The Reason's we enjoy Model Trains

Very nice commentary

Very well said.

Wow, great perspective on why we do what we do.  Thanks Chipset

 

Stack

You sure put some thought into this thread, chipset. You are correct, each one of us has a story as to why we are in this hobby.

 

Personally, I remember three significant events that were special to me and probably why I have such an interest. The first one was dropping my Dad off at the train station and standing next to this huge and impressive NY, NH & Hartford engine. WOW, did that leave an impression. The next event was my first Lionel train set, a Berkshire, under the Christmas tree. And the last, the Sante Fe F3 diesels with those beautiful streamline passenger cars, also under another Christmas tree.

 

Those memories have never left me.

My first memory ever is of coal trains rolling through Ashland Ky. I knew I thought that trains were cool and wanted them myself. So from those early floor trains to today I love trains.......a history of family working on the real railroads didn't hurt either.

Those reasons may not be so obvious, I don't think most of us really know why we do this. I think this is true for all kinds of drives, the workaholic may defend his habits by saying they want to provide their children with a better life, or the politician may defend his power conquest with notions of freedom and democracy. But in reality the drive comes from a different place and it is an unknown to the individual, we may have glimpses of it but we will never grasp it. I guess if you can pin point the reason why you do something like this, it is not fun anymore. I've never been able to explain why I play with toy trains, for me the only way to describe it is that they work like a kind of drug. Toy trains to me are sort of like cocaine. For some reason I'm drawn to them, sometimes I like to think that they are like an antidote against the most immediate material reality and the tediousness of domestic life. But I may never know why I do it, and that's all right.

It all boils down to (1) an outlet for creativity; (2) an outlet for collectibility; (3) the  desire to relive another time with old stuff.

Well said. Two words: Relaxation and escape!

To me watching the locomotive pulling a long trains.With smoke hanging over the boxcars.Some boxcars doors open some shut.The different names and color of the freight cars.I try to think this is what my grand parents saw.Oh and the sound is very important to.It is a very good way to unwind from the stress of life.

I would can add camaraderie to that - great friends to be made. 

I do it for one reason and one reason only----IT IS FUN.

Chipset - Very well thought out commentary.  It certainly made me think and helped me realize why I love this hobby so much.

 

Art

My Lionel stuff was my Fathers and Uncles stuff. I get great enjoyment keeping them running, circa 1950's tech

I really enjoy the history.  History I did not experience although heard about from my grandfather. My favorite era is 1930's-1950. So for me it is about recreating as detailed as possible. Living exhibits with an emphasis on authenticity.

On a side note I adore the post war lionel toy trains through about 1956. How does a guy that was a boy in the late 1980's and early 90's get into toy trains when my dad was a very young boy? I don't know.

Nostalgia.  Up through the third grade I walked back to and rode my bike back to a

Southern station, a short distance from our house on Depot Lane.  I hung out in and

around that station, which disappeared after I moved away.  My father and grandfather worked for railroads, and my grandfather, retired, got in the company

newletter.  Now, I stand in an abandoned grain elevator or beside a closed station,

with tracks there or there no longer, listen to the wind rattle the elevator's loose corrugated sheeting and hoisting cables, and think about times past.  I then come home and try to capture those times past in a model.

Christmas!!!!   What's a tree without a train underneath?

 

 

Relaxing, revives memories of times long ago, provides escape from reality into ones own fantasy world where in essence you create your own reality, albeit a miniaturized version. It's an outlet that allows your artistic and creative juices to flow in whatever form and to whatever heights you desire, it's a place to put your excess $$$ (haha) and best reason pure fun and joy!!!

Me too.  I enjoy collecting pieces I don't have.  Someday I hope to build a layout.

BTW, is that an FEF-1 I see in the background?

Well done Chipset. I was going to chime in but you said it all.

Playing with trains has always brought memories of the past flooding back to me.  These memories include setting up trains under the Christmas tree with my dad, my grandfather telling me stories of working on the Erie Lackawanna RR, smelling the smoke coming from a steam locomotive and feeling the wheels and motor to see how hot they got after a long running session, especially on the trucks of my brothers diesels.    

 

Looking back I wish that I enjoyed being a child more than I did.  As children I believe that we all want to grow up quickly because being an adult seemed so cool and to a certain extent it is.  Going back to my childhood I recall all of the magic that my trains offered me, especially running trains on the living room floor in the dark or running trains under the Christmas tree with only the Christmas tree lights turned on. 

 

The same magic can still be had, but I think, at least for me, it’s perceived just a touch differently since the innocence of being a child was lost as I got older.

 

My trains have always transported me into the past when things seemed a little simpler and, although I’m much older today, the nostalgia is still there for the taking when I get home from a long day and find my trains waiting for me. 

Thanks Chipset. Kind of makes me want to go searching again for the PPR passenger set Grandpa had when I was barely able to stand on two feet.

Chipset,

 

Thank you. You put it best for me. Whether it be for work or play or just to relax, my train layout is somewhere I alone can go and "meditate" about something utterly fantastic my ideal of what reality should look like --unchanging or by MY OWN HAND changing. It is for me, reality squared! Exactly as I like it because I can control it.

 

Yes, the familiar sights and smells and the past comes up for me too, sometimes it makes me wistful most of the time makes me long for the past and familiar faces now long gone. But that is ok, too. ----I need my past, it's soothing to me---

 

Mike Maurice

Go out and find it Matthew, the joy it brings will be worth it.

Chipset

I could have not said it any better. You cover it all.

Glenn

Spot on...thanks!

 

George (G3)