Is There Health Benefits from Model Railroading?

If it's not relieving your stress to a considerable degree, you're in the wrong hobby.  In part, this hobby helped save my life--literally--and it it has done wonders for helping to keep things in proper perspective.  Just ask your doctor about the stress-relieving benefits of a hobby.

.....but Allen, what about the lead in the chinese paints..... and the toxicity of the smoke fluid?.............These can't be healthy.

I think it depends on the individual.  Toy trains seem relaxing to me.  But some people can take scale too seriously and that may not be relaxing.  The real key to good health is getting 30-45 minutes of exercise daily, eating good meals and getting a good nights sleep. Toy trains can be a part of relaxing after a busy day.

This is a very interesting question.  Yes, hobbies should help relieve stress, but not everything goes perfectly as desired.  My biggest disappointment was probably when Lionel 736 sped up on a curve then hit the floor due to the first car behind it uncoupling.  But the most relaxing and satisfying is definitely just setting the transformers and watching the trains go, pondering on all the equipment I now have that wasn't affordable when I was young.

To keep frustrations low, I stay away from all modern remote control systems, whose problems seem to figure quite prominently in this forum.

Letting toy trains get the better of you to the point where you are stressed is just plain silly.

Don't get me wrong, I have had my share of frustrations, but if my brain tries to clench up about them I pick up one of my guitars and have a go at some blues.  When I get back to the trains the problem usually has made itself obvious and is easily dealt with.

Pete

I think I'm about 85% relaxing-15% frustration. I also think the frustration is a challenge because it's mostly due to lack of knowledge with something I'm having trouble with. I'm no doctor but I don't see any stress with my trains. I'm also no high end modeler either, just a toy type train nut.

Stress relieving for me.  I don't push hard to complete anything on the layout, so its going slow.   Watching the trains run is therapeutic for me.    -Ken

For me even with all of my bad luck once things get running I get a chance to relax, smile, and realize I am having some "me time" or playtime that I share with my wife. She loves the new Lionchief remote trains we have bought and her Silver Bells train is her favorite. She just does not like the Legacy remote since I think she is intimidated by too the many things it does in her mind. We get to spend time together and frankly the trains are just a wonderful excuse to make new friends and enjoy life. Works for me.

Even if you experience zero stress in this hobby, the exposure to paints, glues, and other modeling materials may cause adverse health effect.  

Something to be aware of...

I can tell you that I feel a whole lot better since I started wearing a helmet when I run my trains.

I would call BS back.....just because I have read and watched the scale guys go insanely stressed out over a color being a shade off, a rivet short on the casting, etc. Frankly though it goes both ways and I think many people are just easily offended.

I enjoy the toy part since I do admit that I play with toys......

Really, this hobby is like anything else since your personal enjoyment is really up to you.

Yes

But I have a different spin. I also model in N scale. When I travel, I bring trains to run and work on, in the hotel. My wife was laughing about this at my son's soccer game. My buddy Rich turned to her and said "krista, shut up! he's not in nudie bars!". So see, trains can keep you from drinking and womanizing. Both of these hobbies would be less healthy and definitely more expensive.

KC Jones,

   As a retired PWE, for me playing with Toy Trains and building layouts are big time stress relief, that also keeps my mind busy building something, which in my case

is also most benificial to my health.  If I was a rivot counter however, this hobby could drive me crazy, it all depends on your personally and mind discipline.

PCRR/Dave

Trains are cheaper than therapy...

ears ago I worked at a hobby shop (now closed) and we used to remind the wives that at least their husbands weren't down at the bars drinking.  One woman said that her husband would take his trains with him to the bar.

So much for that idea!

Stuart

Yeah, the trains are relaxing.  Until you start getting wound up in tracking down an obscure and elusive problem.  I nearly lost my mind last month, trying to determine the location of a mysterious short in my 783...

But the satisfaction of finally solving the problem makes it all worth it.

it keeps me sane!!!!!

Stress relief and pleasant dreams, brain activity, happiness and friendship which all combat old age and senility!

