Model Citizens Page #3

- I think when people

say we're not playing,

they're really, I understand

why they'd say that,

they feel a little

defensive because

in common usage,

play is a bad thing,

it's something only kids do.

I think

those of us who

have looked at it,

whether through the

fields of education,

developmental

psychology, probably have

a different meaning

of the word play.

So when a model railroader

says he's not playing,

I respect that what

he's really saying is,

"I take this seriously,

"I'm doing some really

serious, interesting things."

I would argue that play

is much more complicated.

Rembrandt and Da Vinci played.

Einstein said, "Play is the

highest form of research."

So, in a sense,

you can be really serious,

working really hard,

making really good stuff

and also be playing.

And I think that's what

model railroaders are doing.

- There's a difference

between playing with toys

and scale-model

railroading, for sure.

Or scale-model airplanes

or scale-model boats.

But there's real joy and

it's not profit oriented,

it's not work oriented,

it's leisure time oriented.

And I think the minute you say

leisure time, in some

way you're saying play.

- I think you have to have a

little bit of a kid inside you.

I really do.

And a little kid gets to play.

The adult gets to

learn new stuff.

And that's one of the things

that's great about this hobby.

And I don't we should ever

be afraid of being kids

and playing.

That's a real good

part of this hobby.

- [Voiceover] Not all model

railroaders would agree.

At least, not openly.

Because model railroading

is serious business.

- There are a lot of

little niches in this hobby.

You'll find people

who are attracted to

full-size railroads

in their current form.

You'll find people

who are attracted to

full-size railroads in the past.

Modelling a certain

period of the past.

Modelling the present.

You'll find people whose

specialty is scenery.

You'll find people who are

in love with freight cars.

People who love

passenger trains.

People who love

building track work.

People who adore

the electronics.

And the electronics

have come a long way

in the hobby over the

past couple of years.

I would say my specific niche,

if I had any, is

probably freight cars.

My interest in

full-size railroads,

although I have some things

that are present day,

probably ended,

somewhere in the late 1950s,

specifically for the

Santa Fe Railway.

So I don't do a lot of

what they call railfanning,

which is going out

along the tracks

and taking photographs of

current prototype locomotives.

I'm not interested, that's

not the period I model,

so most of my modelling

comes from research.

Books, old photographs

and things like that.

- Model railroading

is a niche hobby.

Within that niche hobby there is

an infinite amount of niches.

You can break down on

ideas of scale,

of era.

Whether you like

passenger trains or

freight trains.

Which particular railroad

line you like the best.

How much you're gonna

be concerned about

getting the details

absolutely right,

the fidelity to prototype,

it's often described as.

Your personal tolerance

for how much whimsy

you're gonna have on your

layout, in your models.

- You have people

who do scenery.

You have people who

love doing buildings.

So you have artists,

you have architects,

you have

people who love to

play conductor.

- There's a whole side of

the hobby about operations.

So instead of just running

the trains around the layout,

you start running them the

way the railroad ran them.

Which means that

there were rules that

you had to comply with.

There were train

orders that were issued

that governed the

movement of trains.

You had to wait

while the conductor

walked back from

uncoupling the car

before you could

move the locomotive.

So there's a whole set of,

aspect, to the

hobby, if you will,

that's focused on operations.

And there's some people

who just love to do that,

and that's all

they ever wanna do.

- I enjoy operation.

I'm one of these guys

that goes to these

half day or day-long

operating sessions.

With the cards and the routing

and the dispatchers,

I love that stuff.

- There's a lot of

people that'll build

switching layouts.

Which are generally small

shelf-type layouts that

become puzzles.

And you try to get,

you try to create

what actually happens

in the real world.

You try to solve the

problem of getting

cars from one place to another

in the least amount of time.

- I like trains

that are weathered.

And that means trains that,

rolling stock and locomotives,

that look as if they've

been through the elements.

They have dust on them,

they're not perfectly washed

and gorgeous.

They don't look like they

come right out of the box.

I like to add a certain

level of detail.

- Extreme weathering is

cars have been out there

for years, on the rails.

Rusted,

beat up, faded.

And then a lot of

us have taken it

to that level, you

weather the cars,

to make it look exactly

like the prototype.

- There's a whole tribe, I

like to call them tribes,

of model railroaders

that do subways.

And mass-transit type things.

- Most of the thing for me,

is making accurate models.

Whether I get to actually

run the trains or not, eh.

I do once in a while,

a couple times a year.

- I'm fascinated by the

passenger train industry.

And of course, that's why we,

the Coachyard specializes in

nothing but passenger trains,

famous passenger trains

of the United States.

That's my fascination.

It was an era of travel that was

a very unique, very stylish,

very elegant.

You had the various first

class versus tourist class,

but yet the dining

experience was fantastic.

The lounge experience.

It was just a great

way of travelling.

It was a much slower pace

than how we travel today.

- [Voiceover] The

comfort has increased.

They're trying the

Pullman appeal.

- [Voiceover] Many

model railroaders

remember the old days.

Even if they didn't

actually experience them.

History is such a big

part of the hobby.

- My grandfather,

whom I never met,

because he died when

I was six months old.

He worked on the railroad.

So I grew up

and have grown up

with this image,

this sort of lore...

- Actually it has got

all Pullman fittings,

but it was actually

built in Canada.

- There was an old

Pullman car parked in

that area where the tracks were.

And I just would

have all of these

images of being in the

Pullman car, riding the train,

through the night somewhere

to some distant place.

A couple of times

we met some people

who I believe lived in

the car at the time.

And they took me and

my brother through

and they showed us

how everything worked.

They pulled down

the fold-out beds

and they showed where the...

How the sinks all worked.

And then they showed

where you sat.

And it was just,

for a kid who was,

maybe, seven, eight

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