Letting Off Steam- No Pun intended

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Can you see now how your niche makes you, you and yet gives you your links to others?

Mark

I can definitely see that part, but the links are few. Sure, when it comes to my conrail modeling with GP15s, SD40s, and other pieces, there are plenty of fans of them out there. I suppose where i am though, the other stuff i model isn't really interesting (Ironic, because we all live in this area where those prototypes run).

Your layout has many connections, and its very much like many of the other layouts out there. Switching layouts are popular, and you have a popular prototype, even if they are painted over. The location is the unique and interesting part. Still, how many layouts do you see out there with actual commuter trains? I know of one other person on this site who runs them. its so far removed that most people don't really know about it.

Again, as i said in my first post, its not so much a problem here on this forum, or on many of the online forums. Its more in real life. When i've gone to Modeling meets, club open houses, and train shows, i'm usually the only "serious" modeler of such things i can find. Sure, i'll spy a few people running a stock out of the box New Jersey Transit train, but they usually just have it "because its local" or something of that nature. Interest stops at the "I used to ride a train like this".

When the subject of modeling these trains as a main part of a layout shows up, I get funny looks until i show that I'm not crazy and the topic tends to move on to other things quickly (which is find, i recognize that most people aren't interested in Arrows and silverliners). This reaction their part is not surprising, since in many of these clubs and groups, the only other guy who models commuter trains is uncomfortably strange (and no social skills to boot). If that person is present, they'll usually come over to me and trap me into a one sided conversation in which i either don't get a word in edgewise, or where they don't even really seem to be listening to me. In the end, I'm left with a headache and feeling more outcast than ever.

Thats the part that makes me feel a little self conscious and lonely in terms of modeling. When i'm talking scenery, PRR, conrail, freight operations, people work with me just fine, but god forbid i ask a question relating to something like an Arrow III MU car, no one has anything to say. Its just me.

Again, i mean this to be in person encounters, not online. I know of about 5 or 6 people who model the electrified lines, the commuter lines, and there are a whole legion of us Conrail people out here (Big blue for the win).