My Opinions.


N

NP2626

Guest
I think that people forget to take my opinion with a grain-o-salt. Yes, I like to speak about my opinion; however, because I have an opinion, does not mean that you should consider that I think my opinions are the only way to go. Many times when I state my opinion, I am looking for others to chime in and state their opinions on the subject! Even though there might be times where the fact that I am stating my opinion may look like that is how I believe things should be, I realize that others will have there own opinions on whatever topic I have brought up. In fact I am very tired of people who feel their opinion is the only way to go! This happens so often in daily life, today! Right here in this forum, we are talking about what we all are doing for a hobby and how we are attempting to have fun at it!

So come-on, when I state I am fully ensconced in Steam and the transition era diesel and the Freight Cars of the 40s and 50s with cabooses, tell me why you like modern diesels, long unit trains, modern freight cars with out cabooses!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Mark I admire you, well said.

I like what Iike, because I like it. I like the trains I've seen through out my life, B&O, Chessie, PRR Penn Central and Conrail. For some reason Norfolk Southern is just now growing on me, even though I see them regularly.

I like the big impressive B&O EM-1, even though I had never seen one. I want a Lionel Legacy K-4 because I like it, never seen one, but I want one. I have a B&O Hudson just because I like it.

I love intermodal trains, I see them regularly and I love vehicles almost as much as I do trains?

I like any coal train because I was a coal sampler.

I love Christmas and nothing goes better with Christmas than a Lionel train, in my opinion that is.

I like modern trains, but I run mine with a caboose.

Prototypical is not high on my list of requirements, but I love accurate models and billboard boxcars.

I could go on and on, but my point is, opinions are like assholes, Everybody has one and I agree with you, I usually find their opinions to be interesting.
 
Hi Mark,

I like the same stuff and older, so I will not tell you otherwise.

However, I will chime in with an opinion on weathering. And, that is, sometimes we go way overboard when just some light dabs here and there may be more realistic. Especially on older stock. All the old movies etc that I see show not much for weathering, especially on the wood sided freight. Unless, that is, the photo depicts very old freight on a modern layout. Then something else.

My layout is full of stock in "pretty good" condition.

by the way, a sincere "thank you" for your contribution
 
logandsawman said:
However, I will chime in with an opinion on weathering. And, that is, sometimes we go way overboard when just some light dabs here and there may be more realistic. Especially on older stock. All the old movies etc that I see show not much for weathering, especially on the wood sided freight. Unless, that is, the photo depicts very old freight on a modern layout. Then something else.
Click to expand...

Dave: I tend to agree with you on weathering. Over the years, I had the opportunity to observe many a locomotive or freight car. Most were not intently weathered. The paint had oxidized, there was road dust, with lading dirt around the doors, and some rust, here and there. Once in a while, you came across a real rust bucket, but they were in the minority. Nothing was really shiny, even brand new stuff. That's why my weathering is generally limited to a coat of dull coat, and some weathering powder, applied sparingly in critical areas.

Boris
 
Let me chime in on this subject.

I worked in the shopping center development and operation where our industry shared ideas, methods practices among competitors which made us become collectively stronger. I attended seminars where guest speakers were employed by direct competitors of our company and at these seminars the speakers provided what they saw as being the best practices used by their companies. We learned by what these speakers offered, but not always necessarily did what they said.

Our model railroad hobby is similar to the shopping center world where as hobbyists we openly share ideas, methods and the results of our efforts are seen by individuals with similar interests be it through club memberships, contests, forums and the friendships that have developed.

There is no right or wrong in this hobby. I agree with Dave on not over doing the weathering of rolling stock until it comes to ore cars. My weathered ore cars are the dirtiest you'll ever find since in real life the cars would of never seen a bit of soap or water. Is Dave wrong or am I right....No!

Everyone is entitled to their opinions and who cares if someone wants to run a coal smoking shay locomotive on a layout along side a consist of AC 4400 CW diesel locomotive's.

Enough said.

Greg

PS: You'll never see any weathering done on my new Rapido RDC.
 
NP2626 said:
...

So come-on, when I state I am fully ensconced in Steam and the transition era diesel and the Freight Cars of the 40s and 50s with cabooses, tell me why you like modern diesels, long unit trains, modern freight cars with out cabooses!
Click to expand...

I think the opinion part would come if you said something by way of a comparative, and then attempted to explain why your preference matters. It would beg for differing opinions, but only from those who felt they have something to gain by 'splaining why they think you are wrong, or why their choice is the more appealing one...to them. At some point, everyone has to walk away with or without having found some common ground, even if just a little.

