NOPE! :-)
Said several times already and seem to be the best way to describe my answer to the question "The only difference between men and boys are the price of their toys". If one is offended by the word toys when referring to our great hobby all I can say is get a life and grow up. Something I never want to do grow up that is. So my answer is NO!!
If you play with it then it's a toy.
Nope.
Grow old, not up, is my creed.
They are all “toys“, sure I can see some of these guys being offended when someone calls their trains, “toys”.. as these toys or models or miniatures or scaled down trains are pretty darn important to them. But too the average Joe, Jane, and anyone else these are indeed some form of a toy, and I like my toys and could give two flying @$*!§€# what they think! 
On a side note it’s worth mention that some of these things are considered an art form, hand made, skills, you name it, these are not exactly Fischer Price toys in that sense but they serve the same purpose to a lot of us .
Keep enjoying the hobby fellas it’s all fun!
opinion
As I said in my blog post about Toy Trains or Models:
"Whenever this topic comes up on any 3 rail train forum, it’s time to get out the popcorn. And I’m sure more than a few of you have raised eyebrows right now. So, I’ll get right to it–the answer to the question, “Are they toys or models?” is “Yes.” The hullabaloo arises because we have 2 distinct camps: those who wish to embrace the toy in the train and those who view themselves as model railroaders. However, one doesn’t have to preclude the other."
"In the early 1950’s, the magazine, Toy Trains, featured Lionel and American Flyer trains. Back then, there was no issue with that moniker. We knew what we had and it was certainly not the stuff that filled the pages of the scale magazines—Model Railroader and Railroad Model Craftsman. Still, we considered ourselves model railroaders. To that end, Lionel had put out a magazine from 1944 to 1949 called Model Builder. In 1950 Lionel published a book called, Model Railroading. Subsequent editions appeared through 1961. For many of us that book was the bible. As Joshua Lionel Cowen stated in the book’s Introduction, The fascination of model railroading—the urge to build and operate a miniature railroad system—is typically American. Each individual has the opportunity to inject his own personality into his work, to create a railroad system unlike any other in the world."
"So what happened? We grew up and so did our trains. Some of us are now creating the realistic empires that we used to dream about. Others are perfectly happy resurrecting the flat green tabletop. Many fall somewhere in between. Why does that matter? Model Railroading is a hobby and a hobby as defined by Merriam Webster is a pursuit outside one's regular occupation, engaged in especially for relaxation. The argument about toys trains verses models is silly. It seems to me that the labels are simply being used to justify one’s approach to the hobby. It’s a distinction without a difference."
No, most of my collection is from the 30s to the 60s that is what they were
It's a funny thing.
My wife belongs to a national women's group. We occasionally have a bar b que for her north Houston group and their husbands. We have an acre backyard. I set up BB pistol targets, a putting green and horse shoes. We contest men and women in all the disciplines, keep score and award medals or trophies. The women always want to see my layout and watch trains and to control the trains themselves. Their husbands come in kind of sheepishly and seem amused that their wives like the trains.
Quite honestly it takes an awful lot to offend me anymore for reasons I prefer not to get into on this forum. I have better things to do with my time. Do I call my trains toys? Depends. Some are scale models and some are toys. Working on getting rid of most of the toys while holding onto the models. Do I care if anyone else calls them toys? Not all all.
My late mom was an immigrant from Europe. Like me she was an only child. The dearly loved and still sorely missed lady never could understand the difference between models and toys. If it was smaller than a real thing it was a toy. She could give a Lionel 773 to a little kid saying,"Here , little boy I have a nice little train for you". When I left for dear ol' SIU I packed all my Lionel into a rather large box and wrote on it, "Mom, don't give this away. Its contents are worth $1500.00. Now THAT'S something she understood.
As I explained to my young grandson there are three kinds of model trains, toy trains for little kids to play with, More sophisticated trains to play with gently and try not to break them, and real (expensive) trains for mainly adults to tinker with. ODD-D
Not at all. As a matter of fact -
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Thank you Dennis - perfect
@dkdkrd posted:Not my 'hill to die on'....
Believe me, though....there are a lot of things I find more offensive coming from folks nowadays. Happy to say, however, their blather has nothing to do with trains...my "toy" trains...my hobby: trains.
BTW...I would never refer to the HONZ trains as 'toys', but if you've ever attended a regional or national NMRA convention, and proudly mention your pursuit of O3R, Gilbert vintage S2R, Standard Gauge, Tinplate, or similar genres, be prepared for the smirking put-down.
