A project or a calling? My photos added.

One might think a layout is more of a calling if one is retired, and is more of a project if one is still working at a job, business or professional practice. Arnold

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

One might think a layout is more of a calling if one is retired, and is more of a project if one is still working at a job, business or professional practice. Arnold

I think my layout is calling me bad names . Being still firmly entrenched in that cold cruel working man's world, I agree its more of a project than a calling. Progress on the layout always seems to take a low priority. I'm having more fun doing restoration work on some postwar pieces than anything else in the hobby right now.

i consider my layout something of a homage to its original owner, to me it’s almost a “duty” on my part. i want it to be something he would be proud of, and for all of his work to not go to waste. 

Hi Signalwoman 

Can we see some photos of your layout ?

Thanks in advance

There are those who spend a great deal of time and money building an empire.  If that is what gives you pleasure great.  My layout us in the unfinished portion of my little cape cod, 11 feet along one wall, 28 feet along another, single track with return loops.  It is more than adequate for my needs, time and budget.  I do enjoy the articles in that annual magazine, there is always something to be learned.

necrails posted:

There are those who spend a great deal of time and money building an empire.  If that is what gives you pleasure great.  My layout us in the unfinished portion of my little cape cod, 11 feet along one wall, 28 feet along another, single track with return loops.  It is more than adequate for my needs, time and budget.  I do enjoy the articles in that annual magazine, there is always something to be learned.

Your layout sounds similar to mine.

Instead of thinking of my layout as a calling or project, I think of it at times as an escape, hence my signature line, and at other times, especially recently, as my reward for doing something productive. I have mixed feelings about this, because if I don't feel I have been productive, either in my work, around the house, whatever, I have no desire to do anything related to trains or my layout.

I wonder if others have similar feelings. Arnold

For me the Plywood Empire Route is my hobby.

hobby:

1. an activity done regularly in one's leisure for pleasure.

The Plywood Empire Route is "an activity done regularly" so, indeed, a(n) [ongoing] project and because (retired) I have lots of leisure time.....the pleasure might be something of a calling.  

WRGMILW posted:

Hi Signalwoman 

Can we see some photos of your layout ?

Thanks in advance

sure! i’m doing some work to my room, so things are a bit messy at the moment. that said, i have more space now, and i should be able to make the layout bigger soon. 

i like to keep as much metal on the layout as possible, tin buildings, tubular track, and cast engines, there’s not much plastic to be found appart from rolling stock. i’m kind of going for a toy store style layout, with everything bright and shiny.

Signalwoman posted:

WRGMILW posted:

Hi Signalwoman 

Can we see some photos of your layout ?

Thanks in advance

sure! i’m doing some work to my room, so things are a bit messy at the moment. that said, i have more space now, and i should be able to make the layout bigger soon. 

i like to keep as much metal on the layout as possible, tin buildings, tubular track, and cast engines, there’s not much plastic to be found appart from rolling stock. i’m kind of going for a toy store style layout, with everything bright and shiny.

Signalwoman,

What a great concept.  Gone are the days of Department and Toy Stores with operating layouts.  There was even an F.A.O. Swartz on Shaker Square (Cleveland suburb).  We (some TCA guys) did the trains for the movie A Christmas Story; sadly they did not use the in store layout we built in the movie.

I really like my [plastic] Atlas woodside reefers but my wife will just point to her O scale woodside reefers from the 40s and 50s that were made from wood kits.  That, she says, is artwork.

One question...why Signalwoman?  I ask only because I'm on the Atlas signal design team.

Lou N

A project or a calling?  Who cares!

A wise ol' co-worker set me straight one day:  "Time is never wasted if you're having fun."

I've never wasted any time on a single thing since then! 

Signalwoman posted:

i like to keep as much metal on the layout as possible, tin buildings, tubular track, and cast engines, there’s not much plastic to be found appart from rolling stock. i’m kind of going for a toy store style layout, with everything bright and shiny.

I see some Durham trains on the layout!  Looks like the Durham diesel is even one of the windup models.  You obviously have good taste in toy trains, I look forward to seeing future progress on your layout.

