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Melbourne man discovers extensive model train network underneath house

(www.sbs.com.au)
402 points cfcfcf | 27 comments | 30 Jun 25 23:53 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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alnwlsn ◴[01 Jul 25 03:27 UTC] No.44430287[source]▶
Reminds me of an estate sale I went to one time. Unassuming place, one of those tiny postwar homes about the same size as the one in this article - but with at least double or triple the density of this train layout in the basement. The owner must have been a very thin person, as the narrow winding paths around the basement in places measured no more than 8 inches, and the widest parts were only about 2 foot wide. In a 900 sq. foot basement, there was probably only about 50 sq foot of floor you could actually rest your feet on. The rest was all layout and boxes of trains and train accessories of all sorts - hundreds of tiny pots of specialty paint, miniature trees, "grass powder", special linkages and wheels, and more. Probably most of it got thrown away at the end of the sale.

People have hobbies, but I can't think of any circumstance in which I'd convert my basement into a deathtrap. There was less room than those hoarder houses you see on TV (but much more organized). It was genuinely concerning that they even decided to hold a sale there open to the public.

Truly one of the more bizarre things I've seen. Also, the upstairs? Mostly normal - you wouldn't even know the guy liked trains.

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1. tenuousemphasis ◴[01 Jul 25 04:41 UTC] No.44430643[source]▶
Sounds like he was neuro divergent and his wife made him keep his obsession in the basement.
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2. specproc ◴[01 Jul 25 06:19 UTC] No.44431122[source]▶
Is there anything particularly "neuro divergent" about having a hobby?

Anyways, I doubt his wife's making him do anything. Totally normal domestic arrangement to have a space for one's thing(s), whatever it may be. Well-conducive to a happy marriage, IMHO.

I'm not fortunate enough to have a whole basement to play with, but my study's piled high with my books, electronics, painting gear, art and models. I'm thankful to have a space that's mine. My SO didn't tell me to keep my shit here, I was like "dibs" on moving in.

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3. latentsea ◴[01 Jul 25 06:59 UTC] No.44431306[source]▶
> Is there anything particularly "neuro divergent" about having a hobby?

Hyperfocus can make one take hobbies to fairly extreme levels.

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4. perlgeek ◴[01 Jul 25 07:01 UTC] No.44431319[source]▶
> Is there anything particularly "neuro divergent" about having a hobby?

No, but how obsessive the pursuit of that hobby is, that's the question.

There are some model train enthusiasts that, over their life time, spend several millions of EUR on their hobby, so they basically work to finance their hobby.

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5. stavros ◴[01 Jul 25 07:16 UTC] No.44431405{3}[source]▶
I don't know why you're singling out model train enthusiasts. This describes many people I know, and an extremely large range of hobbies.
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6. FirmwareBurner ◴[01 Jul 25 07:24 UTC] No.44431453[source]▶
>Sounds like he was neuro divergent and his wife made him keep his obsession in the basement.

Men do noting but chill: "They're losers, incels, etc".

Men have cool hobbies that don't bother anyone: "They're neurodivergent".

Men just can't catch a break these days.

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7. rusk ◴[01 Jul 25 07:27 UTC] No.44431470{3}[source]▶
Indeed. And such hobbies are a healthy and productive outlet for this kind of energy
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8. nandomrumber ◴[01 Jul 25 07:57 UTC] No.44431645{3}[source]▶
Could be worse.

Could be working to barely scrape by, going to bed early to save on heating costs, unable to afford to save a deposit to buy a house, worry how you’ll afford the next dentist or mechanics bill.

Being able to afford a hobby is a luxury.

Welcome to Australia.

9. dkdbejwi383 ◴[01 Jul 25 08:11 UTC] No.44431724{3}[source]▶
Isn’t that just normal life? I know that I, and almost everyone I know, only works to finance the things we actually enjoy.
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10. somewhereoutth ◴[01 Jul 25 09:32 UTC] No.44432125[source]▶
If Men have the time and opportunity to do nothing but chill, or to have cool hobbies, then they are very definitely catching a break.
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11. FirmwareBurner ◴[01 Jul 25 09:35 UTC] No.44432145{3}[source]▶
They why are they being berated for what they do with their private lives?
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12. _Algernon_ ◴[01 Jul 25 09:41 UTC] No.44432174{3}[source]▶
There are plenty of people that travel a lot. Some would say they work to be able to travel. Would you consider those people obsessive in the pursuit of traveling?

The reason why I'm asking is that my impression seems to be that there is a lot more acceptance for obsession when the obsession is considered extroverted and conforming to society's expectation.

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13. matkoniecz ◴[01 Jul 25 10:09 UTC] No.44432331{3}[source]▶
> so they basically work to finance their hobby.

and what is wrong with that?