TEHO.
KD
Main Topic - No, I’m not offended in the least. More important things to worry about.
KD - Interesting. I've often thought to myself to make a post about this on the OGR forum but never have, and that is what I've seen of other railroad modelers thoughts about O Gauge/Scale.
Full disclosure and back story, I was out of model trains from like 1980-2010 and prior to August 2011, had no use for O when I thought of model trains. As a kid in the 1970's I did HO and my cousin in New York did O. I considered O as the ugly stubby train cars on the stupid looking 3 rail track with unrealistic ties, and every locomotive seemed to be steam and not modern diesels that I liked and could find in HO. Then I picked up the August/September 2011 issue of OGR in a hobby store and the rest is history. Reason for that back story is showing the viewpoint from a teen or from the non-model railroader looking from the outside.
Fast forward to the present. I come across model railroaders all the time in print - who should know better – and in person that when O gauge is mentioned, they still associate it with unrealistic tubular track and compressed cars running in a circle on the floor, with the dreaded "kids toy like" phrase like we’re discussing here, and that HO is for serious modelers, one graduates from 3 rails to 2 rails, etc. Never mind the fact that scale sized equipment and realistic looking O track has been around for decades, and that because of the size and viewpoint of the eyes, exacting detail and rivet counting could be considered more important in Proto 1:48 than HO. They have no idea that scale sized O material exists and feel obligated to knock O. To them, O Gauge is all just that Lionel nonsense (their words, not mine).
I love all trains in all scales (1:1 the best) and have run trains in several scales (O, N, HO, G). In the past 2 years or so, however, I've sold all of my other scales, narrowed my focus to O and have been gravitating towards scale sized equipment and leave my traditional stuff for the holidays, but it's never crossed my mind to put down the folks who like traditional, post-war or tinplate. Makes no sense to me to do that. The O umbrella is very large and we're all part of it. To each his own. I've even considered going to 2-Rail Scale but some of the snobbiness I’ve seen has turned me off. The same type snobbiness exhibited in other hobbies that I've done over the years (RC cars, RC planes, Rockets, etc. etc.).
Enjoy your trains, toys, or whatever you want to call them. Just enjoy them. Tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone.
@Amfleet25124 posted:Main Topic - No, I’m not offended in the least. More important things to worry about.
KD - Interesting. I've often thought to myself to make a post about this on the OGR forum but never have, and that is what I've seen of other railroad modelers thoughts about O Gauge/Scale.
Full disclosure and back story, I was out of model trains from like 1980-2010 and prior to August 2011, had no use for O when I thought of model trains. As a kid in the 1970's I did HO and my cousin in New York did O. I considered O as the ugly stubby train cars on the stupid looking 3 rail track with unrealistic ties, and every locomotive seemed to be steam and not modern diesels that I liked and could find in HO. Then I picked up the August/September 2011 issue of OGR in a hobby store and the rest is history. Reason for that back story is showing the viewpoint from a teen or from the non-model railroader looking from the outside.
Fast forward to the present. I come across model railroaders all the time in print - who should know better – and in person that when O gauge is mentioned, they still associate it with unrealistic tubular track and compressed cars running in a circle on the floor, with the dreaded "kids toy like" phrase like we’re discussing here, and that HO is for serious modelers, one graduates from 3 rails to 2 rails, etc. Never mind the fact that scale sized equipment and realistic looking O track has been around for decades, and that because of the size and viewpoint of the eyes, exacting detail and rivet counting could be considered more important in Proto 1:48 than HO. They have no idea that scale sized O material exists and feel obligated to knock O. To them, O Gauge is all just that Lionel nonsense (their words, not mine).
I love all trains in all scales (1:1 the best) and have run trains in several scales (O, N, HO, G). In the past 2 years or so, however, I've sold all of my other scales, narrowed my focus to O and have been gravitating towards scale sized equipment and leave my traditional stuff for the holidays, but it's never crossed my mind to put down the folks who like traditional, post-war or tinplate. Makes no sense to me to do that. The O umbrella is very large and we're all part of it. To each his own. I've even considered going to 2-Rail Scale but some of the snobbiness I’ve seen has turned me off. The same type snobbiness exhibited in other hobbies that I've done over the years (RC cars, RC planes, Rockets, etc. etc.).
