Fanatics of trains?

Recently, a man described his fear of real trains and how he was traumatized by a horrific accident he witnessed as a child at a subway. Inevitably this man ended up with a ptsd type of event he has to deal with the rest of his life. 

The flip side of this for me, is using the model train medium to help me with ptsd symptoms I accumulated from my own youth. Two sides of the same coin but the opposite end of the spectrum with the subject being trains...

Just wtiting this small bit about it triggers me, just because it causes me to think about it and why I Am into the hobby.

That being said, I will leave that track to no where right here for now..,, 

A darker side...

There was a time in the late 70's that I remember quite well. The time George Lucas expanded our imaginations and created what would be a series of classic movies called Star Wars. I remember it fondly as a youngster, as I was involved in trains and a big fan of the dark side...

This influence still has its impact on me even today. Now after so many many years they have come together with what will be a December 18th, 2015 release and guest appearances by some original cast members. So it is fitting that I melted the two together in a photo shopped piece I imagined..

There

I don't blog, tweet or Facebook..

I heard it said before..I don't blog, I don't tweet, I don't Facebook, etc...

I would love to say good for you, especially if you are a master carpenter or some type of zen personality inventor that contributes a craft that only few can attain through elite skills. So good for you ! Rather great for you actually!

If you don't then, well, how boring can and must you be? That inability to participate in a cultural format that is now normal is like saying I don't phone, I hate those talky things..communication is here to stay and it is not changing and if you want to stay unaware of how society is changing in it then it is hard to feel sorry for you when you lament the social woes that befall you. I know of lost relationships because of a past generation refusing to accept and communicate the way the next generation needs to be heard. How tragic is that? And yes,I blame the older mature stubborn generation and not the new "gens" as they should be the parents of society. If the younger gen reaches out and the stubborn refuse, then their conviction is more important than the relationship in my point 

of view. 

Yesteryear model railroads

One great thing about photography today is you can age just about anything you want. Add in a photoshop program and a skilled computer artist, you will have an endless variety of interesting sciences to look at. Me? I just take a bunch of iPhone pictures and study them to see how I can make it look more realistic through the eyes of the camera. It allows me to see things statically. I can then dable as I watch my trains meander on their way. It is my therapy in this ridiculous fast pace world. I love to do a lot of things, but have found myself narrowing down the list. Getting older and going through a lot does that to you I guess.  Now that the lenses grow a bit dimmer, I see things way differently than I used to. Wish I knew what I know now at 25 years of age.. Who doesn't?

This blog is a compilation of thoughts and ideas, (mostly model railroad related) but also tied into this individuals soul and thoughts about things) it is a timeline of sorts as well. There are a lot of thought processes going on that one might disagree with and that is ok. I don't even agree with me on some of the things I write either, but it is good to look back on now and then just to see the thoughts at the time..People change, change is good, don't get stuck on what you think or think you know., model railroading is the escape hatch and therapy like I said beforehand.

I don't even care if it gets read. It is for me and a cheap invite to look into my world. Some will connect, many more won't which is par with real life actually.

So how does it all relate?

Scroll to the beginning and see how it all connects if you really want to know. It's not like a book and the pictures are pretty cool to look at even if you skim over the blathering. Perhaps my kids will find it one day after I am long gone and find it amusing as well. I know I would!

The lumber yard above wasn't exactly how I envisioned it, but size and space dictated the way it turned out. ( like real life eh?) it is awesome to me that I finally was able to secure the yard to a mill for real operating procedure on the layout.

My fantasy railroad is based on reality to a certain degree by area, structures and how the NP wanted to connect with WP in real life in Northern Cal..everything else is what I see through my historical fantasy view.

A viral model train video

Posted my personal video of this visit to the train show and it went almost viral in two days... I wish I knew how that happened...,,

https://www.facebook.com/ModelTrainAddicts/videos/1126735364007396/

Blogs are like model trains

Just like the title states-

You either love them or hate them. Well, maybe not hate but have little to no interest because the rest of life is so much more interesting. To the model railroader though, it is a love affair that cannot be explained. Perhaps it's the escape or imaginary teleportation into the fantasy realm. To them it can be like pornography or drugs to another. It is an addiction. One that makes one feel in control of a vast empire. A little bit of "all of the above" for me. Especially the feeling of being in control, or should I say illusion. Most of life things are out of or beyond our control. Model railroading gives me that little hope of actually being in charge. But it's much more than that even. My trigger has to do with losses. All my life I have been put in spots where somehow I lose. Not small losses mind you. From sports to jobs to family and on and on. Some to personal to mention even. One hit after the next. I have my own PTSD to deal with daily regarding loss. It is no joke, it's a real thing.

