Following the AWESOME events of NMRA 2018 in Kansas City last month, there’s been a lot of discussion about what people are trying to get out of the hobby, defined as “LEGO Trains”. Put another way, why are we (you, me, etc.) here? What kind of reward do we seek from this niche hobby within a niche hobby?

Allow me to offer a few of my own thoughts and experiences which remind me why I’m doing what I am.

As mentioned above, a lot of these ideas started coming to me following the events of NMRA. Rather, I started properly putting all of those ideas into words, for a few particular and specific reasons which I will not detail in this article.

So, why am I here? What drives me to build more new stuff and continue to support the hobby through BMR and other methods? I have two schools of thought: what I get out of it, and what I want others to get out of it, and they go pretty hand-in-hand, at least for me.

What I Get Out of the Hobby

Trains were my first love. Since I was 2 and a half years old, they’ve been my one consistent and long-lasting interest. I had plenty of LEGO growing up, but I never mated the two interests fully until about 2006 or 2007 when I started seriously building my own locomotives and cars and expanding a loop of track into a playroom floor layout. It stands to reason that if I were to not have LEGO, I’d still be into trains, most likely modeling in HO or O scale, doing scratchbuilding, and more. Conversely, if I didn’t have trains, I’d still be interested in LEGO, though probably not to the same degree.

Building trains in LEGO allows me to control every aspect of what I do, much like scratchbuilding. The principles are the same: start from nothing, or a bunch of parts. to achieve an end result, a model train. In my (or our) case, the modeling medium just happens to be LEGO bricks. I enjoy being given a set of parameters to work within and then push the envelope until I end with something that both works well and I can be proud of.

For all these reasons, I consider myself to be a model railroader who models in LEGO (opposed to an AFOL who builds trains). As such, I aim to be prototypical in my modeling efforts, including every detail where possible. Along with that, realism, in terms of train operations and layouts. It’s in my nature to be as detail oriented as I can be, and that’s what I want to get out of “LEGO Trains”.

What I Want Others to Get Out of the Hobby

This part is a little more simple, but has a bigger, more personal meaning for me.

I want others to be able to enjoy the hobby however they want to. Whether that be hardcore realism like my ambitions, more simple MOCs and train set MODs, or simply buying the off-the-shelf train sets, I want to show people the countless ways to enjoy this interesting hobby. Getting others interested and keeping people in the hobby is a big deal for me.

Cale pointed something out to me that connects to this point. There are two TFOLs who frequent the PennLUG displays/events as they are able to. These two guys are members of the Strasburg Model Railroad Club based out of New Jersey, which models the entire Strasburg Railroad from one end to the other. The two TFOLs, Sam and Jon, have started modeling the line in LEGO to display alongside the main HO club layout. As they’ve been working on their models and displays, they’ve both approached Cale and me for advice and constructive criticism. We’ve allowed them to hang around the layout and run some of their locomotives around, and they’re happy to play well and maintain respect. Cale pointed out that I have been paying the hobby forward, if you will, in this way.

But that brought up a really hard-hitting thought.

Picture this scene. The summer of 2009, and a 13-year old Glenn and his dad are driving three hours to the NMRA show in Hartford, Connecticut because there’s bound to be a LEGO display there (there was). I had become pretty familiar with a lot of the great builders of the time (I call them the old guard). There was one individual who I was excited to meet that day, and I did. We talked for a while about his models and other cool stuff, and I tried to impress him with stuff I had been working on. It was a pretty big deal for me. The builder in question was none other than Cale. I had to take a photo with him; it was a big deal for me.

Nine years later, those same two guys, despite being a generation apart, operate a large LEGO layout and also started a LEGO train blog website.

Same guys, same show, same shirts (and hat), nine years later, and I’m taller now.

That, to me, is perhaps the larger part of the hobby for me. The fact that a young TFOL could approach and talk to an AFOL at a convention, having never met or talked before, and have a legitimate conversation about the hobby, is the essence of what the hobby is to me, and what motivates me to continue forward with BMR and to help others when they ask for building advice: passing it on and sharing it with others.

I hope you got something out of this, and I hope I was able to properly articulate my thoughts.

Play well.

Glenn