Well let's see.....
1. Crawling around on the basement floor - then trying to stand up.
2. Gluing my fingers together when I use ACC.
3. Problems that only happen when a guest is visiting - and that go away the minute they back down the driveway.
4. The rising cost of the hobby itself and the LHS that hardly ever turns its inventory - or when they only have 3 of a given item and I need 4.
5. Dropping a tool and having it roll into the least accessible part of the layout.
6. Wiring - good grief I don't like that
7. Lack of patience from time to time - especially over a simple little problem and the more I work on it, the worse is seems to come,
8. I miss the old Athearn Blue Bix kits. I grew up with those.
9. My big thumbs - geez, didn't mean that the way it sounded. Sometimes I am all thumbs especially when it comes to those tiny screws - or when I manage to launch my last Kadee coupler spring across the room.
10. Referring back to number 1 - being on the basement floor and the phone rings or the dog needs to go out - NOW!!
I am sure there are others - but these are the things that really frustrate me.
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
Um, ya. What I don't like about the hobby. Plaster. I hate mixing and spreading plaster, hydrocal, whatever. Unfortunately with my layout I can't avoid it.
Ballasting, now that is something I love. It goes so quickly and my neck never hurts from hunkering over the track. Really. BARTENDER!!! Another double please.
Todd
Central Illinoyz
In order to keep my position as Master and Supreme Ruler of the House, I don't argue with my wife.
I'm a small town boy. A product of two people from even smaller towns. I don’t talk on topic….. I just talk.
First of all, there is nothing I strongly dislike in my hobby - it would not be my hobby, if there were a strong dislike. There are a few things I am not so keen about, like soldering or attaching those tiny user applied detail parts, that keep on "jumping" from my tweezers, forcing me down to my knees and crawl on the floor in a futile attempt to retrieve it. I am sure, however, that one fine day I will have learned how to solder without burning my fingers and how to attach those parts properly.
I am a mediocre model railroader, with no ambition to graduate into the league of master model railroaders. I don´t have the means and the skills for that. I like to socialize, share views and opinions, and chat about hobby related issues and even beyond that. Like in all other aspects of life, our hobby also has its own share of people, who show a lack of respect and/or social competence. It is those people who sometimes take the fun out of the hobby for me.
In the hobby itself - I dislike nothing. There are parts of it I like less than others - painting people and making trees - but, my girlfriend (soon to be wife) helps with those and her company makes those tasks a real pleasure.
The one thing I could do without is the us/them attitudes between these factions:
steam/diesel
freelance/prototype
continuous loop/point to point
DC/DCC
Sound/No Sound
N is better/HO is better
Brass/Plastic
The hobby was better back in the day/It's better now
Model Railroader isn't as good as it used to be/Model Railroader is better than it used to be
etc., etc., etc.
These debates get old in a hurry and I really think we all can respect what the other folks are doing, even if it's not our style.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Hear hear!
I also dislike the fact that I can no longer look up at anything close under the layout because of my graduated glasses.
Perhaps I should get another pair with the closeup lens at the top and the distance lens at the bottom, I'd like to watch the optometrist's face when I asked for that!
Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)
Building benchwork - I hate using power tools.
Steam locomotives - models are nowhere near as much fun to watch as the real thing.
Layouts with electrical shorts that can fry decoders.
Layouts with misaligned rail joints that keep kicking locos and cars off the track.
Anachronistic scenery and details on layouts.
Train set quality locos and cars (e.g. Tyco, Model Power, Bachmann, etc.).
Small production runs, pre-order, and ever increasing prices on locos, cars, and some structure kits.
I'll respectfully disagree with the complaint about "trainset" rolling stock. All of mine was picked up from dumpsters and yard sales, cost an average of $.10 each. So I have to spend 5 bucks each on wheelsets and couplers still cheaper than even the Athearn kits.
I've got only 2 complaints:
Athearn stopped the kits, why? I certainly don't care to spend double to have one assembled for me when I can put together 3 of em while watching House. Yes I liked em...
2nd why does every manufacturer feel they have to make an F unit? Frankly they've been done to death. Except for Stewart/Bowser there are hardly any locos that don't say GE or EMD. Steam guys have similar problems.
