I'm Loco. Loco for locos. For inquiries, contact me at: loco.produce@gmail.com
God bless. I'll see you soon, out on the High Iron.
Romans 8:28
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I like model trains because of the sheer amount of layouts and creativity one does with a layout. And the amount of custom models puts even the most priced model to shame
I understand that model railroading isn't as hype worthy as the real deal! However, as a artist. I love building, painting, and custom making things! I feel that model railroading brings creativity to a commuity that has gone downhill for the past ten years! *Im looking at that 17 years old who derailed a BNSF* So to me, model railroading isn't something you look at for hours, its something you made with skills and creative mind! But that just me as someone who loves art!
Honestly in my opinion, I think model trains are for old people because they have enough money saved and have nothing else to buy it with. And to be fair I haven't seen many young adults with model trains besides foxcraft (NO GLAZE). And I think real trains are for the young minds because who wouldn't be smart enough to tell you what train your riding in (Besides railfans and the train crew themselves). Don't worry loco. In 5 years ill be a conductor for Norfolk Southern and I plan on working on the Inman Yard to Florida line. The names Jamorie By the way. I want you to remember that name if your still in ATL railfanning inman yard in 5 years. Ill be just like that conductor at 9:18
I have some railfan locations that may intrest you: Chattanooga tn: coffeys cliff is a good local spot for train watching in one of Ns's major yards. Its safe during the day but sketchy at evening/night though anywhere in town near the rr almost always guarantees train action of some sort. Tvrm rr museum is also a good place to watch trains there. (Theres also a river walk that lets you get decent veiws of 4 to 5 different railroad brisgea crossing Chickamauga Creek Also of note is chattanooga's old passenger station which has been heavily remodeled but still worth looking at. (Had a rr themed hotel where you could stay in converted passenger cars but thats now been taken over by a new boutiqe type hotel which moved the more salvagable cars back away from the station (video will come on my channel explaining all that) Next, dalton ga: has csx and ns traffic near constantly save for a lul that veries time wise (busy during the morning and early afternoon before slowing down in the middle of the day before picking up again during eveing and night hours) Finally, Tunnel hill ga: town of tunnel hill is a great place to watch trains on csx's W&A sub (which has the famed civil war tunnel if your intrrested in that.) Just giving ideas for places you could visit.
This is a bit off topic but hearing Minecraft music brings back hella memories. You earned a subscriber Also as someone who owns a n scale layout I agree with some of your points lol
Honestly I’m a fan of both, being at a modular railroad club we have different trains but real trains are cooler and you can actually feel a vibe that models aren’t able to provide, but a lot of these are valid reasons One of my top reasons is cost and the fact some model manufacturers lack in doing the details right or even trying, some things aren’t meant to be made models.. or made to fit a specific range of models made I’ve seen many models that lack detail and often are why I tend to wanna see real trains and only run my models at club events and at friends layouts
Can I be honest? I love model railroading but I completely agree with your take. 1. Modelers do not invest enough energy in enhancing the experience of the model. It's boring. There's very limited tin-can sounds, there's very few people who invest in immersion. I actually have talked with folks about building a proper doppler effect using a DSP module that audiophiles use to augment the sound signature of their speakers to their room shape. Same tech could make directional audio more approachable. 2. Most modelers aren't very realistic, for many reasons, but I think the real reason it irks you so much is the lack of COHESION. Like if you're going to have Godzilla on your layout, what's the lore behind it? Stick a castle with a dragon? Explain to me how 2 mile trains work with treasure-hoarding dragons in your universe. DnD campaigns dump 10 pages of exposition for a single pub, there's no reason model railroaders can't make sense of the weird shit on their layouts. If you have mixed engines, model something that explains how that happened. Really though, giant conglomerates like Disney are aimed at entertaining kids and they still put a ton of energy in explaining their lore to justify their illusions even to children. 3. Price is absolutely my biggest gripe for the entire modeling hobby. You have all these boomer geezers out there collecting entire rooms worth of trains and then turn around and wonder why nobody under 45 isn't into this hobby. The prices are just too high because of this hoarding and the endless pursuit of perfect details that only rivet counters give a crap about. They've nuked the entire budget-train market, which means nobody with student loans is gonna buy this stuff. I personally think that 3D printing is slowly changing this, because you now have the ability for people to print whatever they want, and then enjoy long train consists for pennies on the dollar exactly as they want them. So yeah you are right. Model trains are mid, but I think they could be way better, and there's a path to that if this stuff was cheaper and we started having people who are into other modeling hobbies diving in and offering fresh takes into the hobby in general.
