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Train Modeling is not in the same as Transformer collecting!!!!

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  • Member since
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Train Modeling is not in the same as Transformer collecting!!!!
Posted by Robby P. on Monday, July 2, 2007 1:50 PM

A lady my wife work's with husband collect's Transformer's as a hobby, and She asked "Doesn't Robby do something with train's.  They are doing the samething. They both collect them"  She tried to explain what I do, and how it's different from Tranformer collecting.  I haven't worked on my layout in awhile and have turned to weathering, as of lately.  She also try's to tell people what I do and they really don't understand.  I honestly don't think Transformer's are close to this.......

 "Rust, whats not to love?"      

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Posted by ARTHILL on Monday, July 2, 2007 1:54 PM
It may be similar to brass engine collecting or classic box car collecting, but unless he builds a set and puts the transformers in DCC controlled action scenes MRRing is different.
If you think you have it right, your standards are too low. my photos http://s12.photobucket.com/albums/a235/ARTHILL/ Art
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Posted by claymore1977 on Monday, July 2, 2007 2:01 PM

 ARTHILL wrote:
It may be similar to brass engine collecting or classic box car collecting, but unless he builds a set and puts the transformers in DCC controlled action scenes MRRing is different.

 Taking some artistic liscense, one could model a diorama of a Decepticon vs Autobot battle happening in/around a train yard :)  Modeling a realistic looking boxcar is hard enough let alone trying to model what would happen to a realiztic looking boxcar being destroyed by a two story robot :)

I occasionally watched Transformers on tv when I was young, so I have a particular fascination with the concept... not to the point of collecting a toy you can never play with (a concept I still can't grasp)

Dave Loman

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Posted by Master of Big Sky Blue on Monday, July 2, 2007 3:29 PM
 claymore1977 wrote:

I occasionally watched Transformers on tv when I was young, so I have a particular fascination with the concept... not to the point of collecting a toy you can never play with (a concept I still can't grasp)

 

You mean you want to run your trains!!!. You can't do that, that will destory its value!!!!!!.

 

Truth be told I don't quite get the concept iether. Im gonna run my trains till they fall apart. rebuild them and do it again. Until they can't be rebuilt no more

James

"Well, I've sort of commited my self here, so you pop that clowns neck, I will shoot his buddy, and I will probably have to shoot the bartender too." ----- William Adama upon meeting Saul Tigh Building an All Steam Roster from Old Tyco-Mantua, and Bowser kits. Free Drinks in the Dome Car
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Posted by MAbruce on Monday, July 2, 2007 3:45 PM

This is more a debate of collecting vs. modeling. 

Collectors seldom model the items they collect out of concern that the items would lose significant value if taken out of their protective case and exposed to an environment that could cause damage.

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Posted by loathar on Monday, July 2, 2007 4:22 PM
Most of the time when you show people what Model Railroading is really all about they look even more confused.
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Posted by MilwaukeeRoad on Monday, July 2, 2007 4:43 PM

Transformers.. Railcars in disguise! Whistling [:-^]

Nice Pictures!

Alex Czajkowski
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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, July 2, 2007 5:50 PM
Boy Robby P you had better get those boxcars painted before they rust any further depreciating the value LOL.  Those are some excellent weathering jobs.  I'm still looking for a transformer with DCC & sound.
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Posted by potlatcher on Monday, July 2, 2007 5:55 PM

Don't we all collect transformers?  Aren't those what we use to power our DCC (or DC) systems!!!?  Face it, every MRC Throttlepack has one!

Tom

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Posted by SMassey on Monday, July 2, 2007 6:04 PM

Well I used to have alot of Transformers and to this day I still have 1 Transformer and a Voltron.  They not only are part of my childhood but they were 2 of the neetest ones I had.  I cant say it is the same as collecting tho.  Most collectors collect to get the whole set of something that they are passionate about.  You can do that with trains of all scales but a collector of say Athearn BB Kits from day one to today will prolly not want to run the trains but have every road name and # that was ever made to show off to some one.  Model RRers will take said Athearn kits build them put Kadees on them and maybe even some metal wheels, keep the kit clean or grime it up a little and make it do what it was entended to do.  That my friends is the difference. 

 

Oh yea the Transformers even had a Decepticon that was a Steam locomotive, he also turned into a space shuttle, and robot.  It's name was Astrotrain. 

 

A Veteran, whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

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Posted by SMassey on Monday, July 2, 2007 6:14 PM

http://www.seibertron.com/toys/fullsize.php?id=156&size=2&image=10

There is a link to the above mentioned Transformer.  He appears to be a 2-8-2 with the UP style draft devices on the sides of the smokebox.  (sorry could not think of what they were really called)

 

A Veteran, whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."

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Posted by SteamFreak on Monday, July 2, 2007 6:38 PM

Tell him my Big Boy could outpull his Optimus Prime! Big Smile [:D]

There are hobbyists who build, weather, and detail models of anime mecha with amazing skill, but collecting something and modelling are two very different pursuits. 

