JD2035RR posted:Things I've learned:
-proper wiring, basic circuitry
-the difference between amps, volts, watts
-carpentry skills
-watching the trains at eye level is awesome
-use the right tool for the job
-maintaining locomotives
-Grandparents are gone too quickly. I was 12 and 15 when each of my grandfathers passed away. There are many conversations I wish I could have with them now about the hobby and mostly life in general.
Good points.
I still don't grasp electricity well, but I learned a lot about carpentry when building the benchwork for the layout (the first time I've ever done any woodworking other than something made hold in your hands).
I've learned to plan 10 times more than any action. That saved me an incredible amount of time and money.
Start your layout as an overall concept and STICK to it. That saved me a lot of money, too.
If you know someone who lived/lives in the area you're modeling, ask them everything about the place. My parents are both in their early 80s, but I was smart enough to ask them countless detail questions. I'd never have gotten how farmers built fences in the Blue Ridge area in the 40s, how few people had electricity then, or the fact that bear and deer were totally hunted out and gone from the area for years before that timeframe. What did the mailboxes looked like? How well were moonshine still hidden? I never would have gotten that info from a book. Thanks, Mom and Dad!
But one of the things I was surprised to find was a big one that people get angry when you bring it up: That people in this hobby are amazingly pleased with very little. People in this hobby gleefully accept substandard, incorrect and overpriced rolling stock and kits and will do anything short of violence (as if most train fans could even harm another person) to anyone pointing that out. I didn't expect that as I, too, bought into that when I was first in the hobby. I only noticed it after I'd been away for a long time and came back.
