Our Therapy

Model railroading is definitely therapeutic for me. My layouts keep me occupied and give me a project to work on. It's also relaxing to turn on the trains, sit quietly on my Lionel stool, and watch them run.

MELGAR

Model railroading certainly is therapeutic. Arnold I agree that what ever time I spend on the layout is "good therapy." I relax and focus on the project or just run the trains and feel so much better.

Tom  

Model railroading can be good therapy even if you hardly do it.

An example of this is that this past week, I had to work very long hours in my law practice, including this weekend.  I'm now taking a 5 minute break to write this.

Just knowing that the trains are waiting for me in the basement, to give me something light and fun to do later on, is good therapy for me. 

There is a lightness of being simply running the trains that, IMO, can be good therapy when in the throes of very intense work to make a living. I bet there are others besides me that feel this way. Arnold

It's very simple Arnold. Running our trains brings us back to our childhood when life was simpler.

Watching them run for a while does wonders to clear the mind.

Bob

For me, and from my perspective, at this point in my life, life is Life - is given quality and meaning - by our connections to others. Everything else is just scenery.

FrankM

I agree, the trains are my therapy, i had planned on redoing the layout,however, right now, i can`t do anything as i recently had a bad fall and broke my wrist, so for now, i watch and enjoy the trains running around the layout....

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Model railroading can be good therapy even if you hardly do it...

 

...Just knowing that the trains are waiting for me in the basement, to give me something light and fun to do later on, is good therapy for me. 

 

 

And there it is, right there. Looking forward to a future pleasurable activity is assuredly therapy to help accomplish what must be done in a difficult/unpleasant/stressful present.

So well stated by all of you!

And, this lighted hearted fun, none of which is ever a matter of life and death, that can turn your life into Jumanji if things don't go your way (like a divorce), can also be engrossing when working hard at it, which happens when fixing a locomotive, design and layout,  build a layout, etc. Hence, my signature line below, which can be the ultimate good therapy for us. Arnold

Well expressed by all! As Arnold stated, even if you are not fully engaged in layout building or enhancement, just sitting in your train room with those beautiful locomotives and rolling stock brings a sense of peace and calm amid the vagaries of life. Merely watching them traverse a basic oval is a pleasant experience, and life is GOOD!  ☺

This forum too is therapeutic. It allows me to read online, and get  away from all the divisive hatefulness  which is all over the internet/media .   It doesn’t take long before I can no longer stand the news feeds. 
I find You Tubing train videos of all sorts also relaxing. I particularly enjoy old railroad promotional films which extoll the values we had long before all this divisiveness.  They remind me of the America I grew up in.   I miss that America. 
Yes, and actually working on my trains puts me into a little therapy session. 

Ajzend, what you just said about the Forum being good therapy, is what was going to be my next Post on this thread. I'm delighted you beat me to it. Arnold

RSJB18 posted:

It's very simple Arnold. Running our trains brings us back to our childhood when life was simpler.

Watching them run for a while does wonders to clear the mind.

Bob

This is exactly what what I was thinking.    Clearing my mind and going back to my childhood after a long day at work running the widget making machine!

Agree with all posts and Yes this Forum is part of the "therapy" 

Tom

All good thoughts and another nice topic, Arnold.

Although my "layout" is currently just a workbench layout, that's good enough for me.

Yes, stress at work is quickly forgotten in the basement (or wherever you all have your trains). 

Tom 

MNCW posted:

All good thoughts and another nice topic, Arnold.

Although my "layout" is currently just a workbench layout, that's good enough for me.

Yes, stress at work is quickly forgotten in the basement (or wherever you all have your trains). 

Tom 

Good to hear from you, Tom.

On another subject, will you have a table at approximately the same place at the Nov. 17th Westchester Toy and Train Show in White Plains, NY?

If so, can Forum members meet there around lunch time to go as a group to City Limits Diner for lunch like we did last year?

Arnold

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

MNCW posted:

All good thoughts and another nice topic, Arnold.

Although my "layout" is currently just a workbench layout, that's good enough for me.

Yes, stress at work is quickly forgotten in the basement (or wherever you all have your trains). 

Tom 

Good to hear from you, Tom.

On another subject, will you have a table at approximately the same place at the Nov. 17th Westchester Toy and Train Show in White Plains, NY?

