I agree. True. If there are some who sprang to a magnificent layout, right at their beginning stage, they are extremely rare individuals. And I have neither met, nor heard of any in my fifty five plus years participating.... Loop of sectional track, or basement filling empire, collectors of brass, Kadee/M-T or whatever, they are all (valuable!) members of the model railroad hobby.
Well, I thought the example was a person with a bare loop of track and no aspirations to take it further. That's different from the beginner. I just don't see why we can't have Model Railroader mean something a little more specific and then call those whose aims are sufficiently different something else. Not something worse or better, just different. You know, in some sense , the rise of limited run expensive trains is tied to those more likely to be running on a bare loop than building operator's layouts, highly detailed layouts, super detailing or switching puzzles. As a group, their wants and needs are different from more "traditional" forms of MR. Should we not speak as two separate voices rather than one muddled one? Anyway, food for thought. I think this desire to be super inclusive is interesting in some ways. Not bad or good, just interesting.
No doubt John was talented, but even his first efforts were somewhat humble. His initial layout design small and basic, only really growing large after be bought that famous house. His talents developed fast, surely aided by his chosen vocation. A lot of what he did was illusion, and much more was actually contributed or constructed by his operating friends.
I'm not certain how we could categorize everyone. Not without enduring monumental arguments and endless discussions. I have a feeling there'd be no way to come near making enough people happy with the chosen outcome. I'm afraid plenty of folks, right or wrong, would feel slighted or offended.
Sounds like material for a poster of how different people view model railroaders. What strangers think I do. Who the local hobby shop owner wants me to be. What the neighbors think I do. What my in-laws think I do. What I think I do. What I really do.
I'd say that I'm moving from the planning stage to the development stage with my next layout. By that, I mean I'm not building my next layout yet, but developing the components that will ultimately be a part of that layout. At the moment, I'm working on the electronics side while trying to avoid having a smoking version of Einstein's hairstyle by the time I'm done.
Why can't we just reference ourselves collectively as people who enjoy and appreciate the hobby? Really, why does the 'how' we go about it matter?
I dont care what other people think, right now ive got a 5' x 9' "ping pong table for my HO trains and a loop and a siding and a bunch of trains.... most of which i spend my time weathering and (sorry to say it but i love it even if it is vandalism its still art) graffiting trains (although they are my trains so its not vandalism ) i also have a z scale foam board layout that is a work in progress too, and guess what im doing to them.... yep you guessed it im weathering and writing on them... im a model railroader.
For all of you who are in the planning stages, I have some simple advice that comes from decades of not having a layout. Whether it's just an oval, or a plank with a couple switches for moving cars around, all model railroaders should have on hand some kind of train playing zone. Seriously consider building something anything, where you can "test run" ( I still call it playing with my trains ) some locos and cars, even if it's just bare boards.
Possibly on all of Trainboard! And for my layout I have an just a small oval of track, but it sure is fun to run trains!
Virginian Railway, I am thinking that the next layout that I am going to build will be a HCD that I can add my current layout to...so I can have a continuous run
I have an N gauge around the walls shelf type of layout in a spare bedroom. I haven't run it in about two years and I haven't worked on it in about a year since I raised it up six inches higher. Working on my house and doing things for my club have taken priority over the layout but I hope to get back to it this fall.
I don't think that there's any problem with the poll. To begin with, we were all at one time a beginner in the hobby. As a teen ager, I did have a small layout, and then spent six years in the Navy. Not too many layouts on a destroyer, but I still kept up on the hobby, reading any magazines and other publications I could find I could find. When I got out, I spent 7 years on the highway patrol in Florida, but living in an apartment, the best I could come up with was a small N scale layout. I finally moved back home to Montana and expanded my N scale layout, all of the time learning and improving my skills. No body starts into the hobby as an expert. In the 70's, the N scale locomotives were primitive compared to what is available on todays market. I sold everything off and restarted in HO scale. This is where the real learning curve began. I had seen numerous layouts by this time, small, large, club layouts, and was getting a better idea of what I wanted to do. My present layout, which was started over twenty years ago was in the planning stages before the first tracks we laid. By visiting other layouts, I decided to hand lay my track, using code 70 rail. While I was in the Navy, I had to opportunity to have seen, and operated on John Allens G&D. What an inspiration. Another modeler here in Montana, the late Pete Ellis, out of Cascade, MT was a great help also. Over the years I spent a lot of time operating on his layout, and Pete was always gracious enough to give me any assistance I asked for. As the layout progressed, I started experimenting with air brushes, and before long, I was custom painting locomotives and freight cars. Weathering also interested me and before long, nothing went on my layout that wasn't weathered to some extent. Next came scratch building. I was a bit intimidated at first, but after a number of builds, everything improved. We're all interested in the hobby, and we all have different thing that interests us. Some like to see long trains run while others, me for example, prefer switching. After all, how are these long trains made up. Another item that comes into the mix is the space that a modeler has available. Years ago the best I could come up with was a 4' x 6' layout. Time passes, I built a house, and low and behold, I built it on a basement. That's a great place for a model railroad. Then, of course come negotiations with the better half on how much of it you can have. I know that I will never look down on someone's railroad, because I can clearly remember when I was in the same boat. Starting and learning. I am happy with the way my layout is turning out, but that doesn't mean that I can't learn something new. Our model railroad forums are a great learning tool. I wish that something like this were around when I started.
