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You Might Be a Model Railroader If..........

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  • Member since
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  • From: Northern Va
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Posted by yougottawanta on Thursday, July 31, 2014 11:41 AM

LOL ! THAT would be a shocking expierence !

How about these :

You try to get the building permits department to approve a freaight car as living space

For vacation you plan your trip around train museums or out of state hobby shops

Try to rent a caboose to honeymoon in : )

Cut deals with spouse that if you allow her to buy .... then you can buy the latest MTH with sound, steam, decoder....

Try to figure out how to fit a layout in the family car and drive and operate the RR while driving

 

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Posted by richhotrain on Thursday, July 31, 2014 4:36 AM

.....once you have finally built that bathtub layout.

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by FRRYKid on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 11:41 PM

Let's try this one: You go to the (insert store type here [for me is usually the electronics or hardware store]) looking for items that are not for your model railroad and the employee at that store assume it is for your model railroad.

Another one I just thought of: Family will get you anything you want for birthday or Christmas as long as it is NOT model railroad-related.

"The only stupid question is the unasked question."
Brain waves can power an electric train. RealFact #832 from Snapple.
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  • From: A Comfy Cave, New Zealand
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Posted by "JaBear" on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 11:30 PM

CTValleyRR
 Are you still married?  If so, it probably cost you a small fortune amd the knees of your trousers.

It may surprise you; it constantly does me, that I’m still happily married to the same girl! If I actually knew how and could pass my knowledge to the world, I suspect that I’d be in line for a Nobel Prize.
What’s even more surprising she came with me to a Hobby/ Train show recently and bought me some passenger cars!!!!!

Cheers, the Bear.Confused(Whose actual understanding of women could be written on back of a very small postage stamp in very large letters). 

"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."

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  • From: US
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Posted by jacon12 on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 9:39 PM

Your girlfriend runs off with your model railroading buddy and you miss him.

 HO Scale DCC Modeler of 1950, give or take 30 years.
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  • From: San Diego
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Posted by stokesda on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 8:04 PM

"... you've ever told anyone 'I can quit buying freight cars any time I want!'"

 

I wish I could take credit for that one, but it was my favorite in an identical thread on this very subject a few years ago. Here is the link.

Another one was similar to the grade crossing one mentioned already: "you slow down when approaching a grade crossing hoping to be the first one in line when the gate comes down"

Dan Stokes

My other car is a tunnel motor

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Posted by Big Boy Forever on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 6:13 PM

Capt. Grimek

If you get an "ultimatum" from your amazingly supportive wife that it is NOW time to get those 3 sheets of plywood out of the hallway to the bedroom. They were only there for 3 years!

Jim

 

Howabout

"Get that 5 X 10 monstrosity out of the family room and into the garage"

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  • From: East Haddam, CT
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Posted by CTValleyRR on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 5:23 PM

if you go to a train show on your wedding anniversary.

Oops - Sign the Bear.

 

Are you still married?  If so, it probably cost you a small fortune amd the knees of your trousers.

Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford

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  • From: Spartanburg, SC
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Posted by GP-9_Man11786 on Wednesday, July 30, 2014 12:46 PM

If you can name all of Conrail's predcessors but can't name all three Kardashian sisters.

You spill Floquil paint on your work slacks and get upset about wasting irreplacable paint and not about ruining your good slacks.

You've been on your hands and knees digging through your carpet fiber by fiber trying to find the tiney screw, coupler spring or other microscopic part you dropped.

You operate on a regular basis despite not being a surgeon. 

Local is a relative term when it comes to hobby shops.

Modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad in N Scale.

www.prr-nscale.blogspot.com 

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  • From: Seattle Area
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Posted by Capt. Grimek on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 6:57 PM

If you get an "ultimatum" from your amazingly supportive wife that it is NOW time to get those 3 sheets of plywood out of the hallway to the bedroom. They were only there for 3 years!

Jim

Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.

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  • From: PA
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Posted by Schuylkill and Susquehanna on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 6:50 PM

You might be a model railroader if you have to be asked more than 8 times a week to clear the train stuff off the table so we can eat.

S&S

 

Modeling the Pennsy and loving it!

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  • From: Toronto Ont. Canada
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Posted by rambo1 on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 6:24 PM

when you build aircraft and bring freightcars to your  job so you can strip them with the 99%alchol there and show your coworkers and then you find a pile of trains and modelrailroader mags in the lunch area no ones no's who there from ok! rambo1... atleast we have good reading stuff. 

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Posted by cmrproducts on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 2:08 PM

When you can spend 40 hours a week in the Train Room!

And I do - Retirement is a Great Thing!

BOB H - Clarion, PA

  • Member since
    June 2011
  • From: Loveland, Colorado - Rural
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Posted by rgengineoiler on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 8:30 AM

When you spent 4 days and 20 gallons of gas looking for the right material to make bottle brush trees.  Found it!  Doug

  • Member since
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  • From: Stagecoach Nevada
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Posted by crhostler61 on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 7:47 AM

When your livingroom, diningroom, and kitchen are filled with a train layout instead of normal furniture.

Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history. 

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  • From: A Comfy Cave, New Zealand
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Posted by "JaBear" on Monday, July 28, 2014 11:59 PM

if you go to a train show on your wedding anniversary.

Oops - Sign the Bear.

"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."

  • Member since
    May 2014
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Posted by Big Boy Forever on Monday, July 28, 2014 11:59 PM

ricktrains4824

You might be a model railroader if:

You have more trains than your wife has shoes.

You know the difference between "red" and "boxcar red" paint, but can't tell the difference between your wife's "light blue" and "periwinkle" dresses. (You also look at your wife and go "what's periwinkle anyway?")

 

And, related to this.......

You might be a rail fan if:

You can explain the heritage of any rail line in your area, past and present.

You can tell which railroad is running a train through town off of air horn sound alone.

You like the smell of creosote in the morning.

You also like the smell of burning coal.

 

 

 

 

Oh, I forgot creosote.

I'll add it with the diesel fuel to my yard layout.

Coal is too old.

  • Member since
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  • From: NW Pa Snow-belt.
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Posted by ricktrains4824 on Monday, July 28, 2014 10:40 PM

You might be a model railroader if:

You have more trains than your wife has shoes.

You know the difference between "red" and "boxcar red" paint, but can't tell the difference between your wife's "light blue" and "periwinkle" dresses. (You also look at your wife and go "what's periwinkle anyway?")

 

And, related to this.......

You might be a rail fan if:

You can explain the heritage of any rail line in your area, past and present.

You can tell which railroad is running a train through town off of air horn sound alone.

You like the smell of creosote in the morning.

You also like the smell of burning coal.

 

 

 

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.

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Posted by ACY Tom on Monday, July 28, 2014 12:20 AM

Schuylkill & Susquehanna:

Just ONE bookcase?????

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Posted by NorthWest on Sunday, July 27, 2014 11:53 PM

...if you can remember the different phase spotting characteristics of SD40-2s, but you can't remember what you were supposed to purchase at the store...

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  • From: East Haddam, CT
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Posted by CTValleyRR on Sunday, July 27, 2014 9:56 PM

...Your Christmas list looks like the Walther's monthly flyer.  Or the Micromark one.

Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford

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  • From: NS(ex PRR) Mon Line.
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Posted by Jimmy_Braum on Sunday, July 27, 2014 9:09 PM

Your friends refer to you as the "train guy". 

Your computer screensaver is a photo of your layout

You spend your money on trains instead of food.

(My Model Railroad, My Rules) 

These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway.  As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).  

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Posted by NVSRR on Sunday, July 27, 2014 8:52 PM

You read this thread in hopes of getting more detail and building ideas.  Or anywhere for that matter

A pessimist sees a dark tunnel

An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel

A realist sees a frieght train

An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space

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  • From: Lewiston ID
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Posted by reklein on Sunday, July 27, 2014 8:04 PM

You might be a model railroader if your toilet tank leaks 'cause you got too many model railroader mags stacked on top. BILL

In Lewiston Idaho,where they filmed Breakheart pass.
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  • From: Southeast Kansas
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Posted by wholeman on Sunday, July 27, 2014 7:23 PM

Kyle

 

 
Drew4950

If you salivate when the railroad crossing gates come down and the alarms start ringing.

 

 

 

 

Or everytime you see a RR crossing, you get excited and hope the gates are going to come down before you reach the crossing. If the gates don't come down, then you look both ways and hope you see a train in the distance.  And then you get disappointed when there isn't a train.

 

I am like that every time.Stick out tongue

Will

  • Member since
    February 2010
  • From: Brantford, Ontario, Canada
  • 480 posts
Posted by bigpianoguy on Sunday, July 27, 2014 7:08 PM

...your friends no longer ask you, 'What have you been up to lately?'

  • Member since
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  • From: PA
  • 481 posts
Posted by Schuylkill and Susquehanna on Sunday, July 27, 2014 6:32 PM

If you design a layout for every possible space in your house.

If you relate to the prices of items in terms of how many trains you could get with that much money.

If the railroad related books in your house require their own bookcase.

If there are trains or train related items in more than half of the rooms in your house.

S&S

 

P.S. Guilty to all of the above. Embarrassed

 

Modeling the Pennsy and loving it!

  • Member since
    September 2013
  • 918 posts
Posted by Kyle on Sunday, July 27, 2014 4:40 PM

Drew4950

If you salivate when the railroad crossing gates come down and the alarms start ringing.

 

 

Or everytime you see a RR crossing, you get excited and hope the gates are going to come down before you reach the crossing. If the gates don't come down, then you look both ways and hope you see a train in the distance.  And then you get disappointed when there isn't a train.

  • Member since
    April 2003
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, July 27, 2014 3:30 PM

you have to design your benchwork to go around your computer so you can keep reading the MR forums.

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    April 2003
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Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, July 27, 2014 2:57 PM

You hide a dead fish underneath your layout to give your waterfront scene an authentic smell.

Dead

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