With apologies to Julie Andrews

Drafting the track plans, designing the layout,

​Planning car movements - the flows and the set-outs,

Scratchbuilding structures - the joy that it brings,

These are a few of my favourite things!

When there's benchwork,

Feeling like work,

When the wiring's bad,

I simply remember my favourite things,

And then I don't feel so sad.

Kits and modeling

Kits of cars and Structures, and personalizing the kits with those extra touches (not necessarily super detailing, but adding something to make it mine).

Love/Hate

Love building, painting and weathering the structures, rolling stock and scenery. 

I can do without installing switches and their associated motors and wiring.

Apologies to Julie Andrews

 Thanks for the poem Craig , I pretty much feel the same way. Love layout planning and operation, car building and weathering, reading about and discussing the hobby. Don't mind benchwork other than sanding and painting backdrops, etc.  Don't mind laying flextrack but hate ballasting. Probably my least fav thing is installing those tiny decoder lighting wires then getting all the pieces buttoned up in the tight shell.....DaveB

Locomotive repair and tuning

I really enjoy taking an old BB Athearn locomotive and making it run better than new out of the box with out remotoring or driveline swapping!  I use just what is available.  

Building car kits.  Not a fan of RTR stuff where you simply take it out of a box and put it on the track.  

Preparing the room     

Preparing the room      1

Building bench work   2

Track work                  6    

Structure building        8

Scenery                        10

Building car kits        5

Wiring                         1 which is a big reason I don't use switch machines

Operation                    7

Railfanning                 9

I really enjoy building wood kits over styrene, though I don't mind styrene.  Animation and sound are also big interests of mine that I have yet to really dig into, but look forward to at some point.  Yes, I hate wiring, but the animation and sound is fun enough to get past that.

Getting More Ready For What's Gonna Be.

I have a layout and it's growing slowly, but judging by how I spend my time I probably most enjoy planning ahead and getting stuff that I will need.

My layout work never is ending.
Perhaps because I keep spending.
Always  planning and laying out cash
For lots of new projects to stash.
Never ending?! I'm always beginning.

DrJolS

Operating

I enjoy operating, and give it a 10.  Everything else is more or less a necessary evil to get to operating.  I don't mind benchwork, track, scenery, and structures, but I HATE wiring with a burning, vitriolic passion and I can't believe we still have to do it!  Good God, where are the wireless radio-controlled battery-powered RTR locos already?  Track should be like the prototype and just guide the trains, no power or control from them. Did I mention that I hate wiring?  

I am an operator by choice, and a modeler by necessity. 

Randy

wiring

Randy

   I think wiring is on everybody's dislike list. You could probably do it all with batteries in the larger scales like G, but I think it will be a while before we see it in HO. 

                                                                                                           Ray

Wiring takes discipline

As do most of the other items on the list.  I find it a challenge that I can handle.  Most of the artistic parts of the hobby are just foreign to me, so they go on the bottom of the heap.  Much like Nelson, I find my interest lies in repairing and upgrading models.  

I can plan other activities, but they always seem to find their way down on the list of to do items.

Favorite Things

1. Freight Cars

2. Weathering

3.Freight Cars

4. Weathering

5. Adult Beverages

6. Everything Else

Jeff Youst in IN, EL Marion 2nd Sub Circa 1964

Wiring

Preparing the room      8

Building bench work   9

Track work                  7  

Structure building        4

Scenery                        2

Building car kits          6

Wiring                         10

Operation                    5

Railfanning                 3

Weathering                1

Contrary to the apparent trend, I like wiring the most. It's the least troublesome aspect if done right. It's nothing but trouble if done wrong. Endless possibilities for control and signalling, although I haven't delved much into the latter yet. 

Carpentry in all its forms is next, then getting the track geometry correct.

The fancy makeup you can keep.

Favorites

Structures   9

Scratchbuilding    10

Freight car kits    8

Laying track    6

Wiring    7 -- used to be a 1 or 2 until I lit up my first structure

Benchwork and room prep   4

Scenery   6

Operation   3   I'm a builder by preference

Railfaning   5

RTR   1

Painting/Weathering  2  the 2 of these go togeather and take a lot of patience which doesn't always last long, but the effects look great when done so I do it

Jack

Re with apologies to Julie

Hmmm what a terrible voice......Oh no thats me!!

My list

my list in no particular order:-

8 - Assembling nice plastic kits.

9 - Designing trackplans. (I do this at work doing the the boring "No need to think jobs")

11 - Operations. I enjoy operating even on Plywood Pacifics with an incoherent mess of trains. Just so's it runs nice

7 - Track laying

4 - Benchwork. I can do it but I don't think of it as enjoyable.

9 - Reading about trains and layouts. I do this all the time. Thanks to MRH and this forum.

5 - Wiring. This is easy for me because its been my job for years. But it is not a hobby I really enjoy.

1 - Picking Nits!!!!

10 - Talking trains!

With regards the comments on wiring. It always amazes me that someone will spend many hours building a super detailed scratchbuilt train and then complain about doing wiring properly so the train will operate reliably and consistently!!

I LIKE wiring

Contrary to many opinions expressed here...I really ENJOY wiring!  Designing the various circuits, running the wires and fashioning neat and orderly runs, the excitement of ringing everything out prior to applying power, then.....firing it up. No feeling quite like seeing all the lights come up correctly, turnouts throw when commanded, no magic smoke being released. It's all good!  Of course, wiring business jets and troubleshooting avionics for a living helps foster these feelings LOL.  I also enjoy laying track, designing and installing scenery, and making a scene come "alive" looking like real world. I love making and weathering structures of all types, as well as customizing RTR loco sand rolling stock. I just get a kick out of making the things that surround us in the real world in miniature.     One of these days I might actually get to experience the joy of running trains.  I'll be striving to run at least semi realistically. I guess there really isn't much I really DONT like doing. My enjoyment from this hobby comes from the fact that I get to excercise so many skills and disciplines. It truly is the worlds greatest hobby!