Model trains is my focused medium. It is my art and passion when I can break away from the real world. The real world sucks you into its endless black hole. It's mind numbing until you die...the final loss.

Anyways, there is no way to make up enough wind to cover the losses so trains hits the gap. I realize that perception is reality and I have to disengage from it to enjoy. But, please for the sake of everyone's safety, allow a person their escape so they can function normal in this unreal real world.

Hidden for Years...

This is something I didn't know about, it was a well kept secret apparently. Amazing collection! Wonder what has happened to it now?

Posted by Aurora Trains on Sunday, June 28, 2015

Abandon Tracks

Time...

It is the ultimate four letter word. Not the four letter words that parents would wash kids mouths out with soap type of word. No, no, no, far worse a word. One that issues the death warrant on the living,the word that brings finality, totality and reality with impunity.

It is the trident of the universe, this word time. We are always subject to its unrelenting pressure. Always behind it or/and borrowing trouble with it in future preparation of it. Appointments, dates, calendars and clocks a constant reminder that your to much to little or to late. 

And it is there, at the point of realizing that we are all abandon tracks to time. That train that has left behind the remnant of what once was.

So now, all grown up, unfortunately... Writing the regrets of what could have been. Time was not so kind. It did not tell me to stay 12 years old. In fact, it pushed me to be 16 then 18 the 21 then...a blur. It convinced me at every birthday candle that one more would somehow be better with more opportunity and closer to my dreams. No,... Time in its truth lied, always promising and inch closer to my desires and dreams while reality crumbled around me slowly without me noticing. 

Then time shoved it all at once in my face like the roaring lion devouring the unexpecting prey. Friends around me passing away,and the years taking its toll on the body one Atom at a time each and every day, week, month and year.

Here we are, looking through the lense dimly at what is left... To young to die and way to old to accel. And even if a last spurt of energy were to befall me, to what end...? To much to little to late... All I would say is..."it's about time"  not really caring anymore at the cruelty of it all.

The early passions of light grown dimmer towards the end of the track line, where nothing matters as much any more....

Western Pacific N scale

Not Just for Kids...

So the whole thing starts with Tyco, evolves from John Allen's gorre and Daphetid, then .... well who knows from now to future what. The whole idea that a model train can and will influence a lifestyle to the "n-th" degree is amazing to me. You are here so you know what I am talking about. Catch up on past posts if you don't... I can stare at this photo again and again and every time can be like the very first time. How do you explain it? What did he do? Did he make the soul exchanging deal with the devil? I have seen a lot of layouts over the years, but his layout, his alone does something that stirs, glues and pastes my eyeballs into the dark trance of imaginary land. Every single time! Lets explore that later shall we?... Anyways, the fanatic FB pages first header was this very JPG and it drew all the sheep in for the slaughter... So here we are.

Mixed arts

The mental gymnast has left the building.

Perhaps, it seems more likely that it was never in the building per se. There really is no exercise that would fix my mental ailments, that would probably drive most people mad. As disturbed as my Mind is, there seems to be a couple remote places archived in the back somewhere that can provide serenity or at least a perceived peace that makes it my reality.

If I just wrote about model trains or my layout it would become a sterile boring blog.... By nature, I think model trains are a bit sterile, as an engineered  based hobby. All of which I am not. I am messy, life is messy. No amount of sterility can fix it.

A professional poker player with a passion for trains. That's as messy as it gets. My sniping of the unsuspected constantly with a desire to win more than lose a constant driver. Details, even the smallest, a constant companion that compels me. What are the parallels that combine the two in a wonderful orchestrated mess? Poker hands that fail in the end, second best hands, always a threat to the end game. Bad reads, failed attempts in large draws and river game changers. It all makes sense, life is exactly the same. It is never fair, never easy, and always a surprise finish in the end. 

How does it all fit? Is it all just a choice? Is it a narcissistic, endulgent, self promotion of nothing that really matters, perhaps? I might not be able to even tell you what "it" is, but what " it"isn't in the end game. 

This I know, it is what it is, and coherent random stringing of words to make sentences is only a small piece of the puzzle... 

Model trains and the Shasta line are an accumulation of all the above at the end of a run or session. A recouped mental status played out with failures and minor successes. That is what the blog represents, that is the Fab of the fanatic, and where I leave this particular post...

Carry on.

N scale Shasta Line mills

In 1958-McCloud Lumber mill retrieves logs under contract with the Railway under the same name from the nearby reservoir. Housing continues to grow in Southern California cities and keeps the northern mills busy. Meanwhile, western pacific passenger service to Chicago is in full swing from the California Bay Area and the Great Northern continues to pursue Southern passage into Ca through the Western Pacific connection. The McCloud mill, familiar with pinching pennies, is pleased with their lease of a reliable Track Crain courtesy of the big eastern PRR railway.

