tin can Its a hobby. I don't care what others think. Working on my trains lets me burn stress, decompress a bit, and have fun. I used to say that my trains were the only thing I could control all of the time, then came DCC. Burn StReSs? On occassion it induces stress, but I can handle it for a few seconds. Really M model railroading is a major stress reducer. If I feel stress overcoming me I go down and work on the scenic railroad as a conductor (certified). Talking to people is a joy, specially the little.kids. I see many of them clutching a train from the gift shop and think, "there goes a future modeler".
Its a hobby. I don't care what others think. Working on my trains lets me burn stress, decompress a bit, and have fun. I used to say that my trains were the only thing I could control all of the time, then came DCC.
Burn StReSs? On occassion it induces stress, but I can handle it for a few seconds. Really M
model railroading is a major stress reducer. If I feel stress overcoming me I go down and work on the scenic railroad as a conductor (certified). Talking to people is a joy, specially the little.kids. I see many of them clutching a train from the gift shop and think, "there goes a future modeler".
No offense taken here. You can call my model trains and wargaming models toys because that's what they are.
I might cringe you if you called my instruments toys, but since I "play" them, I probably wouldn't correct you.
Visit the Chicago Valley Railroad for Chicago Trainspotting and Budget Model Railroading.
My bicycles are toys. My kitchen stuff can be toys. My skis were toys, and my hockey gear. It's all in your approach to life. Even the tablet I'm typing this on is a toy. It's certainly not work.
My first two cars were two-seat British convertibles. They were transportation, but toys at the same time. They were, well, labor intensive, but I enjoyed it. Unfortunately, cars have become too complicated for shade tree mechanics like me, so cars are no longer toys.
So, I pity those who don't have toys and appreciate them. They, unfortunately, are grown-ups who grew up too much.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
tloc52My wife gets upset when people call them toys
Now that you mention it, my wife is more bothered by the "toy" comment than I am.
WILLIAM SHEPARD I may never grow up if thats what determines when you grow up you can't play with toys anymore.
I feel the same way.
Look at how young CJ is in this video!
It is so hard to believe this song, off of the Ramones last album, was 25 years ago! What happened to the time? I was 27 when this was new, and bouncing in the pit at The Edge in Orlando. That was the last time I saw the Ramones.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
My wife gets upset when people call them toys and she tells them it is scale modeling. It's a hobby I do for my enjoyment. Call it what you want, it is part of my life's enjoyment.
TomO
Not at all. Some years ago I saw trains as expensive toys for Big Boys.
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.
In general these days folks seem to be hung up on being polotically correct or offensice. "Suck it up buttercup, " laugh at yourself and go on with life, not trying to change or be changed by other folk, be yourself, be happy.
Too much polotics in life and not enough fun!
Richard
ATLANTIC CENTRAL And yes they are toys. The only difference between men and boys, is the price of their toys....... Sheldon
And yes they are toys.
The only difference between men and boys, is the price of their toys.......
Sheldon
Hi Sheldon, That's exactly what my missus has always said to me, all 44 years of our married life, thru thick and getting thicker (certainly not thin) Paul
"It's the South Shore Line, Jim - but not as we know it".
I've never had anyone call them toys, surprisingly. I wouldn't get offended over it though, unless someone was being deliberately insulting. Otherwise I say embrace it, as I view it to be no different than owning a sports car, for example. Both model trains and sports cars are basically "toys" for adults.
maxmanI call N scale stuff cat toys.
Pretty much anything that moves is a cat toy.
York1 John
AtonYeah, people who don't know much about the hobby have often called my n scale stuff "toys",
I call N scale stuff cat toys.
Yeah, people who don't know much about the hobby have often called my n scale stuff "toys", I don't mind, and I fact I personally think of my trains as toys. BUT since I let many of my guests use my trains, I tend to correct them (gently) and say that they're closer to a model than a toy, It tends to change their mindset about how to handle them.
At the end of the day, they are pretty much very advanced, very expensive, toys.
Sometimes I joke about playing with the toy train set, but most, if not all visitors realize that my layout is art to me. Are model ship, aircraft, auto, or whatever builders playing with or building toys? Not a chance! These, including model railroads are hobbies requiring dexterity and several other skills. I once heard about a study that a person who has such a hobby requiring these skills and dexterity will have an extended life. Could it be that knowing that stress can be a killer and route of many ailments be a great reducer of stress?
