My nephew arrived at my house tonight and begged me to let him live with me for the rest of the year because rents going pretty high in his apartment and he's borderline broke. So I agreed to let him stay for the rest of this year and I have a gut feeling with hwo the economy is going, I mgiht end up living together with him all of 2024 plus perhaps 2 years more.

That said I claeared out a big room for him and set up tablesbecause I know he loves model trains and thus no surprise he brought a gigantic bunch that quickly filled the tables into an active railroad. Not only that but I was surprised he had a bunch of set for roller coasters too! I had to clear another room in my house to allow him to set up his roller coaster set! But that last point is off topic so I won't touch it.

That said for years I always just saw his hobby as "meh" but just let him do whatever since he's a college student now and well its his life and his free time not mine. But I was just amazed how gorgeous the train town dioramas he set up appeared! Not to mention I found something strangely entertaining and warm about the trains moving in circle for an infinity number of times across the railways and terrain along with towns he set up.

So its obvious I'm now begining to respect model trains not just as a hobby but I'm sincerely starting to think its form of art. Enough that now I'll research into the subject.

But I'm wondering about input for you people who are just as much into train modeling as my nephew is, if not more. What do you find so appealing about this hobby? Is it the fact that watching the trains run about in circle is just so pleasant to watch for some reason? Or the fact that the mountains, forests, buildings, and railways even the miniature humans actually are rather lovely set pieces? Now sure my nephew mostly use Lionel kits which to my understanding is one of the more high end brands. But I'm still amazed at how stunning the sets he made out of Lionel products can be! So what do you personally find so attractive about modeling train towns?

Every year, I get my train lover the Thomas and Friends Advent Calendar. It has always been available at Target and Walmart, but they don't have it in stock. There are some images online of the 2024 version, but only scammy looking websites claim to have it in stock. Has anyone found one locally?

Sorry if this isn’t the right place but back in the 90’s I remember watching 2 or 3 VHS’ about toy trains. They were showing different environments and if there was something about to go wrong, the conductor, an old man in a black hat would throw up his hands and be like “oh no”. Thanks