife's ceramic Christmas village needs a train running through it.

 

*Your model trains run closer to schedule than CSX's do in real life.

 

*You have a manila folder in your desk (or a subdirectory on your computer) full of home-drawn trackplans that you know you'll never build, but they're too good to discard.

 

*You look forward to the latest announcements from your favorite engine maker with more enthusiasm than a six-year-old looks forward to Christmas.

 

*You think that three hours forming and mounting wire grab-irons on a caboose is time well spent.

 

*You've ever poured your heart into showing off your layout for friends, and their only questions are, "How much did all this cost?" and, "How fast can the engine go?"

 

*You sincerely believe that the concept of limited-run locomotives and cars was an evil plot dreamed up by Satan himself.

 

*You're setting up a simple trainset to run around the Christmas tree, and you're mentally planning the scenery and structures you'll need "to make it look right."

 

*You hate collectors, because they drive up the prices of the equipment you're trying to collect. (But you're going to run yours, and that's different.)

 

*Your spouse assumes you can fix light switches, toasters, radios, and vacuum cleaners because "you know all about that wiring stuff from working on your trains, right?"

 

*You've ever told yourself, "Never again will I try to mount tiny coupler springs while working over a shag rug" or you rip same out to install indoor/outdoor flat carpet over the padding in your den.

 

*You've ever felt smug because you found an inaccuracy in a published photo of somebody else's gorgeous layout. Not that you'd ever say anything about it, of course.

 

*You've ever refused to buy a model freight car because the stencilled build date (which you had to squint to read) is a year off from the era you're modeling.

 

*You've visited a hobby shop on a busy day, and wound up answering detailed questions for other customers before you shop.

 

*You justify the money you spent at a train show as "just doing my part to improve the local economy."

 

*Your spouse gives you something expensive but inappropriate, like an articulated stack car when you model the 1950's, and you run it to avoid hurting her feelings, but the whole time, you're squirming inside.

 

*You refuse to buy an inexpensive, beautifully-detailed boxcar lettered for your favorite railroad, because the prototype car had 14 ribs and the model has 16!

 

*You feel compelled to browse in the local mall's hobby shop every time you go near it, even though you know they charge list price and have nothing you need.

 

*You've ever run two or more boxcars in a train, and hoped no one else noticed that they have identical road numbers.

 

*You've ever tried to justify bringing home a new freight car on the grounds that its your wife's favorite color or matches your shoes.

 

*You talk about the merits of DCC versus cab control at parties.

 

*Hardly a day goes by without you making progress on planning the layout you're going to build someday.

 

*Your family has ever eaten in the den because the kitchen table was buried in decals, tools, and detail parts for your latest project.

 

*You've ever gotten defensive with your railroading friends about buying a model engine or car from a manufacturer they hold in contempt.

 

*You've ever calculated how long your layout is in scale miles, and padded the number by adding the lengths of the sidings and spurs.

 

*It constantly annoys you that the kits for model truck, cars, and boats in the hobby shop aren't made to useful scales, like 1:87 (darn tootin!)

 

*You've ever told anyone, "I can quit buying freight cars any time I want!"

 

You refer to a sexual experience as "Coupling"

 

You slow down approaching a grade crossing; hoping that you'll have to stop and be the car closest to the crossing.

 

you proudly show off your rr to someone who stands in the doorway & says "that's nice"

 

When your kids stand infront their present boxes in christmas and tell each other: "Bet is another train set"

 

When someone asks about a certain structure and you know the exact page where it is in the Walther's catalog

 

When you prefer to tell the wife you were in a bar with your friends rather than telling her you were at your LHS checking the new $350 BLI steam loco.

 

You've ever had a B-day cake in form of an engine

 

Disney World is great because it has trains and monorails

 

You've entered the key word "4-8-8-4" in Google just to see if something appeared

 

You check the MR forum more than your e-mail server

 

Model railroading is more than a hobby, is a way of life...

 

You've ever wondered which piece of your collection to save first in case a fire

 

You've ever taken your son on your lap in front of the layout and told him: "Someday all this will be yours"

 

You build a hot-rod designed specificly for train chasing.

