At What Point do you Lose Interest?

I have a zillion different angles with my railroad interests and running trains is only one facet.

PJB posted:

At some point, watching trains go round and round becomes mind-numbing.  What do you do to sustain interest? 

It's possible the same could be said for endless construction without running trains. My brain is starting to feel a bit fried, and I'm losing sight of the goal. I keep working on things for the layout, but not making visible progress. It will all show up in the end, but one of these days, I'll need to pick up tools other than a soldering iron.

Everything can get tedious, running trains, realistic operations, construction and detailing, etc. Probably most of us do these things alone and that creates some of the tediousness without someone to kibitz with.

But, that's why the Good Lord created boos, friends and family. Nothing wrong with putting it all down for a time. It'll be there when you return. 

Trains every day any way!

Ron H posted:

But, that's why the Good Lord created boos, friends and family. ...

i'm more of an evolutionist, but i'll go with that...

Modeling trains has so many skill facets well-known I won't go into, but I'll say that any one facet, including just running the same engine with the same consist will, of course, get boring quickly. Maybe it's time to delve into some new thing; maybe painting/decaling, learning more about the given electronics/ordering a book of some kind explaining the electronics; deciding/planning out new dimensions for your train's path, poring through catalogs deciding what you will buy now or later, etc. There are vast numbers of YouTube train videos for ideas or just fun : scale, Lionel, MTH, name it, it's there for the googling. Trying your hand at scenery is fun if you've never. Just a small corner, or buy a couple of 4x4 3/8" plywood sections for dioramas you can put next to track if you don't want to commit to a layout on board just yet, etc. Find what piques your interest and play to that - spend some bucks on some car or engine you just like the looks of. Don't be fooled into thinking there's just one right way - that it must be scale or that it must be based on prototype railroads. If it's yours, you're free to do what you want, and your opinion is the one that counts most. It's all about enjoyment, not impressing people with your abilities, although that may happen as your skills improve...Just because others seem to be able to spend voluminous amounts of money on trains, in the final analysis, even 18x30 foot layouts can eventually become somewhat boring if it's the same trains/cars in the same order not taking any new routes or paths. Paint a backdrop, move cars from one siding to another with purpose, get used to wiring fun action accessories, on and on. Enjoying trains is much more than turning on a transformer or a hand-held throttle and just watching. Although I love that, too!

I have a layout just a small one but not big enough for my scale engines and cars but set up lionel fastrak on the carpet and have 2 switches but its gets old setting up. Takes an hour to set up and an hour to take down sometimes longer thats why not add to much so don't take so long to take down. I wish i had a permanet layout but i just can watch trains go around the track not loose interest . I have true love for trains. 

Since my so called layout is not fixed I just swap out trains and scenery and other goofy things on it and wait for the first little fan to come along and start noticing all the changes.

I have been into Lionel trains since I was a young kid.I am turning 50 tomorrow and the interest is still there.Pinball machines are my other hobby interest.Between the two,I am never bored.

I find it fulfilling just to have a layout to look a when when I am not operating. That is just me.

Bob C.

My interest in running trains is minimal, and has been for a very long time. It's the other activities that interest me. Hunting down trains, fixing them, designing and building the train table / layout.

The trains I enjoy running are the trains I've repaired and/or cleaned up.

When the weather is nice, you take this out for a drive...

the trains will be there when you get back, patiently waiting for you...

.

If all you see is a train going in circles, sure, you will go comatose in a short while.

imagination, projects, friends, acquisitions , etc. make this the hobby that keeps on giving.

What time is it?

I don't attach anything on my layout.  When I get bored running with the current configuration I take stuff off and change it around.  

PhilInAustin posted:

When the weather is nice, you take this out for a drive...

 

the trains will be there when you get back, patiently waiting for you...

 

.

That's been my dream car since they changed the body style in the sixties, from the original bathtub look to the leaner design.  Love that car.

audi posted:

If all you see is a train going in circles, sure, you will go comatose in a short while.

 

Sometimes, that's a good thing.

Dr. Werner von Eisenbahn refers to it as a "therapy loop."

Rusty

Are you wanting to gain your interest back?  Visiting a club layout or seeing the fine work of others in some manner is a proven way to get your own inspiration going again.  This method works in all forms of expression.  For example, after attending a quality juried art show I hear artists in attendance saying it makes them anxious to get back in the studio to get to work.

The fraternal nature of this hobby prevents me from ever losing interest.  It reminds me of the same fraternity that existed on the 1:1.

I devote a weekend a month to the boss and the house daddy do's, after that I can't wait to get back to the trains.

