Prototype modeling - how far can you take it?

[nachoman]

Just out of curiousity, how far do you have to go to become a "rivet counter", and when does it stop being a hobby and become an obsession? :?

Ah!!! The question I was after when starting this thread!

I think this is different for different people. I tend to agree with you that at some point I would quit having fun as my obsession toward prototype fidelity would stifle my productivity. A good portion of my enjoyment of this hobby is to physically be able to see or hold what I have accomplished. If I don't get things accomplished fast enough, i get discouraged and lose interest.

Another point of this thread was to illustrate even the most adherent of "rivet counters" can still take things to a greater level of detail. I spent the afternoon at a county records office looking at maps and deeds from property surveys that were over 100 years old. Some of these deeds were originally filed with the Mexican government, before Arizona territory was part of the USA. Most of what I was researching were original sale deeds and right of way surveys for the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad. Through my research (that I was doing for work and not for hobby) I uncovered some tidbits about the EP&SW that could be useful to someone who wants to faithfully model that line. Some of these were maps and dates showing alignments, stations, bridges, replacements of bridges - all stuff that isn't available in the typical railroad oriented history book. Some of these deeds even listed specific locations where the railroad was allowed to dig in order to obtain ballast material. Yep - a search through a land deed could lead you to the exact place where your railroad dug its ballast so that you could go to that location, collect samples yourself to crush and use on your layout. There are records of more things than you care to think - so long as you are willing to search for them and spend a long time reading old documents and dusty old books.