Change modeling focus?

[nachoman]

Thanks for the responses, everyone Good to hear others think about this stuff.

Don - I envy your approach. And with 4 year old kids now (both love trains), I get a lot of enjoyment out of just setting eztrack on the floor and watching the train run with my kids. The narrow gauge stuff is off-and-on. Right now my only "model building" consists of fixing old Tyco and Bachmann cars from my youth with new couplers and wheels. When I get a bigger space, I plan on building another layout. I doubt I will have much more room than a 4x8. So maybe occasional floor running is my future for right now.

Wayne - like you I probably want to spend more time with the trains than I have. The hobby really helps me stay calm, happy, and have a connection to my childhood. No matter where I have been, how poor I am, or how busy I am, I have always managed to squeeze in a little model railroading.

I guess I started thinking about this when I was pulling out some old stuff to fix/run. I have a Mantua Atlantic that runs really well, but it is lettered for ATSF. I thought, "gee, maybe just get some Santa Fe passenger cars to go with it rather than finish the ones for my own railroad". Would be so much easier. With the short segments of free time I have now, it would take a long time to re-letter and detail the locomotive and cars to the standard I would want. If I just want to run a nice passenger train on the floor every now and then, buying a few santa fe cars is the way to go.