If so, can Forum members meet there around lunch time to go as a group to City Limits Diner for lunch like we did last year?

Arnold

 

Hi Tom 😁

Another great topic, Arnold!  Therapeutic?  No question about it!  And when I can't run trains, do something with the layout, or just look at the trains, this Forum is very therapeutic as Ajzend and Tom wrote!  As a boy and teenager, it was just the trains and me.  As I get older communing with others who are like minded becomes more and more important.

RSJB18 posted:

It's very simple Arnold. Running our trains brings us back to our childhood when life was simpler.

Watching them run for a while does wonders to clear the mind.

Bob

Speaking only for myself, only my postwar trains take me back to my childhood, when they were all just enticing dreams in a catalog, images of things I knew we could never afford.

It's a little different with the scale trains.  I model the transition era (+- 1935-1955), and when I'm running them, I like to imagine being part of that period.

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

MNCW posted:

All good thoughts and another nice topic, Arnold.

Although my "layout" is currently just a workbench layout, that's good enough for me.

Yes, stress at work is quickly forgotten in the basement (or wherever you all have your trains). 

Tom 

Good to hear from you, Tom.

On another subject, will you have a table at approximately the same place at the Nov. 17th Westchester Toy and Train Show in White Plains, NY?

If so, can Forum members meet there around lunch time to go as a group to City Limits Diner for lunch like we did last year?

Arnold

 

Hi Arnold, Bob and all,

  Yes, Arnold everyone is welcome. Feel free to say "This is an amazing book" as people get nearer! 

Tom 

Mark, well said. I have a train room and sometimes just go sit and look around. I do have a CD player and will play one of my train sounds CD's. No wonder they call it the Worlds Greatest Hobby  

Tom

Arnold,

Pictures of my therapy location – my Lionel stool situated between my two layouts. Sometimes, I just sit on the stool and contemplate all the work I did to build these two layouts. Other times I actually run trains. Therapeutic either way.

Photos by:

MELGAR

This next statement should really please the model train manufacturers, related businesses including OGR Magazine, and married train collectors. 

 Do I have your interest? LOL.

Being a divorce lawyer, I know what it costs to see a good talk therapist. I recommend to all my clients in a hotly contested divorce that they regularly see a good therapist, to help them maintain their sanity during the divorce process.

In my experience, a good talk therapist costs between $200 and $400 per hour, at least in the NYC metro area. A Clinical Social Worker will be on the low side of that range of hourly rates, a licensed psychologist would be in the middle (between $250 and $350 per hour), and an MD psychiatrist would be around $400 per hour, and I knew one,  who was very good, that charged $500 per hour.

How many sessions and hours seeing such mental health professionals are we talking about? I can't answer that except to say the sky could be the limit. LOL

What I am doing here is building a case for model railroading, even buying top of the line VisionLine Lionel locomotives, being an affordable form of therapy compared to going to a mental health professional. And if, unlike me, you are clever enough to have some form of model rairoading side business to make some money at it, such as repairing trains for others, buying basket cases, fixing and restoring trains and selling them for a profit, etc., then you are making your hobby an extremely affordable form of therapy.

So, enjoy your trains, keep your sanity, and stay in the black, not the red, financially. LOL, Arnold

Arnold,

  Where was all  this good advise from you 20 years ago? 

Tom

I get your point in your last post, Arnold.  However, I don't think I can use that argument to convince my dear wife of 35 years that I need to buy a Vision Line Locomotive!  

This topic is what potential model railroaders need to hear. The relaxation, the stress relief (well, most of the time 😉), and the pure pleasure one gets by creating and operating trains in an environment of your design is the difference between a good day and a bad day. How to effectively communicate this is something I am not good at.

Perfect topic that has applied to me for the past 35+ years working for a large company. Looking back at all the annual turmoil that normally took place in the last quarter of every year with sales quotas and corporate layoff considerations; I was able to use my basement layout as my therapy to relax and forget (for a short while) all the job “stuff” and kept sane.

