2006-10 The Joys of Research By Donboy To increase my hobby enjoyment I am taking the path less traveled.  Inspired by the prototype I am defining a complete world environment for my model simulation of a railroad.  While I will use a lot of prototype information it is unlikely my layout would ever be considered prototype. The phase "the second mouse gets the cheese" amuses me.  In the case of my layout I need to be careful to consider what I am doing because in many ways I am the first mouse.  When you are the first mouse it pays for be careful!  Part of being careful is to do a little research which is great because I like research. I often hear the part of the joy of prototype modeling is the research and I have to agree.  What I am doing also requires careful research if you want the end result to have that realistic feel.  Because I am dealing with a simulated world environment I need to know more about it than anyone else.  This is a lot like modeling a prototype where you try to learn more about the prototype.  There is a difference and it is a difference that works for me.  To model a prototype you are looking at things like what color the equipment was painted and what size boards were used on the sides of the wood box cars etc...  When you get to that level of detail my interest starts to wane.  Researching the background story for a complete simulated world environment is more fun for me.  Last month I was doing some research and it was a very interesting review of the different types of government.  Now visitors to my layout will not need to be burdened with the details of what type of government my simulated world has but the operating rules etc... will hang together better if I know that information.  In any case this is fun for me because knowing more about how the world works is more entertaining to me than knowing the number of rivets on a tender.