A surprising shift in attitude

Personal attitudes shift from time to time.  There was a time when you couldn't pay me to look at anything three rail. 

But, I somehow got hot 'n heavy into postwar and MPC in the 80's and it didn't bother me that it wasn't "scale" or as well detailed as my HO stuff.  It was what it was and I enjoyed it for what it was.

I can see the attraction to tinplate, even though my mind still can't wrap itself around the differering sizes and proportions.  It's a state of mind, I guess. 

However, I'd wager Tinplaters enjoy their trains just as much as the Scale folk enjoy theirs.

Perhaps more...

Rusty

I made the shift from S gauge American flyer to 3 rail Hi rail and I noticed articles that I passed over with nice O layouts I had to go back a re-read... I still check into American Flyer articles, but they are more on a collectors level and not an operating level.

Note to all::

DON'T TAKE ANYTHING IN THIS HOBBY TOO SERIOUSLY!

I enjoy every scale and gauge, and I do not worry--even for a minute--about "heavy" philosophical topics regarding what I choose to do or about what others do.  I just have fun with my O gauge, O tinplate, On30, Large Scale, and Marklin HO interests.

It's also kind of fun to be able to put our magazine together!  

 When we do what we really enjoy doing, aren't we having fun?

I can understand how all these categories of interest do not seem to translate to one another but, from my own experience, you can have your cake and eat it too. What I mean by this, the hobby and hobbyists seems to see interests as clear divisions of interest, where I am working on the further evolution of my own layout, where I can run tinplate in reasonably realistic settings. Not for all tastes..but, when I tire of tinplate I put it on the shelf and get out more realistic rolling stock and that fits well into that environment. I started out with a classic tinplate layout, but I have other areas of the hobby that equally interest me, so I run both and the common denominator is that the tinplate looks just as good, if not better, in a more scale like environment, while the other stuff fits seamlessly. So..incorporating different aspects of the hobby is a good thing for me. If you want to be a purist, its a smaller universe.

Don't get discouraged by "pigeon holing" yourself. If you send me a pm I can send you pictures of how I incorporated both.

I do not mean to disrespect any other person's interest, and I certainly don't mean to appear negative towards their interests. That written:

I can appreciate the work and enjoy looking at someone's highly detailed layout in any gauge. But my interest lies more toward's having a toy train layout, as might have been done by Lionel for one of their typical store layouts, or by someone in the 1950's.

What it's like for someone who never could decide:

Some days it's weathered scale that hits the rails:

Other days, it's Lionel Lines all the way:

Then, next evening, it might be:

It's all good!

Actually, a separate, small 1950s style layout such as C. W. describes has also been on my list of things to do for quite a while. I need a bigger basement.

Jim

Jim

It's a good thing to hear of a kindred spirit..

Bruce

Same here, Bruce.

....and I bet we are not alone by any means!

Jim

I don't care what anyone says or tries to tell themselves.  Doesn't matter the gauge or scale or who makes them or the age.  THEY ARE ALL TOYS!!  A railroader of any gauge, Z to prototype, is just a kid at heart playing with their favorite toy.  We never grow up.  We're just people playing with our toys.  I've got rolling stock from N to 7.5" gauge, and even as I shovel coal in my Chloe I'm having fun with my toys.  IMHO, forget that and you are forgetting the whole purpose of our hobby, to have fun. 

So to the OP, I wouldn't call it a shift in attitude, just a shift in taste.  Mine has gone from little electric trains to live steam.  But being I don't have the money to do the live steam all the time, I have just as much fun with my electric trains.  And my taste for them has gone from N to S to O.  And I learned that as much as I love looking at the detailed and realistic layout, when I tried to do it, it's not for me, so I go for what looks nice and it may turn out more toy like, but I'm okay with that because in the end of the day, that's what they really are, just my toys.

I keep my two train worlds separate.  I love my detailed realistic stuff but also love my tinplate.  Like my tools, standard and metric, they don't even share the same toolbox/layout.

Dave

Hello guys and gals..........

I would agree with you that they are just expensive toys but BRASS locomotives and rolling stock are not toys as they need to be handled with respect, care like fine china.

the woman who loves the S.F.5011,623

Tiffany

Dear Walt,

The ambivalence you maybe feeling from shifting interests happens to all of us at one time or another. It likely occurs when our interest wanes a bit and we become bored with one gauge.

I experienced this too (in 2005), initially when I joined my first Train Club (which was multi-gauge at the time) did my interest shift a little from O gauge to HO gauge. This was because the HO guys had at the time a much bigger layout! I know why it shifted back to O gauge though. It was because I could see much more detail in O gauge! Change glasses you say?

Now, I, along with other members interested in breaking away from the HO group have formed our own club (Richmond County Model Railroad Club) devoted to O gauge and Standard gauge Tin Plate, I am satisfied again. And so it goes. I miss my HO friends but I have never looked back.

Do not feel guilty for having abandoned "traditional" O gauge.

