I was reading a study that showed that a large percentage of model railroaders or train lovers in general are somewhere on the autism spectrum. I myself am diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of high functioning autism. For myself, since my youngest years, trains of all kinds have held a deep seated special interest for me. I have dabbled in most all of the scales from Z to G, settling on G scale and Lionel due to my eyesight issues(common for folks on the spectrum to have eyesight problems). I have a small garden railway outdoors and a loop of G scale overhead in our living room. I am planning to start a small postwar style layout in my train room using my father's set from 1948. Model trains as a hobby is excellent for me, I prefer to be alone and need alone time to process and escape to after having to deal with people and normal life. The trains give me that place to go and recover. Trains can be as solitary or social a hobby as one desires. I am able to survive attending train shows and I say survive as thats what it really is for me. A train show is a major sensory overload, from all the people, noise, being bumped into by others if its really packed with people. Its normaly more than I can take. But I focus on the trains, find some stuff to buy till I run out of funds, then I am out of there. Once home, I retreat to my train room or the garden railway to run some trains, or tinker on whatever I purchased at the show. After an hour or two, I am able to rejoin my wife and the rest of the world. Making and keeping friends is very difficult for me, or anyone on the spectrum usualy. So I am always open to new friends, be they online or close by enough to get together and run trains. Mike
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
same
I guess that I'm a contrarian/curve-breaker - as usual.
While I love model railroading I have never exhibited any of the classic symptoms of autism. I don't mind public speaking, whether reading before a group of fellow writers or briefing a roomful of senior officers. I write, both speculative fiction and non-fiction. If a train show is an overload, how about a stadium full of partisan sports fanatics? (I attended frequently when I was younger and more mobile.)
Farther along the same route, have you ever been on a flight line full of F-4s during a rapid combat turnaround exercise? Just slightly less hectic than the same thing on an aircraft carrier!
I have sympathy for people afflicted with any kind of problem, but I find the connection between model railroading as I practice it and autism and its allied 'spectrum' to be tenuous at best.
Chuck