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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by Z For Me Me I'm 43! Became addicted to model railroading at the ripe age of seven. From the first time I laid eyes on my friends dad' layout that ran between two rooms and that little brass swichter that was arranging cars in the yard I was hooked. To this day I can't explain the atraction to the lure of model railroading and trains and forget about trying to explain the hobby to a person that has zero intrest in our world is something that I just can't do. Anyone here know how to inform me of why we are addicted to the hobby? Please inform me! Take care, Mark in Nevada [/quote] Mark, my opinion about our addiction (and what better addiction to have? [:D]) is that first and foremost we find the prototype fascinating. Sitting at a grade crossing in the pick-up truck with my grandfather as a kid, watching that s-l-o-w moving freight train with it's many different boxcars, hoppers, etc. was never boring. I'd stare, as did my granddad, in rapt fascination. My grandfather loved trains and shared that love with me. So that's one way I became hooked for life. Later in life, my grandmother took me on my first train trip from Chicago to Memphis during my summer vacation break from school. While awaiting our train, I was mesmerized by all the activity both inside and outside the terminal: the passengers scurrying towards gates to catch their outbound trains...the train personnel engaged in conversation with one another about, I suspected, trains [:D]...watching other trains crawl into the station as we waited for ours to be called, and watching the people disembark, wondering where everyone hailed from. It was the excitement of the hustle & bustle that awed me--not to mention the actual train ride itself--and which ultimately lead to my unwaivering love for passenger trains, both prototype and replicas. So that's another reason, I feel. Finally, I think we revisit memories from our childhood and we want to recreate them in miniature to have forever. Sadly, so much of what fascinated me as a kid is now gone. It's like eating your favorite hearty meal--you never seem to grow tired of it, nor do you ever want to have to be without. Of course, memories alone doesn't always cut it--the real allure is one's absolute fascination with trains themselves. But man, what an allure! In modern times, where computer games and technology seem to overwhelm us at every turn, it's really cool to escape all of that and return to a favorite pasttime of old...its like escaping to a slower, simpler space in time. I'm 41 years YOUNG [:D], and wouldn't give up my trains for all the computer gadgetry in the world. Well, that's my twenty-five cents worth. I wonder what other modelers think?
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