As a model railroader myself, many of these are valid points, especially pricing; HO scale is thankfully a lot better than O though it is still quite expensive. Until someone figures out how to make realistic grab irons and other small parts that are not separately applied, I don't see the pricing coming down anytime soon unfortunately and it really sucks. I got into model railroading for the reasons you mentioned in the video, to recreate trains you can't see anymore in real life. As you mentioned, the variety these days is all gone. It's all GEVO, more GEVO, C6M, CM44, and maybe an ACe occasionally, and to see any sort of EMD or ALCO you have to go and chase a local which impossible without a drivers license yet. I model roughly 1975-1999 with a primary focus on Conrail, and only 3.75 engines (NS 8098, MNCW 201, NJT 4208 starting October, and CSX 1976 is the 0.75 with the YN3 nose) are on the rails actively in Conrail blue which is less than the number of Conrail engines I own. But probably the most fun part for me is op sessions on the club since I don't plan on becoming a locomotive engineer or conductor myself which means I won't be able to run a local in real life and switch cars around. And we spend plenty of time talking about real trains there as well. I'd say I still like the thrill of real trains more but there's certain things you can't do with real ones that you can with models. Just like on real railroads, it takes multiple people to run a fun model railroad. Doing anything solo isn't worth the time, effort, and money and is why many home layout-builders always invite others to operate. We're always bouncing facts and ideas off each other (especially since most of the club are railroad employees) and the barrier to entry in my opinion is too great if you're trying to do everything yourself.
That’s fair, of course. I fortunately have the privilege of having some pretty active lines around me, so for me it’s just more worth it to actually go trackside.
Very valid points. Especially about how damn expensive new stuff can be. But most model railroaders love the hobby because they love the actual process of modeling the environments. Or, like me, model railroaders just don't live close enough to tracks to see any trains and/or they like the engineering challenge of figuring out the wiring and track plan. This isn't meant to be a critique of the video, just another perspective. Great video overall. 👍
I enjoy model trains more when looking at other people's layouts. When I look at my own I just feel bad knowing that I'll never have a layout as cool as clubs. Also the pricing is unbelievable.
Do things for your own enjoyment, that's a problem with your philosophy and not the hobby. For pretty much any of your endeavors in life there's gonna be people better at it then you, whether it's cause of money, talent, dedication, or a mix of them.
One thing you didn’t mention is ops. Model railroad operations are the fun of the hobby for me. Especially the puzzle-like environment of switching. Another thing, excursion trains. Many only come out once a year (*ahem* UP) and can be very difficult to get to (especially when the nearest UP trackage is over 3 hours away). Models (although expensive) can be a way to get those excursions anytime you want (which was a point you put in your video). Last point, creativity. Building scenery, benchwork, laying track, and wiring are all forms of creativity and many people enjoy just the building of the model railroad. For me, my favorite thing about the hobby is programming. I found a way to put multiple function maps in a single decoder and toggle them with any function button. It’s not always about the little trains, there’s other aspects to it. *angry commenter noises*
I think when it gets really fun is if you have like a club or something of people all pouring into the same project. Solo gets so economically burdensome.
Ok. I see your point. I’m designing a switching layout (14x2) and even for its smaller size it’s taken ages with many setbacks. To me, it’s worth it. But to each their own.
