Are trains bad for our health?

This is precisely what balance means to me. There are days when I come home from work and go straight to the trains - after a day of meetings and crud at work I need to "de-compress."  I can feel myself relax and "'become human" (or as close as I get) again, as my wife puts it. 

 

Model trains are a great hobby for someone like me.  They are their own self-contained world with a defined area and a clear boundary around them, both physically and emotionally.  I can go there when I want, relax and be alone with my thoughts while distracting myself with a fun activity.  Projects I can do challenge my creativity and modeling ability and tax my ability to innovate and invent, keeping me mentally on my toes, but are always fun. When I'm not feeling like being challenged, the trains are fun to run and watch - very relaxing actually.  Yet, whenever I want or need, I can power everything down, turn off the lights, and leave it just where it is. 

If trains are bad for my health, I don't want to know about it!

do what you want, when you want, where you want. you only live once, you don't know when you are going to die, so you better live life to the fullest everyday. and why save money for the future, you may not make it...

Why does this HAVE to be on boxes that trains come in?? I'm going to operate the thing not eat it

 

 

So sorry to have offended...

 

Here, try this...

 

http://www.mayoclinic.com/heal...s-and-stress/MY01157

 

Better?

 

Have a nice day!

I remembered Allan's post about the healthiness of having a hobby when talking to my brothers over the weekend. None of them have any strong interests outside work and all have issues with stress. I guess it's not what you do but just that you do something. I like being creative in my 'O gauge world.'

only if your wife really finds out how much you've been spending.......

I get plenty of exercise when working on the layout (climbing, scooting, ducking, lifting, and lots of walking around it and from the shop to the train room) and I consider this just a nice byproduct of the trains.

 

Both my wife and I walk two miles every day, and use our gym, both free weights and a machine, three to four days a week. When I finished the basement, I made sure to include space for this, as I have always done wherever we have lived.

 

Adjacent to the train room, through the archway, is our machine; the free weights are in the utility room. 

 

 

Alex

Maybe there is something to this bad health thing. Yesterday I was working on building my own 33" transfer table and there were many a Mother #$$% son of a $#&**

 tossed about when things were not working out as planned, it was a bad day at Alexandria VA. Sunday. The Cats and wife where nowhere to be found for a bit.

About 9.00 PM the wife shows up with a class of water and a pill, said to take it or you won’t sleep well, so I took it. The next thing I know the Alarm was going off. Some pill.

Being the tenacious old cuss I am $^&^**I ( I plan on working on it tonight right after I lock up the gun cabinet.

Who said it was good for you mental health.

John

 

Yes, thank you!  

What about the good mental health benefits of doing something you really enjoy? I never got into this hobby to replace a gym.

 

I would definitely state that O-Gauge has been very beneficial to my overall health.

Naw...it is good for your health, if you go out and hike the prototype....I was slipping

and sliding in mud at 11,000 feet to find the site of Red Mountain Town and the

National Belle mine about a year ago, I was just climbing around the brush covered ruins of the copper mining town of Victory in the U.P. last week, and usually I am hiking through York...and other shows... otherwise, I'd be sedentary at my workbench or squinting at this screen...

but the exercise has not helped get rid of that middle (now old) age spread.

Try taking your railroad outside to the garden.  I moved a ton of rocks and dirt last week and I will be moving more tomorrow building the G&O garden railroad.

 

I don't think that being overweight has much to do with age or the hobby.  Many of the younger members (20 to 40 years old) of our club are much more overweight than the senior folks.  Unfortunately, you see overweight people everywhere.

 

Joe

 If you set up your layout and your controls properly you can run trains and get a great workout. I've attached 40 pound weights to the transformer control handles favoring the "off" position.  Since I have to continually adjust the power as the train runs around the layout the simple act of keeping the control lever in the correct position means I get a great upper body workout with every complete loop the train makes (I alternate left and right arms each time the train rolls by my position). 

 

  I store all of my cars in individual 25 pound lead lined boxes under the layout. Thus the simple act of moving the storage box out from under the layout and lifting it up to track level to remove the car/locomotive provides a workout for most of the shoulder, back, stomach, and thigh muscles.  The effort needed to assemble a 20-40 car consist will result in a great burn and, even before you reach for the throttle to start your 40 pound rep exercise/train running, you will have worked up a good sweat.