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
Working under the layout doing wiring. I have a rotator cuff injury and wear trifocals.
It is another model RR challange and is my least favorite task.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
I strongly dislike the people on internet forums who in their minds believe their way of doing things to be far better than mine and then proceed to tell me why.
John
I hate negativity. Man, do I hate negativity. I love DCC because I don't have to have a "negative" side to my track.
Seriously, I wish my layout were several inches higher, so I would be a bit more comfortable working under it. I've got one of those 45-degree rooflines, though, so for every inch I raise the layout, I lose an inch of space on each side of the room. So, the layout height is a compromise.
And, I'm not as young as I used to be. It only takes a few minutes in an awkward position beneath the layout to make me come up sore. I need glasses, but I'd have to say that since I got back into modeling, my hands are steadier and my fingers deal with small-scale work better. Getting old isn't the greatest thing in the world, but it sure beats the alternative.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
UP 4-12-2I strongly dislike the people on internet forums who in their minds believe their way of doing things to be far better than mine and then proceed to tell me why. John
If you only used better punctuation, and perhaps a few bold type, we could understand your message better. I really get tired of correcting people who need my help............
People who use 1/64 scale matchbox cars on their HO layout. GET A CLUE!
Although this is geared more towards G scale, you asked the question here. AVAILABILITY: Some items are advertised over a year in advance of shipping and even then the ship date gets pushed back 6 months or more. The other is many older items are not being produced even with the demand still high. You can see these locos, cars, etc. being advertised on the web and in catalogs, but you might retire before you can buy one. It is probably due to the economy and attempts to streamline business but the customer is the one that takes the hit.
Gents -
Some interesting comments.
Guess the only thing I dislike about this hobby, is that some people, especially Internet types, forget it's a hobby. I don't post here a lot because of that. Ask a question like "how do I fix XYZ?", and someone will come along and tell you that you really have to upgrade this or that, or that what you're using is "junk" or obsolete, or that you "SHOULD" be using ABC, instead of XYZ.
I have no intention of going to DDC, and I like Rapido couplers. I have no problems with Life-Like or Bachmann engines and rolling stock and I PREFER plastic wheels/axles. Can I appreciate the work rivet counters do? Sure, but that's not the only way of doing it - it is the "hobby" aspect of the hobby. If I were involved with a competition, things might be different. But I'm not, and it's something I do in my spare time - because I enjoy it.
As far the the hobby itself, there's very little I don't like doing with/to it, if there were, I well, wouldn't be doing it! But, yes there are some parts I do like doing more than others.
Archer
Have fun with your trains
HaroldA 1. Crawling around on the basement floor - then trying to stand up. 2. Gluing my fingers together when I use ACC. 3. Problems that only happen when a guest is visiting - and that go away the minute they back down the driveway.
Particularly the third one---as for the fingers together---getting the fingerprints onto the model you're trying to finish up----first one---clobbering the noggin on the benchwork as you're getting up---
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
thus most of my frustrations are unfounded and unimportant. Still I will list them.
1. That I live in an apartment, not a house with space for the layout I want and don't see this changing in the near term.
2. The fact that the costs associated with the hobby didn't freeze in 1990 when I was 15, because my Hobby monkey Brain is stuck in 1990 and pitches a fit when prices don't fall in line.
3. related to 2, that the price of DCC and sound decoders is so bleedin high. I work in the telecom industry, I know about how small electronics are made. Granted that we're talking about a relatively small run of even the most popular products, but The parts for a Sound/DCC decoder including speaker are probably under $20 (price of the circuit board being the biggest cost.).
I'm frustrated by limited release products and the death of the Blue Box kit too, but I could live with those things if Item number 2 went into effect, so I don't complain about them separately. I get Joy out of building shake the box kits and "super" detailing a loco, but there are plenty of RTR locos that need TLC and plenty of kits still to build.
After carefully reconsidering my earlier post, and reading those added since, I realize that I really dislike standing on my head under the layout, reaching up to try to work on (fillintheblank.)
Which is why I've carefully engineered things to make that unnecessary - or as nearly so as possible.
Work smarter, not harder.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
1. Never being able to totally escape the constant stream of clutter that plagues my layout room.
2. Thinking something seems like a good deal at the time when I buy it, when it really isn't because I don't need the item anyway.