For me, my layout is both a project and a calling. Right now, it's more of a project as I just started a major overhaul of the standard gauge portion of the layout. The end result will be greater running capacity for both the Standard and O gauge trains. It's also a calling as the majority of my collection was left to me by my Dad when he passed away almost 19 years ago. He loved toy trains, and I have countless happy memories of time with him, with toy trains being the reason we spent so much time together when I was a kid. My layout is my memorial to him, and it is also my "bucket list" layout. Now in my early 50s, I'm taking my time to build it to last and ensure trouble-free operation. 

Of equal importance, my wonderful wife understands how important the trains are to me,  and couldn't be any more supportive. What more could a guy ask for? 

John 

Lou N posted: 

Signalwoman,

What a great concept.  Gone are the days of Department and Toy Stores with operating layouts.  There was even an F.A.O. Swartz on Shaker Square (Cleveland suburb).  We (some TCA guys) did the trains for the movie A Christmas Story; sadly they did not use the in store layout we built in the movie.

I really like my [plastic] Atlas woodside reefers but my wife will just point to her O scale woodside reefers from the 40s and 50s that were made from wood kits.  That, she says, is artwork.

One question...why Signalwoman?  I ask only because I'm on the Atlas signal design team.

Lou N

because the engineer may run the train, but i’m really the woman in charge. 

when i was a kid there was a toy store i use to go to that had an n scale layout under a glass dome in the middle of the store. i wish i had pictures, but it was one of the most unique displays i remember seeing. i always liked the layouts in toy stores, very clean and showy, showing off the products the stores offered. it’s not often you see large displays in stores anymore, just isles filed with boxes.

id have to agree with your wife there, modern plastics can make near perfect models in great numbers with relative ease, but there’s a lot to be said for the craftsmanship that goes into a hand made model. besides, pretty much everyone runs plastic cars, it’s nice to see something different. 

WindupGuy posted: 

I see some Durham trains on the layout!  Looks like the Durham diesel is even one of the windup models.  You obviously have good taste in toy trains, I look forward to seeing future progress on your layout.

thank you, i have 5 durham windups, and 3 marx, but the durham diesel is probably my favorite. clockwork mechanisms have a certain charm to them that i enjoy. i converted the 2-4-0 durham to a marx electric motor, and one of the marx 198s will be receiving an electric motor too. 

I always thought of it as a hobby, ostensibly meaning something done in leisure time for enjoyment, what some people refer to as a pastime.

However, in my case at least, as I still endeavor to earn a living, take care of a home/family, etc.,I have observed that my "hobby-time" often ends up going down a "rabbit-hole" and requires more time and effort than I originally estimated. This results in the "pain-to-gain" ratio of the "hobby" increasing to an unpleasant level, at which such moments I have been known to abandon the "project area" leaving the basement in a mess for weeks, months, and sometimes the better part of a year, which ends up defeating the entire premise of it being a hobby. 

I suppose this is why many people wait until retirement to build their dream layout; there's just too many other priorities demanding attention.

I have never thought of my layout as either.  To me, a calling is something like working at the Church because it is the right thing to do and a project is something that needs or must be done like replacing a faucet when it starts leaking.

For me, the trains and layout are pure escapism!  Something I enjoy and do to get away from “callings” and “projects”!

Happy railroading,

Don

After a lapse of many years, model railroading became my hobby again while I still was working full time, and I built and completed a 12'-by-8' O gauge layout. I retired ten years later and built another layout (10'-by-5' - I now have two) that I considered to be my retirement project. For me, both layouts are best described as projects and model railroading is a hobby - but not a "calling." For me, only the lifetime objectives that I began to pursue during childhood could be considered a "calling."

MELGAR

Upon reflection, for me model railroading is indeed a calling. I have loved watching trains since Dad began taking me with him Railfanning. In these pics I was about 4yr old:

Its in my blood. As well as being a Railfan I am fascinated by all things mechanical so model railroading is a natural fit. In my Mind's Eye real trains do real work on the PER and I love the tinkering.

The setup for this AM's switching work:

Four set-outs and four pick-ups at the East End. Real railroad work.

As to tinkering, my recent repurposing/modification of a 282 Gantry Crane to add traverse movement to a proper 282 Crane fills the bill:

So yes, I suppose a calling.

My two hobbies are both part of my larger callings as father and husband.

I employ my hobbies as ways to spend time with my family, ways to teach the boys lessons in practical arts and life skills and ways to honor my wife and please her.  They all participate in both the railroading and also the re-enacting. 

