model railroad speaking of course . I exchanged PM's with Pete awhile back and I mentioned I really don't care all that much about model building in and of itself. If that was all I wanted I would have stuck with military and hot rod car dioramas. What keeps me going back into the train room is taking the models I do build and putting them together to create a (hopefully ) realistic scene that I can THEN run a train thru. Yes I do operate the train in a prototype manner from time to time and designed the layout for that purpose but that alone won't keep me in the hobby. I don't collect or get into track planning or non-operating dioramas. It's scene building/modeling that lights my fire, what lights yours. If your choice isn't in the poll please post what it is. Thank you!

Tried ops a couple of times and maybe it was the people running the sessions , maybe I just don't appreciate it, but it was like watching paint dry ....only slower . Lots of folks like it so that's a good thing . Gimme scratch building , models , weathering/building rolling stock , etc. any day !

T

Boy, a real tossup between model and scenery building. I enjoy them both but if I had to choose, it would be models... Scratchbuilt, kitbash or out of the box, I love them all....

Interesting. It took me a while to decide what really appeals to me...and then it occurred to me that I like creating overall scenes...they might not be masterfully detailed but they convey a sense of what they are supposed to be, whether its a grimy looking steel mill complex or lots of silos and chutes at a grain elevator.

Ralph

I voted for Operations but I probably should explain that. I've never taken part in an operating session but -- what I do like to do most on my two small layouts -- is to run trains. I'm basically "lone-wolfing" it but I do try to run them in a fairly prototypical manner.

I do enjoy building and tweaking layouts, fixing problems, and I am a collector of sorts, although I don't simply collect for the sake of collecting. I use & run everything I collect (I don't quite "get" collectors who simply hoard away boxes and boxes of mint locos with only a few on display).

I do enjoy constructing buildings and assembling kits, but running (I would say "operating" whereas my wife would say I'm "playing trains"!) is what keeps me going.

Cheers,
Rob

I vote for 1,2,&3 .I've had one to many modelers that seem to think model operations are a real job.

Since my answer is "all of it", depending on the particular project of the moment, I cannot just "pick one" for your poll.

Running trains. The rest of them are just a means to get nice trains to run.
I have run both freight shuffling and passenger train scheduling. Both are fun as long as you get along with the rest of the crew.

BR60103 Wrote:Running trains. The rest of them are just a means to get nice trains to run.
I have run both freight shuffling and passenger train scheduling. Both are fun as long as you get along with the rest of the crew.

I agree -- well said, David!

I like taking old school locomotives and getting them running well again...nothing quite like getting a 50+ year old motor exhaling ozone...

Were it possible, I'd vote for the first four - probably the main reason that I'm so far behind in what I want to accomplish.

Wayne

"Were it possible, I'd vote for the first four - probably the main reason that I'm so far behind in what I want to accomplish. "

HAH! I'm 10 years behind on a 5 year layout project.

For me its all about operation..

I really never did like the building facets of the hobby other then what it take to finish the layout.

As a example once I start Slate Creek should be up and running in about 2 days.The scenery will be added as projects starting with roads,then adding some trees,vehicles,figures and so on over several weeks since these are what I call "mood" projects.

The results kind of suprise me. I figured #1 would win by a landslide with #'s 3 and 5 fighting for second. #5 getting no votes at all is really suprising. Also it's good to see #4 come in second. I thought #8 would probably be last so it's about the only one I got right I guess.

Maybe "dioramas" and "scene building " are looked upon similarly ?

T