What are the things you hate to do in model railroading?

[MountainMan]

This sounds like the start of a very profitable business for someone.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

I hate painting. It seems that there is ALWAYS some issues, even with solid colors. Most of my painting frustration tends to be related to dust control, and masking complex paint schemes. to be fair, I posted a thread a while ago asking for help and got it, but i have not yet had time to try those suggestions.

My next greatest hatred is prolonged drilling and tapping. In particular, drilling out centered holes for headlights, and the wrist destroying repetive nature of grab iron installation. Doing a few here or there isn't a big deal, but it can get annoying after you're drilling a somewhere over 50 holes!

If the holes are wrong, its extra work to repair (if it can be repaired!), and then if your hand is not steady, the drill bit snaps. Bonus points if it snaps INSIDE your rare/expensive resin kit.

I'll never stop working on such things, but they are steps that I make sure I do right the first time, so that the "pain" is worth it.

[joefryfry]

I hate ballasting. I find it funny that so many say they hate trackwork as I love that part of it. I just laid down new flextrack for my tiny layout and it went well. N scale track is alot harder to deal with than HO. Now I have to ballast and instead of avoiding it I got right on it and did a third of it the other night. The rest should be done this weekend maybe. When work takes up 70 hours of the week and you have a wife and 1.5 kids, its difficult to make progress. My wife always bust my chops for never finishing a layout. So I started this little layout over and I am making it as simple as possible just to get it done for one to prove her wrong and for two, I think we may not stick around in this house for long. Back to the topic here...part of the reason I think I find it so easy to keep starting new layouts is because I like laying track so much.

[nkp_174]

Ready-to-Run and easy to assemble kits. They're killing the hobby. No one is a real builder anymore. The skills of our hobby are dying!

(just kidding...I'm echoing the standard letter to the editor of the 1950s as I was recently reading 1940s MRs)

I hate making measurement errors when cutting parts...especially when I don't notice them until the after the glue has dried.

[tomustang]

Painting White

Having to pay mark-up prices on plastic stock since its hobby specific

[Russ Bellinis]

I think the worst part for me is room preparation. I hate to go in there to try to clean it up so I can finally build my layout. I have so much stuff stored in my layout room that will go back where it belongs once the garage is finished and organized and various other places in the house are organized that the task seems overwhelming at times! I've got a garage full of stuff that needs to be put away on shelves, but I need to build the shelves first, and I just wish that I could get that stuff to levitate out of my way so I could build my shelves and have a place to put things!

[santafewillie]

Soldering followed by backdrop painting. I'm just not good at either. I'm OK with wiring, it's just the soldering part.
willie

[joefryfry]

After applying another coat of ballast, I'd like to reiterate loathing it.

[eightyeightfan1]

If there was one thing I hated about model railroading.....I would be in another hobby.

[shaygetz]

Sadly...club membership...I really thought I left that gossipy, uppity, cliquish schoolgirl male bovine effluvium behind me back in high school...

After that it would be finding out I rewired my locomotive backwards AFTER reassembling it...

[Lester Perry]

I am sitting here reading this and thinking about what I dislike, hate is to strong of a word for me. I think I will agree with Southern Tuxedo $$$$$ I am glad I started many years ago when it was an affordable hobby. $1 flex track, $4 for Athearn box car $7 for Atlas switch. I am not talking 50 years ago either. Try 15 years ago.

[Prairie Trains]

Number 1 is backdrops. Number 2 is disassembling locos to clean wheel sets for better electrical pickup.

[nachoman]

LOL, Michael! You must be a model railroad nostalgist like me. I love those old issues of Model Railroader. Some pages have great ideas, long forgotten. Others have the same old complaints that apply today. It's funny. Purists of the 50s were worried the "shake the box" kits (hence the derogatory name) would kill the hobby. Today, people worry the death of kits in general is killing the hobby.

[sailormatlac]

Sadly...club membership...I really thought I left that gossipy, uppity, cliquish schoolgirl male bovine effluvium behind me back in high school...

After that it would be finding out I rewired my locomotive backwards AFTER reassembling it...

I second both statements!!!! I find rewiring and maintaining locomotives a pure waste of time!!! But I can't do anything against this fact!

Matt

[ngaugingnut]

Dropping things on the ground while I'm working on them and having to pick them up while sitting on a high chair - maybe due to a small workbench or the clutter that tends to accumulate on it.

Otherwise I see all work I actually do on the layout as enjoyable and a learning experience. I tend to bounce around from one thing to another so nothing gets to be too onerous.