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 3:33 AM

The only transformers I have ever been tempted to collect have coils of copper wire wrapped through laminated EI-shaped cores.

Some of mine have attached rectifiers and speed controls.  Others don't.  A couple have center taps to yield 6.3 and 12.6 VAC from a 120VAC input.  None of them bear the slightest resemblance to cartoon robots.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

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Posted by youngengineer on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 4:18 AM
nice pics, excellent job of weathering, and when I first read the title I was thinking transformers as in power for the rails, lol. Collecting is a different beast all together, collection range from ciche, to never gonna be touched because it has value. I play trains, and I collect art.
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Posted by MisterBeasley on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 6:37 AM

I'd like to see a Transformer after Aggro has gotten through weathering it.

Maybe the History Channel will do a Boneyards show on 'Bots.

 

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by galaxy on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 7:57 AM

When I first read the title, I thought of transformers... you know...the voltage altering things...like power packs to run our trains? (LOL) I thought: well, they could be painted to match in the railroad colors and nicely weathered. That way they wouldn't have to be hidden...!!

I think the lady thought of "doing something with trains" as collecting them. Some of us do. Whether we smash and crash em, or keep them in   a sterile climate controled case, in a manner of speaking we do collect them.

And, he may really play with his Transformers!!!!Whistling [:-^]

-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.

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Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 8:11 AM

Perhaps we are all scavengers holding on to the last item that made us happy as kids.

I think of the stuff as being sad wrapped up in boxes. Let's run em and see what they do.

By the way, I dont do Transformers. Space 1999 and HAL along with some of the other shows of the day was more than enough.

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Posted by Cox 47 on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 10:02 AM
I am always "collecting" stuff for future projects but i don't consider my self a collector....Nice weathering like to see more....Cox 47
ILLinois and Southern...Serving the Coal belt of southern Illinois with a Smile...
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Posted by Dallas Model Works on Tuesday, July 3, 2007 10:14 AM
 Robby P. wrote:

A lady my wife work's with husband collect's Transformer's as a hobby, and She asked "Doesn't Robby do something with train's.  They are doing the samething. They both collect them"  She tried to explain what I do, and how it's different from Tranformer collecting.  I haven't worked on my layout in awhile and have turned to weathering, as of lately.  She also try's to tell people what I do and they really don't understand.  I honestly don't think Transformer's are close to this.......

Are you not transforming brand new freight cars into road weary veterans by weathering them? (Nice job, by the way.)

Face it -- you are a Transformer!  Big Smile [:D]

c

Craig

DMW

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Posted by AggroJones on Thursday, July 12, 2007 9:04 PM

STARSCREAM friggin rules!

 

When explaining model railroading to a 'normal' person, keep pressing the artistic aspect. I try to hammer down how artsy stuff can be. Oh. Robby that St. Mary reminds me of the one I'm working on....

"Being misunderstood is the fate of all true geniuses"

EXPERIMENTATION TO BRING INNOVATION

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Posted by jblackwelljr on Friday, July 13, 2007 8:12 AM

 loathar wrote:
Most of the time when you show people what Model Railroading is really all about they look even more confused.

I get that look just by telling people what my hobby is.  But once in a while I get surprised. I was telling an acquaintenance - a woman in her late 70's - about what I'm doing and she showed genuine interest.  She has asked me on several occasions about my progress.

I generally am not bothered by what people think about my interest in model railroading, but getting this kind of feedback from someone outside the hobby is gratifying.

Sorry, nothing to do with Transformers!

Jim "He'll regret it to his dyin day, if ever he lives that long." - Squire Danaher, The Quiet Man
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Posted by vsmith on Friday, July 13, 2007 10:01 AM

I know how to bust ya right in yer Optomus Prime!

Tongue [:P]

   Have fun with your trains

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Posted by SteamFreak on Friday, July 13, 2007 1:51 PM
 vsmith wrote:

I know how to bust ya right in yer Optomus Prime!

Tongue [:P]

Does Captain Gloval know you're using his SDF-1? 

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Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 13, 2007 3:31 PM
Hahaha...I can see that you still don't get women!  To them, anything mechanical or even resemble mechanical stuff is just what it is, a lump of metal!  So to them, Transformers or trains, it's the same 'thing'!  LOL  I have given up educating women over the past years because you just got to admit it, our neuro pathways in the brain are just too different.  I mean even though my wife is supportive with my hobby but she still compares my sophisticated DCC engine to Thomas the engine.  But you know, sometimes they are right though when grocery shopping, some more expensive branded stuff is the same as the generic brands and in the process saves heaps overtime!  LOL
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Posted by G Paine on Friday, July 13, 2007 3:33 PM
I have an old Varney transformer, think he would be interested? It's 1960s vintage. Big Smile [:D]

George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch 

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