I'm a minister, though one without all the baggage of trying to tell other people what to do and how to do it. I have enough trouble telling that to myself. Why model railroading? Biggest reason for me is that in my professional career there are very few "problems" that are solvable, with a clear, clean resolution. People come to me for help, I listen, try to help them gain some clarity and discernment, and then they're off. With my layout, if there's a problem - a car that consistently derails, a piece of track that always sends a car off the deep end, a short, a dead-spot, I can go track down the problem, isolate it, identify it, and (for the most part) resolve it. I fixed it. Gratification. That issue is history. There's something kind of philosophically elegant about that.
Well we certainly have a diverse crowd here. It was an interesting read. Thanks to all who responded.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I'm a Cartographer for the Natural Resource Depts one of the Fifty States (It should be easy to figure which one). I am also a Historical Geographer.
My interset in trains started when my father brought home a Fleischmann train set and my mother wanted to know when the kids could play with it. Indignant with the responce she went down to the same store and brought home a Marklin set. We played with the Marklin for years.
My one train came on Christmas of '78. I kept at it and now my interests in the railroad both real and imagined are on railroads that don't exist anymore and lines that no lone trace a path through the countryside and at how the lines carved their lines through the terrain and the towns and landowners.
Railphotog35 years in the Canadian Coast Guard. All in shore based positions, travelling around visiting lighthouses and other duties by vehicle and helicopters.
Bob, Is it safe to assume you have a large portfolio of lighthouse photograph's?
If there is one thing I never get tired of looking at, it is Prairie Sentinels and Coastal Sentinels (Grain Elevators and Lighthouses) My sister has an old coffee table book called Coastal Sentinels. I almost always have it in my lap when attending those large family dinners.
Is there a coorelation between my jobs and model railroading? I would have to respond with a YES! I do not know what I want to be when I grow up. I am 46 now, so time is ticking away. I also do not know what I want in a model railroad. I have ideas of things I want to incorporate, but have not had the room to begin putting things together. Right now I would consider myself an armchair model railroader and an amateur railfan. I like to watch the freight trains as they roll through town.
I agree with Mark H about the Fourth world country of Nevada too. Not sure where Stagecoach is but, we are a thousand miles from nowhere and can not wait to relocate!
Robert H. Shilling II
This is a great topic. I worked for some 16 years in the produce dept in a number of grocery stores. Later I switched to commercial floor maintenance, been there even longer now,like it better. Hardly any association to model building at either occupation, either in approach or subject material.
At one of the grocery stores around 1980, they were remodeling the whole store, they used a fairly big crane to lift the new tilt-up walls into place. That put the bug in my brain to build a model of one in 1/24 or 1/25 scale (my other hobby). DECADES later I got around to it. (Note my avitar)
That's the single most intense model endeavor I have ever embarked upon, it has 9 RC controlled functions, weighs 33 lbs. Not exactly work related, but It was AT the work place that the idea started, and was always in the to-do part of the brain until I got on it. Dan
BATMANMy apologies Bear! I guess it's "Philosophy Monday" for you
Cheers, the Bear.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Now that´s an interesting thread! I never thought of linking education/professional experience to what I like best in model railroading.
I hold degrees in economics, business and law and have been into business strategy, financial planning and controlling the vast majority of years of my work life. When it comes to model railroading, clearly my emphasis is on the D and P side of the model railroading trilogy of dreaming, planning and building a layout. I now understand why! When it comes to building a layout, I have to rely heavily on help. Building benchwork I regard as a necessary evil and a soldering gun and I will never be friends.
I am like Nittany Lion. I am no expert in track planning, as I am more into railfanning than operations. I see a layout as a whole, focussing on the atmosphere of it more than on the track plan. For that reason, I like to detail the track plans I develop as much as possible, just to tickle my imagination - the dreamer in me.
Occaisionally, when I am feeling just a bit more flippant than usual, I will casually refer to my layout as a "Museum of Modern Adhesives". Spending my working life in the realm of industrial glues and adhesives, there are times when work on the railroad is a "busman's holiday". Yes, I have items bonded with test bed type products along side products that have been commercialized in non-layout uses. Then again, my screen name is just representative of my tacky personality.
Don H.
I'm a planner. Not trackplanning, I'm kinda lousy at that. I like to plan the overall layout. I also like building structures. It dawned on me that of the 16 stuctures on my layout (ok, 15, #16 only exists in my head)(so far), six of them are DPM/Walthers/Pikestuff wall component-type buildings. Only the commercial district part of the layout has kit-built buildings and some of them have modifications like blanked out windows. There's one (#16) that will have to be completely scratchbuilt. All my industrial buildings are designed to follow prototype buildings in Pittsburgh in a "eh close enough" way.
