What is your Objective in this Hobby? Why?

I grew up in the 70's in a small  town divided by tracks.  Burlington northern, Union Pacific, and Amtrak.   I'm not a train fanatic but nostalgic.   The times that I've sat in my bike waiting for the train to pass while waving at the caboose bring back fond memories of youth and summer.  The miles and miles of track I walked just because, hunting rabbits, and or running dogs.  It was pivotal to my childhood.  I like the moment in time and a moving train just makes my memories of childhood come to life.  

Where does human satisfaction come from?

Enjoyment.

My sole objective is to have fun and enjoy myself.  I feel blessed that this hobby offers a wide variety of ways to do just that -- fellowship with other hobbyists (and making new friends), the hunt at shows for another piece to add to my collection, showing off and promoting the hobby to the public with my club, 1:1 rail-fanning and steam excursions, learning the histories of the hobby and industry, learning about the mechanics and engineering of the prototypes, and taking photos and videos are just a few ways (in no particular order) that I enjoy the hobby.  And the best part is that I can shift from one way to another as my whims and interests take me, so no part of it gets old or stale.

Andy

There is no objective.  Had a pretty nice layout back in the 70's.  May have one again someday.  In the meantime I started buying Williams Brass with what was a pretty sad first effort.  It was however nicer than the Lionel I grew up with.  Williams improved, Weaver continued the progress and Mike put icing on the cake.  I bought them all because you could just sit there and marvel at how far the toy train market had evolved.  I am just as happy looking at my E8 and F3 passenger sets on the wall as others are watching them cruise around a loop.  And stream engines, I had never seen so many different steam engines in the toy market.  Imagine in 1952 when I got my Lionel 671RR being able to buy a scale Big Boy...

I admit, I loved my ABA Santa Fe 2343 pulling five aluminum cars around the track.  But, my E6 Illinois Central 'City of Miami' set literally flies along and never really moves an inch.  Remember when your F3 choice was Santa Fe or New York Central? By the year 2000 MTH had produced about twenty different road names with a lot of colorful passenger sets to match.

The big question always is, what about when you die?  I suppose I will be dead.  If my wife and kids decide to give or throw them away I don't care.  That is what being dead is all about.  They give me the pleasure and memories that mean something to me.  That is enough.

I just want a way to relax and have fun.  My layouts have all been temporary and are typically changed from the track plan up every few months to suit my tastes.  It's a lot of fun to just make it whatever I feel like it being at a given time.  Tired of complex operations and a layout covered in city?  No problem, strip out the buildings and spurs, thrown in a pile of trees, and run 'em in loops.

Enjoyment, both from building the layout to running trains.

to have fun watching trains go 'round and 'round.  Scale, non scale, prototype, whimsical.

I run it all

Yeah, I guess I'm also in the "there *is* no objective" camp . . . or rather, my objective is whatever project has caught my attention and interest at the moment, with no long-term master plan at all. For instance:

- I've never been anything like a collector . . . but I *have* pursued certain items relentlessly, once something has piqued my interest or caught my eye.

- I've never been into operations . . . but I have envisioned scenarios to account for some of the features I've created on the layout, and generally just enjoy running the trains.

- I really like to push the landscaping to be as realistic as possible . . . but I'm still committed to postwar 3-rail tubular track and rolling stock, not the most realistic base to build from.

- I really enjoy scratch building and kit-bashing challenges . . . but once I feel I've mastered something to my satisfaction, I find I have little desire to endlessly replicate my previous successes.

- I like figuring out how to use old-school materials and techniques to control the trains and accessories . . . but have expanded my horizons to incorporate modern electronic components as needed to achieve the desired effect or result.

In short, though the OP's question is a good one IMHO, if there's any single description of my recent peregrinations through the model train hobby world, it's more in the nature of a kid at the toy store, with my head in the clouds and my nose pressed against the glass (think, opening scenes of "A Christmas Story"!), than that of an adult in pursuit of any particular rational objective.

