You might be a train freak if….

...you see random numbers (house numbers, phone numbers etc.) and immediately think of Pre and Postwar items that have the same numbers!

When you clean up your bench and fill a zip lock bag with traction tires....

When you’re planning a family vacation and your wife wants to go to Aruba and you want to go to the Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, Pa.

,….…….you might be a train freak.

@Pup posted:

When you moved from NY to Tenn. you had two Pods for household stuff and one for your trains.

When we moved from Pennsylvania to California, our household stuff went in a 53’ truck. My trains had to be put in a 53’ shipping container and moved by rail to California! LOL.

…. I am a train freak! (No apologies!  )

In order to expand your layout to make it more interesting and look more like a railroad empire, you almost eliminate the ability to have access to certain parts of it. I said almost, not completely. So, if I have a derailment in the left back corner a foot or two in front of a tunnel, in order to gain access to the derailed train, I have to take off the boats, barges and a 182 Magnet crane and pull out a removable river a couple of feet, thereby messing up a lot of lichen that hides the seems along the edge of the removable river that has a 1 inch Styrofoam base.

By the time I do that, deal with the derailment and put the boats, barges, accessory and lichen back in place, that takes about 3 to 4 hours of crawling under the train tables, bending and stretching, etc.

Later I will post a photo or two so you have a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Here is a video showing that hard to reach area: it's where the train goes around the mountain with the tunnel in it and is in front of, and to the right of, that tunnel at the end of the short video:

Also, I know it's possible to make some kind of hinge between the removable river and one of the train tables, but I'm not great with tools and I'm cheap, so I didn't do that.

Also, for the last 3 years, I've had remarkably few derailments in that difficult to reach area.

I ascribe to the Rube Goldberg approach to model railroading. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, that means I take short cuts. LOL, Arnold

You are if you have a bunch of layout drawings doodled on the back of documents, receipts, paper napkins, old college notebooks, work orders, scrap paper, legal pads............

Confession:  I recently found some on the back of an old grade school tablet and that was a loooong time ago.   

Earl 

@Conductor Earl posted:

You are if you have a bunch of layout drawings doodled on the back of documents, receipts, paper napkins, old college notebooks, work orders, scrap paper, legal pads............

Confession:  I recently found some on the back of an old grade school tablet and that was a loooong time ago.   

Earl

Earl, I had the same experience when I was in the enthralling process of designing my layout in the mid to late 1990s.

Imagine being a civil engineer and doing the real thing? If only I could do Calculus in college. Arnold

...if you have a bookmark menu labeled 'Trains' and there are 52 saved links, and one folder within it labeled 'Train Videos' with 42 favorite youtubes of trains...and you added this at 3:04AM.

@CALNNC posted:

...if you have a bookmark menu labeled 'Trains' and there are 52 saved links, and one folder within it labeled 'Train Videos' with 42 favorite youtubes of trains...and you added this at 3:04AM.

Mine's got 103......

You stay up past midnight on Friday night to start the next Switcher Saturday thread on the Forum 'cause you might over sleep in the morning.

And you spend the week thinking about what switchers you are going to showcase each week.

You start the STEAMday Sunday thread every Sunday, without fail, and try to do it at 12:01 AM Sunday morning, which I have done, but sometimes I fall asleep before that time and end up starting it around 2:30 AM, which is what I did last night. LOL

I'm not a "train freak", I'm a railfan.  So what if people exclaim OMG! upon seeing all my trains the first time.

What, me worry?

You may be into trains if everyone looks at you when any train topic is mentioned…

Just happened to me at a family gathering, and I was honestly surprised that everyone knew…

@Stinky1 posted:

Two things come to mind when someone says Jeep/Geep.

On a more antique note, when someone says "Hudson", are they referring to the automobile or the locomotive? Since Chrysler (now Stellantis) owns the rights to the name "Hudson" as an automobile brand, occasionally I have had this wee thought about a Hudson Hemi....

When the UPS driver tells you "You must have one h*** of a train collection".  True Story !

@Mike M posted:

You may be into trains if everyone looks at you when any train topic is mentioned…

Just happened to me at a family gathering, and I was honestly surprised that everyone knew…

Well, if you think about it, we can’t come out of the closet, ……we can’t even get in the closet, …..too crammed with boxes……so, yeah,…..we stick out like sore thumbs. ☺️

Pat

You wake up at 5AM every morning and immediately start working on your layout.

@Hump Yard Mike posted:

This got me to thinking of Jeff Foxworthy.  Maybe others can add to the statement below which applies:

You might be a train freak if….      

you have train/railroad items in every room of your house except your bathroom and laundry rooms.

Except the bathroom?? Surely you jest!! We have 3 bathrooms and there's train mags in every one of them!!!

You might be a railfan if . . .

ONE
You scan your BR (Burlington Route, CB&Q RR & subsidiaries C&S and FW&D) herald from a train show and have Staples Store create a magnetic sign for your silver Sienna minivan.

TWO
You apply the magnetic BR herald to the doors of your silver Sienna minivan & christen it Silver Sienna.

THREE
You avoid express ways & the fastest route while driving to spring & fall BRHS meets.  Instead, you take the US, state, & county two lane highways in order to drive along active & abandoned ROWs of the CB&Q.

FOUR
While at the BRHS meet, you invite other attendees to ride in the "vista dome" (i.e., front passenger captains chair below glass sun roof), "parlor section" (middle seats with captain's chairs), or "observation lounge" (rear seats) in Silver Sienna.

FIVE
Your fellow BRHS members want to know how you made and/or bought the magnetic BR herald.

SIX
While stopping at preserved depots, towns people willingly come to meet you to share local RR history.   

CB&Q Bill

You might be a railfan if . . .

