Golden Era Passtimes / Hobbies

[Big_e]

Playing the ukulele (I call it playing, you would call it noise), tabletop miniature wargaming. Unlike the miniature wargaming of the early twentieth century which recreates historical battles, this involves sci-fi type scenerios and models.
Ernest

 

[Shangas]

My old-timey hobbies include writing, reading, playing the piano, watching movies (that's old, right?) and repairing fountain pens. My cousin's taken up knitting as a hobby, so she told me.

 

[David Conwill]

The two activities that come to mind for me are camping and model railroading. I haven’t done either in quite a while, though, because the girls are too young yet (likely model railroading is on permanent hiatus, unless the baby turns out to be fascinated by trains).

Hauling home cheap/free 1920s car parts is an ongoing period pastime, as is puttering around in the garage fixing and trying to improve things.

-Dave

 

[Shangas]

Oh man! Model trains! I used to LOVE playing with that as a kid. Me and my brother both. We used to go bonkers over that stuff! Sometimes I wish I had the room to get back into that kinda stuff, but the unfortunate thing about model trains and railroads is that they take up so much damn room...

 

[David Conwill]

Oh man! Model trains! I used to LOVE playing with that as a kid. Me and my brother both. We used to go bonkers over that stuff! Sometimes I wish I had the room to get back into that kinda stuff, but the unfortunate thing about model trains and railroads is that they take up so much damn room...

My dad had a pretty decent HO-scale layout in the basement before I turned 9. He, my brother, and I tried to build another after we moved, but didn’t get beyond roughed-in scenery. It wasn’t much fun at the new house because of the low ceilings and frequent flooding in the basement.

I’ve always fancied going to N scale because of the size restrictions, and the possibilities it opens up for operation and new equipment. However, I would miss the detailed structures and equipment of HO.

I just bought an O-scale train set to run around the Christmas tree this year - talk about size! Still, it’s all smaller than the real thing, which is why I remain interested in model railroads long after I’ve gotten away from model cars.

-Dave

 

[RadioWave]

I had tried model railroading with the pre- and post-war Lionels I had found in the family attic, but the lack of space, time, and the much-needed restoration work ended up putting the trains back in storage. I still enjoy marveling at other people's layouts though.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

How about general tinkering? I've always got 'projects' whether they be old radios, desk fans, cars, etc, etc. It's never a pressing project, just something to putz with, with hopes of getting it going someday. Best example, my old Buick that I've put about 20 miles on, maybe, in 2 years and have spent countless hours and dollars on repairing this and that.

 

[MissMittens]

How about general tinkering? I've always got 'projects' whether they be old radios, desk fans, cars, etc, etc. It's never a pressing project, just something to putz with, with hopes of getting it going someday. Best example, my old Buick that I've put about 20 miles on, maybe, in 2 years and have spent countless hours and dollars on repairing this and that.

You know, that's a very good point........Things would break, and you'd have to try fixing them yourself at least. I'm a natural tinkerer, I used to pull apart toys, transistor radios, my first "walkman" just to see how they worked, and tried putting them back together. If they broke, I often knew how to fix them.

I hate the disposable society we live in how, where everything is made to breakdown after a period of time, and made to simply throw away.

 

[CharlieB]

You know, that's a very good point........Things would break, and you'd have to try fixing them yourself at least. I'm a natural tinkerer, I used to pull apart toys, transistor radios, my first "walkman" just to see how they worked, and tried putting them back together. If they broke, I often knew how to fix them.

I hate the disposable society we live in how, where everything is made to breakdown after a period of time, and made to simply throw away.

This also relates to the vintage jobs: the TV repairman. I can remember the guy coming in with a huge box of tubes, swinging that big Zenith piece of furniture around and working on it. Just so we could get back to our great selection for four channels!

 

[MissMittens]

Sounds like my storage unit. I have a 10x5 full of communication gear from 1936-1950, and boxes and boxes of tubes. Listening to shortwave with a 1926 vintage Hallicrafters receiver is a bit like watching 4 channels on TV nowadays. Back when I was a kid in the 90's, there were tons of stations on shortwave because of the fractionalism within the former soviet union. Now BBC doesn't play, Voice of America shut down even. Google wants the bandwidth and digital radio just hasn't caught on.

 

[in/y]

Yea, shortwave radio ain't what it used to be when it was propaganda driven and before the internet. There just isn't much worth listening to that I know of.

The BBC stopped beaming their stuff towards the U.S. some time ago.

BTW I never heard of a 1926 Hallicrafters as they didn't start making receivers until the earlier 1930's, perhaps it's of 1936 vintage?

 

[MissMittens]

BTW I never heard of a 1926 Hallicrafters as they didn't start making receivers until the earlier 1930's, perhaps it's of 1936 vintage?

Sorry, typo. It's an SX-15. I have an SX-25 also, from about '39. My favorite RX is my Hammarlund HQ-120X, which is also '39 vintage.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Yeah, there's one place in Portage that'll repair TV's but they don't really want to and just try to sell you a new one off the showroom floor. We haven't had a TV repaired since 1993 and that old console's still going.

 

[CharlieB]

Yeah, there's one place in Portage that'll repair TV's but they don't really want to and just try to sell you a new one off the showroom floor. We haven't had a TV repaired since 1993 and that old console's still going.

I doubt there is anything that can be repaired in a modern flat screen TV. Can you even open it without breaking something?

 

[AtomicEraTom]

My parents took theirs in to be repaired and the cost to repair it was WAY more than what we paid for the Television.

I doubt there is anything that can be repaired in a modern flat screen TV. Can you even open it without breaking something?

 

[MissMittens]

Well, you know, you're absolutely right. No one wants to repair anything these days, it's simply not cost effective. That being said, a friend of mine is setting up a Computer/TV/Radio shop believe it or not. He's only going to do repairs, no sales, and he's going to run the whole gamete from LCD and plasma TV through to tube radios.

 

[in/y]

My favorite RX is my Hammarlund HQ-120X, which is also '39 vintage.

Hammarlumd did make some great sets. I have an HQ150 (the successor to the 120) myself though I've always had a special affection for the National HRO's of the 30's. They work great and look neat too.

 

[MissMittens]

Nationals are great little receivers, if you have room for all the plugin coil modules

 

[kampkatz]

I had tried model railroading with the pre- and post-war Lionels I had found in the family attic, but the lack of space, time, and the much-needed restoration work ended up putting the trains back in storage. I still enjoy marveling at other people's layouts though.

My late father-in-law left me his pre-War Lionel trains in both Standard and O scale. Many accessories also. Everything was made in the USA. I haven't had the time to have them restored either. I will need a good sized room to set them up. I plan to go at it full throttle when I retire(hopefully in 6 years).

 

[MissMittens]

A friend of mine just added a new floor to his house, specifically for model trains and antiques. Can't wait to see it all setup. I'm not a big fan of running trains, but I do think they're really cool when setup properly and with all the scale houses and models. I know it's a lot of work