And y'know what, I'm perfectly satisfied with that . . . so far!

My first meaningful experience with real trains was the Milwaukee Road meat trains picking up Spencer Packing Co. reefers in the early evening while my parents played cards with their friends that lived close to the tracks.  The engines were early covered wagons and the caboose was the bay window.  The train crew was very friendly to me and the big, noisy, smelly equipment was very exciting to a young boy.  My mother's family were all railroad people too.

My first Lionel train set was a very big deal to me.  Then it was American Flyer because it had two rail track.  Followed by HO and eventually N gauge.  Then life got in the way and everything was on hold until in 2000 I got back into 3-rail O gauge because of TMCC, sounds, and realistic looking cars and engines. 

I guess I went through all the phases of having a layout to just run trains in circles and watch them at track level reliving watching real trains.  Soon that became boring.  Then I discovered how much it was to meet train friends and do things together.  Then came operating sessions on layouts that weren't really designed for them.  Then operating sessions using car cards, switching, yards, and etc.   

After meeting a new group of real train guys, I am now building and installing a complete, realistic signal system that we will actually use to run trains with.  And it will be bi-directional rather that only running trains in one direction before.  This enables a new found realism of the dispatcher choosing the routes of where trains will meet and which will take the passing siding to avoid a head-on collision. 

Another aspect that I love is creating vignettes or scenes that display events that were big deals in my life.  Examples are where I met my wife, where we were married, places I worked and lived, and etc.

Art

@EscapeRocks posted:

to have fun watching trains go 'round and 'round.  Scale, non scale, prototype, whimsical.

I run it all

Which is the very reason that I enjoyed running this mixed train:

Fun. Relaxation. Memories from growing up. Grew up in Brooklyn near the East River and the Manhattan Bridge. Enjoyed seeing small dockside engines w/freight cars run on tracks in the middle of the streets to/from the docks. Enjoyed seeing and riding over the Manhattan Bridge on subways. Enjoyed going to work with my father (N, T, E and F lines) who was a subway conductor and later (what was titled) a motorman. For Xmas in 1960 got a Lionel O gauge (GP 9 Northern Pacific) freight set. Later moved on to HO and still later moved on to N gauge. By 10 grade, forgot about model trains and moved on to girls. Growing up rode the Penn. RR to DC (GG 1, Metro Liner), the NYC electric to upstate NY, and (what was called) the Hudson Tube to NJ to visit relatives. And how could I forget numerous rides on the LIRR.  Returned to the hobby in 2008. Currently I own among other lines and consists a GG 1 pass. set, a NY Central pass. set, LIRR pass. and freight sets, and numerous subways - LoVs, ABs, R17s, R 32s, R 36s, R 40s, and R 142as.

@Steve Tyler posted:

IMHO, if there's any single description of my recent peregrinations through the model train hobby world, it's more in the nature of a kid at the toy store, with my head in the clouds and my nose pressed against the glass (think, opening scenes of "A Christmas Story"!), than that of an adult in pursuit of any particular rational objective.

O Gauge Forum members gathered around the layout, jostling in wonderment before a golden, tinkling display of mechanized, electronic joy.

Wow, there it is.

The holy grail of O Gauge railroading.

As ever a justifiable Objective for a Hobby as I had ever laid eyes on.

The < insert your favorite here >.

My goal is to have fun!!!!!!!!!!!

Fun & the satisfaction of building models....and world domination.

I just like to recreate yesteryear which was a simple fun time in life growing up.

Smelling creosote ties on a hot summer day, walking around an old flatcar or boxcar abandoned on a siding. Hoping to see a slow freight roll by but rarely ever happening.

Sometimes I like to just see my trains sitting idle before they go off to to some far away place.