The technical challenges that come along from time to time serve as brain exercise, that's not stress. Running trains and completing a layout offer ongoing relaxation and a sense of achievement. I can't for the life of me, understand anyone, in retirement, that don't have a pastime. I feel very sorry for people who don't have any interests. It's also interesting to note just how many of us also have other artistic interests such as music and photography. We are indeed lucky to be interested in something other than the daily grind.

Who, exactly, is "specifying" these so-called shortcomings of toy-like trains?  Is it, as I suspect, the scale guys?  Gee, I wonder why.  Pretty sure the toy train folks couldn't care less, most of 'em are having way too much fun.

Everybody gets to enjoy this hobby in his/her own way.  The people who are compelled to dump on the preferences of others are really only diminishing themselves.

Pete

How would you know??  If you think it does, then it probably does.  If you do not think so, then probably not.

the non-scale guys just don't care, or they may have some other reason to not be 1:48 like size constraints.

Then there's us tinplate guys, the worst of the bunch (presumably) who cares if things are exactly spot on? To me that takes away from the enjoyment of running trains. Someone's sig on here says "Clockwork guys really know how to unwind" and it's true... I find working on and running clockwork trains to be very relaxing as it calls back to a simpler time.

Hello everyone. I think This hobby will do wonders for those who need something to do with their lives If they cant get around like they used to. I have lost a leg 3 years ago come this January  then I had a kidney transplant in June  and then I had a 3 way bypass in August. And here we are in December 2013.  2 years  later and I had a valve replacement in my heart just 3 weeks ago I can not lift anything heavyer then 15 lbs. So I have to go through some rehab to get me back to my former self. So I say 85% if this hobby is relaxing and 15% Is frustration. And when the frustration starts showing up I take a break from the trains and work on something else around the house. And as we all know that we have plenty of household projects that need attending to. Like a faucet that needs to be replaced as soon as I have strength to replace it. So enjoy this Hobby and don't let it bother you and if it dose just go and do another project that needs to be done.     Scot

In General = Relieves Stress

MTH RealTrax = STRESS

I just threw out more pieces of that RealTrax JUNK = Stress Free Now!

That's probably the most true of all observations made thus far.  

Walt's recent experience notwithstanding,

Tinplate (and other) toy trains = big grin = low blood pressure = pervasive sense of well-being.

Ah. Life is good.

Health benefits?  Yes, I vowed to kill myself after Lionel shipped everything in the 2006 catalog.  I'm still waiting.

What, me worry?  

11 years ago my cardiologists told me to get a hobby. I said great I will still work on hot rods! He said no to that, so I dug out my first LIONEL set I got when I was 8, 1954 Christmas present. Ran great then, ran great when I dug it out.

Several thousand $$$$'s later, I am still living stress free. I made a living working with my hands so I needed a hobby where I could be doing something with my hands and also be a little creative.

I am still alive and HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!

There is something magical in all our layouts. We get to use our imagination and then bring forth a fantasy world of our very own through our hands. Few things can bring such a feeling of accomplishment in a solid, touchable and workable way. It can then be molded and shaped even further at a whim or left as is.

Then comes the pure joy of simply playing with or watching our trains move around in the world we created. A feeling of well being ensues and perhaps a smile. It doesn't get any better than this and thoughts of stress just don't exist...just what the doctor ordered. 

There are times when I'm down the basement I'll power up the layout, turn off the lights and just sit there watching the trains run. There are things on there that are grossly out of scale or reality and a couple things that are scale items but it doesn't matter, but for a half an hour or so the world and work and the lawn and bills and that funny noise in the car go away. I can't really put it into words, I'm not transported back to when I was a kid, I'm not king of my own little world where I can make and break any rule I want but it's just relaxing for no more of a reason than sitting by a campfire or watching an aquarium or stargazing.

Jerry

2008, my doctor said I was totally stressed out from working 2 jobs and no outlet to (yes he said) blow off steam)! He already had me on blood pressure medication and I was still way too high. He said I needed a hobby to get away from the stress of working so many hours.

