So what's wrong with being a "Toy Train Guy," Super7?
My interest in toy trains is redecorating postwar Lionel F3's in colorful passenger train liveries popular in the '50's using, typically, more modern, 15" Lionel smooth-sided passenger cars. My trains consist of AA or AB F3's and 5-7 passenger cars. I use Scalecoat paint, O scale decals, and consult historical societies and the web for photographs and equipment rosters to get accurate information.
I try to pay attention to some, but not all, details; e.g. does a stripe wrap around the locomotive or passenger car, or does it stop on the side. Or, does the A unit have a second headlight or only a single? Some details I'll incorporate and others I won't. My interest is having a sufficient level of verisimilitude that satisfies me; if someone wishes to point out my failure to accurately reproduce the prototype, no problem. Heck, I may even incorporate the omission in my next project.
In any case, that's my interest in the "hobby" and I don't consider myself any more "dedicated" than anyone else--everyone should find what they enjoy. While I have an interest in prototype, colorful passenger trains, I also appreciate Lionel's postwar animation accessories, most of which I own and operated when I had the space for them.
I'm very content to be a "Toy Train Guy" and have no delusions about being anything else.
Carl
PS: The late Richard Sherry did beautiful GM&O, Burlington, and other colorful diesels using postwar Lionel F units and did everything out of a rattle can; but, he had an eye for color that I don't have, and I got to watch him for the several years I attended "train nights" in his unfinished basement in Chicago. He was featured on Vol. 1, episode 2 of the T&M vhs tape series 10+ years ago.