I'd never had a layout get to the scenery phase and I discovered I kinda like that. Although I'm terrible at making trees. I have about 50 bare trunks jammed into their homes right now.
By education, I'm a political scientist, international relations with particular interest in (to put it in common terms) military alliances and mutual defense agreements. By trade, I'm a analyst with a space consulting firm, doing a wide variety of tasks from interpreting legislation to technical editing (don't proofread my post. I'm off the clock) to graphic design on a NASA contract.
Was a renovation expert, so I can build a house, rebuilt quite a few. Also at the same time I was and am a landlord. I like repairing train cars, especialy the wood ones. Just getting into scenery (original college degree was Interior Design, went into real estate instead, much more money).
As a kid, I'm told I drove my father crazy, he wanted to go to bed and watch the train go round and round, I would keep stopping it, back up, go forward, no switching just stop and go.
When I got back into the hobby, I was a full time dairy farmer and drove school bus to support the farm. When I finally got something running, I liked to watch them run, as I was often too tired to do anything else. Now that I have retired from the dairy, I still have beef cows and associated haying to keep me busy. Bus still supporting my other habits. Have been to a couple of operating sessions, they were OK, but not my greatest intereest. I like the trains running, like my father did, but doing a little switching can be fun too. Doubt I will ever get heavily into operations though.
Currently planning a new around the walls layout,much smaller than originally planned (not my idea). However, I am hung up on finishing my small layout so it could travel or make someone happy. It is in the middle of the space I need cleared for the around the walls layout with no good place to move it to.
There is need for a wide variety of skills in farming, just as there are on a layout. I enjoy them all, though I am admittedly better at some than others in both fields. (There might be a pun there, I'll leave it.)
Have fun,
Richard
I spent most of my career as commission salesperson selling windows, doors and roofing. The interaction with customers was very enjoyable, that is until the totally inept installation manager allowed things to go south, which he seemed determined to make a career of. That, combined with the constant pressure to do better from sales management (didn't matter how well you had done, they would simply set your sales goals higher) caused a lot of stress.
Model railroading was one of the things that allowed me to keep my sanity.
Anyhow, to answer the OP's question my interest in model railroading stems from childhood experiences and not from my career.
Now that I am retired model railroading gives me something to do that is totally enjoyable despite the fact that I don't have a layout yet. That part is getting a little frustrating but progress is being made on getting my son to move out on his own. It will still be a while.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I was a purchasing agent for GM and then I went into the music field after I retired. I was around people all the time and I needed a way to get away. That was what really got me back into the hobby. I could go downstairs, close off the world and not be accountable to anyone except to myself. Maybe that's how I became a true lone wolf. Now that I am finally retired I still go down there is get away. I think my favorite part is creating scenery. It is something that doesn't require days to complete a given area and the resutls are immediate.
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
Elementary school teacher here. Well, to be exact I left full time teaching after a long while in the classroom and now work part time in various capacities at the elmentary level. But I come from two generations of trainmen in my family and grew up in a heavily used/high traffic train town, which accounts for my interest in trains. My biggest enjoyment in the hobby is sharing it with my children, especially my young Son who is crazy about trains. After that, I enjoy scenery and creating, or rather recreating, my model railroads land forms in N Scale. Watching the hills take form and fill out, the small lake bottom get detailed and then "flooded" with "water", the track ballast beginning to get laid down. Basically, starting to pull everything together to help bring my little scale world to life.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you decided to take the train and not fly."
I'm a physicist by training and an engineer by trade. I was honestly quite surprised with how much fun I had doing Hydrocal castings and playing with plaster and paint. How, well, gloppy? Totally artsy, and the opposite of what I would have expected. I still get satisfaction out of getting all the electronics to work, but my big thing is on the other side of my brain now - scenery.
Whenever I think about it, I smile at what a great and diverse hobby this is.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I was interested in railroads and model railroading long before I started working in rail passenger service in 1987. My hobby interests never overlapped very much with my professional activities. Never wanted my hobby & work to be the same. When I was a kid, I saw steam in its last years, and I saw far more freight trains than passenger trains. My hobby interests center on those childhood days with steam, first generation diesels, a bit of pre-Amtrak passenger service, red cabooses on freight trains, 40-foot boxcars with roofwalks, interchanged cars from scores of RR's that are now fallen flags, jointed rail, wooden ties, timetable/train order dispatching, manned interlocking towers, no radios, etc. etc. etc.