 

You ask the land lord for permission to install a wall-track system.

 

You sulk because you have to spend money on un-neccissary things such as bills because it takes money away from your model train budget.

 

You tried to talk someone into buying you a brass passenger train as a christmas present.

 

You were a steam locomotive for holloweeen.

 

You move, and it takes 39 boxes just for the train stuff, and 10 for everything else.

 

Suddenly you proclaim "Behold!!! THE POWER OF STEAM" in public just to watch peoples reactions.

 

You tell your favorite woman that in order to get started, a little momentum would help!

 

You like referring to your adult pastime as "laying track."

 

You swear that FRED doesn't mean F-----G Rear End Device!

 

when you are on Vacation in another city, and the First thing you do in your Hotel room is look in the phonebook for the Hobbyshops!!!!!!

 

If you've ever gone to a Chinese restaurant and studied your chopsticks thinking to yourself, "These things would make GREAT Douglas Fir trunks!!!"

 

 

[Packers#1]

You might be a model Railroader if you invent a new language out of Model Railroader terms.

[this is it]

 

 If you plan to build a tunnel through the kitchen, dining room and 2 bedrooms, I did but the powers to be vetoed that idea.

 God bless, Alan

[BlueHillsCPR]

You might be a model railroader if while driving you take your hands off the wheel to grab your camcorder and spin around in your seat to get a shot of... something you saw...fully trusting that the "tracks" will keep you going in the right direction.

You might be a model railroader if when approaching a grade crossing you hear the horn sound and you holler, "I think I can make it"!  ...meaning you think you can beat the loco to the crossing and stop with time to get out and get the camera setup before said loco makes the grade!

You might be a model railroader if when feeling "frisky" the little woman calls out, "All aboard!"

You might be a model railroader if you intitiate OR respond to a thread like this...ok lets be truthfull...you are a model railroader under those conditions.

[Paul W. Beverung]

You might be a model railroader if the Union Pacific cuts your ranch in half and you don't mind waiting at your crossing for a train while hauling hay.

If you stop the tractor next to the track and shut the engine off so you can hear the trains pass.

[Anonymous]

What about if you're driving in the car with frends or family (I can't drive, so I'm never alone) and you find yourself muttering the types of railroad equipment you see under your breath? "ooh, nice GP40 in the yard....."

Guilty.....

[secondhandmodeler]

When you refrain from buying something because it ain't accurate. Guilty. (I passed out on the newer P2K Gp20s in BN, since the walkways are supposed to be black, I also passed out on older GP18s because the whole bottom was green)

You might be a model railroader if.....trains make you pass out!

 

I meant passed on, as in I didnt buy them.

I know, I was poking fun at you!  Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Packer]

When you refrain from buying something because it ain't accurate. Guilty. (I passed out on the newer P2K Gp20s in BN, since the walkways are supposed to be black, I also passed out on older GP18s because the whole bottom was green)

You might be a model railroader if.....trains make you pass out!

 

I meant passed on, as in I didnt buy them.

[Anonymous]

Going into the women's powder supplies walkway at walmart for those wonderful cheap brushes for weathering.

Notice the others who are having a hard time with a male checking over the stuff carefully.

[SteamFreak]

You think nothing of hitting the brakes at 65 MPH upon passing anything that vaguely resembles an abandoned railroad ROW.

You walk out of the craft store with a huge bag of chrome confetti just to get one headlantern reflector for an 1890's loco.

You consider explaining to people in the women's hair-care isle that the hair bands you're buying are really traction tires for your model trains, but then realize that sounds even weirder.

 

[Bapou]

Your waiting for a train in the station when you look down at the rails and you see a piece of ballast lying on one of the ties, you quickly leap down on the tracks and remove it. In your mind the rest of the waiting passengers on the platform are cheering you when in reality they're all scratching their heads at what they just saw.

Yeah why would you do that? Even if it is next to the tie you could still take it! Is it because the train would pick it up in its wind stream and possibly it could hit an air hose? 

[CAZEPHYR]

 

...if you respond to a thread like this one...

 

 

This one is probably the best indication of a Model Railroader!!