Enjoy your trains, toys, or whatever you want to call them. Just enjoy them. Tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone.
Ditto Amfleet .
Have fun.....Be safe 😷
At the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, they call our room the "Toy Train Gallery". We are okay with that. When parents with their kids enter the museum, many of them make a B-line to our room.
We are closed now due to COVID-19, but hopefully we will reopen soon.
Amazing how many things must be referred to only with a letter.
Just call it what it is.
I think a goal for a lot of folks today is to be offended by something that is insignificant. This morning on the drive into work there was a story that young people are offended when you end a sentence in a text with a period. Sometimes you have to laugh. If you are so insecure in your hobby that the word toy upsets you then I hope you can find some peace in other parts of your life.
Offended ??? - I think it’s an honor and something of an accomplishment 👍🏼🚂😊
In my Kingdom, everything is a toy!
The sign on the door to my train room says it all.
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I play with my trains. One of my friends who had to introduce me in a formal setting said I was a "collector" to save himself embarrassment. Either way, I am good. My motto is - Train are fun and trains are BIG. So, I like O and G scale the most.
What I find interesting about topics like this is the contrast between what you might call "camps". It seems like most fall into one or the other, with a few in between. Whether you are talking toy trains, types of track, realism, control system, there are those that will fight for their cause when we should all just be having fun with our trains.
You have the model train camp, who seem to me to be more tolerant of others. Many comments by them seem to say "do what you enjoy", "the hobby can be whatever you want", and "run what you want, how you want". They seem to be more accepting of the full spectrum of the hobby, but focus on the more technical and realistic aspects, or the modeling side of the hobby. Many, but not all, are operators with switching capabilities. What I find interesting is that most do not seem to be trying to relive their childhood.
The toy train camp seems to be more focused on "these are toys and nothing else". If you look at some of the posts, it seems like "hobby" is an offensive word for them. By far most are trying to relive their childhood to a certain extent, with "playing with trains" their emphasis. Just a quick glance at who is in this camp shows most are loop runners, but again, not all. Many have PW themed layouts but with more complexity than their childhood trains.
To me the layout is my hobby. Just wiring the thing for LCS has been challenging and keeps my brain active, designing it using a computer has forced me to get better at design (and computer usage), and researching and coming up with whimsical realistic (realistic whimsical?) scenes has also be challenging and fun.
Running my trains is a different matter. On my old layout it was fun to loop run my brother's pre-war Marx and my father-in-law's post war Lionel trains. I'm not reliving my childhood, but the fun times I had with them as an adult. Plus these toy trains are fun.
However, my primary interest is operations. Having a through freight drop off a block of cars, classifying the cars, then taking them out to their industry. Then reversing the process to get the cars back to where they came from. On my first layout each setup was different, so each time was challenging. I did sit back and loop run those trains once in a while (and yes, usually with a beer). The layout I'm building will also have the capability to loop run, but it also has a lot more switching challenges.
When referring to my Marx and PW Lionel items, I call them my toy trains. When referring to my layout and scale sized command control trains, I do not use the word toy; I have a model train layout. Just seems more appropriate for what I do.
Yes and no. I am an operator. A model railroader. I run trains similar to what I saw as a kid growing up in Austin, Texas. My trains are my big boy toys just like guys have jet ski's, golf clubs, ski boats, classic cars etc. So in that vein my answer is no.
I expect the model train companies to deliver quality products and be correct to the prototype. So when I purchase an engine that cost me several hundred if not thousands I expect it to run well and be correct to the prototype. When that does not happen and I complain about the lack of quality control etc, it does bother me when someone says "they're just toys" it really irks me. So in that vein it is a resounding YES!
Yes, they are toys but you buy golf clubs wouldn't you be upset if one in the set came bent? Wouldn't you be upset if the new chrome fenders for your classic Cadillac you are restoring don't fit? Would you be upset if your ski boat or jet ski were lemons and didn't run right? Aren't they just toys too?
Toys or not I expect quality for my hard earned dollars spent. In my opinion if you are going to do something. You do it right or you don't do it at all.
Just my two cents.....
Ricky
@Odd-d posted: ...snip... As I explained to my young grandson there are three kinds of model trains, toy trains for little kids to play with, More sophisticated trains to play with gently and try not to break them, and real (expensive) trains for mainly adults to tinker with. ODD-D
Yes, from Brio to Kohs.
