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| Prime Time for Model Railroading | |
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Winter is upon us. This is being written in late October, but already snow is on the Rockies, and even in the mild Oregon weather, it is chilly and rainy. The easy days of laying around outside are over, so it’s time to pull ourselves inside, dust off the layout, and start the Model Railroad season. It’s a pretty nice hobby, as such things go. There are some things we don’t have. We haven’t got a World Series of Model Trains, or Monday Night High-Ball. Nothing in the letters “BCS” has anything to do with our hobby. |
| I keep waiting for a railroad to have a bowl game named after it. You know, the Union Pacific Derail Bowl, the CSX Salad Bowl, the BNSF Pumpkin Bowl, or perhaps the Norfolk Southern Punch Bowl. Gosh, I don’t think there’s even any shortline bowling teams. Instead, it’s up to the attic, down to the basement, or off to the spare bedroom. Real estate is the prime issue in model railroading. As with railroad barons of the past, the avid model railroader plans to expand his empire even though other social forces push back. It is a real balancing act, remaining married and running more track. Outdoors in the garden, run days are fewer now. Back in July, we ran daily, from mid morning until after dark, but now we wait for a fairly dry day after clearing leaves from the track. With several different trees all dropping leaves, it will be hard to keep the layout nice until sometime in April. But I have projects galore in all scales to keep me busy. I have some to paint, some to fix, some to assemble, and some to convert. This is a time for reading and watching videos, what you might think of as “virtual trainchasing.” The aggregate parts of the various railroading hobbies come together now, and they get turned into dreams, ideas, and layouts. This time of the year is the Prime Time for Model Railroading! This is also the prime time to interest young people in model trains. I recently embarked upon a small task for my grandchildren. I watched and found that they liked to push rolling stock by hand. While children like to watch motorized locomotives pull trains, they love just as much the thrill of handling real cars and locomotives. Smaller hands like bigger toys, so I have a bunch of Large Scale train stuff I let them wool around. This time, however, I performed surgery on a locomotive which had been suffering with drive problems. This was a Large Scale 0-6-0 locomotive. Like most, it had a worm drive and so the kids couldn’t push it. When powered, it didn’t run, either. Rather than replace the motor, I removed it and made the loco into a freewheeling dummy. Oh, do the kids love it! They push it back and forth for hours on end. No, I’m not doing that to all of my locos, but I’m sure glad I did it to this one. One grandchild is six, the other is three, and this is the right toy for them now. In a couple of years, the six year old will be eight and a loco that can be pushed by hand will be nothing special. Other trains in my collection will attract her attention. My youngest grandchild is just 8 months old, so my guess is that the Pusher 0-6-0 is destined to be very popular for at least another eight years. As I watch them push that loco while they rest their faces on the rug to get an eye-level look, I realize that these young years are also the Prime Time for Model Railroading. They are learning how trains work. In time, they’ll notice the flanges and the job they do. The history of railroading and transportation will be played out in the personal development of each young intellect. They like to watch train movies with Papa, and we snuggle on the couch to look at colorful train books. Bless their hearts, each one has four grandparents, so I’m just the one with the trains. For me, this is also a Prime Time for Model Railroading. |
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— John Sipple
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To respond to this month's Editorial, send comments to: Editorial@modelrailroadnews.com
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