I'll bite... One of my major draws to the hobby (which for me extends to collecting toy trains as well as models, bits of railroadiana, standing just a hair too close to the platform edge when the local arrives, turning off the radio and rolling the window down when I'm waiting at a crossing so I can enjoy the hulking beast going by...) is and has been experiencing times, places, and things which either I wasn't alive to witness (I'm a Pennsy fan, but it was gone more than a decade and a half before I was born), or which just plain leave me in awe. There are many pieces of human technology which are very, very impressive. There are not very many which are both physically imposing and accessible enough to enjoy being in the presence of. Ships? You're either on them or watching them from the shore, but you can't really stand next to one when it's in its element. Likewise with planes, rockets, etc. Cars are cool, I guess, but they mostly aren't big enough to make you feel tiny by comparison, and very few could shake your bones as it passes you by. You can put yourself within spitting distance of a train while it's doing what it was built for, and it's exactly the sort of bone-shaking experience things like that ought to be. It feels like almost two centuries of industrial progress going past. Having model trains lets me put a little piece of that in my home.
As far as ships go.....yes, you can view them in their element, up close and personal. I have. Really whizzes off the Admiral when you send them photos of their flattop taken up close with a bow wake....taken through #1 Attack scope......
