Severe Train Addiction

Wait until the stomach cramps and sleepless nights start. Welcome to the disease.

 

Gandy

Resistance is futile.....

Wait until the credit card bills start coming in.....

My first memory is trains in Ashland Ky......life long issue!

Give the gift that keeps on taking...

 

Rusty

Unlike other addictions, there is no known cure for this one. There's always that shiny new locomotive or piece of rolling stock on the horizon that you just gotta have. Oh the sweet agony of it all!

No known cure......but that's a GOOD thing!

My addiction started soon after birth as my father was a toy train collector. Then long long ago, when I was a little kid, I went to sleep at 6pm each evening listening to rush hour 4-6-0 G5s steam trains blasting through Floral Park on the Long Island Railroad. Then there was a cab ride in a G5s. Oh boy was I hooked on trains!

 

You are a little over a one hour drive to Strasburg...I assume you have been there? It's a good all-day "fix".

I've been to Strasburg. While it was great, my son is more of a modern diesel fan, so he was disappointed by the lack of GEVO's, AC6000's, Dash-9's, and SD40-2's. He still had a great time, though!

Don't worry.  It last only 60 to 80 years.

Amen to that.

 Jon, Welcome to a very addictive hobby. I've been there so long I can't remember when it wasn't an addiction. Tom

Ah yes. Rail Pox also known as Model Railroader/Railfan syndrome.

 

• Highly infections.
• No known cure. Severe symptoms may include (but are not limited to) foaming at the mouth near grade crossings, hanging out on on-line forums, collecting anything railroad related, wearing an engineer's hat around the house, and listening to or hanging out with delusional model railroaders like that AGHRMatt guy.
• Usually affects males as children.
• Females usually do not exhibit the symptoms but several documented cases indicate this is increasing. Females not exhibiting the symptoms are usually carriers and pass it on to their children.
• May go dormant during adolescence and young adulthood only to return with a vengeance after age 35.
• Sometimes looked on as an addiction. While having some addictive properties, there is no sacrificing the bills to pay for train-related activities, lost work, etc. associated with other addictions.
• Sometimes confused with mid-life crisis, but this is easily shown not to be the case because dumping the minivan in favor of a sporty car is not involved.
• Best treatment to minimize the more severe symptoms is some type of railroad-related therapy such as rail photography, rail-related vacations, rail and model rail magazine subscriptions, videos, and model therapy (building stuff.)

A really sad, sad state of affairs here. You have my sympathies. Now break out your wallet and face your demons.

Here's a photo to help you sleep tonight. Then post here tomorrow. We care.

I bought 90% of my post War Lionels this past Christmas.....2 months before I was laid off from my job, due to Government budget cuts...I do not sleep well anymore.

When your yard looks like this, then you know you have a problem......

 

 

 

 

 

There certainly Is a cure.

there is a well known Twelve Step Program.

It's exactly twelve steps down to my train room.

 

The BORG are railfans?

I don't have a "train" problem, I have a money problem.

 

I don't have an addiction, I'm just having a lot of fun.  Yeah, yeah.  I can stop anytime I want, I just choose not to.  Just a couple more engines and I can ... uh... quit.  Yeah, that's all.