Remember, folks, this type of social interaction is 'asynchronous', meaning we're not all gathered at a coffee shop once a week chewing the fat with each other around a couple of drawn-together tables. What we leave for blobs in this forum will be devoid of inflection, tone, and ambience. We type and move on, sometimes forgetting that we should probably reconsider some of our offerings, or at least clean them up so that they are less rigid, infused with emotion, or just less aggressive...or defensive.

I prefer steam to diesel, but at the expense of a more complicated and touchy toy to get it to run reliably and for a long period before I have to inspect it to find backed-out screws or worn pins on the linkages and rods. I still do like diesels, but at the expense of enjoying the moving bits tacked onto the wheels and brackets. I have five diesels ranging from an SW8 through a Trainmaster H24-66 and right up to an SD75. The Genesis SD-75 doesn't like my track so much and needs pristine curves with very consistent super-elevation. So, I don't run them quite so often. My wide range of steamers from different manufacturers have no trouble with the same curves. That, alone, will tend to push me to run (and to enjoy) my steamers somewhat more. But, my first love will always be steam because that's what I saw as a toddler in Northern Ontario at the nickel mines.
 
NP2626 said:
I think that people forget to take my opinion with a grain-o- salt. Yes, I like to speak about my opinion; however, because I have an opinion, does not mean that you should consider that I think my opinions are the only way to go. Many times when I state my opinion, I am looking for others to chime in and state their opinions on the subject! Even though there might be times where the fact that I am stating my opinion may look like that is how I believe things should be, I realize that others will have there own opinions on whatever topic I have brought up. In fact I am very tired of people who feel their opinion is the only way to go! This happens so often in daily life, today! Right here in this forum, we are talking about what we all are doing for a hobby and how we are attempting to have fun at it!

So come-on, when I state I am fully ensconced in Steam and the transition era diesel and the Freight Cars of the 40s and 50s with cabooses, tell me why you like modern diesels, long unit trains, modern freight cars with out cabooses!
Click to expand...
G'day Mark ...I agree with what you have to say . I also appreciate you love what floats the boat for you . That's what is great about our hobby in that you can model what you please . There are no rules on that for the vast majority so keep modelling as you see fit because that's number one .

I model (or try to) modern diesel and almost no steam . I love seeing a nice steam layout though at a train show and my favourite part of my favourite model rail magazine MODEL RAILROADER is the trackside photos that often feature great steam work and inspires me as much as the more modern genre's. The reason I like modern diesel stuff so much is because I grew up with it . My dad was a ganger / track supervisor of about 40 kilometres (25 miles) for coal and log trains and the occasional heavy freight/goods trains on our branch line . I'd go with him on the odd occasion when a safety call out on a weekend came too .

When I began modelling about 10-11 years ago I bought an N Scale Bachmann Thunder Valley set to get me going , a freight set with a GP 38 power unit . After a while I switched to HO and now into full DCC HO. I have about 130 rolling stock items and now four sets of double stack well car units and 55 locomotives , 11 of which are DCC and a couple of others with aftermarket decoder . The rest are analog . I am concentrating on my favourite livery which is ATSF/BNSF .

It's funny because this week I wrote an article for my column known as Cagetattler for our local volunteer run pape (The Valley Voice) about how important and pressure relieving hobbies in general are . The editor asked me to kick off a hobbies page with why I love model trains on the back of that so all of us here are model rail / toy/ rail in general fans . That's the key thing . Whether it's steam , D/E or panto electric you model matters not or same applies which if any era you choose .Matters not either if you run your trains on the floor , bare baseboard or the most elaborate scenery on the planet, just so long as it makes you happy and engaged with our hobby. My only hate in model rail is rivet counting . Who bloody cares people . !!!!!!!!! That's my opinion .
 
Last edited:
Bruette said:
Mark I admire you, well said.

I like what Iike, because I like it. I like the trains I've seen through out my life, B&O, Chessie, PRR Penn Central and Conrail. For some reason Norfolk Southern is just now growing on me, even though I see them regularly.

I like the big impressive B&O EM-1, even though I had never seen one. I want a Lionel Legacy K-4 because I like it, never seen one, but I want one. I have a B&O Hudson just because I like it.

I love intermodal trains, I see them regularly and I love vehicles almost as much as I do trains?

I like any coal train because I was a coal sampler.

I love Christmas and nothing goes better with Christmas than a Lionel train, in my opinion that is.

I like modern trains, but I run mine with a caboose.

Prototypical is not high on my list of requirements, but I love accurate models and billboard boxcars.

I could go on and on, but my point is, opinions are like assholes, Everybody has one and I agree with you, I usually find their opinions to be interesting.
Click to expand...
Louis , On the caboose thing..My original Bachmann sets in N and HO came with cabooses. I recall this also filmed in 1985 of the Cajon Pass with a bunch of amazing SD40-2's with a caboose ...

