Besides having a layout that looks as if it was made by Miss Robin's first grade class on a Friday afternoon before the final bell, I also enjoy blackpowder shooting,decoy making, duck hunting, fishing, boat building, retriever training, (Chessies) , leather work, gardening, and putting food by.
herrinchoker
My fiancée has informed me I have too many interests after we moved into our house, and I was bringing into the after tote of stuff. I an avid sports fan and have collected cards and memorabilia for years. I also bug a ton of books, but rarely read them. I play Xbox now and again, FIFA and PGA golf only. I also have a building collection of WWI and WWII postcards. Aside from those, I enjoy running and spending time outside at a sporting event. Golf is a big love of mine, too, but with the house it's become too expensive.
Trains are are becoming my main hobby, though, after I was given permission to build five 2'x4' modules. The sports and war collections might become second fiddle for awhile.
I spend time helping my son with his baseball, working with him to get better. Also, I play trumpet, primarily for church worship teams. My wife sings and plays french horn (sometimes). After the kids are out of the house, we plan to do more with music, if we still can play at that point...Sometimes I have been paid to play real gigs.
John
Fishing, boating, video games, railroad and train photography and history, travel.
So much to do, to little time.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
I'm into board and miniature gaming. I love painting miniature. Which means most of my hobbies involve me squinting through a magnifying lamp.
The big three for me were, Flying down the hill on my skis at Whistler mountain, mountainbiking, and Golf. Arthritis now has its claws into me in a big way, so nowadays I will play my guitars for a couple hours a day while waiting for the glue to dry while working on the RR. I also spend a lot of time at the Hockey rink(s) with the kids through the winter.
Late last spring I had a powerful experience introducing some refugee children to skating and hockey. I am currently considering a special introductory Hockey program for new immigrant and refugee children. Nothing would make me happier than to live long enough to see one (or more) of these little kids that have been through the horrors they have faced to make it to the NHL.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I am retired and have had tons of greater and lesser hobbies all my life. Collecting and restoring old 60's Lincoln Continentals absorbed me in the 80's. I have been and always will be an amateur scientist. (former professional electronics engineer).
I currently operate a fusor (nuclear fusion reactor) in my lab attached to my home. I ramrod a local high energy amateur science group that has met monthly at my lab since 1985.
I just had a new 12 X20 building delivered for my new iteration of my HOn3 layout. (Paradox, Uravan & Placerville) So, I am keeping busy at 70.
Richard
If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed
Sir Madog My wife of 32 years and believe me, this hobby draws more funds than model railroading could possibly ever do! Ulrich
My wife of 32 years and believe me, this hobby draws more funds than model railroading could possibly ever do!
Ulrich, I'll match you and raise you 24 years...
Age and general decreptitude have sidelined me from most of my more active interests and seriously wounded my railroad building progress. The latter has gone down from turtle slow to seriously arthritic turtle slow.
Fortunately, I have reading (just about anything) and writing (science fiction) to help ease me over the rougher spots.
I sometimes wonder what happened to that guy who rerouted a stream away from the house, built a rather huge deck at the second story level and routinely traveled halfway across the country to attend major gymnastics competitions. Oh, well...
Chuck (Slowly modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
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Hobbies include: mrr, genealogy, electronics, watching SF & science programs, robotics, drones, geocaching. Sometime during the next 3 years, have to downsize due to apartment living & SS. What to give up? Currently working on a linux computer and attempting to find an Epson print driver. Have no car, only the city bus & Amtrak.
-Dennis
Photography, both railroad and non-railroad related, music (I play drums, occasionally with friends who play other instruments, mostly on my own though), reading, computer/console games, both sports/racing and railroad related, and I also enjoy both playing (with friends) and watching baseball, football, and watching NASCAR.
ATSF - I think I figured the orange team, if NASCAR, but blue and red would offer more than one option. Now, if it is manufacturers cars however...
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
At 75, I now ride a bike on local rail trails. Maybe forty miles of rail trails.
I do about 60 to 100 miles a week. Not hard core. Side bag on bike for shopping.
My city has a bagel shop in the former station.
A city nearby has a former Union Station that use to serve four railroads at one time. Only Amtrak now. Two side station that is now a 200 person restaurant and out door dining.
One rail trail on one side. RR, other side with a new Amtrak platform nearby.
Lots of dancing three or four nights a week.
Workout at a local Snap Fitness.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
My other hobbies include refurbishing old garden tractors, building and landscape projects around the house, and building and working on our place in northern WI.
Mike.
My You Tube
Now that I am 70 I am 100% trains now but in the past I was a minor league 3rd baseman playing in the minors for the Chicago white sox. I had two spring training stints with the major league teams but that was it for my baseball career.
