In this day and age folks find many things for stress relief. Some find relief in going to the beach, working out in the yard, going to happy hour, or just watching TV. But then there is another group of folks who find relief in something that requires both creative and mechanical thought. It is a hobby. It is a hobby kind of like building models but even better. It is one of the great hobbies of all time. It is one of the “Greatest Hobbies on the Earth”. It is the hobby of model trains.
Why is this hobby of model trains so great? There are a few reasons. One of the strongest reasons is that the hobby brings together both young and old, man and woman, boy and girl alike. It is a hobby that can be shared by the entire family. Why, it is not uncommon that the family will get together and the children will play with the trains while dad works on a model of a trestle and mom does some decorating with shrubberies and model trees that she crafted from lichen and clay. It is more than just the trains that makes up this hobby. And when the family runs the model trains they all sit back and admire their work. They cannot get over how “real” the model trains look.
The hobby of model trains is a hobby with some rules such as you have to honor the modeling scale a railroad is in (N Scale, HO Scale, O Scale) but it still allows for freedom of thought and imagination. This is another feature that makes it the greatest hobby on the Earth. You can dream up names of your model towns on your railroad. You can name the canyons and bridges you build models of. You can even give your railroad its own name and color scheme. You have total imaginative freedom yet it still is a railroad that follows a path on a standard set of model rails and trains. The trains you run resemble the real ones but you can put your imaginative touch on them.
As a young lad in elementary, junior high, and high school, I found that model trains was a great hobby because it kept me out of trouble. It gave me something to do. In my youth, there were no computers so it was hobbies like model trains that kept us occupied. In fact, it is one of the greatest hobbies because you can’t really get into trouble running and collecting model trains. Youths these days get into trouble with their computers quite frequently but the potential just was not there with model trains. If you are just starting in model trains then you are in for a real treat.
Richard is a retired Chemical Engineer and model trains buff!
http://modeltrainsblog.com