Welcome back, welcome back

Jim: It seems as though life has it’s own plans for us sometimes. Just when the going gets good ... 

My mother is 83 and we have conversations every Saturday morning. She writes me an email or leaves a message if I forget to call - “Hope you’re ok!”  I have never asked if she is proud of what I have done since moving away. Visits are seldom - maybe every other year for a few days. Thanks for reminding me how important she. 

It sounds like you have some great plans and I look forward to following along. I too have a mill, mine from MicroMark, and am shopping for a lathe. Zero experience but high hopes. Please share your projects. Thanks!

Nice comment Jim. Many years

Nice comment Jim. Many years ago my mother was dying from cancer. I was her primary care giver till the end of her life. While in between moments of taking care of her I would sit at her kitchen table and build freight car kits. She always wanted to see what I was building and as she got nearer to the end she told me she hoped I would think of her when I was running my trains.

My mother and father both were involved in getting me into the hobby of model railroading. My first model railroad was built by them when I was about 4 years old. It was a Christmas gift I still remember to this day. I remember it clearly enough to know the structures on it and the way it was wired as well as the track plan. I always think of my parents in conjunction with the hobby.

I have also had my hobby on hold in some ways. I have no home layout but I do belong to a club. The club is made up of a group that have since become very good friends of mine. So I run my trains on the club layout, and work on the club layout with the rest of the guys.

You will get to build your layout. Your comment about collecting and buying the materials ahead of time is I suspect quite common for those of us with out enough time and or space to build our own layout. If you go to any of my blogs you can read along and possibly find some tips you might be able to use. Some are mine some have been graciously shared by others on this excellent web site.

Great combination

Welcome Jim. I've found teaching 7th grade math to be an excellent accompaniment to a career as a model railroader. I hope you will too!

Jeff Allen

Well said Jim

I thank you for sharing your journey, and wonder how many of us have similar stories. I moved from a home built over a fun little layout to an apartment in New York City with zero available space for a layout.  I wanted to join the local Ntrak club, but they meet early Sunday afternoon and I work for a church - so that ain’t happening.  For now I'm going to have to settle for armchair railroading an dreaming of my next layout. 

I wish you well!

Geof

To me, it is very enjoyable

To me, it is very enjoyable to see posts like these. So full of passion and drive to enjoy what you have before you.

Remember to stop from time to time to enjoy what you have accomplished. Nobody asked you to do this so a deadline is not necessary. 

Thanks for sharing.

Ebs and flows

We all pop in and out of most hobbies from time to time. Sometimes it's a summer or a few weeks, sometimes it can be years.

Me, I had such a horrible experience with a club in Florida, I thought everyone in the hobby was a complete jerk for years until I moved very far from there and found that wasn't really the case at all. met a good bunch around here and jumped back in. Just completed my layout (what I call the "initial build" as I'm all about adding details now) about a year ago.

My layout is a 1/48 scale thank you to my parents for indulging my love of trains as I grew up. It takes places in the very valley in which they both grew up, during the time they'd have been about 7 years old.

My folks are 81 years old each and though they're showing the years, they have excellent recollection of the details of that time and place. My only regret is that they're never get see the layout in person, as they won't get on planes anymore (I live on the opposite corner of the country from them). Without them, I wouldn't have known 90% of the stuff I learned to for the details of the layout itself.

Lee, maybe you could fly out

Lee, maybe you could fly out and do a road trip with them. Drive them back to your place and stop at several places along the way they would like to see. It would likely take a month 7 days travel each way and the remainder to visit with you and your family. You could then return the car at their home location and fly back.

Not cheap but it might be one of those once in a lifetime vacations for everyone. Sometimes things like that work out sometimes they do not.

Lee, maybe you could fly out

Nice idea in theory, but there's no way they'd handle such a long trip. Dad's shrunk in his older years but he's still a really tall guy. He really gets antsy being in a car for more than an hour or two. They both have all kinds of medical issues as well and Mom couldn't handle being so far from a bathroom (when my wife and I crossed the country in the manner you described in 2012, there were a few segments where we didn't even see electric lights for hours, let alone bathrooms. No way Mom could handle that).

They also irritate very easily, in that way that many elderly folks do.

Besides, I could never get that much time off where my wife and I work in the middle of the summer (or really, at any other time of year). I'm lucky if I can get a day off here and there (they denied me for jury duty a few years ago. I had to remind them they legally couldn't do that).

Nope, I know they'll never walk into that room to see the layout. Yeah, it bums me out but I knew that even before I started building it.

Lee, those were some of the

Lee, those were some of the things I was thinking of that could prevent that from taking place. Sorry to hear your folks won't be able to visit. A train trip takes even longer so that won't be an option either.

train trip

Especially since Amtrak hasn't run through their town (where I grew up) since 2005 when the Sunset Limited ended at New Orleans. They've been trying to get it back through Florida, with no results yet (even though all the depots are still there).

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled thread...

Same problem...different story

I get the feeling...kind of.  We were recently blessed with a new baby.  So...hobby's on hold while they need my attention.  Can't wait to give it some more time when the time is right.  

-Matt 

I was very lucky.  I lived

I was very lucky.  I lived with my Mother right up to the end.  And if it were not for my wife and her mother, I would not have been able to keep her at home.  Very grateful to them.  And yes, call mom.  Write mom.  And see mom as aften as you can.

Jim.

My mother got me my first

My mother got me my first train set, and out together a 4x8 layout with trees and buildings.  I can still see it doing around the table in my head.  I still get that wonderful feeling when I watch trains go through scenery.

It is wonderful.  It is like being a kid again and my Mother is right there.  Nice feelings.

Jim

Hey Matt.  Not so different. 

Hey Matt.  Not so different.  I didnt mention I got married late in life, 9 years ago.  And we had a baby boy "Justin."  That also took time away.  But worth it.

1 more week and this Masters is done.  And I already have 2 dates to run trains at a friends layout. 

Cant wait.

So happy to be back.

Jim

Merry Xmas.

Keep your hobby alive - at least in your head

Some 6 decades ago, my dad got me started in S gauge... he traded it in for HO. Sometimes I have a bit of regret on that... more often, joy!

My trains got stored as I went to college .. moved to my house when my dad died.  When my wife & I had 2 boys, the trains came out in the new house.

My mom died a few years back... before that had given me some cash for my birthday - used it for an Erie RS3 - the kind that ran across the street from my house some 6 decades back!   Now both of my parents have an enduring link to my hobby.  And the hobby is now used to express the love we shared.

May That Hobby grow in your minds and homes. This year and decades into the future!