No objective or gaol is required I do it for several reasons.1. I grew up with O Gauge trains got my first one at 9 months old and still have. 2. Keeps me close to my dad who has been gone  for almost 40 years because it was one of the very few things him and I did together when I was in my teens (I knew it all then)and early 20's back in the late 60's early 70's and as far as I am concerned that is all the reasons I need. Besides all that it is fun and I have made some great friends through the trains and rail fanning and it has gotten me into speeders/rail cars and that is fun.

The word "objective" is unsuitable to me, as if the hobby was a mere means to some end that could just as readily be achieved by stamp collecting or bird watching. The model hobby--as with other railroad related hobbies--is a means of self-expression of the love of trains.

They say some eat to live while others live to eat; similarly I live to, among other things, play with trains--the 3RO in the basement, and at Christmas around the tree, and 1:1 trains in the shop of the Wilmington & Western.

I have been running trains since I was 6 years old.  I really no objective.  The trains have given me a lot of enjoyment over the years.   I have changed what I collect originally Local RRs that ran through Pennsylvania and Maryland.  Now I buy trains that I like because of the paint scheme.  I just run them for the enjoyment of seeing the trains run.

The purpose of me having this great hobby is, there is no objective. No stress, no goals, just pure enjoyment and love for model trains and layouts.

Thanks to all that have responded to this! I hope I did not offended anyone by the way I posed this topic.  I understand that different people have different reasons for what and why they do things.  That's why I asked.

I have diverged from my "objective".  There are great items that have caught my eye and wallet.  Intention was strictly scale recreation, but discovered I like playing with some really neat O27 stuff (it is "Bullet Proof").  I don't have to worry about "de-railing" or "smoking" a $400 Steam Locomotive.

Also don't misunderstand, the "Journey", meeting people in this hobby and on this form has been far more rewarding than I ever imagined!  If I had put on blinders and just pursued my goal I would have abandoned this by now.  I have to enjoy the journey (have fun).  I don't pursue a hobby to make myself miserable.

But on the other hand with my personality, if I don't have a long term "objective" then I won't even start a journey.  Just the way I am, too many possible paths to follow, in a lifetime.

@MainLine Steam posted:

I want to "Relive" the Transition Era as a Rail Fan.

........

So the best I can afford to do, is recreate the transition the era of railroading in a model railroad.  I have been purchasing the Locomotive and Rolling stock to build accurate consist.  I then want to have a layout where I can sit and watch the trains roll by.  Eye level, the same as standing alongside the track.  In other words Rail Fanning at 1/48 scale.  That is my objective!

BTW this has a major effect on the design of the railroad I am planning.  A so called "display layout" not a switching or intricate operating layout.

What is yours objective?  Why?

Jim, your objective seems very close to mine.  I grew up in a medium-sized community, served by three Class I railroads' branch lines.  I could watch many different railroad operations, but not repetitive, speedy mainline trains.  That was something only experienced when en route to visit distant relatives.  Mostly, my experience of mainline railroading was virtual, via Trains magazine.  At one point during my youth, I acquired a circle of O-72 track, implemented a quarter of a circle, superelevated the outside rail, and ballasted it.  The "look" of a Lionel 2343 F3 leaning into that curve was so "mainline".  I acquired mostly full scale "mainline" locomotives and rolling stock from the transition era over the years and, upon retirement, finally had the time and space to build a layout, which remains under construction (as most do).  I have, at my residence, that double-tracked mainline, with superelevated, wide curves, where bullet-shaped Hudsons prance and E-unit diesels dig into the curve at speed, hauling named trains.  Plus freight drags with less prosaic locomotives, both steam and diesel.  Some of the videos shot with my smartphone come pretty close to the real thing, as it was 70 years ago.  I do have some prototypical operating features, but the focus of the layout is that double-track main - and enjoying watching the trains pass, at track level.

