Reasons Why

Does anyone really need a reason for a hobby?  Nope. 

Oh, and why are YOU reading this?  The following is excessively boring.  I just want to caution you.  So if you have nothing else to do and have already finished reading the entire internet, please proceed.  But - you have been warned.

I've had many hobbies over the years.  Started with building plastic model kits of cars, airplanes, and boats during elementary school.  In junior high I specialized in model cars.  My school had an annual model car show.  You could build any car you wanted along with a display.  I got first place all 3 times.  So perhaps that was a defining moment in my life.  I mainly won based on good presentation and tons of detail.

The local hobby shop had contests ocasionally.  I entered three more shows.  I got a couple more firsts and a second.  Since this was against a much larger age span, and related experience span, I thought that was pretty good! 

In 8th grade my dad and I were driving, and we passed a small grass airfield.  Someone was out in the middle flying a radio-controlled airplane.  We stopped for a half hour and went out to talk with them and see the thing up close.  I was hooked.  A year later, and a lot of paper route money, I had an airplane and a control system.

During college I got into 10-speed bikes.  When I say "got into", what I really mean is "GOT INTO".  Had a part-time job doing mechanic work at a local bike shop.  Customized my own bike more toward being a racing bike.  Hand-made my wheels, re-stacked the 10-speed gears, all that stuff.  I also got into stereos.  I have a good ear for good sound, and can appreciate good equipment.  I built a Heathkit receiver, and also built a great pair of bass-reflex speakers, which are all still in use today!!  I had some "armchair" or "intelectual" hobbies where I didn't have either the time, money, or opportunity so I just subscribed to magazines of interest.  Photography and snow skiing were the armchair ones.  I'd also get books from the library to extend the learning experience.

After marriage, I turned toward woodworking.  This was after visiting a store selling unfinished furniture.  We had a little bit of nice furniture, but needed a few other essentials, and wanted a few non-essentials.  A display shelf is a non-essential.  The unfinished route sure was less expensive.  But when I took a look at them, I proudly declared to my new bride: "I could make that!"  No need for us to pay someone else for something I could do.  So, a small degree of woodworking began as I slowly built up my workshop.

In the next several years, I learned a bunch of things about myself.  One of them is that I'm not cut out to be a woodworker.  Hand tools sure didn't work for me.  Basic power toools didn't.  More heavy-duty power tools didn't.  I'm really good at "ordinary" stuff, like shelves.  But no way I can do furniture.  Me and wood just don't communicate well with each other.

Now in my old age - 57 (in 2012) I'm getting the usual health issues.  Aching joints.  Sore muscles.  Get injured/bruised much more easily.  Eyesight pooping out.

So I picked model trains.

I was given a Lionel set in Christmas of 1961.  That was Christmas of second grade.  I had a blast with it.  Like all kids I was enthralled to just watch it chase it's tail around the Christmas tree each year.  My mother bought me a bit more stuff for the next couple of years or so.  Then I got the paper route and added a few of my own purchases.  My dad made a sort of a train layout for me.  A portable board I could set up and take down by myself.  We got the usual "grass paper" and stuff to landscape it.  You know, the painted paper that had colored sawdust glued on top?

I had always been facinated by the model railroaders.  Even though I was really good at building a model car for show, the realism of railroads seemed like such a high goal to attain.  I tried and failed several times.  My efforts just weren't good enough compared to them.  My two kids got trains from my mother one Christmas.  It was a big box full of HO scale stuff.  We all tried together to make it work.  It sort of worked, but the realism still eluded me.  Plus, the HO stuff just didn't run as well as my old Lionel.  They'd stall, derail, slip, couldn't go up much of an incline, come uncoupled.  But the nice thing was they were small and a lot more could be fit into the space!

So I decided.  Change everything over to model trains as a hobby.  I attended a seminar put on by a local club.  It was about making basic scenery.  In one too-short afternoon I had my "EUREKA!" moment.  We shaped styrofoam scenery base, painted it with mixed tones of greens and browns, covered it with various stuff to look like grass or rocks, placed stuff that looked like trees, put on a ton of diluted Elmer's Glue, and - - - voiloa!  I got it!

I can do woodworking to build the support structure underneath.  New trains have digital controls so the computer and technology part is present.  I can gage my progress with photography.  And I can listen to my music while I'm "working" (a.k.a. "playing") on my train layout.  My whole goal is to construct scenes that are very realistic.  I can pick up modle train pieces and parts without straining my lower back.  I can sit in a chair and get close to them to see them.

Model railroading has been billed as the "World's Best Hobby".  I think I agree.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.