Carl J

GREAT THREAD, Arnold! ☺

Flashback to the mid-1970’s, holed up in my parents basement in the throes of fall/winter, running my Tyco/Cox/Bachmann HO trains on a 4x8 board filled with Plasticville and Matchbox cars, listening to 77 WABC on my green Panasonic panapet ball radio or the newly discovered WPLJ with Tony Pig over the FM airways... Return to the present, running my Lionel/Atlas/K-line etc. on a 5x9 fully scenicked layout, listening to ‘airchecks’ of WABC or WPLJ played on my Lionel Bluetooth radio tower, enjoying a cup of coffee and watching trains on a Sunday morning thinking back to those days. 

I remember Tony Pig and Jim Kerr. That makes me old I guess. I also had HO then , on top of a ping pong table in my parent's basement.

Tom 

My train layout is indeed therapy even though I only actively work on it in Oct, Nov and Dec.  Here is a small wooden station that built last winter. I plan to incorporate more of these structures in my pre/postwar layout. You can still enjoy this hobby even away from a layout.

Fendermain

Fendermain, That is a handsome station you crafted. I especially like the way you have the plank pavements going in two different directions, which seems realistic , to me. Congratulations with your success at that project.

FrankM

The station looks great Fendermain!

Fendermain, very nice station. 

Tom

I have read that policeman who are model railroaders.Say this gets them to get rid of stress.And to have some fun.

The best therapy is a week at YORK, PA in April & October.

I’ll agree there, Eddie!!

Great topic Arnold!  I love that you come up with such interesting topics.

Yes trains both real and model are a great source of therapy for me too.   Checking in on this forum is also good therapy.   I love to weather freight cars, and as I become involved in the weathering process I seem to get lost in time.  Most relaxing!   I also greatly enjoy creating scenic scenarios and photographing the layout.  I now have over 8000 photos.  

I find great peace in going to a spot along the CSX mainline at Annapolis Junction, Md. ( the old B&O Washington branch ran north/south here between Baltimore & Washington DC .... the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway's line's west end terminus was located here as well ... hence the name Annapolis Junction.  In B&O timetables Annapolis Junction was known as Ft. Meade Junction because the B&O's Ft. Meade branch running east to Ft. Meade began here.  The B&O and WB&A's tracks ran side by side to Ft. Meade ) near my house and just standing or sitting there in the quietude waiting for a train to come by.  Sometimes in my minds eye I visualize all action that must have taken place at Annapolis Junction ... interchange between the two railroads ... the WB&A interurbans ... those wonderful B&O passenger trains wizzing by ... such as the Capital Limited and Royal Blue, The Cincinatian with it's streamlined pacifics, RDC commuters, and long freights with Mikados on the point..... the conductor pitching a burning flare off the back porch of the caboose.... B&O camelback locos too.   I think of all the great statesmen and celebrities who traversed those tracks over the years.  FDR's train often layed over  here at Annapolis Junction, Md.  ( named Ft. Meade Junction in B&O timetables )  during night time hours in the WW2 years as his train ( when bringing FDR home after a trip ) only entered DC during daylight hours during WW2.  Lincoln's funeral train traveled this same route on it's first leg of the journey back to Springfield IL.   I imagine what it must have been like to see the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis interurban cars pull into the junction and exchange passengers from Annapolis and Ft. Meade with the B&O.  Then suddenly my mind is catapulted to the present moment as a MARC commuter  train zooms past!  

I get absorbed into watching train videos, especially the ones focusing on railroading during the transition era.  Toy/model train videos are great too ... OGR has some great ones which I own as does Tom McComas' I Love Toy Trains Videos.  

No question about it, for many of us trains in any form certainly brings us many peaceful moments ... which is essential for us humans living in today's world.  The train room is an oasis of sanity for sure.  

Balshis posted:

RSJB18 posted:

It's very simple Arnold. Running our trains brings us back to our childhood when life was simpler.

Watching them run for a while does wonders to clear the mind.

Bob

Speaking only for myself, only my postwar trains take me back to my childhood, when they were all just enticing dreams in a catalog, images of things I knew we could never afford.

It's a little different with the scale trains.  I model the transition era (+- 1935-1955), and when I'm running them, I like to imagine being part of that period.

I feel the same way Bob I get lost in my layout also wishing I was in that era 

I know I’ve had a stressful day when my wife says “Lee go play with your trains” they are a stress reliever I try to run them every Friday night I’ve done this for years on my HO layout now I try to do the same on the O Scale layout getting things ready for SWSAT.