I'm into scale military models, not railroads, but it's the same thing at heart.
The "rockstar modeler" phenomenon they're talking about here is amusing and very real, because if you're not into it you might not realize modeling is such a closeted hobby. Almost every modeler I know (all of whom, through the internet), makes every effort to avoid telling anyone about the hobby, and we all do it instinctively. It's funny because it's not like model-makers are some classically oppressed group, but we certainly act like we are. Maybe its childhood trauma lurking deep in our subconscious. Maybe it's just cognitive dissonance between who we really are, and the face we present to the world. I don't know.
But anyway, that's the sort of deeper significance to this article, and why it's so funny (or cool, for some of us) to have rockstars of all people who are into modeling.
I have a suspicion a lot of the defenses we put up to hide our 'different' and possibly 'nerdy' interests have since become a shield of a bygone era. No longer are nerds bashed for being nerds. Kids are a lot more understanding and nice nowadays? (In general as well, a lot more socially progressive)
Curious if anyone in the young crowd, or teaches/parents the young crowd in highschool could chime in on this. I could be very very wrong and living in a bubble.
I have hobbies that I don't talk about with anyone else. Not because I wouldn't admit to any of them if asked, but, well... They're my hobbies. For me. I don't particularly want to know or care to hear what other people think about them, because I want something in my life I can enjoy just because I want to.
I think it's a pretty natural response, honestly. Not everything has to be, or even should be, up for social grabs. It's OK to have a personal, private life.
I think that's also very true, that no one should feel forced to reveal something about themselves.It's one of the reasons I don't like the well intentioned 'pro-noun' movement, I feel it may out those who don't want to be outed.
To clarify my previous post, I was referring to those who are suppressed by others from expressing something about themselves that they would otherwise share.
>I feel it may out those who don't want to be outed.
Not to get too off-track, but one of my close friends is directly affected by this, and it has cause them a lot of stress at work. Thankfully most of the the folks they directly work with are understanding, but still.
I also don't really want to compete when it comes to my hobbies, and hobbies have a way of bringing out the comparison junkies and gatekeepers. They find out you're into something and they just want to tell you how awesome and expensive their stuff is. Your smoker will never be the right one, your RC plane/copter/car will never be the toppest of tiers, your audio setup will never allow you to experience that record like theirs (which means 'you haven't really heard it'), and your gaming PC has the wrong thermal paste applied in the wrong shape so you have never experienced performance like theirs.
It's really obnoxious and while I'm sure I've missed a couple decent conversations I know I've dodged a lot more unsolicited drivel by just keeping the hobbies I do to relax for fun to myself.
I live in Arizona, so maybe - but I'm not sure! All the above examples (except the RC thing, that was not me) were co-workers. For the smoker I overheard a guy on a team across the aisle from mine talking about rubs for smoking ribs, and I chimed in - when he found out I use an electric smoker he scoffed and shifted the conversation to explaining to me what models he considered "real smokers." I was not left alone until someone else started mocking him for using a store bought and not having welded his own barrel smoker like player three. I took the opportunity to fade into the background at that point.
I should also mention it's not always aggressive, it seems to be I meet a lot of other guys where the hobby for them is all about the gear. Don't get me wrong, I love bells and whistles, but at some point I learned it's more about what works for me and gives the results I want.
Not the person you asked, but I know exactly what they're talking about. It's less prevalent in in-person discussions, but man are hobby-oneuppers everywhere online. And it's exhausting.
Recently former kid here.
No kids ain't nicer (anecdotal evidence of 1).
If anything, they have become more of a pain in the recent years thanks to unrestricted YouTube + $social_media.
I was afraid that reference would be too low brow for the HN crowd but definitely recommend this episode of TPB.. "I hear there are some bitchin trains in Bangor"
I've only caught a few episodes of TPB (Reno 911 was more my jam when it came to parody reality TV) but as a child of the late 80s/early 90s who also has a fondness for model trains and hair metal, knowing this odd intersection of culture exists, I'm seeking it out ASAP :)
Model railway is a really fun hobby. I built an outdoor railroad with my father over several summers while I was growing up.
He had since built a very extensive indoor O scale layout. The quality of the landscape / scenery is really high. Unfortunately we are now presented with the ‘so what do we do when he passes?’ Question.
He has started to look for a museum to donate it to and trying to offload engines before he passes. It isn’t easy to sell these days, definitely a niche hobby.
I think you are looking in the wrong places. I used to do MRR, and if you just join one of the big MRR forums there is a lot of help there for offloading/moving. I have seen people in your position find locals who will take/purchase it and use it. Literally try https://modelrailroadforums.com/forum/index.php
> instead of wondering where I should put a cymbal, I’m thinking: ‘Does that tree work there? Is that house too close to the railway line?’ It ticks exactly the same boxes.”
These pursuits seem very dangerous for some technically minded people. I built a system for monitoring the levels in our water tanks. Crappy solutions are available for a few bucks, but they didn't suit me. It grew into a multi-user cloud based system that took perhaps a year or so part time to complete. It does its job perfectly but there's no way I can justify that time (and I knew it at the time). I just had no choice but to do it to a high standard.
Speaking of railways and factorio, you can design factories than do bulk local transport using rail rather than belt buses.
Mine’s a railway grid of ‘cells’ with roundabouts at each intersection. Each cell does a specialised function eg oil and coal to rocket fuel, lubricant and petroleum gas. When another cell needs something it just enables a train stop using a circuit network, and the nearest supply train sets off to deliver it.
I’m basically playing ‘model trains’ at this point!