My dad was an avid model railroader along with several other hobbies which were performed in our home. He retired in 1961, moved with mom to a co-op in New York City (at Mom's request). During this period I was in basic training in the army and had not seem my folks for several months. When I finally saw Dad after 4 months, he had aged about ten years as there was no model railroad, and room for his other hobbies. A month later he suffered a stroke which I would guess was due to the stress of not only the move to smaller quarters, but not having room to practice his hobbies. After that, Mom sold her New York based business, and they moved to south Florida. Dad again regained some of his faculties through again building O scale trains and some of his other hobbies, and began looking like the person I once knew.
Toys?......who cares? To me and my family they are many things and we are Ok with them being called toys.
Play, I play at life, life is a game. The rich try to get richer, not because they need the money but for them it is a game. Wish I was rich enough to play that game.
Excactly I have another hobby that is more expensive the my model railroad and when I go to a friend to help it is called a play date. I'm retired so my models and radios are my toys. I don't do much of any other things so this is my relaxation. John
One of the best things about retirement is that I get a second childhood.
Paul
I have to say that in 30 years of showing my model railroads to visitors and non-model railroaders, I've never had anyone refer to them as toys. However, it certainly wouldn't bother me if someone did.
riogrande5761 I'm guessing for most, the older we get, the less we care about what other people think.
I'm guessing for most, the older we get, the less we care about what other people think.
... or IF they think.
The only recent time anyone referred to my trains as "toys" was when the gas company decided I needed a new gas meter and a new place for the gas line to enter my house. The fellow they sent to check out the basement situation was not in the layout room but in the workbench(es) room and he identified where the new line would be placed. it was going to cause some disruption of course and he pointed at the workbench and just said "get your toys out of here." Not rudely just matter of factly. I took no offense. Besides he looked like he might have been a pro wrestler in his spare time and I was in no mood to provoke him.
I am more saddened at those of my friends who simply regard the hobby of model railroading as a strange one and maybe even vaguely creepy. They feel somewhat the same way about war gamers and Comic-Con types (and frankly after the Comic-Con folks had one of their conventions here in Milwaukee and I saw all these people, adults, wandering around dressed like, well, like mutant Viking zombies, I guess I passed judgment too.
But you know what? Nothing reinforces that impression "non believers" have about our hobby than the red-faced, neck artery popping hysteria of the person who yells back "they're NOT toys they are AUTHENTIC SCALE MODELS." Likewise the war gamer who almost bursts into tears and yells "I am NOT wasting my time, I am recreating the Battle of Zappolino! Can't you see the Oaken Bucket?"
In this age where we are supposed to offended by everything, I wouldn't be offended.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
I don't get offended by those types of remarks because they have no idea what they are talking about...their opinions matter not!
Oddly enough during the week of the county fair I never heard "toy train" once from the fair goers. I did hear "You guys got a nice model train set up". I can't forget that dear old lady that ask me if we put away our trains and take down the layout at night.
As for me, I am 72 and still play with model train and play video games on a Play Station 4.
I simply refuse to sit on a park bench at the city square and watch the world go by like some old folk do.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
When I became a man, I put away childish things, including the desire to appear terribly grown-up, to quote C.S. Lewis.
i refer to op sessions as "playing trains.". I'm a 65 year old man who still plays Dungeons & Dragons, has his own lightsaber, and builds model trains.and
Anybody want to demean me because of that, I have a list of parts of my anatomy they can kiss, indexed for their safety and convenience in alphabetical, anatomical, and geographical order.
One of the advantages of getting older is arriving in the wonderful land of not giving an aviator's intercourse what other people think.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
To me, these scale models are indeed toys, so no I don't get offended. To me a $3000 W&R/Samhongsa (brass) Western Pacific 257 class 2-8-8-2 is still merely a toy, albeit one that I cannot afford and have no plans to own.
If I owned my holy grail automobile: the 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 (the one with the round tail lights) perhaps in Cincinnati Bengal Orange (actual limited edition of about 50 real cars were produced for one Dodge dealer) it would still be merely a toy, and I would love it and drive it!
The only difference between men and boys is the price of the toys.
John Mock