When I first read this I

When I first read this I though what a thought provoking post. I can list maybe my first few but after that there will be lots of ties. It seems I like most aspects of the hobby some more than others. So here go my first few.

Building freight car kits, the more detailed plastic ones like Branch line Blueprints the most and other similar really nice detailed kits from the past. Next would be the Accurail kits.

Right after building the kits comes putting them on the club layout and having others comment on them.

Running long trains of my kit built cars.

Building structures.

The fellowship at the club, and at shows etc where we can interact with other folks, and on here where so much is shared with folks that may never actually meet from all over the world. There are others in the like category but I have not gotten past my favorites yet.

Wiring

Fuzzflyr

  Where do you live. I don't think it matters there is someone on this list that wants you including me. At 73 crawling under the layout "ain't" something I am looking forward to.LOL

                                                                                                                        Ray

I'm a model builder first

I love to build models. I have dabbled with paint and decals and I love that kind of work. I also enjoy wiring. I have wired a small home layout and a medium sized club layout. Both done with pride and they worked quite well. That has since extrapolated into wiring locos for DCC. I love to have a soldering iron in hand. In my youth I built a number of wood structure kits and am trying to get back into that. I can't say I like layout room preparation because when I built a room for my permanent layout, my brother and I nearly killed each other. We get on fine as long as we don't have to work together. Scenery leaves me dead. I have never really done it to a great extent, but when I have it's been a minor disaster. I am planning a layout now and dread scenery. I have built a small switching layout but can't seem to be motivated to do scenery, even ballasting the track seems a pointless chore. I bought Dave Frary's scenery book hoping for inspiration but none came. I wish I had a partner in crime in model railroading to do scenery for me. 

Right now on the bench I have a Bachmann 44 tonner I am detailing and modifying for a particular prototype and am in the middle of a DCC install. Oh yeah and I have that Ward's Salvage kit that is temporarily on the back burning. Maybe I'll get at that tonight.

I LOVE model railroading and trains It makes me happy.

" I have built a small

  Hi Greg. You could probably trade DCC installations for scenery help?  Many guys that are good with scenery don't know how to wire decoders or don't want to wire them so their nicely sceneic'd layouts lack sound......DaveB

I have built a small switching layout

Greg,

I have never gotten to the scenery stage either in 40 years. Do your self a favor and get a photo backdrop. It was the best money I ever spent. My wife insisted on it. She said she wanted to see something that looked like scenery.  Now I don't get into a funk because I just have bench work and walls. My HOn3 Goose runs through the mountains every time I turn it on. And the inspiration stays there in front of me and even drove me to attend my first convention to learn about scenery. It's still a long way off but it's not nagging at me. Track, bridges and buildings are more important right now and the background provides a lot of inspiration when I start a new building because I can now place it in a location with some assurance it will work. Blayne

Love wiring. appeals to my

Love wiring. appeals to my technical side, and lets me avoid my total lack of artistic talent. I enjoy constructing benchwork (indeed, benchwork started me down the rabbit hole of my now favorite hobby, woodworking) and laying spline for track work. Scenery would be next. All others are equal.

As a long time hobbyist'''

I would say model building, kit-bashing, and scratch building would be tops for me, rolling stock, locos, and buildings.  Scenicking is very enjoyable.  I guess I don't understand the great amount of dislike for wiring.  Maybe in the days of DC wiring when a simple two cab layout would consume vast amounts of time and materials but with DCC I just haven't found anything in the basic installation that stymied me.  Saying that, I still don't care for soldering drops, and I really don't care for decoder installs.  I've done them and they have always worked, but I don't like that task.  Benchwork, tracklaying and ballasting I like.  In ballasting, I do a little until it gets tiring then move on to something else.So many different things to do in the hobby, if there is something that gets too onerous, I just set it aside and do something else  until I am motivated to hop on it again.

model building and wiring

Bob

  I  have very similar likes and preferences as do you. My last layout was wired for two mainline cabs and 5 yard cabs which with the throw  of a toggle could all be connected so when i was there alone I could take my Aristocraft walk around throttle and operate the whole layout. After about 10 years I added a Dynatrol system, but kept the DC cab system, and later replaced the Dynatrol with a NCE DCC system. Most of the switches were controlled by twin coil switch machines with some Tortoise and a few hand throws. All mainline machines could be controlled from the main board and also  the yard panels. Needless to say there was a lot of wiring. I started it in 1974 when I was .33.. After some life changing issues, including the loss of the layout, also joining of a club as head of the electrical committee.. I am about to start a new, but smaller layout. 

  I am now 73 and getting up and down and crawling under the layout is not my favorite thing to do, but know if I want a layout I will need to wire it. As you noted wiring a DCC layout is a lot simpler than my old layout wiring. I saved a panel of relays and DCC breakers from my old layout so with the throw of a switch I will still be able to run straight DC with my Aristocraft throttle. My only hope is I can get my son, Neil, to abandon his layout for a day to help with the installation of the switch machines (all will be Tortoise) on the new layout. He and I installed about twenty machines (no wiring) in less than an hour on his old layout.. This was done with him under the layout poking the Tortoise machine wires (pre attached to the machines) threw the switch points. I would grab the over length wire center the turnout, he would center the Tortoise throw and install two screws.So I think that will help me take wiring from minus 1 to maybe a plus one. LOL

                                                                                                              Ray