I’m not sure what the status of Neil Young’s train layout is, but I worked with him on his Pono project and got to see the layout and the full scale real train cars which were next to the building with the layout. As far as I know he sold the property (~500 acres on the SF peninsula). The trains were sort of for his son. Neil was also part owner of Lionel.
He had a caboose and maybe one other train car. Both had to be trucked over the rolling coastal hills to get parked on a short piece of track just barely longer than the cars.
I've never done this hobby before but it reminds me a lot of building rail tracks in Minecraft. I have had so many hours of fun in Minecraft building crazy railway switching stations and labyrinthian rail networks spanning entire maps. It's super addicting and it's my favorite part of that game. I wonder if people who participate in this hobby get a similar kind of enjoyment.
It also makes me wonder if there any simulators or video games that cater more specifically to the impulse behind building model railways.
NIMBY Rails has something that satisfies similar itches.
The "impulse behind building model railways" varies among victims, some like the scenery, some like the tracks and trains on a bare table, etc. scene geeks might like "Planet Coaster".
You know, I got back into this like 7 years ago, and gave it up.
One of the main reasons is that this hobby hit the (I do not know what to call it, so Ill throw everything here) "betabrand", "group-buy", "one offs" too dang hard.
You see an engine, its a DCC / Sound / Hyper-realistic switcher and it comes in the rail (Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, etc) and yard number you want. You have to join the pre-buy list, paid in full upfront. If you miss it (OH, and snipers buy all of them ahead of time to sell later on forums and ebay), well...you are going to pay a lot more later on forums and ebay.
Its nuts. What used to be in stock all the time is now a group buy, "we will never do this again in this paint scheme and road number" production run. Sure, I get it, but it costs a LOT of money to get what you want. I really thought, on my pretty middle-upper class salary that I could relive my childhood and get back into MRR. Yeah, I had to give that up after the realization hit me.. "this small layout is going to cost thousands upon thousands of dollars just in engines and cars, much less scenery".
I have no idea what those MRR companies are thinking, but everyone in it has a LOT of extra money to spend. Even in most forums the line "hard to get new people to join our hobby" is thrown around quite a bit.
The deals do exists - but at in person train shows and not online. But I overall agree with you and I see the increase in costs as coming along with the end of shake the box kits and the beginning of premade everything. A case of a market that mortgaged it's future for the a quick buck today.
That said, I think, model railroading will survive and return to it's roots of small basement and garage makers thanks to 3d printing.
It's sort of surprising, but it's a group of weird, creative people with tons of money and free time. I'm sure they're doing tons of odd stuff, model trains among them. (Once they're off drugs, that is.)
It's an open secret that many of the heavy metal musicians on the 80s scene were huge nerds. John Elder Robison in his book Look Me In The Eye wrote about designing guitars with special effects -- they could belch smoke, etc. -- for major bands like KISS, and got to meet the band members. He did describe them as "nerds" (being very much on the spectrum, he would know) and said they had very technically detailed ideas for the cool things they wanted their instruments to do and made significant contributions to the designs.
I really have gotten obsessed with Cities:Skylines - and I think I finally figured out why: It checks most of the boxes model railroading did! If I had the space I'd love to do a physical train layout again, but since I don't I'll keep detailing in C:S.
I always thought it’d be fun to purchase a house somewhere and use the entire thing as a setup for a private model railway hobby. Easy to do if you have a lot of money to burn.
When you're Neil Young or Rod Stewart, you don't pay for music gear unless you try very hard. The manufacturers will give it to you for free on the off chance that you get spotted using it (those musicians also tend to be very careful about what gear they get photographed using, due to sponsorship agreements).
I can absolutely see the appeal of spending your money in an industry where nobody cares who you are or what products you use.
> I can absolutely see the appeal of spending your money in an industry where nobody cares who you are or what products you use.
Many years ago, I was affiliated with a permeant lan gaming store (this was before everyone had high speed internet - which was the downfall of the store when it became available) that was down the road from the state capital.
The store was next to another one who's owner was known in certain circles of politics - but it was more a "known in the circles" rather than "active in the circles"... anyways...
One day, a well dressed young man came around a lunch break time and asked about the video games and playing them and then came back after working hours and played some lan games for a bit.
When he left, the neighbor shop owner came over and asked if we knew who that was - turned out to be the speech writer or press person for the governor at the time.
He often came back and the guess of the appeal (beyond playing games) was twofold. (1) None of the other patrons of the shop cared - they were mostly high school and college kids. (2) Once on line, no one knew who he was.
So yep - spending money where no one cares who you are or what you do where you would be noteworthy outside can have its appeal.
That's true for NEW music gear. Sort of. Musical instruments specifically. Top end recording gear not so much, since like who else buys it except for people who record professionally.
But for the most part these guys are buying vintage/classic stuff and paying astronomical amounts of money for it, since pretty much all people on the planet who care about guitars or tube preamps are chasing the same couple models.
The "rockstar modeler" phenomenon they're talking about here is amusing and very real, because if you're not into it you might not realize modeling is such a closeted hobby. Almost every modeler I know (all of whom, through the internet), makes every effort to avoid telling anyone about the hobby, and we all do it instinctively. It's funny because it's not like model-makers are some classically oppressed group, but we certainly act like we are. Maybe its childhood trauma lurking deep in our subconscious. Maybe it's just cognitive dissonance between who we really are, and the face we present to the world. I don't know.
But anyway, that's the sort of deeper significance to this article, and why it's so funny (or cool, for some of us) to have rockstars of all people who are into modeling.