 

  The real icing on the cake is the attention a toy-train-tuned-torso gets you when you are out and about (nevermind the disbelief that is expressed by the body-building crowd when you tell them your look is the result of playing with trains). 

SHHHH.Hope the NY Mayor doesn't see this.

 

We get enough of this from all the do gooder on TV here in the Detroit area.

Not knocking it but we need to live our lives our way, with in reason.

 

 

1.  Poeple who are model railroads or hams tend not to overdrink because there would be less money for trains and radios.

 

2.  Parents love model railroading and ham radio because if a child is on the layout or at the rig (radio), the are not causing problems.  (Or as J C Lionel said:  Place fire to the curtins!)

I recall being disappointed with Posey's book as it wasn't very much about "playing" -- he seemed quite anti-imaginative-play -- but it was certainly pro-hobby, and model railroading in particular.

It seems to be very well-known and accepted that good mental health also contributes to good physical health.  This hobby, or any hobby, would by all means contribute to good mental health by allowing any of us to de-stress, step into another world away from reality, and forget our worries while we build layouts or run trains. Think of it too as what we provide for those around us including "kids" of all ages and the satisfaction it brings to create smiles. In another thread, some debated the cost of this hobby.  To me, all of the trains I've accumulated are a small price to pay for overall good health aside from any other factors like diet and exercise, etc..

 

And by the way, any of us can save money by skipping the gym just by staying home and repeatedly walk up and down our stairs, or stepping out for a brisk walk or run -- FREE!  Situps and pushups are also free at home. Plus we'll have more money for trains! 

 

Phil

I still ride by bicycle 50 miles over the weekends (last 6 since cleared by my surgeon Knee and shoulder replacements in the past 6 months). I run my trains while working on my computers in the basement. It is very relaxing.

My two favorite hobbies are running trains and distance running. Sunday morning me and my 16 year old son ran 11 miles and then I spent part of the afternoon working on the layout.

 

Trains are a perfect relaxation activity after having worked out. Decide to make the time to do some kind of exercise. Keep the appointment with yourself daily. Once you get in better shape, you will look forward to your workout time. Afterward the train time is even more enjoyable!

Are trains bad for your health?

 

Have you seen this thread: https://ogrforum.com/d...ent/9173459950733127

 

Judge for yourself.

Help me finish this sentence. All work and no trains make me _____ _____! I can remember how it goes.

My former upstairs layout room[15x25/8x12] was dismantled 2010 in favor of a TV and Exercise Room for the Domestic CEO. Joining her widescreen TV is a Treadmill, Stairmaster, Cycle, dumbells and stretching stuff. We had moved back here to the Condo from our Mountain retirement cottage[that layout dismantled 3/08] for age and health reasons.

My current round-the-room layout is in a small attic over Garage. I climb 16 steps past the Chair Lift each morning and ride the Exercycle with a BP and heart rate monitor attached which is my "speedometer" and distance gauge. Not allowed on the other equipment by Docs for a variety of reasons.

Then if not working on the unfinished attic RR mess I ride the Stair Lift back down. I have never fallen going up stairs but down is another story. 

What health?

 

I am reminded of the story about the reporter who was sent to interview a guy on his one hundred and fourth birthday.  "To what do you attribute your longevity?" he asked.

 

"Well," replied the old gent, "I don't smoke, don't drink, don't chase wild women, and I get eight hours sleep every day from five am to one pm."

 

"Remarkable," said the reporter, "But why such unusual sleeping hours?"

 

"Well," the old gent replied, "I have to go pick up my father when the bars close at four am.  He's there every night drinking and smoking and carousing with wild women."

 

Pete

Its not all sedentary. I saw wood. I move around under the layout. I follow trains. Rarely do I stay in one spot. Add to that the emotional well-being of relaxing and you have a prescription for good health.

HAHAHA!!!  That's a good one with some truth to it.  I remember a local 90 yr old resident who (true story) went to the doctor and the doc told him to give up smoking his Camels.  He said, "Why should I stop now?"  My Mom is 94 and sharp as a tack.  If she didn't have a lead foot I'd have helped her renew her driver's license when she turned 90.  Everyone is different.  Just remember that all we can really believe to have is today and to make the most of it.

 

Phil

I have not exercised since the military and that was 40+ years ago, well I do walk 3 times a week.  My weight is fine, I'm healthy for the most part. I'm also having fun running my trains. 

 

If you want to see out of shape people, go to York, I have never seen so many heart attacks ready to happen In one place.