[inch53]

Your daughter has to move your grandson's B-day party from Sun to Sat, because one of the two LHS is closed on Sun. True

Your late for the party, because you were chasing trains. True

Then you leave early to get a photo of an old NYC wooden trestle you hadn't noticed before. True

You drive 4 hours on trout fishing trip to another state and spend more time looking for natural ground cover than fishing. True

Your wife wants you to go shopping with her and you won't go unless she goes by the LHS. True

You have to leave a wedding reception early to get a photo of a building that would make a good prototype on the layout before dark. True

You n the wife look for a place the country, you want the one to the crossing, she doesn't, so you compromise and buy one a ¼ mile away, but you can still see the trains through the woods. True

You're really happy when the kids start leaving home, because you finally have a train room. True

You already have the plans drawn up for the building and the layout you want, if you ever hit the lottery. True

inch

[Kenfolk]

 

...if you respond to a thread like this one...

 

[shayfan84325]

If your prized posession is a penny that was flattened by UP's #844 in 1976 (back then it was #8444), and you wonder if an HO scale model of 844 could do the same to a scale penny, you might be a model railroader (or "train weirdo" as my wife affectionately calls us).

[oleirish]

How about if you go to the LHS and take the long way back just to see what is going on in the train yard to see whats new!!!!

JIM

[CPrail]

Driving threw the Fraser Canyon and you are going "East" and you pass a Train going "West", you flip a high speed U turn and floor it to get to the best spot you can remember for a good shot.

As far as Model railroading, You know you are a Model Railroader when you Wake up wondering if one of your Loco's is past it's service time. And actually haveing a spreadsheet thats says it is :)

Mike

[secondhandmodeler]

When you refrain from buying something because it ain't accurate. Guilty. (I passed out on the newer P2K Gp20s in BN, since the walkways are supposed to be black, I also passed out on older GP18s because the whole bottom was green)

You might be a model railroader if.....trains make you pass out!

[0-6-0]

Hello you might be a Model railroader if you go to the corner store that is 2 min from home but you take the long way so you can go over 2 grade crossings . Or when you go to bed and here in the distant the rumble of a train and horn and fall right to sleep but no one else does. Have a nice day Frank

[Packer]

When you refrain from buying something because it ain't accurate. Guilty. (I passed out on the newer P2K Gp20s in BN, since the walkways are supposed to be black, I also passed out on older GP18s because the whole bottom was green)

[OzarkBelt]

It's a hot summer day in the city, you and the family are in the car. Kids are complaining, wife's ornery, you come to a grade crossing, lights flashing, gates come down, it's a real long train, you are in 7th. Heaven leaning out the window with your camcorder oblivious to the nagging and complaining going on in the background.................Daddy! I have to go to the bathroom!..............You say, yes that Was a nice consist!

You're saying you actually do that!?! *gasp*

[BNENGR]

It's a hot summer day in the city, you and the family are in the car. Kids are complaining, wife's ornery, you come to a grade crossing, lights flashing, gates come down, it's a real long train, you are in 7th. Heaven leaning out the window with your camcorder oblivious to the nagging and complaining going on in the background.................Daddy! I have to go to the bathroom!..............You say, yes that Was a nice consist!

[OzarkBelt]

Your driving down a familiar road and you know the grade crossing is just around the curve and you slow down to a snails pace and pray to yourself for a train to go by.

 

Or, how bout, you wait at a grade crossing for at least 10 minutes in case a train comes before passing!

[jeffrey-wimberly]

How bout this one- You might be a Model Railroader if you can be found trackside and muttering "I bet I could model that." 

Sounds like me.

[Conrail5]

Your driving down a familiar road and you know the grade crossing is just around the curve and you slow down to a snails pace and pray to yourself for a train to go by.

Your waiting for a train in the station when you look down at the rails and you see a piece of ballast lying on one of the ties, you quickly leap down on the tracks and remove it. In your mind the rest of the waiting passengers on the platform are cheering you when in reality they're all scratching their heads at what they just saw.

OK, Well maybe you're not a model railroader if you do that, maybe you're just plain whacko !