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14. em-bee ◴[01 Jul 25 10:37 UTC] No.44432476{3}[source]▶
or maybe they are so overwhelmed that they are procrastinating. the problem here is expectations. you have the expectation that one should not chill or focus on a hobby when they should be looking for a job, or spend time with their children, or whatever else they could be doing when they don't chill or work on their hobby.

i know that feeling. i have been there. more than a year out of work, i could not focus on anything, whatever i did felt wrong because i thought i should use that time to apply to jobs. it was exhausting, and i was procrastinating a lot. i had to remind myself that i could not be writing job applications all day, and i used my hobbies to relax and get energy. so no, chilling or having cool hobbies are not a sign of someone catching a break. not without knowing more about their actual circumstances.

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15. pwdisswordfishz ◴[01 Jul 25 10:50 UTC] No.44432555[source]▶
And my favourite, "Men will literally [do anything creative] instead of going to therapy". Apparently the proper way to to deal with your feelings is consumerism.
16. somewhereoutth ◴[01 Jul 25 11:09 UTC] No.44432667{4}[source]▶
My point is that many people do not have the time and opportunity.
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17. sokoloff ◴[01 Jul 25 11:55 UTC] No.44432978{4}[source]▶
The "singling out" I read as because the topic of this article that we're discussing is model trains.

If this article was about $OTHER_HOBBY, there would be a citation of someone who spent a ton of money on $OTHER_HOBBY.

18. Cthulhu_ ◴[01 Jul 25 12:32 UTC] No.44433266{4}[source]▶
I'll admit I don't know many people but nobody I know has that kind of expendable income. The "worst" case spends hundreds a year on merchandise / collectibles though.
19. em-bee ◴[01 Jul 25 13:03 UTC] No.44433519{5}[source]▶
the problem is that people who slack off or do their hobbies when they should be doing something more important are worse off than those who are just busy. saying they are catching a break is like saying that an alcoholic is catching a break because they got the money to buy alcohol. or (from my perspective) if you have time for tv, youtube and tiktok you must be catching a break, because i don't.

the problem is the generalization. sure, when you catch a break then you can afford to slack off or do your hobbies. but the reverse conclusion is not true. not everyone who is slacking off is catching a break.

it's this judgement of people that when they do that it must be because they are well off that bothers me.

i faced this multiple times. when i grew up we lived on welfare but we could afford things that other people could not because we were thrifty and we saved money on other things we didn't need but were common otherwise, like a car and a TV. but because we were able to afford certain things people thought we were better off. i had time for my hobbies because i didn't spend time watching tv.

they were measuring my life through their perspective.

the same goes for hobbies and hence, your statement.

20. nkrisc ◴[01 Jul 25 13:13 UTC] No.44433585[source]▶
...where else are you going to put something like that in a home?
21. perlgeek ◴[01 Jul 25 13:15 UTC] No.44433603{4}[source]▶
> Would you consider those people obsessive in the pursuit of traveling?

Could be, depending on how much they give up for traveling.

> The reason why I'm asking is that my impression seems to be that there is a lot more acceptance for obsession when the obsession is considered extroverted and conforming to society's expectation.

Maybe it's also related to the accumulation of things related to the hobby.

If you see somebody's collection of model trains and their tracks, it's pretty visceral that they must have spent lots of time and money on this. Same for basically any other hobby that involves collecting this (that aren't tiny, like postage stamps).

If, on the other hand, you hear that somebody has traveled a lot, that doesn't hit home to the same degree..

Maybe another factor is that we tend to associate at least some forms of neurodivergence (autism and AD(H)D at least) with hyperfocus on a few topics, whereas travel exposes one basically automatically to many new experiences. Haven't really thought that through yet...

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22. perlgeek ◴[01 Jul 25 13:16 UTC] No.44433608{4}[source]▶
nothing, IMHO.
23. bluefirebrand ◴[01 Jul 25 13:33 UTC] No.44433765{5}[source]▶
> whereas travel exposes one basically automatically to many new experiences

Tons of people just travel to "destinations" that have resorts and beaches and are very sanitized to be completely not-new at all

Once you've been to one of these resorts you've been to all of them, it really doesn't matter which country they are in

24. potato3732842 ◴[01 Jul 25 17:05 UTC] No.44435949{4}[source]▶
Because a certain subset of society feels entitled to tell other people what to do with their time and resources.

"Nobody needs.." and all that.

25. themadturk ◴[01 Jul 25 22:36 UTC] No.44438581[source]▶
I've always looked at basements as a natural place for train layouts (no, I do not have one -- neither a basement nor a train layout). Trying to put such thing together among the usual furniture, people moving about, possibly toddlers found outside of the basement would be nigh impossible.
26. latentsea ◴[02 Jul 25 23:58 UTC] No.44450136{4}[source]▶
That depends on what the hobby is of course. Also, it's not necessarily healthy. Being unable to switch your attention away from your hobby tends to cause problems in other areas of your life like neglecting the housework, your partner, your children, your health etc. That's part of the reason why these things are classed as disabilities.
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27. rusk ◴[04 Jul 25 06:22 UTC] No.44461650{5}[source]▶
These days the language tends away from “disability” towards “differently abled” - we can accommodate people with special needs and they can outperform “norms” in many fields.