Get a Trian Set.....the old rocketry version of "If you can't stand the heat....."

[FredA]

OK - I like model trains.
Not enough to have a train layout, but my Dad was into trains so I grew up with them.

To that end, I visit the local layouts during their annual November (Train Month) open houses.
One, the CGMRC, has an awesome layout and host a really nice open house, so it's a must go event.
On the way out they have a stand of old Model Railroad magazines that are free to take so I usually grab one of two for reading.
One of the magazines I picked up has an article about a layout that starts like this:

"There are many reasons for building a model railroad - high-rate, heart-stopping operation; the display of a collection painstakingly assembled; the joy of craftmanship."

I almost spewed my coffee when I saw the bit about heart-stopping action......really......get a rocket.

 

[Rob Campbell]

Trains can be as expensive as rocketry. Digital control and internal sound boards are now pretty much standard on locomotives.

 

[FredA]

Oh yea - another expensive and time consuming hobby.
Thought about it at times but just can't imagine I have the time to invest to get what I would want.
I think it's way more of a time sink than rocketry.
Better to join a club like CGMRC to get a train fix.

However the whole notion of "Prototypical Operation" drives me around the bend.
Just run a bunch of trains - no OCD needed.

 

[neil_w]

However the whole notion of "Prototypical Operation" drives me around the bend.
Just run a bunch of trains - no OCD needed.

As always, different folks enjoy different aspects of their hobbies. Nothing wrong with that. Plenty of OCD-driven pursuits in rocketry as well.

"There are many reasons for building a model railroad - high-rate, heart-stopping operation; the display of a collection painstakingly assembled; the joy of craftmanship."

I think a copy writer may have gotten carried away with their enthusiasm a bit there.

 

[MALBAR 70]

There are train sets, model railroads, and then there's

Miniatur Wunderland​

 

[Hobie1dog]

There are train sets, model railroads, and the there's

Miniatur Wunderland​

Fascinating, thanks for posting those up for us.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

"There are many reasons for building a model railroad - high-rate, heart-stopping operation; the display of a collection painstakingly assembled; the joy of craftmanship."

I almost spewed my coffee when I saw the bit about heart-stopping action......really......get a rocket.

Technically, they said heart-stopping operation, as in a triple bypass for congestive heart failure due to sedentary lifestyle and not enough heart-stopping action.

It was here on the forum that I first heard the saying about rocket disasters, “If you can’t take the losses, you shoulda got a model train!”

 

[cls]

I bought a Lionel G Scale, the Polar Express, which goes around the Xmas tree every year. I has a remote control that makes it go dingadingadinga, woo woo!, All Aboard!, and forward and backward. And that's enough for me.

 

[lakeroadster]

As always, different folks enjoy different aspects of their hobbies. Nothing wrong with that. Plenty of OCD-driven pursuits in rocketry as well.

Where folks seem to go "off the rails" when it comes to hobbies, is no different from where they also go off the rails in life. All things in moderation... and living within ones means.

 

[KenECoyote]

It can be if you do it right!





"Why else would a grown man play with trains?"

 

[troj]

There's a local estate sale next week that I plan to make a visit to. There are 72 pictures of the train set.

Me? I'm going because of one item at the bottom of a shelf in one of the pictures. An old computer.

Trains are very cool, and I'm incredibly impressed by the craftsmanship that people put into their layouts. But they're not for me.

-Kevin

 

[cvanc]

When trains collide meets when threads collide!

 

[Hobie1dog]

Trains sure take up a lot of room.

 

[lakeroadster]

When trains collide meets when threads collide!

The old school transformer style train sets... with the power in the rails... might have a been more exciting?

 

[Steven]

I have a Z scale Noch Cortina layout and a few Locomotives from micro Trains and others. Doesn't take up space worth a squat and laying out buildings and scenery is minimal. No club needed. Simple yet entirely satisfying.
https://www.noch.com/cortina-layout/85880/

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

The recent movie The Fabelmans features the kid staging a train crash in order to film it, which really irritates his dad, because it’s an expensive gift. One advantage to rocketry is you don’t have to stage the crashes or fake the explosions.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

We had an old train set when I was a kid, and we used to like shorting the rails with things like sewing pins that would glow red hot, or steel wool that would actually burn. Pyro kids. No wonder we got into rockets.

 

[Steven]

When trains collide meets when threads collide!

The Catskill mountains.

 

[lakeroadster]

Back in the 70's I got one of these as a Christmas present. It was a tethered helicopter that had a controller. I set up my Dad's vintage 1950's train track, and put the helicopter in the center. I then loaded train cars with the helicopter..... and ran the train to the other side of the tracks, and unloaded them.

Good times.

 

[SolarYellow]

I took piano lessons from this guy's mother when I was a kid.

 

[Banzai88]

Back in the 70's I got one of these as a Christmas present. It was a tethered helicopter that had a controller. I set up my Dad's vintage 1950's train track, and put the helicopter in the center. I then loaded train cars with the helicopter..... and ran the train to the other side of the tracks, and unloaded them.

Good times.

View attachment 576093

I still have an operational version of this!

 

[lakeroadster]

I still have an operational version of this!

Who knew... there's a number of Mattel commercials on YouTube for these.. and 1972 is just as I remember it. The intensity on the kids face shows just how cool this toy really was.

 

[Curtis Enlow]

Back in the 70's I got one of these as a Christmas present. It was a tethered helicopter that had a controller. I set up my Dad's vintage 1950's train track, and put the helicopter in the center. I then loaded train cars with the helicopter..... and ran the train to the other side of the tracks, and unloaded them.

Good times.

View attachment 576093

I LOVED the Vertibird! But I think I loved my JohnnyAstro more.

 

[Curtis Enlow]

Was I the only one who wound up using the train controller as a variable power supply for electrical experimentation...?

 

[Peartree]

Trains sure take up a lot of room.

He says... on a forum in which many people have an entire room (or outbuilding) dedicated to building rockets.

 

[Rob Campbell]

I LOVED the Vertibird! But I think I loved my JohnnyAstro more.



View attachment 576094

We had cool toys back in the 60s and early 70s.

 

[Steven]

Some of you will remember these. I also have the boxed but open set.

 

[troj]

View attachment 576100
Some of you will remember these. I also have the boxed but open set.

If I'm not mistaken, those used the toothed plastic strip to spin them up.

 

[Steven]

If I'm not mistaken, those used the toothed plastic strip to spin them up.

No, they used this which is rubber band powered.

 

[Steven]

From the Mattel Hot Lines. A train set using the same method as the Sizzlers line to charge up the locomotive. This is the rear unpowered 'caboose'.