I did play some hardball baseball till I was about 40 for some local leagues. Had fun while it lasted.
After the majors I took a job with a local supermarket chain and at the end I was a district manager.
Dave
I collect high end 1:24 scale model cars, collect movies and enjoy knocking around my work shop repairing things.
Hello, along with my model train addiction, I'm into RC speed boat racing, squeezing all the HP I can get out of my Dodge Magnum,reading collecting old movies music and NASCAR races
60s thru mid 70s Southern Railway,P&N in HO
Happy Rails
Greg
I like to fly when not in the basement ... I am a private pilot with an instrument rating and I enjoy working out complex flight management systems and autopilots. As such I read a lot about avionics in passrnger airplanes as well.
Full size antique airplanes, rubber models, reading.
Mike
MY other main hobby which consumes a lot of my time is woodcarving. I started carving 25 years ago. You can check out a sample of what I have one on my web page at jimcarves.weebly.com
Besides model railroading, I really enjoy building any sort of kit. I also like doing custom PC work now and then, and I can kick back and do gaming for hours at a time (no shortage of that with the NES, Genesis, N64, Gamecube, PS3, Wii U, and PC!).Lately I've been doing quite a bit of work around the house, from remodeling to yardwork and restoration. With that and the full time job, I haven't done as much model railroad work lately. The problem is once all that's done, I don't really want to work on anything else...
_________________________________________________________________
Birdwatching!
That is the sort of hobby that you are either in to or you laugh at. My wife and I are IN TO it! We just got back from a trip to British Columbia where we saw more Bald Eagles than we could have imagined. They are pretty rare here in central Ontario. That was a thrill! However, we also saw a small brown inconspicuous bird that turned out to be a juvenile Crossbill. Just to illustrate how nuts we birders are, that sighting was a lifetime first for both of us, and we about as happy as if we had won a lottery! Ya, like I said, we're nuts.
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critter Birdwatching!
People feel too defensive about how they spend their spare time and worry too much about how other people view their passions. My experience is that people don't spend much time chuckling about other people's hobbies. In some ways, all hobbies are a bit strange..........but only to people who don't share the passion.
In the case of birdwatching, I don't do it, but I get it. At our golf club, the grounds superintendent is a gruff guy who you would think would be most interested in collecting whiskey bottles (LOL). But, lo and behold, every time he spots an exotic bird at the edge of the water, he photographs it and posts the photo on the club's website. To my surprise, he carries a book about birds in his cart so that he can identify the species on the spot.
So, Dave, carry on with your hobby and don't worry about what other people think. Chances are, they aren't thinking about you or your hobby at all.
Alton Junction
I also enjoy bird watching especially in the winter. Our feeder attracts all kinds of birds and during the summer between the flowers and bird bath, we get all kinds of birds. I also read novels by Clive Clussler, Jack Higgins and Daniel Silva.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
My other hobbies are collecting coins (mostly American), skeet/target shooting, and traveling. I am considering taking a cruise next year to Alaska, so I am enjoying researching for that.
I thought about getting my pilot's license, but the funds are too low for that. That's OK though, I work for Cessna and get to build planes for a living.
Will
Rich:
We don't worry about what other people think of our hobby of bird watching, and you are right, most people are supportive even if they don't participate in it themselves. What does grind my pepper is when the general media can't report a bird watching event without poking fun at it. Certainly there are lots of dedicated columns that report important sightings, but it seems that when the general media gets ahold of a birding story they can't seem to keep a straight face.
Anyhow, thanks for your encouraging words.
DRFan:
Some of our best bird watching has been done right in our own backyard. We have two feeders, one with black sunflower seed and the other with niger seed. We get lots of different birds, some like Gold Finches in large numbers.
In the winter we spend at least one day each weekend driving around looking for Snowy Owls and hawks.
Each May we spend a few days at Point Pelee on Lake Erie observing the spring migration.
Good luck birding!
Oh, there's been so many. Currently, I also build WWII era plastic 1:48 aircraft models, collect vinyl records and vintage stereo gear and enjoy fishing and spending time at my cabin in N. Wisconsin. But over the years I have collected electric guitars and played in rock bands, I also restored vintage snowmobiles and once owned over 25 of them and was the editor for the VSCA's national magazine. Had a stint with 2-stroke street bikes, Kawasaki triples being my favorite, and for a while sunk my money into sailboats. I got back into Model Railroading after having a N scale layout that my father and I built in 1970 and spending the 80's with a stack of Model Railroader magazines and big dreams.What I've learned most over the years is that I need to limit my hobbies. I still have too many, but the record collection is to a point where there's few releases that I don't already have and I've mostly run out of room to hang planes from the ceiling of my den. So that leaves the layout. :D