04-09-2021, 03:22 PM
Model railroading has moved rapidly into the hi-tech realm, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? Obviously, there are advantages to computerising everything, but do they outweigh the disadvantages, or even balance them out? In my view, the hobby is now like the cellphone - it has gone far beyond its intended purpose is is becoming detrimental in many ways.
I'm a military kid who grow up in post-war G. Nothing much...an 0-4-0 switcher, a couple of the wagon-top passenger cars, a box car and a tank car, all with the hook system couplers and the European buffers. An oval of snap-together track, a turnout and a power pack.
I didn't know anything about model trains and neither did my father, so my model train was favorite toy, put up on the floor of my bedroom and taken down at bedtime, put in a wooden box and stored in my footlocker toy box. No special treatment. I didn't know I needed to clean the track, so I never did. Never lubricated the engine, either. Used Lincoln logs and dominoes to make my grades. Took it out whenever I want to run it, snapped the track together and it ran, first time, every time. I Finally lost track of my train when I graduated and joined the Army, after I brought it back to the States, reversed the transformer, and ran it for years on American 120v current.
Today I constantly read abut problems with keeping track clean, dead spots, shorts, lubricating, checking gauges and myriad other problems, and the issues involved with DCC, just the ones that make it into the magazines, are too numerous to count, not to mention that anything computerized is rapidly headed for obsolescence and in constant need of upgrading.
Yes, it is nice to have sound effects, but I never needed them then and I don't need them now.
Yes, it is nice to operate multiple trains on a single stretch of track, but my personal railroad empire was never that big, I never did it and I do not miss it. Yes, I realize that most modelers today are miserable with anything less than two or three hundred square feet, but I grew in military quarters bedrooms and never had that much space, and it was never a problem because my imagination determines the size of my world, not the physical dimensions.
Yes, prototypical realism is vital to many hobbyists, and I respect them for that, but I do not require that from my part of the hobby. It's about creating a virtual world and seeing it run. It is not about endlessly troubleshooting and fixing. That train and track that I constantly enjoyed from 1948 to 1961 was indestructible and unstoppable, and it is difficult to accept that trains today are unable to meet that quality, or that they now require the time, effort and resources to keep them operating that the models of today demand.
I may end up being the last DC modeler on the planet, and that's just fine with me, because although the hobby is about a lot of things, for me it is ultimately about simply having fun.
I'm a military kid who grow up in post-war G. Nothing much...an 0-4-0 switcher, a couple of the wagon-top passenger cars, a box car and a tank car, all with the hook system couplers and the European buffers. An oval of snap-together track, a turnout and a power pack.
I didn't know anything about model trains and neither did my father, so my model train was favorite toy, put up on the floor of my bedroom and taken down at bedtime, put in a wooden box and stored in my footlocker toy box. No special treatment. I didn't know I needed to clean the track, so I never did. Never lubricated the engine, either. Used Lincoln logs and dominoes to make my grades. Took it out whenever I want to run it, snapped the track together and it ran, first time, every time. I Finally lost track of my train when I graduated and joined the Army, after I brought it back to the States, reversed the transformer, and ran it for years on American 120v current.
Today I constantly read abut problems with keeping track clean, dead spots, shorts, lubricating, checking gauges and myriad other problems, and the issues involved with DCC, just the ones that make it into the magazines, are too numerous to count, not to mention that anything computerized is rapidly headed for obsolescence and in constant need of upgrading.
Yes, it is nice to have sound effects, but I never needed them then and I don't need them now.
Yes, it is nice to operate multiple trains on a single stretch of track, but my personal railroad empire was never that big, I never did it and I do not miss it. Yes, I realize that most modelers today are miserable with anything less than two or three hundred square feet, but I grew in military quarters bedrooms and never had that much space, and it was never a problem because my imagination determines the size of my world, not the physical dimensions.
Yes, prototypical realism is vital to many hobbyists, and I respect them for that, but I do not require that from my part of the hobby. It's about creating a virtual world and seeing it run. It is not about endlessly troubleshooting and fixing. That train and track that I constantly enjoyed from 1948 to 1961 was indestructible and unstoppable, and it is difficult to accept that trains today are unable to meet that quality, or that they now require the time, effort and resources to keep them operating that the models of today demand.
I may end up being the last DC modeler on the planet, and that's just fine with me, because although the hobby is about a lot of things, for me it is ultimately about simply having fun.