You made it!

Well it is about time... 

Perhaps this is your first visit to the blog. 

No worry, there are a lot of passers by type people, and that's ok. With over 10,000 views and climbing, I am ok with that. You can have one distinct advantage over the casual viewer. How you say?... Just subscribe.  You see before I even had a subscription available for email or just to follow updates, I did not have that option, therefore high number of views with low subscriber rate.

But before you do that, check to see if it is even worth your time. Don't do it because I give away cool things indiscriminately and at random every month. (Yeah!) do it because this blog hits all the senses as to why not subscribe. I know not everyone can hang on every word, video or sound byte that comes out of my head. But, I do guarantee that you will either learn something, embrace another or just flat out get your dander up... ( I actually love people who respectively disagree) it makes my day!

So no matter why or how you do it, just Nike up and pull the trigger. Who knows, maybe you will be a winner of some cool train related product on my dime!

Monday Dribble happens early

Monday already ?

So this year, I resurrected a couple blogs I had started a couple years back....One is dedicated to model railroading and how it relates to my real twisted up life and the other is more or less about my poker journey as a profession through the eyes of one of our pet dogs....(yeah I know, but my daughters thinks it's great)I also promised myself that I would keep them separated even though they are intertwined in reasoning, skills and end of day results...

But,if there is any amount of twisted, bent up curiosity, in how all that makes any sense, by all means look them up. I am pretty sure they are  existentially viral once the right blogger person/s internet guru gets a hold of them...,or so I am told..

In another unrelated business I found that blogging is tied to google and google drives the spots and placements of anything relevant,,,super complex searches that take anything that captures public attention to levels of euphoric untold riches... Riches that finance model trains ???and, and, and,,,?

So, like I said earlier..., " I won't mix that religion with those politics" ... 

Model train on everyone.

PS.. This is what happens when you wake up pre coffee hours on a Monday in Oregon...!

Tribute to those who inspired

John Allen(RIP) argumentatively the master Jedi of all train layouts, was my inspiration to become more ( much more)within the hobby.

He is most likely responsible for many of the innovations and progression within the hobby that we take for granted. He had long since passed before I even had my first train set, I remember gazing at that old 1981 model railroader that featured his layout on the cover. I still have that original December copy I purchased with money I made mowing lawns for $1.75

I still have that now clear tape bound battered magazine. It came exactly a year after my Silver Streak tyco set that was given to me the prior Christmas 1980.

Fortunately, I was able to purchase a pristine copy of that old magazine a year ago or so.

Now interestingly, I was 12 years old when I started playing with trains, but I had a fascination with my Grandfathers N scale layout he had set up in a room at his mobile trailer.

He passed away about 4 years ago and I received a box full of all that N scale from the 80's Atlas and a couple minitrix items.

Now outfitted with mtl couplers these inherited items pay tribute to him on the Shasta line.....

More nostalgia, thoughts and controversy will be forthcoming on the ModelTrainFanatics blog... 

But for now, and to those who don't know, here is the legendary John Allen.

http://www.doug56.net/GD/

Layout pains

I will admit that my layout is far from rivet counting prototypical In various ways. The main one ( that bothers me though) is the size constraints. All the other non prototypical things I can not only live with but embrace fully and enjoy. But this one gets to me. Why? Because my prized possession consist of 10 beautiful WP passenger cars hauled by the appropriate ABA F units...

My layout just does not give this beautiful set the breathing room for the proper meandering in a mountain range that it deserves... It will run on my 16' of main line track just fine operationally, but I have to give a big sigh as  the majestic turns my route into a mini me Australian Roundy round as they would say...

Please embrace my pain in solidarity, those of you who feel the same cruel injustice in this fantasy world...

1928 a very good year

There comes a certain amount of curiosity when nostalgia is involved. 

https://www.facebook.com/Wimpcom/posts/10152721007835658

http://youtu.be/YrQvV7yyTrk

Model train memories...

"Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it"...(so goes the saying)

I am not sure when or where, the first time I heard the phrase, but it had some impact in my thought process for certain.

Nostalgia- I have an obsession with it ,way more than I care to admit. Perhaps getting older does bring a yearning for the  "good ole days" or  better times..

Whatever it is,that draws me to historic photographs and such drives the way I model trains, as well as other things. But, this blog is about the trains, so we will stick with that for now.

