What has this hobby taught you?

[Brakie]

For me several things:

1.Modeling a form of transportation one needs to know what a railroad is,what it does for a living and how it goes about doing its business.
of moving freight.

2.Rationalization of the railroad plant must be followed if one wants a believable freelance or prototypical layout.

3.Geography..One must study the area that his railroad runs through in order to emulate the area he/she intends to model.

4.History..Knowing the history of your railroad will help you select the correct cars and locomotives for the model era.Also,if one models Chessie,Conrail and other such roads he/she must know the signal type being used in that area.Let's say a modeler models CR on the former NYC.The modeler will need to use NYC style signals.If one models the C&O under Chessie then he/she needs to use the C&O style signal..See how it knowing the history of your railroad helps create a believable layout?

4.A familiarization study of the area being modeled is a must since we need to know the types of industries served by our railroad.

So,beyond the carpentry and electrical skills needed there is a host of other things we need to know and understand.