We all know that all of us humans are different in some way. We have different lives, different ideas, and different inclines toward certain things and that all result in different behaviours. It also results in a lot of different hobbies.
As you can see hobby is the title of today’s article and a particular hobby at that. Today we will be discussing model trains and railroads are a great hobby to have. Despite most of you probably disagree with this, model trains are one of the greatest hobbies out there. People who are into this have so many trains and carts and have such grandiose layouts that are made with passion and love it is rather hard to explain and talk about. No matter the hardship we decided to write on this topic and we will try and give you the reasons why this particular hobby is so popular and so huge.
Hobbies are a great pastime and a great way to be in peace with yourself and your thoughts. This is also a therapeutic way of dealing with certain issues that emerge in your life or that occur daily. Most people claim that this hobby and hobbies like this saved their life in one way or another. If you are on a hunt for a hobby or if you have one and you need to stock up then make sure you visit Metro Hobbies and see what they can offer you on this topic or any other hobby you may have.
1. Childhood memories
Most of you recall the old or at least older days when some of the best and most desirable toys were model trains. Most of you probably received your first toy in a form of a model train set. These were the types of presents that were given usually at Christmas time, which only adds more to the memories and the overall nostalgia that is tied to this. I remember at least one of my presents that was in the late 1990s and it was a train set along with a present that was a huge Lego Airplane with passengers. I still have pictures of this, assembling both of them but unfortunately, I haven’t managed to keep or protect both of them. To add to all of this there are numerous stores where you can get new train sets and other things related, and you can see and witness layouts made specifically for the sets in real life. This adds fuel to the entire hobby and makes you want to do something exactly or make something even better. This passion resulted in some of the best kept, preserved and still used train sets, sidecars and cabooses on some of the most gorgeous dioramas and layouts you could ever see.
2. Creativity
Now, when creativity is in question, this can be a tough thing to speak for or against this hobby. Most of us that like trains aren’t creative enough to make a perfect, scale, diorama or layout for our trains. To combat this, and to learn and adapt we were all readers and implementors of model train news and magazines. In the older days, you could get a subscription to model railroad magazines. Here were all the latest news and feats of other hobbyists and you could learn stuff from these magazines. In the new age of technology, you have things like YouTube and other style videos on how to make certain things, how to implement them and perfect your skills. You have a lot more choices regarding materials, colours, paints and other things. All of this witnesses the greatness of this hobby and just how much everyone could be in it regardless of their skills and talents. You create whatever you like and there are no two layouts or dioramas that are alike. This is where every individual can shine in their way and this is what attacks and holds to many of us in this hobby. What is interesting enough is the fact that throughout this hobby and throughout your creativity development you may develop some new skills like carpentry, electronics, soldering, painting photography and much, much more.
3. Social interaction
Most of you would probably laugh at this third reason thinking that this is a hobby for a loaner and those that don’t have a huge social life. What we can tell you is that you couldn’t be more wrong about this. Model trains and railroads are such a big hobby that there are millions of people across the globe into this. There are clubs, shows, and stores made specifically for this hobby. There are people all around exchanging parts, sets, knowledge, ideas and so much more. If you look up online you would see forums, pages, sites, blogs and vlogs on this topic and you can judge based on the following of those just how much this hobby is popular. Social interaction in this hobby doesn’t just boil down to being on the shows and meets but it also comes down to friends visiting friends and admiring and enjoying their sets, dioramas and some old, well preserved or restored trains, carts, locomotives and whatnot. It is a hobby filled with good people hanging together, solving issues, trading parts, looking for parts and pieces and above all, there is a huge following in vintage trains and railroads. You wouldn’t imagine how much people invest in these things both time and money to get to something made in the 50s, 60s, 70s and upwards.
As you could read here today, there are three main reasons we focused on that are probably the biggest clichés used to describe this hobby.
First and most common – these are loner, no social life, no interactions type of people hobby – we proved you wrong ad you can dispute yourself as well if you search the internet around.
The second is that these are ordinary people without skills and creativity – again wrong and disputed. Go to any meet or a model train show and you would see things that only an artist could make. You will see a lot of people new to this hobby making things and trying hard to find the creative side they excel.
The last thing that many mentions are that this is a hobby for older people. Here we can agree but not to the entirety of this statement. The explanation which we gave in our firs reason does confirm that “older” people enjoy this hobby more, but again if you visit some of these meets and shows you will see a lot of younger generations hunting for their new idea, locomotive or a train set that they can proudly own.