So now we have the foundation for this rant about nostalgia and model railroading. Look,.. I do not know what got you into the hobby, and it does not matter. But for a large segment of model RR's it had something to do with getting their first train set as a kid. This is not new news by any means, but it is a large current that many have either kept plugged in or unplugged all together.( Even those in the hobby can be slightly unplugged)  What I mean by unplugged is that they have moved on from their humble beginnings. They model the "new" stuff or current railroads. Personally, I don't model anything after the that 70's... The reason being is that all the big boys bought and merged all the other railways and changed the face of railroads essentially forever.
I don't care if someone enjoys it or models it for their own, but I just don't care about it at all.  It isn't like they passed on the baton to a new generation or anything. It is that,the new stuff is just so....common, boring, and and and.... wake me up when the crossing signal finally lifts pass the 100 car inconvenience that makes me late for another appointment. I guess I tie the modern to all the other boos that modern has brought with it. Much like real life ...

 These boys grow up to be these boys... and it is a most wonderful thing... Bigger boys with more toys..

I have even found myself walking past the modern layouts at train shows more often. I love how they try to put a mile long train on a 3  mile scale track and label real to it..( another modern peace)..It is just not for me, thats all.
Give me the fallen flags of youth that made the railroad what it is today. The great names that actually designed and carved out the routes that these modern behemoths take for granted. That is the real deal my fanatical friends, that is the real deal.. That is what you will hear me beat the drum over and over about.

Now since nostalgia is about history it would be a tragedy to try and summarize the whole thing up in this one post... Now you don't expect a wrap at this point now do you? So stick around for nostalgia rant part 2... I am sure that there will be more accostment forth coming regarding the topic. If you have followed my "train" of thought here about people in the hobby vs. the life style, I believe you might stick around to hear more... Much more.

A good (model train ) Friday post ?

MTF-(ModelTrainFanatics )

Is more to me than posting a few pictures here and there with some anecdotes. Much more...In fact, underneath all the rhetorical hobbyists nomenclature that you can see and read on numerous sites with the tag words trains or scale in the title is this key word Fanatic. Now this title was picked within the winter set mind of a cold December day. Not that the time of year or even the season makes any difference, but there is one component of that timing that is significant. You see, my main profession is a unique one. I play in the WSOP and WPT circuit events. Those events typically have their schedules mapped out in December and a player has to, or at least should make their own schedules planned accordingly. 

So what does all this have to do with model trains you ask...?

It is the great stabilizer in the equation. I know it sounds weird, but it really is. This miniature world of model trains is where I have control and can change the world. I can right all the wrongs, stop wars, end hate, poverty, pain, and cure all diseases and afflictions. ( god complex?)

So yeah, fanatical is the appropriate title. You darn near have to be one to do what I do and make it in life... I also blog and melt it all into my own beautiful mess at ModelTrainFanaticsBlogspot well for those with curiosity, boredom or just cant believe such a person exists.,.,

So all that to say this- I managed to finally set the remaining buildings in the line up for the rest of my town of McCloud down one side of the street. I am still in flux if I want to keep my blue hotel building for now do that will be subject to change but for all intents and purposes this might be close to the last arrangement got a while. And being as such, lighting will be the next project on the list....

And have a great Friday !

Hit the off button already...

Unless you are an avid blogger with thousands of fans, you are basically throwing your fishing line over dead water. ( no fish in the puddle)

So why ramble on about musings that literally reach no one?  Well, let me tell you why. Blogging is a thought process. The thought process being used is very similar to the creative process being utilized for model railroading. As I write this, various ideas come to the surface that make up the Shasta Line layout. 

The humble beginning of this layout came out of years of pain and frustration in real life the prior 20 plus years.

In fact, looking at the time date stamp on this earlier picture tells me that at this particular time, I was under extreme duress with 4 very young kids, pressure from a performance based sales position, and my own mental breakage from way to much travel and juggling of hats and masks. It is out of this pain this creativity slowly surfaces if it survives... 

Now, I am not a writer and it is difficult for people to follow my thought process in normal conversation. My unfocused Un-eloquence is a tough pill for many to swallow. Either you love it or hate it as there seems to be no inbetween area. 

So if you happen to make it this far into the dribble of random selective words strung together to form this post... You are amazing! You could have watched a top ten you tube video, read the Anthony Bourdain blog, or ...? Add infinitum amounts of other to your "to do" list that has to be better than reading this blog post. But somehow in some way you didn't. Perhaps there is hope for me then? Could I possibly be more interesting than the 80 million views of Justin Beiber? Probably not, but I do believe it is just because I haven't fancied a better mouthpiece out there that has the gift of making things viral. It really is who you know and timing.

Perhaps one day someone finds this or it goes with me to the grave. Either way it still serves the creative thinking process that makes up the five active blogs that I write in. The two main ones and a third that is a business that pays the bills...

And as fast as the post begins, it now ends in now what next...? Stay tuned I guess, it will come.