Am I Getting Picky?

The Force is strong in this one

It's a perilous (at least to the pocketbook!) and probably inevitable slide but, hey, you've got the right to be as picky as you want (or can afford)! It's kind of interesting--some proclivities seem to be darn near innate, others more cultivated. You can always apply a course correction if you seem to think you've gone to far.

I would say you needn't cough up a college tuition's worth of dough to learn anything new, though. I think you can fill up several lifetimes worth of learning for next to nuthin'.

Your not a rivet counter.Like me I learned as I discovered what I didn't get but could have.Now I know what I want when I look for things.Nick

Bob,

Your tastes have matured. It's your money and you are the one in control.

Hello guys and gals.....

Being picky takes the fun out of the hobby. I was one of them and stopped doing that then we started having fun by just putting the train on the track and just enjoy running them.

The woman who loves the S.F.5011,2678,2003,200

Tiffany

Well now,,,,,that is just your opinion.  Many others just might think that being "picky" is truly part of model railroading, especially SCALE model railroading.

I look at it as a trade off. Many HO scale locos have detail that put almost all O scale to shame.....and are cheaper. My Broadway Limited PRR T1 loco was $150 and is much more detailed than my scale or Lion Master T1.

BUT.....it's a trade off. The HO loco while pretty is very picky on track....how clean and perfect. My O scalers.....they will run over 1/2 inch gaps!

And the heft of O is great to me.

If you want to count rivets HO is better for the money......run good looking trains with few issues....O 3r. Thats the trade off I accept.

Funny, I've gotten a bit more forgiving. Oh, I'm still a rivet -estimator- when the time

comes, and can be very picky about certain equipment (a NYC Hudson needs to be

pretty much accurate - more accurately, must NOT be IN-accurate; but, a USRA Pacific needs to be good, but not necessarily road-specific). I can be critical, too. I think

that the usually very pricey Vision ATSF 2-10-10-2, though impressive, is poorly

detailed for anything in it's price range. It just looks like the biggest Railking loco

that I've ever seen, when inspected. If it were $750 on blowout, OK. 

"Quality" to me has an overriding meaning: robust in its construction. There are many

very detailed items (Atlas has done this a lot) that I consider "low quality" because

they break if you sneeze near them. I pretty much quit buying them because of that.

So why do I like, for example, the RMT Alco S-4 Marxist Bang? Why do I gravitate toward Marx, sometimes, and find my RK Imperial Triplex so good that I feel no need to buy the Premier version? I spent so much of the last 25 Hi-Railing years trying to avoid the really gross aspects of 3-rail "toy trains" that I began to miss (some of) the "toys" that were also pretty good at emulating, if not modeling, the real thing. And bringing back memories, sure.

Plus, some days you want steak, and others you just want a good peanut butter sandwich.

But that RMT Bang may get a Cruise Commander yet.

I blame this great forum. I started out with simple semi scale tastes. Then found out about scale PS2 and PS3 and needed scale rolling stock to go with those. Then one day I found out about Lionel Vision line rolling stock. Wow. One of the great appeals of the hobby is detail at 1:43 scale. The more the better.

Just remember "Knowledge is Power"!

I would not use the word "picky", I think "selective" is a better word.

While my interests differ from yours, I don't see anything wrong with them.

I'm very picky.  If it's by Lionel, and says Pennsy, I'm in.  Doesn't matter what catalog it's in, Signature or RTR, it's OK by me.

Picky? No.

A man of good taste? C'mon, you're one of us! Of course not!

Selective? Yes.

One who is learning the true nature of the scale side of the force? YES!

You're fine. Buy what suits your requirements and interests. Buy the way, the hunt is almost as much fun as the capture, but sometimes it can get frustrating.

I'm sure  you  work hard for your money.....and that money is buying less these days, so you have every right to be selective.

You have every right to be as picky as you want.  I'm not rivet counter (and probably neither are you) but there are things I want - scale, good detail, etc.  

Your store owner is just trying to sell what he wants to sell. You can't blame him - that's what he does.  Still, hold out for what your want.  Your money, your railroad, etc., etc., etc.

What Lee Willis said--Ditto.

Yes it's your money be picky if you want to be.

Me no not at all if I like the overall look and want it, it will be mine.

picky? I prefer..."enlightened"....

The problem with this hobby is that people who demand value for their money are often labelled as rivet counters. 

Lionel and others often want you to fork over big bucks for inaccurate models that they could make more accurate if they wanted to.  But they seem to argue that fit and finish alone warrant $479 for a plastic diesel.

You are far from a rivet counter.  Just a savvy consumer.

Lee nailed it, Your money, your choice.

Personally I'm very happy withemy new Imperial RK Challenger.

But I'll admit it just seems a bit short for some reason.

Could be because I've been running Big Boys so much.

I woud agree with C.W. that maybe "selective" is a better word.  

Many of us come into the hobby and get overwhelmed with what we see.  Sometimes, I think we buy things on impulse. Then, over time, many of us find one or two niches within the hobby that we tend to focus on.  Could be scale, or could be another niche like pre-war, post-war, tradition, semi-scale, of maybe something else. 

My personal journey over the last 17 years has been post-war, to modern traditional, modern semi-scale, to modern scale.  Even though I think I am happiest with scale, each of these step has been a fun experience.

Maybe its my inner nerd, but with the move to scale corresponded with an interest in learning about the two railroads that I decided to focus on.

Jim