--Karl

@KarlDL posted:

Jim, your objective seems very close to mine.  I grew up in a medium-sized community, served by three Class I railroads' branch lines.  I could watch many different railroad operations, but not repetitive, speedy mainline trains.  That was something only experienced when en route to visit distant relatives.  Mostly, my experience of mainline railroading was virtual, via Trains magazine.  At one point during my youth, I acquired a circle of O-72 track, implemented a quarter of a circle, superelevated the outside rail, and ballasted it.  The "look" of a Lionel 2343 F3 leaning into that curve was so "mainline".  I acquired mostly full scale "mainline" locomotives and rolling stock from the transition era over the years and, upon retirement, finally had the time and space to build a layout, which remains under construction (as most do).  I have, at my residence, that double-tracked mainline, with superelevated, wide curves, where bullet-shaped Hudsons prance and E-unit diesels dig into the curve at speed, hauling named trains.  Plus freight drags with less prosaic locomotives, both steam and diesel.  Some of the videos shot with my smartphone come pretty close to the real thing, as it was 70 years ago.  I do have some prototypical operating features, but the focus of the layout is that double-track main - and enjoying watching the trains pass, at track level.

--Karl

Karl - Sounds like just what I hope to achieve.  Have you posted the videos anywhere?  I would love to see them.  If you lived closer, I would be asking when I could drop by to see your layout.  Thanks for your reply!

@MainLine Steam posted:

Karl - Sounds like just what I hope to achieve.  Have you posted the videos anywhere?  I would love to see them.  If you lived closer, I would be asking when I could drop by to see your layout.  Thanks for your reply!

Just now doing ground cover and basic scenery, so I don't have any video that I would consider "postable".  Mostly, I shoot it for the enjoyment of my grandson who always wants to see "papa's trains" when I visit my younger son and his family, 300 miles away.  Because of the wide mainline curves (O-104 and O-112 visible) and "reach" issues, I don't have a lot of "land" for things like a full town, etc.  Just a few industrial spurs here and there.

Spent my early years 1/2 block from the LIRR Patchogue station in the steam eras. In my 80's its nostalgia and a longing to relive those years.

to escape the horrors of reality and play in a world where there is a super famous female engineer named Fenix Starr who is trying to save the world from an evil doctor named Halena Ullysses who wants to lock the world into an eternal Halloween.

a world where witches brew soup and Salem Cider Works are real companies

another objective is building the heaviest train possible to forget my deepest worries about my future the kind of worries that keep me awake at night

i just hope i never have to give up my trains or any of my toys for that matter until i leave this earth

Modeling fun! Postwar baby boomer.

To own and operate a train layout like those I was mesmerized by, as a young child, in the downtown department stores at Christmastime.  Dreams can come true!

Hmmm? Started out by just wanting to bring a little joy to the grandchildren by setting up a Polar Express loop on a dining room table right after watching the movie. Held my own for 2 years only buying a couple of extra FasTrack 10" straights and a Polar Railroad box car (scale size - didn't know the difference then). Floodgates opened the 3rd year when I saw all the Christmas nativity box cars MTH produced over the years. I thought God was calling me as I hunted down all of them (plug for York train show). Realized later it was more likely Mike Wolf goading me on through the MTH newsletter and special announcements as I added dozens more holiday rolling stock, many engines of various Yuletide themes, and enough Dept 56 Christmas buildings for a mall display.

My shrink says what I originally thought to be a spiritual exercise was in fact a buying compulsion, ignited by the likes of MTH, leading to isolation and the false notion you can control the world the more you own of the world. In my first few visits the trains were only mentioned in passing as one hobby among many (plug for bird watching). It wasn't until I told her that I have hundreds of little people on the layout and we name them all that she became concerned. Most disturbing was when I showed her an iPhone snapshot of a Preiser figure I painted and named after her.

Eventually I sold almost all the Christmas stuff, but then, I swear, I heard God tell me to start buying replicas of the real railroad lines and so I did. I know this time it was God and not Mike Wolf as a lot of what I bought was from Atlas.  So, I'm back to a spiritual journey...and loving it.