In the realm of trains, the narrow gauge trains on our family layout belong to my wife.  My sons not only have trains on the family layout but also have taken over the under-the-Christmas-tree layout.  Building the family layout--and adjusting it to meet my wife's needs--demonstrates my love for them, my desire for us to enjoy time together and, for the boys at least, to be come well-rounded men, I hope having had a good example set for their own families one day.

geysergazer posted:

Upon reflection, for me model railroading is indeed a calling. I have loved watching trains since Dad began taking me with him Railfanning. In these pics I was about 4yr old:

                      

                      

                       

Its in my blood. As well as being a Railfan I am fascinated by all things mechanical so model railroading is a natural fit. In my Mind's Eye real trains do real work on the PER and I love the tinkering.

The setup for this AM's switching work:

                      

Four set-outs and four pick-ups at the East End. Real railroad work.

As to tinkering, my recent repurposing/modification of a 282 Gantry Crane to add traverse movement to a proper 282 Crane fills the bill:

        

So yes, I suppose a calling.

Correct me if I'm wrong but based upon the unique drive configuration, I believe you were standing next to a PRR T1 Duplex in that photo of you as a kid.  Great old pic, awesome engine, thanks for sharing.

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

One might think a layout is more of a calling if one is retired, and is more of a project if one is still working at a job, business or professional practice. Arnold

There is an old saying from somebody: "If you want to get a thing done, give it to a busy man".

Having built my layout as a middle-aged working man, and still having it (though expanded now in 3 different episodes) as a 71-year-old long-retired (mid-50's) "non-working man", I can confirm the above expression. When you are working, you "want to get this track laid before Monday"; when you are retired, there is always tomorrow, and tomorrow often never comes.

Of course, my 45-year-old body and my 71-year-old body would not recognize each other, either. There's that.

Obsidian posted:

geysergazer posted:

Upon reflection, for me model railroading is indeed a calling. I have loved watching trains since Dad began taking me with him Railfanning. In these pics I was about 4yr old:

                      

                      

                       

Its in my blood. As well as being a Railfan I am fascinated by all things mechanical so model railroading is a natural fit. In my Mind's Eye real trains do real work on the PER and I love the tinkering.

The setup for this AM's switching work:

                      

Four set-outs and four pick-ups at the East End. Real railroad work.

As to tinkering, my recent repurposing/modification of a 282 Gantry Crane to add traverse movement to a proper 282 Crane fills the bill:

        

So yes, I suppose a calling.

Correct me if I'm wrong but based upon the unique drive configuration, I believe you were standing next to a PRR T1 Duplex in that photo of you as a kid.  Great old pic, awesome engine, thanks for sharing.

Yes, it was indeed a T1. If you look carefully you can see that the Main Rod had been cut with a torch and removed. This was done so those big engines could be towed to a scrap dealer in Blawnox, Pa ( a few miles up the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle). It was one of a long line awaiting their date with the torch. Dad talked to the owner of the scrapyard who said he was losing money on the project because the newfangled high strength alloys used in the T1s took a lot more gas&oxygen to cut. I'll put up a thread about T1s on the scrap-line once I take some more pics of these old 8X11 enlargements. 

I wouldn't even attempt to speak for or about others in our hobby. A project? A calling? Well, if it was a calling, I got the call a long time ago.

For me, having and crafting a model train layout was replying to a voice I heard long ago. The layout was something my hardworking father (in a U.S. Steel mill) enjoyed as a personally creative and celebratory adventure he shared with my mother, his wife, and me, and the two of them had fun making the layout and sharing it with guests to my childhood home...

I had no particularly clever idea of what I was doing when I began having a model train layout in the basement of a new home, shortly after my wife and I, as newly-weds, moved in, but it was fun sharing the conversation with her and exploring the creative possibilities with her.

Once we started sharing the layout with family and friends, I realized I was responding to a voice first heard long ago. It was a voice of joy and laughter, expressed by my parents.

My conversation with them cannot continue, but my reply to the joy begun decades ago by them continues to nourish and entertain my heart and soul, to this day.

I salute all of you because you gave yourselves something that gives you joy. Good for you! Il-saluto!

FrankM

Moon Township, USA