Advancement in our hobby is driven by leadership. In our case it seems to run in twenty year waves. Somebody comes along, moves the needle, and we ride it for several decades. As things begin to peter out, a new visionary comes along and the cycle repeats. In the late 1970’s the triumvirate of […]
Category: Opinion
Barrow’s Stamp
On the Outside Looking In
From time to time the various magazines will run a poll in an attempt to gain some insight into the state of the hobby and the current breakdown of the multitude of tribal sub-interest groups. It’s a good idea. The quality of the results, however, will only be as good as the questions that are […]
Picking a Theme For Your Layout
Although there is no right or wrong way to participate in model railroading, there is, without question, a measuring stick of how successful we are at it. Success is measured by how much enjoyment and satisfaction we get from our involvement. To that extent the guy with the Lionel set that is on cloud nine […]
Why We Should Create In Miniature
I’ve always been curious about the psychology of model building. Why do we do it? What is the underlying compulsion that drives us to create in miniature? Yesterday I stumbled on an interesting perspective on the subject by author Martha Beck. Her article starts by addressing the subject of long term satisfaction versus euphoric highs […]
The Incredible Expanding Layout
Almost overnight I feel as though my layout has doubled in size, all of this without adding a single turnout or section of track. It’s becoming apparent that I probably have a lot more model railroad than I actually need to keep me entertained. What happened? In the past year I’ve learned an enormous amount […]