Technology: How Much Is Too Much?

[ezdays]

This is true throughout the universe. We started off with a 9" B/W TV connected to an antenna on the roof back in 1950. We lived in NJ and needed two antennas, one pointed at Newark, the other at NYC to get four channels. We advanced to a color TV in the 60's, larger screen and in a console. I remember buying a 36" TV around 1999 that took two of us to get onto a stand, but it was still connected to that outdoor antenna, bringing in four or five channels. Now we can get a 75" flat screen connected to a satellite whirling around the earth and we get hundreds of channels, most we pay for but never watch. I'm old school, still have my landline when I want to talk to someone, there are those that would rather go hungry than to give up their cell phones, their fingers banging text messages without even taking a breath.

I used to be able to work on my car, the parts were defined as to what they did, have a problem, replace the part. Need to go somewhere new, grab a paper map. Today's vehicles are run by more computers than were on the first few moon missions. You now have maps that talk to you, buzzers that go off when you stray over a road line, music that comes from those darn satellites, and you can make phone calls without lifting a finger.That's today's world, its call progress. The good thing is that we have choices, we don't have to accept any of that if we don't want to.

The same goes for progress in MRR. I have a quandary, I just unpacked my cars and engines after being packed for a good number of years. I find that most of what I have still have the old Rapido couplers. 70% of my freight cars, and just about all of my engines are dated. Kinda like still watching your old 9" B/W TV when the guy next door just bought his 96" super-screen QLED with Dobly surround sound. So now, do I spend hundreds of dollars and hours upon hours updating those cars and engines, or do I just run them as-is? I have quite a few engines that I spent less than $20 on brand new (a dealer was getting out of the model railroad business). I've got cars that I bought at swap meets for fifty cents or less, does it make sense to upgrade those? Then there's DCC, will I ever run more than one train at a time? I can still do that with DC if I'm careful, and sound, that might be neat running trains with your grandkids, but again, is the economic impact worth it if I get more satisfaction from building things than running trains? Will I even have a group over to run "sessions"? Not likely, so if I'm happy with spending my modeling time using old-fashion technology, so be it.

That's it, progress, you can go with it or not, sometimes you don't have a choice, but it's all suppose to make our lives better.... at a price. In our hobby, we do have choices, I don't plan on updating beyond maybe changing out some couplers on a few of my engines and just keep everything else for display, and I'm happy with what I get out of DC. Like I've said before, I'm in it to build my world, structures and scenery and when I run out of space, I'll just add on and keep going, checking once in a while to be sure I can still run trains if I want to. For those who go with the latest and greatest technology, that's fine, that's what it's there for.