One compliment I frequently hear about this hobby is how it bridges together many different disciplines, such as construction, arts and crafts, history, and electricity. I'm curious, what specifically have you learned or learned how to do as a result of this hobby that you would not likely have learned otherwise, yet you use in other areas of your life besides model railroading?
A big one for me would be electronic knowledge. The past few weeks I have been tinkering around with building a laser guitar (a guitar that plays like a regular guitar but has laser beams instead of strings). I don't think I would ever have had much electronics interest if it wasn't for trying to build small electronic gismos for my model trains as a teen. Sure, I liked to tinker around with everything, but I doubt my interest in motors and electric circuits would have developed if it wasn't for trying to figure out how my trains worked and how to make them work better.
Believe it or not, this hobby has even modified my political viewpoint on some issues. When reading about the area I am modeling, I realized some of the same political issues that the region faces now are the same as they were 100 years ago. When I read 100 year old accounts, it is nearly the same as what is in the newspaper today. And yet, the same solutions that were tried 100 years ago are being proposed again today! If the same thing didn't work 100 years ago, why would it be any different today?!
In other words, this hobby led me to investigate a political isue that I no longer see a simple solution for. Funny how that works.
And, it helped with my last job. As a result of my curiosity and knowledge of railroad history, I posed a question regarding the disposition of land after a railroad right of way is abandoned. This caused a small hubbub at the Department of Justice, and resulted in a court delay that forced the federal government to re-examine their data. Had my task been assigned to someone without railroad knowledge, I doubt the issue would have been caught.
So how about you? How has this hobby affected your non-railroad life?
First and foremost...that I needed glasses.
Then in no particular order: history, economics, soldering, glueing tiny details onto Nscale engines, that medical clamps and tweezers work really well with Nscale, budgeting, patience, frustration, reward. And that all the skills I learned in kindergarten proved to be the most useful...like glueing, modeling, cutting, and imagination.
Herc Driver Wrote:First and foremost...that I needed glasses.
Then in no particular order: history, economics, soldering, glueing tiny details onto Nscale engines, that medical clamps and tweezers work really well with Nscale, budgeting, patience, frustration, reward. And that all the skills I learned in kindergarten proved to be the most useful...like glueing, modeling, cutting, and imagination.
I would agree with pretty well all of this, especially the reading glasses part!
I've learned a few construction/wood working skills, soldering, glueing of small pieces, painting (especially spray-painting) and I've learned more about electricity. I've also learned a lot in the scenery/ballasting areas as well as track geometry, how to lay track, etc. I've also learned a lot of history as I research the region and period that I model.
Rob
It is a though-provoking question, and I thank you for posting it!
It has taught me to see. It would be the third time I have learned to see. It has also helped me to appreciate what is around me in ways I had never known to do.
Early in my youth, I took up astronomy as a hobby, and eventually I taught myself how to see at the telescope eyepiece. One tip provided by the literature blessing the hobby was to actually take paper and pencils and draw what you think you see. Eventually you go back and you can see that your earliest efforts with the same equipment were not as detailed as what you draw these days. Yes, your drawing improves, but so does your ability to see more detail.
Then, I joined the Armoured Corps of the Canadian Armed Forces and was taught how to use my eyes to detect humans and their machines hidden behind camouflage, or just parked behind bushes that obstructed clear vision of them.
When I joined the hobby, I was amazed that I had to learn a wholely different type of seeing. I had to learn what bark looks like, what rusty rails look like, what a frog looks like, what ballast looks like, even how tracks look when viewed standing in their midst as they disappear into the distance. So, the hobby, for me, has improved my ability to discern better what is around me, but also to appreciate it more. There is much at which to marvel.
-Crandell
Gary S Wrote:Patience!
Abso-freaking-lutely!
But c'mon, Gary, building that layout building has to have taught you a thing or two!
nachoman Wrote:But c'mon, Gary, building that layout building has to have taught you a thing or two!
Okay... I am NOT a trim carpenter!
What hasn't this hobby taught me, or been responsible for me learning something new constantly!
In addition to " all the above ", How things work, Why things work, why things can look so different, and do the same job, how things are built, how things are used or modified to be used in slightly different applications. It has given me a greater sense of space and the relationship of property size, structure size, and property/structure function. The research has given me a greater understanding of all the things usually associated with the process of moving materials over distance. It has also allowed me to see things that could exist, and the logic of their structure. It has taught me so much about.......well just about all the sciences, and that includes Meteorology, Geology, Geography, Ecology, Oceanography, and many more. Better, it has trained my eyes to look, and truly see. To be able to create a miniature world that reflects the realities of the world around us. Best, it shows me how much more I can learn, and improve the skills I have now. Learning is living is learning......and that's good.
Selector Wrote:It is a though-provoking question, and I thank you for posting it!
It has taught me to see. It would be the third time I have learned to see. It has also helped me to appreciate what is around me in ways I had never known to do.
Early in my youth, I took up astronomy as a hobby, and eventually I taught myself how to see at the telescope eyepiece. One tip provided by the literature blessing the hobby was to actually take paper and pencils and draw what you think you see. Eventually you go back and you can see that your earliest efforts with the same equipment were not as detailed as what you draw these days. Yes, your drawing improves, but so does your ability to see more detail....
-Crandell
I think I know what you mean -- you start picking up on details that you completely missed before & you develop an appreciation for fine details.
I too was once into astronomy, big time, from the late-70s through to the mid-80s. I was amazed by the amount of detail I could see on the planets, especially Mars and Jupiter. With practice, it was amazing what you could see.
Rob
As a younger kid, my father used our Lionel trains to explain electrical basics to me. That led to an interest in things electrical and electronic, taking high school courses in vocational electronics, and culminating in an MSEE degree.
I first learned to solder by attaching wires to the Lionel track.
I learned about gears and gear systems, and the various electric motors that drove them.
Most of all, I learned to not be afraid to try new materials, new techniques, and new ways of doing things. I learned that there are really no technologies that I am not capable of understanding with applied effort.
Fred W
It is always better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission...
That... Murphy lives in my house and it's quite obvious that he's never moving out.
...That I have champagne tastes on a beer budget
Hello All---much more than any practical skills I've developed,this hobby has made me realize what a lucky man I am to have such a supportive wife who enables me to pursue this hobby and also all the friends I have made who share this passion,especially my talented friend Doctor Wayne
Great sentiment, Mister Nutbar. I second that motion!