Comparing the railroading of today with the railroading of my youth, it seems that they are two entirely different industries.
Batman
I am a retired Autoworker (GM), having worked on car and truck assembly lines and in parts production. Also in quality control, both lab and shop floor.
My favourite part of this hobby is operations. My track work works, block control for power, my scenry is good enough, operations are fun.
More space would result in more operations.
I have a real railroad switch stand with an operating light mounted in our front yard next to the walkway. I've operated HO scale modules with our local club for 25 years. Both of these have garnered questions from people - do you work for the railroad?
Nope. Retired after 35 years in the Canadian Coast Guard. All in shore based positions, travelling around visiting lighthouses and other duties by vehicle and helicopters. Never had any interest in making model boats or ships, model railroading was my passion as a teenager and I revived it about 35 years ago.
I did develop an interest in helicopters through my work, and have built about a dozen kits. And I have probably a hundred of them not built, and doubt if they ever will as they take up so much room! So my work has influenced a hobby of mine, but not model railroading.
Bob Boudreau
CANADA
Visit my model railroad photography website: http://sites.google.com/site/railphotog/
My apologies Bear! I guess it's "Philosophy Monday" for you. By the way, an old grump with a good sense of humour is not the same thing.
I really envy all you guy's with the electronics background. It is my weekest link for sure. I am lucky though, I have three close family members that can nursemaid me through my troubles.
I suspect there are a number of ex-real life railroaders out there as I tend to run across many. Talkin about taking your work home with you.
Hi Batman.
I am working as Head of Surveillance Operations for a European air carrier dealing with 4 widebody airliners a day. The best way for me to relax when finally at home is to plan what project I will work on next on the railroad or just go down stairs and run the trains. This, I have found, is the best therapy. The sounds of ALCO's and EMD's running on the pike washes away the jet noise.
All the best.
Reinhard
Joe F
I'm a former professional railroader. Decided in 1994 that I needed a change in life and up and moved to Nevada. Can't say it was my smartest decision. Anyway. I currently work in a warehouse for a very large internet retailer. I have nothing but total contempt for my employer and am looking for a way out that is reasonable.
Model railroading has been a life passion and is a total escape from the fourth world country of Nevada and my job.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
BATMANthe one old grump
Cheers, the Bear
I worked MOW for years and years. Operation is my biggest thing. I also have a degree in electronics and my layout is decked out with DCC, lighting for night operations, working grade crossings, and tons of other neat electronic thingamabobs. So, I guess I am a great example of professional time influencing free time.
I am in the Information Technology field and (for the moment) my favorite part is building benchwork. There are a couple of reasons. First, carpentry is something I have never done, and never thought I had the capacity to accomplish. Building benchwork is dispelling that myth. Second, it is far from what I do for a living. My job is just that, a means to provide for a living. I find doing something so unrelated to my job to be very cathartic.
I am a retired electrical engineer. My day job used to be circuit design and firmware programming.
My favorite part of the hobby is tinkering with rolling stock, kit building, kit bashing, scratch building, detailing, painting and decaling, locomotive tinkering. To a certain extent my layout serves more as a test track than anything else.
I have done some electronical projects, a turntable controller, a throttle, an automatic reverse loop controller, and grade crossing train detector/flasher/dinger.
Just running a train around the main and watching it go is quite relaxing after a long day.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
I have always wondered if there is any correlation between what one did/does for a living and what part of the hobby interest them. I was in the logistics industry and dealt with planes, trains, ships and trucks almost my whole working life. Overseeing a charter 747 freighter being unloaded and loaded all while the $ clock is ticking every minute it sits on the ramp can really get the adrenaline pumping. We would have to get a green light on the weight and balance map for the plane while getting the cargo loaded so that it could be unloaded at the other end or along the way in the most efficient manner. We got so fast that sometimes the engines would be left running.
Coming home after a tiring day and sitting with a glass of wine watching the trains make their way around the room was really relaxing. Having the scenery as close to real looking as possible made it even better on the parts that were close to being finished. For this reason building models and scenery to look as real as possible is my most favourite.
A work in progress.
The few times I have sat in on operations as a visitor on some layouts, I must admit other than the interaction with the other guys, I found it a bit boring after a while. The adrealine rush sure didn't happen and the one old grump (there is always one) that would get all bent out of shape if someone screwed up, left me less than enthused.
So the question is, what is your favourite part of the hobby and why?
As a bit of a poll question list your favourite part of your hobby and what your line of work was. Please feel free to be vague on the career answer or don't answer at all. I am just curious to see if there are any similarities between us other than our interest in the hobby.