Please know that Joshua Lionel Cohen got us our start with Tin Plate in the early 1920's. You couldn't have fallen into a better group of guys!

Just jealous of you making the easy transition! Salivating for Tin Plate and the toy-like quality and colors of Christmas.

Mike Maurice

Walt,

Welcome to the "real" side of toy trains. I've been stuck in the teens, twenties and thirties since the 1940's.

It's ALL good! 

You will also now start getting interested in all the great items that made toy train layouts beautiful.

Have a look!

http://www.jcstudiosinc.com/BlogShowThread?id=915&categoryId=

Oh believe me, I had LOTS of fun before.  I already had my 2013 Christmas layout design finalized and claimed to my family that it was going to be my best Christmas layout ever - one reason because of how much fun it would have been to run it.

I was already planning on new scenery elements to start making, etc. 

But those thoughts, surprisingly, easily vanished from my head within the last week.  I still appreciate looking at well-done layouts but it no longer drives me to up my own levels as it did no less than one week ago.

I honestly didn't think my original comment would be controversial in any way - I was merely saying how surprised I am at the easy shift in attitude (or taste ) that I made.  Maybe I'll feel differently again, but for now I am enjoying the thought of a more simple Christmas layout.

And as a bonus I get to go back to the drawing board to start designing a new layout for this Christmas!!!!

- walt

In terms of finding reading material you can relate to, which seems to be the gist of your disappointment with the majority of articles being geared to more scale like how to articles rather than tinplate "architecture", I would think there are plenty of examples in the OGR archives, and without gilding the rose, my own opinion is that this publication is more balanced than the alternative, not to mention any names. Tinplate Times is a good supplement as well as TCA publications, newsletters, etc. The challenge of tinplate for me personally was to find resources as none of this is neatly compiled in one place, and this forum has a wealth of experienced tin plate enthusiasts. So..seek and ye shall find. As far as placing myself in a niche, I see no point in excluding areas of fun for the sake of continuity, as the fun factor is my main motive, not A,B or C.

After reading all the replies, it reinforces my opinion that this is a great forum packed with great people.

Kudos to you all.

Walt, I think you're right on, in observing your shift of focus and being interested in it.  How could I be so deeply involved in something for so long, and apparently quite suddenly find my interest has shifted to something quite different, which I had hardly been interested in at all before?  I think we all get a little myopic and a little obsessed with our current interest, whever it is... it's a big world out there!

If you think about it, what we now call "tinplate" was what all toy/model trains were at the beginning.  Scale and realistic modeling evolved later, and it can be interesting and fun to go down that road.  But it's not surprising that, like Walt, many will at some time feel drawn to a return to the roots of the hobby. "Model Trains" today, means mostly some form of scale or near-scale modeling in O or HO.  "Model Trains" for my dad meant Ives Standard Gauge tinplate on tubular track on the floor.  Imagination took care of the rest!

As for reading material, breaking-news or latest-technology magazine articles seem less relevant to tinplate, which has a much longer time horizon.  The Greenberg guides to prewar Ives, Flyer, Hafner, Marx, and the like will provide YEARS worth of entertainment and information.  There are several great tinplate books out there that provide history, collecting and operating information, and guided tours of layouts. 

I have to laugh a little here, it's hard to be "scale" on 3 rails to start with, then there's the mile high ornate street lights that tower over the engines {last pic via Jim}......it's what the owner wishes to represent......it's all good.

This coming from a guy{me} who owns little scale pieces and mostly 0-27ish cars and trains and some clockworks...fun is simply how the owner perceives it. 

hojack:  your sentence "How could I be so deeply involved in something for so long, and apparently quite suddenly find my interest has shifted to something quite different, which I had hardly been interested in at all before?" summarizes perfectly what I was trying to say, but failing at.

That's exactly why I was surprised at how quickly my brain lost interest in for something that I involved myself in year-round for 20 or 25 years.

Thanks for saying that!

- walt

Walt,

Things change. Your experience mirrors mine quite closely. The short version is that I had lots of trains of all types, no real regard for road names or themes, several layouts, and was sort of wandering through the O gauge desert.  I took a self-imposed break (this was several years in length) and when I came back it was because I was visiting a well-stocked train store and spotted the latest tinplate releases from Lionel Corporation Tinplate. Something clicked and I was back in it, albeit this time with more of a focus and a limit to my area of interest.

Tinplate is great. As Chris says up above, “no rules.”  

It's all just playing with toys, really.  But I call it a "hobby" and "collecting" and "preserving history"  just so my wife doesn't tease me about playing with toys like a kid. 

I'm basically in the process of going all standard gauge tinplate.  It's because I like the toy aspect of the hobby.

Sunrise

We are legion, in fact!

...and lovin' every minute of it!!

KD

One time it is:

1.  O-27 Amtrak

Then it can shift to:

2.  Hogwarts Express/Orange and Black for fall

3.  Winter ans snowplows

4.  REA trains

5.  MPC

6.  MoW trains

7.  3R scale

8.  1945-54 Postwar.....

As long as I keep it in the family, then it looks OK!