As a kid, when you mentioned that you liked model railroading you got that look, you know the one, the one that says, "Oh, you play with toy trains". Now that I'm much older (and still play with trains) I still get that look, but it doesn't bother me, as I know how much reward there is in this hobby. I have had my layout viewed by friends and other modelers alike. When someone enters your layout room and their eyes go wide, their jaw drops, expletives like Wow!, Holy smokes! and This is awesome! are involuntary uttered, then you know you have chosen the right hobby. I recently had that same experience when I visited Terry Nixon's O scale layout. On the way there I was thinking, how can you possibly build an O scale railroad based on operations around a steel mill, in a small room and have much of anything? Wow!(there goes that expletive)was I surprised. As Terry operated his layout, trains had work to do, engines powered up, wheels squealed around tight corners,switching loads from building to building, on and off the car float and into staging. The layout design, the full use of sound, scratch built buildings and rolling stock all highlight Terry's ingenuity and modeling skill. And so it is with model railroaders, some read magazines, or collect rolling stock, a few build empires or become master model builders. The point is you get to choose what you want to do, in this, the best of all hobbies. Some photos of Terry's layout.
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| a train switching iron slab cars |
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| scratch built hot iron mold |
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| Terry built a mold and molded all of the ingot molds |
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