Are your trains an escape?

rhtastro

Member
Are your trains an escape? In my case, YES. Escape from the real world, from everything else I need to do or think about. Some may want to get away from mothers, wives, husbands, others, kids, school work, etc. Have you ever stayed home from work to work on or with your setup. Mine is the little world that I created and only I can uncreate if I wish. Only the laws of physics and my pocketbook will dictate the dimensions of my creation. I have the ultimate power in that small world. It's pleasant and calming to be there. What do you think? :mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:
 

TrainNut

Ditat Deus
Absolutely! As a stay at home dad to a two year old and a five year old, I look forward to my "me time" with my trains after everybody else goes to bed. Of course, trains are also my obsession so you can usually find me sneaking in to my layout several times throughout the day to make adjustments here and there!:mrgreen:
 

jbaakko

Active Member
YES! Well, for me, they're a reality, they're all I do. TV is so boring, work is, well boring... Computer games annoy me, then get boring. Trains never get boring.
 

Nomad

Active Member
I am disabled and not able to be physically active, so my rr is my escape from my hum-drum life. When I run trains, I am the engineer in the cab running the loco, the switchman running to catch the train, the yard master walking the yard. My escape from reality.

Loren
 

bigsteel

Call me Mr.Tinkertrain
of course! what else would it be :confused:.i love to create every facet of the trains life.its like being...well,god in some sort.and half the time you run it like real life.EX. its 5:00,its time to start building steam.you have your usual runs to up the branch to eagle mine #2 and a few locals to switch since theres not enough trucks.and the produce building is running low on ice.see,its your world,you create it and run it how you want,not with all the stupid stuff of the 1:1 life. :mrgreen: --josh
 

Dirtyd79

New Member
Yep it also gives me something to do when the weather turns too lousy for fishing or I simply don't feel like heading out at the moment.
 

viperman

Active Member
My trains would be my escape, if I had them here with me instead of at my parents house.

Instead, I have The Sims 2 for an escape. I am god there. I can make people happy, sad and miserable, rich, poor, you name it. Sure beats the life I live
 

myltlpny

Member
I love nothing more when it's cold or rainy to retreat to my bonus room to run trains or work on the layout. It's nice having the layout so close and accessible. Even if all I have is a few minutes to steal away and putter, I find it very rejuvenating.:mrgreen:
 

brakie

Active Member
Absolutely! I can't remember when the hobby wasn't a escape..Another escape is railfanning..I love being track side reading the latest hobby magazine between trains.
 

steamhead

Active Member
I don't know if I'd call them an "escape". They're an integral part of my life, just like work, eating, sleeping, and so on. So how could I escape..??
 

ed acosta

Member
Trains were an escape from the real world back when I was a kid. I used to daydream about my favorite ‘real’ trains when I should have been paying attention at school. Later in life I had to balance building a career and raising children with my trains, making sure that I didn’t spend too much time or money on the hobby. I shared my hobby with my son by taking him with me to watch trains or to measure old train stations which I would then scratch build at home. I also had many other interests equally important to me and I had to balance these other diversions as well. For one, I liked to ride a bicycle competitively and my wife and I put much effort in contributing to the development of a community bike club. At the same time, I also belonged to a modular train club which I was forced to quit because I hated being indoors on a really nice weekend and would rather be out cycling with the club. All the while I had long range railroading projects that I could tackle a little at a time until the job was done.

Today, I am retired, so I have one less act to balance: work. I still enjoy my bicycling (good social and physical benefits), and I enjoy playing classical guitar, also photography, and I spend time dabbling in various computer programming projects. My wife and I also spend a lot of time hiking and exploring and spend evenings with friends and neighbors. All of these interests summed up equals (=) me. And, I wouldn’t be a ‘complete’ me if I didn’t have a long range railroading project on the bench.

-Ed
 

MadHatter

Charging at full tilt.
Definately

its your world,you create it and run it how you want,not with all the stupid stuff of the 1:1 life. :mrgreen: --josh

Not if you're a dwarf, then it's a 1:2 life. :mrgreen::p:mrgreen::p

But ja, it's my escape too- as stated above, television IS boring (Unless it's a comedy, CSI LA, a war movie or train related :twisted:), computer's are cool but I also eventually get bored.

Off the subject but, besides the models, I work with the real stuff too. It's great to photograph, ride and volunteer on a train- even work on one!!
 
Like steamhead says, not so much an escape, I consider them an integral part of life also, like sleeping, exercising, eating etc. To me the layout is a giant work of art where I can be as creative as I want when I want.
 

diesel

New Member
hey rhtastro (all),

I was explaining this to one of the members of our club the other day... Yes for me trains is an escape because as a graphic designer/painter and the things that I design (graphics especially) are subject to the clients, art directors and countless others comments.

But, in the train world I can model whatever I want. So if someone says, "I don't like that" or "I don't like your roadname", I can just smile and say, "oh, OK", and be done with it rather than repaint all my equipment for CSX because thats what they model. -could you imagine?
 

vsailor

New Member
ABSOLUTELY!!!...I go into the basement, turn off the extension phone and, build, play and have a beer or two...
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Absolutely! As a stay at home dad to a two year old and a five year old, I look forward to my "me time" with my trains after everybody else goes to bed. Of course, trains are also my obsession so you can usually find me sneaking in to my layout several times throughout the day to make adjustments here and there!:mrgreen:

My trains are DEFINITELY an escape. I find running them to be relaxing as well as adding and creating scenery to the layout. I'm also a dad of a 4-year-old and 6-year-old boys (not stay-at-home though) but I can still relate. I too relish my late-evening "me-time" when the kids are in bed. I also enjoy involving them in the hobby. My 4-year-old is train-crazy & likes running them and the older one likes helping with my scenery.

And I also sneak down to the basement to admire my latest scenery efforts, and tweak the odd detail during the daytime ... until someone calls me wondering where I am! :eek:

I can also relate to diesel's comments! I'm a graphic designer as well but, with my layout, I only have myself to answer to if I mess up or do a bad job that has to be fixed later ! (Actually, I'm finding several parallels between my magazine design work and the design/look of my layout. Layout & design principals apply to both kinds of layouts!)

Rob
 

rhtastro

Member
Vsailor above gave me an idea. So I picked a bottle of Beck's out of the bar fridge and worked my way through the garage out to the train house. Once in there I proceeded to get my Union Pacific PA double unit 25 car freight on time with the schedule. My schedule. Starting out slowly it gained speed to about 25mph and made 2 complete loops of 3 main tracks for a total distance of 4.29 miles. While passing through Equity Junction twice, I blew the whistle enough to wake the dead. Engineers love to do that. But little did they know I had a beer in hand. Naturally I'd never do that in real life or I'd end up in the clink for years probably. But it was not real, it was escape. Pure and simple. I'll always wonder what those folks in E J thought about seeing the same train coming through twice in the same direction a few minutes apart. But out there probably nobody cares or even noticed. Have another one baby. Now that's really fantasy. That's what I love about trains. Your on a different planet all together.
 
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