ONE
You bring your Sunset 3rd Rail CB&Q #4978 to Mendota IL & photograph it next to the prototype #4978.

TWO
You use the Rail Fonts software to create a name tag of your OGR Forum screen name with Burlington Herald font on one side & Zephyr Gothic fonts on the other side.  Then wear this name tag at local hobby shops, train shows, & railfan trips in order to identify other OGR members.

CB&Q Bill

You might be railfan if you . . .

Add the dates of BRHS meets, TrainFest, Great Midwest RR Show, and Illinois Railway Museum major events to the family calendar on the refrigerator. 

CB&Q

....if you take your Russel plow and Jordan Spreader off the shelf and go out in 19 degree weather to see if you could  plow REAL snow!! It worked!

(I have a separate post on plowing real snow)

Bob

You might be a railfan if your . . .

All of your "Pajamas" consist of
1. Plaid flannel cotton bottoms with
2. Oversized CB&Q, RR, Lionel, MTH, etc tee shirts.

CB&Q Bill

If you arrange all your railroad logo T-shirts in alphabetical order in your drawer……

…. you might be a train freak.

...Your first log-in of the day...every day...7/52...is the OGR Forum??

.

.

Testify!

Spending half the day on OGR posting photos and try to remember, did I post this photo?

God Speed

@ed h posted:

When the UPS driver tells you "You must have one h*** of a train collection".  True Story !

That happened to me at work although he said something like "Another train?". I told him "No, not this time.".

@CBQ_Bill posted:

You might be a railfan if your . . .

All of your "Pajamas" consist of
1. Plaid flannel cotton bottoms with
2. Oversized CB&Q, RR, Lionel, MTH, etc tee shirts.

CB&Q Bill

Bill - By "Pajamas" I believe you mean attire to wear to Walmart.  LOL

You think Railroad Park in Rochelle, IL should become part of the National Park System.   

You might be a train freak  -

• If you find yourself just walking into the train room on a regular basis to get a rush of good vibes and joy. No need to even turn on the electric and run anything.  Just the mere sights and smells give you that lift and puts a huge smile on your face that no-one in your family can understand.
• If the smell of ozone fills you with joyful memories of your childhood. 

....if, after a long day of driving on a trip with your wife,  you finally stop at a little motel  in the mountains of Virginia in the dark for a good nights sleep, and at 2 in the morning the earth shakes, the walls creek, you feel the low rumble of diesel engines under load, and you rush to the window to find out that a 100 car coal train in the days of jointed rail, pounds by not 20 feet from the back of the motel, and  your response is 'Cool'.   (The wife's was not, and she reminded me of this event)

@CALNNC posted:

....if, after a long day of driving on a trip with your wife,  you finally stop at a little motel  in the mountains of Virginia in the dark for a good nights sleep, and at 2 in the morning the earth shakes, the walls creek, you feel the low rumble of diesel engines under load, and you rush to the window to find out that a 100 car coal train in the days of jointed rail, pounds by not 20 feet from the back of the motel, and  your response is 'Cool'.   (The wife's was not, and she reminded me of this event)

OMG!!!  Memory, memory!!!  Not a motel in Virginia...but a college dorm room at Miami University, Oxford, OH!

I was visiting my then-girlfriend on her campus during our college days.  She had arranged for me to bunk with a classmate in one of the men's dorms for the night.  I had paid no attention to what was mere feet beyond the ground floor window of the dorm.

I swear that speeding post-midnight B&O freight train was about to gothrough the room!!!!  There must have been a half-dozen road crossings through the town based on the repetitive, familiar, and approaching horn warnings mingled with the clanging of the crossing bells!!  Talk about an unfolding nightmare!!!  No rushing to the window...frozen in utter fear!

Her classmate slept through it all, I guess.  The following morning he denied any awareness...'You get used to it after a while'.   Could be.  During the following day spent around the campus with the GF, I couldn't recall hearing another train pass through town, and she claimed she didn't even know about the track.

BTW...There's a scene in the movie "My Cousin Vinny" that brought back the same memory.  Not a train-flick, but a great movie anyway!  Joe Pesci at his best!

--------------

Apologies to the OP for the diversionary recall!  My bad!

Meanwhile, back among the fellow freaks....

@endless tracks posted:

....if you take your Russel plow and Jordan Spreader off the shelf and go out in 19 degree weather to see if you could  plow REAL snow!! It worked!

(I have a separate post on plowing real snow)

Bob

That is pretty darn cool!

If you got your first train set in 1948 and still have it today. Including a picture of how you were amazed at the milk car.

This is a fantastic post. I'm definitely a train freak. I spout random facts about trains all the time. I love showing off my trains to people. I watch way too many train videos on Youtube.

Also, you might be a train freak if you got to operate a real locomotive. Best birthday ever!

..... if you hire a plumber to relocate the main plumbing stack in your home to avoid having to install an "S" curve in the closet through which your new mail line connects;

or

.....if, when planning your next vacation, the first item you research is whether your destination has any nearby train stores. 

@Traindiesel posted:

If you arrange all your railroad logo T-shirts in alphabetical order in your drawer……

…. you might be a train freak.

Nah, that's just compulsive . . .

@dkdkrd posted:

...Your first log-in of the day...every day...7/52...is the OGR Forum??

Wait . . .what? . . . you can *log out*????!

@Dylan the Train Man posted:

Also, you might be a train freak if you got to operate a real locomotive.

Yea me too. Yes, that was fun.

When you sign up your dog for dog training and you ask them ‘what gauge’….…

……..you might be a train freak.

…if your ringtone for the wife’s text messages is a train horn. When you text her back and say we have work to do in the yard she knows you don’t mean vegetables.