Panther97 posted:

I don't attach anything on my layout.  When I get bored running with the current configuration I take stuff off and change it around.  

Rusty Traque posted:

audi posted:

If all you see is a train going in circles, sure, you will go comatose in a short while.

Sometimes, that's a good thing.

ME TOO!  It's a Zen thang.

Pete

Gentlemen,

   I keep the interest hi by using the Train layouts at Christmas time, setting up the layouts starting around Thanksgiving and then taking them down around the end of February.  Usually adding and subtracting something each Christmas season, this next season I plan on engineering and building a new outer 2nd level 072 loop for my TMCC GG1 pulling part of the Military Train.  I try to do my engineering planning during the down time, acquire what I need slowly thru the year, and then construct what I want to add and subtract starting around Thanksgiving time.  In our family this has been a tradition sense Lionel's very early days.  Done in this manner we have never really lost interest in our train layouts, it just makes Christmas time even more special, sense the idea was to always have a child like wonderland layout, for the children in our family to enjoy as they celebrated Christ's birth.  I have continued the tradition down thru the years, and still enjoy doing it even in the modern era, especially now that I have the incredible Remote Control abilities, including the wireless FasTrack Command Control Switches.  As a young boy I dreamed of controlling my Tin Plate Christmas Trains by remote control, I have lived to see that dream come true, as my Grandfather advised that it would.  You see Engineering is also part of our Family Tradition.

PCRR/Dave

Doubt I will ever loose interest because of the incredible family memories my Christmas Train layout provides each and every year.  Some of the happiest time of my life were spent building & running my Christmas Train layout with my Grandfather and Father.

When I get sick of the trains I go out in the bush for a couple of weeks walking.

I get my pack and essentials in it and off I go I never think about trains when I'm out there.

When I come back I'm refreshed and wonder why I left in the first place I get stuck into building again and feel real happy.

Roo.

Dan986 posted:

I have been into Lionel trains since I was a young kid.I am turning 50 tomorrow and the interest is still there.Pinball machines are my other hobby interest.Between the two,I am never bored.

With the pinballs, you must use a lot of relays on your layout!

Creating the journey of the trains is what sustains my interest.

I think its a universal law of electric trains: Within 10 minutes of watching trains run around a loop boredom sets in. No amount of enhanced features or realistic sound effects seems to be able change that. Visitors remark how neat the trains are, yet become bored after a few minutes as well, and the only thing that keeps their attention is the scenes and vignettes. Give them a remote control and that might keep their attention a little while longer, but the universal law is evident.

The only remedy is designing an interesting track plan that takes the train and viewer on a journey, with the goal of making the train disappear through scenes that change as the train appears to travel distance. Some people advocate operations to make things interesting, such as sidings with industries and operating accessories. And, incorporating crossings wherever possible such that you have to be careful to avoid collisions takes some of the boredom out of simple loop-running. Switches add another dimension. But having a good (interesting) track plan that gives the trains a journey is the most important criterion for a sustained-interest layout. 

I have found the art of train layouts is in the ability to design an interesting track plan in the space available (think of John Armstrong - one of the true greats of model railroading and you'll know what I am talking about). Tunnel through a wall or under the steps; run the mainlines under a city, through a mountain, around a bookcase, even through a Styrofoam tunnel, anything to break up the monotony of repetitive loops. Give that $1,000 engine a journey worthy of its price tag!

Once you have a design that is exciting - it'll be the process of implementation that will be fun and last years. I spend a fair amount of time creating the adventure in my mind ~ kind of like transposing the journey of the 1:48 scale train in the space I have available ~ imagineering the areas of my basement in real-time and then drawing them out to scale on graph paper - this is great fun and something that I did as a kid as well. And, when the track plan is built - I've created a journey for the trains - from city to town to country thru a tunnel, over a bridge, to another city, industrial spurs, passenger stations, grades (if you can make them realistic) with the goal of having the trains disappear and reappear somewhere else. And the payoff - operating the trains in the neat environment I've built - is very satisfying - even with the reality that it'll take many years to complete the scenery.

Bottom line: you have to design an interesting journey (trackplan) to sustain interest because simple loops will always default to boring operation no matter how beautiful the scenery is and/or how sophisticated the mechanical and electronic features of the trains are. That's been my experience.

