You can read the article here, then tell us what the appeal is for you.
By the way, the title of this thread is a quote from the article.
Jarrell
Inside every gray-haired old man like me is the same 14-year-old boy who he has always been. Now, though, at 65 I am a 14-year-old boy with skills and resources, including space and time. A life-long engineer (not the train type), I still feel the need to build and create, and to make things work. Problem-solving has always been entertainment to me, and the hobby presents me with challenging, but not insurmountable, problems.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Very interesting article. Glad to hear more are coming out of the woods. Most of us will agree that there is still the stima that we are jest overgrown children by our family and friends playing with toys .
Several years the subject of my trains came up and my sister in law who lives in MN told of seeing a bunch of old men fussing around a layout they has set up in The Mall of America. Very unrespectful.
Subconciously maybe that is why I don't run the trains as much. To prove that is wrong I'm going to run them more.
By the way, Penny Lancaster has the worst looking knees but the rest looked OK.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
jacon12then tell us what the appeal is for you.
After 55 plus years in the hobby I don't have a real clue..
Love of trains..Probably.
Like fun things..Probably seeing I still like playing older video games like PS1,PS2,NES and SNES.
Family tradition? More then likely..After all railroading is in my blood since I come from a family of railroaders and my father was a model railroader...
I think my Grandfather Smith summed it up quite nicely when he said I misspent all my life working on the railroad yet,I'll not take back one second of it.
That's the way I feel about the hobby..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
A well made model has always been attractive, to men and boys at least, girls and women less so. And making them has been a pleasant diversion ever since sailors began to make ships in bottles. Cooler than static display models are powered models that move under their own power. Flying models are wonderful but are subject to the occasional horrendous crash, converting a fine model to scrap. Model watercraft can escape from control and disappear across the lake, never to be seen again. Sidewalk running model vehicles are also subject to crashes. Note that a wonderfully indestructible plastic is now used in their manufacture.
Trains move nicely, follow their rails, and the risk of a destructive accident is about nil. Unlike flying, sea going, or sidewalk running. We can enjoy watching 'em move without the ever present fear of total destruction of a prized model.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
I may have a long life ahead of me but I guarantee that model trains will be there every step of the way. I enjoy watching them run. besides video games could never do what model trains can do for me.
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
I'm not sure I can answer adequately. My first experiences with trains was in the mid fifties when steam locomotives still switched the yards where I lived. Their valve gear fascinated me. Later, when I could stand trackside in the high Andes and feel the ground shake under my feet when a mid-sized Baldwin 2-8-0 went past, it was a combination of fear and confidence, the battle between the basal brain and the pre-frontal cortex, one telling me I was sure to die if I didn't move, while the other assuring me that the train would only take the predicted path. As it loomed, getting louder, and taller, and casting a greater shadow as it passed, the terror component grew with it.
Now, much older, I can still get some of that bizarre struggle back, except in scale, and not unless I am prepared to learn much and to create something that allows me to enjoy it all. It is a need to succeed, to achieve, to master, but also to struggle. Somewhere in all that, we create an entirely predictable experience that we can control at will. If we do it right, we have a heckuva good time.
Crandell
Hi!
I'm 68, and have been playing with trains since the early 1950s. I love the design and building of the layout, and also the contol of the trains. And the whole thing brings me back to the simple pleasures of my youth.
I have to add...... when I was a kid in the 50s, the typical adult seemed so old - and in truth, they were. In general their typical dress, attitudes, and pastimes were for "old people". Today's adults are more active and youthful and seem to enjoy more the things of their youth.
A major realization I've had over the last 15 years or so, is that I still get the same "kick" out of the things that thrilled me as a kid and young man. And, I'm convinced that those feelings go a long way in keeping one young.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
While Rod Stewart may have been 'outed' in 2007, I'd have to choose Neil Young as my MR hero. Not only is the man a part owner of Lionel, Mr. Young actually designed a special control system to allow his quadriplegic son to take part in the trainy goodness. Now that's cool.
Streamlined steam, oh, what a dream!!
"So what is the appeal of this most arcane of pursuits?" ???
If one does not know, then one has not experienced the joys of it....
-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.
GALAXY WROTE THE FOLLOWING POST AT SAT, OCT 27 2012 1:10 PM:
--
Well that's sure true. Like I've said before, trains are like jazz, man. If you don't get it, I can't explain it to you.
Fun, mostly.
Nostalgia - a big part of why I model what I model.
Plus a love of machinery most of the rest of why I model what I model.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
with apologies to Kenneth Grahame:
Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolute nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in trains. Simply messing... about in trains — or with trains. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not.
Enjoy
Paul
All I am doing is continuing to have fun with something I've been doing since I can barely remember doing it and that's building models, being creative, calming my body after the day to day stress of living in a modern world. I must be screwed-up; however, as I've never been embarrassed over buying a hobby magazine! Although, I guess the idea of saving a bunch of money over the newsstand price, by subscribing may be saving me this worry!
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
What is the appeal... wow, there are several I suppose and it's hard to put into words exactly what they are. I guess the main one is building a small world that actually does something and can be operated in some fashion.
I know that I've tried to explain model railroading to folks that are not in the hobby, but I don't think I did a very good job. It's best, in my case at least, to simply show them. Even then some are super impressed and others less so. In those instances I really don't know what WOULD impress them.
The average person does not have a clue how big this hobby is, how many facets it contains and the dedication it takes to do it well, not saying that I do... but I try.
I can be a carpenter, electrician/technician, sculptor, painter, engineer (both kinds) railroad executive, Maintenance man, designer and many other things, as my mood dictates. Sounds like a good pastime to me.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
I am one who has loved trains and anything about railroads since I was about 10 years old. But, I don't know how to explain this fasciination to anyone. There is just something about trains that draws me to them and when I try to analyze what it is I come up with nothing. I guess it is the same for others that are fascinated with dolls or bottlecaps or whatever your 'thing' is. I still like to put my head down next to the track and watch my model train run by as though it was the real thing (Prototype thing!). I grew up in New York and watched the NYC trains along the Hudson River (Water Level Route) back when they still had steam locomotives. None of my family understand what the fascination is with me and trains but they all enjoy watching my model trains and wonder at the amount of work and knowledge I have applied to my 'toy trains'. Some are intimidated with the electrical spaghetti under the layout and the massive amounts of 'things' that the wires are attaached to. These are just more reasons why I love trains.
I am 71 years old and still get the thrill of a model train!
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!