I subscribe to what one of my friends has on his name badge - "having fun with trains".  It's so simple that I'm ashamed I didn't think of it before he did.  If it's related to trains, whether real, scale, or toy, I enjoy it. 

Since retiring, I've become more involved with operations on nearby scale layouts - it has opened up a whole new world in enjoyment of the hobby, learning new things, and meeting new people.  I have a lot of fun "coming out of the closet" as a 3-railer. 

nostalgia

walt

I’ve gone through several iterations as a model train person. The current one, and the one I hope gives me the most joy, is to become a craftsman who can build anything I want, and to do it at a level where I don’t feel like an imposter when I think of myself as a craftsman.

A lot of people get into a hobby because they want something to help them de-stress, but because everyone is unique, one person’s stress relief is another person's nightmare. My best friend loves to garden, but when I see her slaving away out there working in her garden it looks like a ton of hard work and effort. I’d hate it with every fibre of my being—for me it would be a job, and not fun at all. It would cause me stress, and not the good kind.

Figuring out how to scratchbuild a model can also be stressful, but for me it seems to be more cathartic than painful. When doing it I feel like I’m learning something, but it’s not really stressful because I can learn at my own pace and set expectations that suit my mood and level of commitment at any given time.

This new goal seems right for me at this moment. I’ve tried to enjoy model railroading in the past via a credit card or a checkbook, but it didn’t provide the satisfaction I was looking for.

The great thing about model railroading is that each person can find a way of doing it that works for what they need, and that makes the hobby pretty special.

Jeff C

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Enjoyment.

I think this settles most of the conversation as we all strive for this whole doing all the other stuff to it. Thanks John.

In a few words, there are three things that I get from the O gauge hobby: enjoyment, fulfillment, and learning. In the 27 years since I resumed the hobby, it has given me those three things in many ways. They are sufficiently worthwhile to retain my interest, continuing participation, and monetary expenditures for the hobby.

MELGAR

My objective is simple, and like others have noted - Enjoyment. I am an operator, not a collector. Like so many baby boomers, I grew up with model trains - the classic Lionels. No cell phones or computer screens back then, just counting the days until I got another train at Christmas. Then as a teenager, built my layout. College, work, military service, marriage, kids, put all that on hold, but retirement brought it back. Built the dream layout: GFRR: Grandpa's Funtastic RailRoad. It was a joy to design and build over 8 years. Grandkids enjoyed helping me build it, and my wife helped with design, but now that it's done, the kids prefer screen time...so I enjoy it by myself in the evening, while my wife watches episodes of Golden Girls or movies on the Hallmark channel. Smiles all around!

Michael

@MELGAR posted:

In a few words, there are three things that I get from the O gauge hobby: enjoyment, fulfillment, and learning. In the 27 years since I resumed the hobby, it has given me those three things in many ways. They are sufficiently worthwhile to retain my interest, continuing participation, and monetary expenditures for the hobby.

MELGAR

Well said.....Learn.........Create.........Learn.......Re-Create.

Mike

@Scotie posted:

Spent my early years 1/2 block from the LIRR Patchogue station in the steam eras. In my 80's its nostalgia and a longing to relive those years.

You are fortunate to have the memories of Steam from when you were a kid.  By the time I was born, Steam was gone where I lived.  As I mentioned, trying to "relive" that period is my "objective".

@Mooner posted:

My shrink says what I originally thought to be a spiritual exercise was in fact a buying compulsion.

Most disturbing was when I showed her an iPhone snapshot of a Preiser figure I painted and named after her.

ROFLMAO

First line comment - Not a shrink, but I could have saved you a lot of money and told you that (right or wrong). - LOL

Second Line comment - Is she still your "shrink".  Did you get served with a restraining order?

BTW reading this made my day.  Thank you VERY much!

To meet chicks. I read where chicks dig cars, train cars