3. Wiring track.
4. Having that little bit of glue that was just there, disappear, only to have it return in a tsunami like wave.
- Douglas
I hate:
1}wiring. That is why I went to "simpler DCC". Ha Ha.
2} Not having the space I need to have for a layout I really would like to have. Either a general 4 x 8 would rally be nice or an around the walls about 20" deep.
3} have a very small tight budget, I hate the prices going up to the $2-300's plus for a DCC loco. FOr those who make $50k to 75K and above, it may be no big deal but for those like me on disability or retirement with small budgets it can be frustrating.
4} the ":advanced preordering" and the wait BEYOND the "preorder delivery date", and the still not getting one anyway!!!!
5} Those who think this is a lifestyle/job. It's a hobby, and a hobby is to be ENJOYED as the hobbyist sees fit in their own way, be it Thomas the Tank or rivet counting prototype accuracy.
6} those who declare theirs is the "best", be it their operating system, brand of loco, type of scenery etc.
7} those who make fun at or insultingly correct others typo's or spelling mistakes. WE all can make 'em, and we all can miss them, even on a proof read before posting. Please forgive my dyslexic typing, thank you.
and last but not least:
8} those who are experienced modelers with years behind them that a} take offense at, b} complain loudly about, c} give a snooty answer such as "google it" or "use the search engine" -- instead of answering the question A NEWBIE asks...who really has no clue and really needs to ask and have information provided to them, and having that question answered properly to them is the most important thing to them at the time. They may not think of google or know where the search engine here is or what key words to put in it to get their answers. I have been on this forum long enough to see the ad nauseum repeat "simple answer" questions come up time and again, but I try to remember the NEWBIE really doesn't know and would appreciate a good answer to their question, not insults. I had lots of questions about this here "new-fangled thing" {to me} called "DCC" that wasn't available when I left O-O/27 trains at the age of 19-20 and came back only 3-4 years ago to a new HO scale. Still do have questions. BUt no one should make a NEWBIE feel "stupid" about their question or lack of knowledge in asking it.
No wonder why the hobby is "dying" {if it really is} if the older modelers don't offer to help NEWBIES and instead scare them off!!!
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Dislike? Let's say disappointed.
1. a. Forum types who correct things others post, then make a POINT of same.
b. Forum types who seem to think time in hobby / forum means something.
c. Forum types who begin with "I can't" or "I don't have the skills / patience."
d. Forum types who can be counted on to apply smarmy comments to questions.
2. Local hobby shops.
Bill H. Dislike? 2. Local hobby shops.
Dislike?
Would you rather they be farther away?
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
The Home of Articulated Ugliness
steemtraynWould you rather they be farther away?
Frankly, I don't care where they are. Hearing "Sorry, we're out of this or that, BUT, we can order it" is becoming routine. I can order it myself, and I do,
Not in the distant past, Walthers had a phrase YOUR DEALER CAN GET IT FROM WALTHERS . Now we can get it from Walthers ourselves.
LHS is being cut out of the equation, and they know it.
Bill H. Not in the distant past, Walthers had a phrase YOUR DEALER CAN GET IT FROM WALTHERS . Now we can get it from Walthers ourselves.
There is no postage and handling charge if ordered through the LHS. If memory serves, the minimum charge is now $8.95.
Mark
How petty MRRers can get with both other MRRers and non-MRRers. THAT'S what I think will kill the hobby faster than anything.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Nattering Nabobs of Negativism.
Jimmy
ROUTE ROCK!
hcc25rl Nattering Nabobs of Negativism.
A wonderful coined phrase of Spiro T Agnew btw----
markpierce Bill H. Not in the distant past, Walthers had a phrase YOUR DEALER CAN GET IT FROM WALTHERS . Now we can get it from Walthers ourselves. There is no postage and handling charge if ordered through the LHS. If memory serves, the minimum charge is now $8.95. Mark
Besides, it keeps the LHS around for a bit----
I'd have to say that I dislike the prices that continue to rise, as well as the fact that the majority of products are based on the big names in railroading, leaving the smaller roads to limited (and expensive) runs.