I suppose the joy of model railroading is composed of three things; The modeller transports himself to a different time, a different scale. He can, for a few hours, sharpen his imagination, creativity and problem solving skills while letting ever improving artwork flow from his spirit. Things are done for one's own ego, and not for the boss, in the modeller's haven.
In addition to those little tracks' ability to mete out an escape and self-improvement in equal doses; The third leg of the trinity is akind to problem solving. By taking on a new challenge for the first time and using the fellowship of research to solve it, the confidence one gains in suceeding almost exceeds the satisfaction of gaining it.
So much for prose. Let me tell you how tonight's little project on my trainset helped me define the joys mentioned above.
I had to find out why two engines were giving me problems. One always seemed dirty, one seemed out of gauge. So after consulting with a fellow here, I was ready to take the things apart, a first for me.
On the dirty one, I found the wheels were not pitted as I had suspected, but it was the conductive wheel wells that recieve the axle points that were junked up. I believe cleaning the wheels helped for a bit, not because the wheels were dirty, but because the cleaning solvent loosened the gunk for a while, but only a short while. In addition, lint and fibers had wound themselves around the greasy axles as tightly as you might discover under your vacuum after sucking on a ball of yarn with it. It took some time, but I cleaned all that and got 'er back together.
Now locomotive number two was a cinch. Wheels out... cleaned and spread, (they were all a little tight), and back on the track. You'd better believe I cleaned the track and rolling stock while I was in maintainance mode, and freshed up the weathering too. They run better than new. Both can creep along through the yards now.
Oh, how prototypical they appear!!
The deception is complete!
In addition to those little tracks' ability to mete out an escape and self-improvement in equal doses; The third leg of the trinity is akind to problem solving. By taking on a new challenge for the first time and using the fellowship of research to solve it, the confidence one gains in suceeding almost exceeds the satisfaction of gaining it.
So much for prose. Let me tell you how tonight's little project on my trainset helped me define the joys mentioned above.
I had to find out why two engines were giving me problems. One always seemed dirty, one seemed out of gauge. So after consulting with a fellow here, I was ready to take the things apart, a first for me.
On the dirty one, I found the wheels were not pitted as I had suspected, but it was the conductive wheel wells that recieve the axle points that were junked up. I believe cleaning the wheels helped for a bit, not because the wheels were dirty, but because the cleaning solvent loosened the gunk for a while, but only a short while. In addition, lint and fibers had wound themselves around the greasy axles as tightly as you might discover under your vacuum after sucking on a ball of yarn with it. It took some time, but I cleaned all that and got 'er back together.
Now locomotive number two was a cinch. Wheels out... cleaned and spread, (they were all a little tight), and back on the track. You'd better believe I cleaned the track and rolling stock while I was in maintainance mode, and freshed up the weathering too. They run better than new. Both can creep along through the yards now.
Oh, how prototypical they appear!!
The deception is complete!