I knew I had to find something I could do at home because I didn't have time to travel due to my work schedules. The only things I did when I did get to see any of it was watching baseball and NASCAR racing but that wasn't cutting the stress.  I had told my wife about having Lionel trains when my brother and I were kids but that was 35 years ago or so at the time. Haven't thought about them since.

A week or 2 later while I was still trying to figure out what to do for a hobby my wife was downtown one evening and a new toy train shop had opened up that week. In the display window the owner was setting up the Lionel Fastrack NASCAR train set and putting the train on the track right then. My wife walked into the store and got talking with the owner about the NASCAR set and he told her about the driver add on sets,( I'm a Tony Stewart fan ) and he said he would get that set in next week. My wife gave him her cell number for him to call when it came in.

After it came in my wife got me downtown one night when I was home saying she needed something at the pharmacy and wanted to drive her down. We got a parking place and on the way to the pharmacy ( I thought ) she stopped and said look in that window, I looked and he had the NASCAR train set with the Tony Stewart add on accessory pack running around the oval. I stood there shocked at what I saw, she goes "surprise!" I knew right then trains was what I needed for my hobby.

We went in the store, talked with the owner and ended up leaving that night with both sets. 5 years later I am in the middle of my 3rd expansion and layout change. I am working on building a 3 layer layout that will run 3 trains on separate tracks, the NASCAR set will run on the first level, my MTH Railking 2-8-0 Pennsylvania Steam Passenger train will run on both the first and 2nd levels of track with an incline/decline taking up 2 sides of the layout, the built in cruise control on the MTH engine will be perfect for the incline/decline, and my 2011 Lionel Wegmans train will run on the 2nd level, my K-Line Coca-Cola trolley will run on the 3rd level.

The hobby is great and has reduced my blood pressure and stress, the only thing that bothers me is that it takes too long to get much done on working on the layout due to lack of time so to humor myself it I have named it Slackerville.

Between the hobby and the forum and magazine it has been very relaxing. I enjoy reading and seeing the information and talents by my fellow hobbyists and thank you all for all the help either directly or indirectly you forum members and writers in the O Gauge Magazine have gave me these last 5 years. Happy Holidays to all!

There are times when it stresses me out -- stuff doesn't work right, etc., but overall it relaxes me. It gives me an opportunity to build something, learn, and solve problems which relaxes my mind.

Not counting the exposure to epoxy and rattle can fumes, it is one of the best wind down activities I can think of.

And yet, somehow many of us survived the "hazards" of Postwar trains:  Smoke pellets, leaded paint, sharp corners on track pieces, small parts, refinery grade lubricants, transformers you could weld with...

Rusty

So, Gary P, what you're REALLY saying is:

Doctor's advice + loving, caring spouse =

Same here!!  Ain't it great??

Nice story.  Sez it all! 

The trains aren't bad, either!

KD

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

Great diversion from a world of insanity, but it's not long until the world creeps back into the hobby.  Pre-orders with a year + wait, paints no longer available. Quality issues, electronics that don't work out of the box.   I could say that out there, riding the bike is better, but the bike, also a China issue, wears out and breaks down also.  Go with the flow.  Mike  

Parts of the hobby are stressful for sure. Like nuisance derailments in hard-to-get-to places. And times when everything seems to go wrong.

Times like these I just shut her down and go do something else.

Probably one of the biggest health benefits is you get to escape the "other half" and hide out in the train room!

Then after a while when it's safe to return, you can cautiously test the waters upstairs again. (Just kidding....well kind of)

Rod

quote:

And yet, somehow many of us survived the "hazards" of Postwar trains:  Smoke pellets, leaded paint, sharp corners on track pieces, small parts, refinery grade lubricants, transformers you could weld with...

I am sure that most of us do not have enough contact with the various chemicals , solvents, etc. to negatively affect our health. However I was acquainted with one individual who did suffer negative health effects from his heavy contact with the paints he used to custom paint trains. Friends and I have discussed the issue from time to time. There are others who have affected not only themselves, but their families as well.

Those of us who paint should take care to properly handle the fumes. I try to minimize my use of aerosols, and I try to stay with non-volatile products.

Model Railroading has been a good hobby for me, and has certainly helped to lighten the load when I was under heavy stress.