 
Last edited:
NP2626 said:
So come-on, when I state I am fully ensconced in Steam and the transition era diesel and the Freight Cars of the 40s and 50s with cabooses, tell me why you like modern diesels, long unit trains, modern freight cars with out cabooses!
Click to expand...
WEeell, I am liking the transition era also, but for the sake of an opinion, I like modern diesels, long unit trains, etc for the simple reason that THEY ARE TRAINS!.
 
I love steam, and transition era as much as the next person. In fact I'm a present day modeler, but will probably have a couple of steam engines to run around. I chose modern era due to the fact its what I see every day. I enjoy watching the long mixed freight, and unit trains.
 
I once worked for a lead engineer who said, mostly tongue in cheek, "You have your opinion...and I'm right!" :p The problem with actually thinking that way is that it can lead to things in real life like the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, where a chief booster engineer was told by a manager to "Stop thinking like an engineer and start thinking like a manager!" :eek: But, IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), model railroading is not really "real life". There are so many aspects to the hobby that everyone can pick and choose how he/she wants to go about it. I started model railroading about 70 years ago, when I rode the Burlington Zephyrs with my parents to see my maternal grandparents in downstate Illinois. The memories of that time inspired me to model that same period, first in American Flyer S-scale, and later in HO. Frankly, I saw very few steam locomotives (although I vaguely remember being hoisted into the cab of a MKT switch engine at age 2-1/2...which was very noisy!). My memories are of passing E-7's at the head end of the Zephyrs in the stations. So, that is one of the things I definitely model. But, over the years, I have accumulated a bunch of steam locomotive models, mostly patterned after Burlington hogs, and the engineer in me loves watching (and now hearing at least some of them) on my layout. I do lightly weather the steamers, but the Zephyrs are mostly pretty clean, because the "Q" kept them that way about as soon as they finished a run. I pretty much cut off the era about 1960, but will "cheat" occasionally because I think GP30's are cool! I also have modern equipment that I can run when youngsters come over, who can't relate to "my era". And, yes, I do have one freight car with an EOT box on the rear.

But let me be clear... In my opinion, a train without a waycar (that Burlington-ese for caboose) is agin the laws of nature! ;) And I am right! :p
 
trailrider said:
I pretty much cut off the era about 1960, but will "cheat" occasionally because I think GP30's are cool! I also have modern equipment that I can run when youngsters come over, who can't relate to "my era". And, yes, I do have one freight car with an EOT box on the rear.

But let me be clear... In my opinion, a train without a waycar (that Burlington-ese for caboose) is agin the laws of nature! ;) And I am right! :p
Click to expand...

Correct on all accounts....
 
I'm always surprised by how apparently important my opinions are. I have very strong opinions on many things and I'm not shy about voicing them. What gets me is how much and how badly people seem to get bent out of shape over them. Especially in model railroading. I'm always careful to use "IMO" or to say " This is_________to me but you would think by the reactions I sometimes get that I'm some sort of model railroading god. I only wish my opinions were as important as some folks act like! Oh, by the way, IMO, there is no such thing as "over weathering". I'm a well weathered 56 year old and nearby here is an old wooden house that I really need to get a picture of because it really shoots down the notion one can "over weather" anything.
 
Over Weathered.....?

G38-PC-Ore-Car.jpg

Greg
 
Noah_Count said:
Oh, by the way, IMO, there is no such thing as "over weathering". I'm a well weathered 56 year old and nearby here is an old wooden house that I really need to get a picture of because it really shoots down the notion one can "over weather" anything.
Click to expand...

People espousing the point of view that things can be "Over Weathered" are entitled to this opinion, however, I disagree with their opinion on this!
 
Since this has evolved into a "weathering" thread, I feel that it must be taken into perspective. On my layout, I look at the build date of the freight car relative to my time frame and weather accordingly. I also believe that there is no such thing as an over-weathered gondola or ore hopper. I model ATSF and they kept their freight engines used on the main line very clean, at least around here in Texas. I mostly weather lightly. I do spray every freight car with Dull Coat regardless.
 
There's no such thing as over- or under- weathering.... if it's done well.

However weathering is an art form and you see a lot of really bad weathering jobs that look like the car was buried in river silt.

I've seen "heavy" weathering jobs that were very realistically done with a lot of effort and artistic technique, and "heavy" weathering jobs that basically consist of blasting the car with a grime colour that looks like sh-t.
 
I'l l be the first to admit that some of my weathering jobs didn't turn out the way I wanted. I may have even destroyed the car, with weathering, still I haven't tossed any cars because of the weathering.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top