As other have said there is so many other aspects to trains I personally look at some of my trains I have on the walls just to remember my past like when my father brought home a set for me for Christmas even thou it was used it still was the greatest thing in the world to me. ( back in the 60's and before actually a present as nice as this didn't have to be brand new to a child) 2572 B&M Super O set. I admire a lot of my trains on display. At present I don't have a layout or a place for one but that's coming, that then will occupy my train time then. until then just sitting here and dreaming does. 

One of the things I enjoy is coming up with new consists and planning what locomotives will pull them.  I don't have as much time to dedicate to running trains these days, but sometimes in the evening just laying on the coach with the laptop and building different consists is pretty relaxing... gives you a chance to be creative, too.

I lose interest and become frustrated when :

Cannot find more space

Cannot Find Parts

Fix something in a timely manner

Find the right structure for a certain corner

cannot see the scene in my mind before I model it

Cannot run trains while I work on the layout

When I touch things I break them... comes in threes

When I have a short

When I spent some money on some nice semaphores and they work for about 2 hours.

When I  have to allot of tricky cuts to make on the saw for some bench work

When I just finished a nice scenic road/ field and when I turn my head around my 6 year old son is grading it with his  1:43 scale Ertl Cat bulldozer

When I just finished ballasting and found out that I did not use enough white glue in the mixture

I cannot open an old bottle of paint that I know I need it and is still good, and I have to open it because they do not make it anymore!

I bought a highly sought after engine paid a fair price... and it does not work worth a Cr%P. try to fix it and yes see item 2

I pre ordered something I thought would be really nice. ... and when it was released it looks and runs terrible and has the same generic whistle as my other steamers.

Buy a new expensive caboose and the trucks are so cheap it will not even pass through a ross switch, and the electronics burn out in a mater of 10 minutes...

When the catalogs released are the Same ole Same ole... just higher prices

I have no more room on the display shelves.

When I have no more room on the layout.

When York is another 5 months away

When the Mrs tells me I am having too many weekends with people over to run trains.

When I cannot physically get under the layout to rewire a bum switch motor that needs to be replaced cause of my back.

When I have to go out of town for work and will not be able run the layout.

When I cannot fit the grandiose scene that I dreamt of for months in a 3 x 3 corner. O scale plays tricks on you.

when you spent months an scratch building an over head elevated track structure and just realize you should have painted it first to save time.

There just is not tall office building structure out there that fits in that oblique angle space on your layout!

Well just a few thoughts and rants guys  keep em runnin

Lose interest? When they lower me into the ground. Maybe.

Advice? Us your imagination to create and craft your way into new model train layout adventures. Sharing with others adds a lot, too. IMHO.

FrankM.

Hard to imagine losing intere.......... Oh, look! A squirrel.

if your sincere about this hobby,you never lose interest......

PhilInAustin posted:

When the weather is nice, you take this out for a drive...

 

the trains will be there when you get back, patiently waiting for you...

 

.

Life is too short to drive a boring car but, why drive a Porsche when you can drive something fast like mine. I'm sorry but, I just couldn't resist the jab.

I have lost interest for short amounts of time but I just needed a break and can quickly get back in the mood.

Just round and round? Why would you do that? Assuming that your question reflects your state of mind, perhaps it's time to move on. 

Installing a few sidings with some of those good old Lionel accessories to provide a bit of action I think is a sure bet to cure the doldrums.  It has worked for me.  I also enjoy swapping out motive power and rolling stock periodically to add a little diversity to the layout.  Layout renovations and modifications are also good remedial measures for boredom.  However, in all honesty when I set up my Christmas layout which runs from early November until mid-January its nothing but two simple loops under the tree and I run trains for hours and never get bored. 

My earliest memories are of coal drags running through Ashland Ky.  That led to floor trains and then to the large collection I have today......

But like others I have other hobbies which I tend to rotate through. And like others 1/1 scale cars are the 'other' hobby. I have too much to do to ever be bored!!!

Whenever I get the bug to leave, I get a project. Or three. And I work them. I almost enjoy that more than actual train running.

D500 posted:

Just round and round? Why would you do that? Assuming that your question reflects your state of mind, perhaps its time to move on. 

Bad assumption.  

Having grand kids has really rekindled my interest.  It is all so new to them and they just can't get enough.  Teaching and playing with them makes it seem like a new hobby.  So tell your kids to get busy and supply  you with some grand kids!!!

Rolland

Like some of you, trains is one of my passions. I'm into military history, art (my art and cartoon work have been in many magazines and books over the years), sci-fi and the space program, among many other things...

So, when trains get boring, I have plenty of other stuff to move onto.

In fact, I haven't fired up my 1944 Willys Jeep in a seriously long time as most of the time lately has been devoted to the layout build...