As I rush to work trough my to do list and the summer rushes by I still have hope that late this fall I will be constructing the benchwork on my On30 model railroad and when I get a chance I review my plans to make sure what I build will please me. 

As part of reviewing my plans I was thinking about railroads and what I see when I look at them.  As a child I remember being impressed with the size and power.  I also remember a bit of mystery about where the trains came from and where they were going. 

As I got older my interest in trains remained but the areas of interest changed.  In my teens I became interested in the mechanical efficiency of how many tons could be moved by just a few personnel and locomotives.  I also became interested in how the rail cars got routed to the correct delivery locations.

After some time in the business world I have found my interest in railroads has shifted once again.  When I see a railroad today what I see is a transportation business.  As a train goes by I am looking at how new the locomotives are, are the locomotives leased, how many cars are in the train, how many cars are empty and in general my thought is how much income will they get from running that train?  Looking at railroads as a business (which they are of course) I am finding new areas of interest in a subject that I have been interested in all my life. 

When you run a business you need to manage it.  A business needs to make money with control of charges, capital investment and of course by keeping expenses down.  While the new age information will show me where the tracks go you do not find many details about why railroad management made the choices they did on the internet.

Why did they build or upgrade the track?  Why did they buy the locomotives that they are using?  How do they select what rail cars to buy?  What do they do to control expenses? 

Knowing what my current interests are in railroading allows me to have a comfort level with where I am going with my model railroad.   I have also been thinking about the many people who have some interest in railroads and what they see that makes the trains interesting to them.

My list of what I find interesting currently looks like this along with my interest level based on 1 for low and 10 for high:

1. Large powerful machinery (4)
2. History (7)
3. Mechanical Engineering (8)
4. Business Management (9)
5. Dispatching Trains (6)
6. Rail Fan (watching the trains run (4)
7. Switching (9)

You also have the model construction list as this a construction hobby:

1. Models of the trains (8)
2. Models of the cars (8)
3. Model track (6)
4. Model Buildings (9)
5. Model Scenery (8)
6. Model Bridges (7)
7. Car routing system (6)
8. Running trains with routing system (10)
9. Just running trains (3)
10. Hobby electronics (3)
11. RR Hobby Collectibles (1)

Thinking this over I am sure that everyone would have their own list and their own set of values for the items  on their list.  It seems to me that if you want to build a model railroad knowing what your interests are and how strong you interest level is key to a model RR that is rewarding over a long period of time.  I know I will have to put some effort into items that do not interest me that much to get where I want to go but knowing where I want to go greatly increases the chances that I will get there.