About

What is it about model trains that we love? I think what we love about model trains is the freedom that it lends us to represent railroading in just about any form that we can imagine. Why would we want to represent railroading? Railroading is the lifeblood of industrial nations. Railroads transport a large variety of goods from one place to the other. They are a physical manifestation of commerce. Throughout history, many different minds have changed railroading in order to solve the issues that are interesting to us historically and intellectually. It is natural that we choose to represent the many historical examples, or create our own from scratch. Modeling can be very challenging, but also very rewarding. It takes time, money and effort, which is a commitment for anyone, but especially for people who are going to school or working. My aim in this blog is to discuss model railroading from the proper perspective: that of a hobby that should be fun, relaxing, and stress-free. From when an idea comes to us to when we cut up our layouts, there are many choices that we have to make. I will talk about decisions that face every modeler and advice based on the way I solved them myself in order to avoid stagnation due to indecision. After all, if you are not working through a project of some sort, you are probably just armchair modeling. But today, few people are simply sitting in armchairs. Today, they are on their computers. That is why I call this blog “The Laptop Modeler”.