To be honest, model railroading ranks pretty low on my personal hobby list. I'm more interested in the study of the railroad industry, both in writing and photographically, than I am into modeling it. That's why I chose to use my real name here when other forums I lurk on only see me as a handle. The members here are modelers and are genuinely interested in it as a pursuit whereas at other forums most people only seem to model because they can't cut it in the railroad industry.
So after that little soapbox lecture what are my other hobbies?
On top of the list are railroad photography and the study of railroad operations both past and present. I probably have more railroad books than N scale rolling stock (and you all thought Micro-Trains auto racks were spendy!). You've probably all seen my work in CTC Board, Railpace, or TRAINS and not even known it -- and that's more than fine by me!
In addition to my work in the railroad industry I'm also engaged in writing and photography of other subjects. To that end I'm currently majoring in English at a small local college and hope to have my bachelors degree completed in a few more years. I'm also actively pursuing a side career in photography doing portraits and photojournalism as time permits.
My free time pursuits also include anime (
library needs updating) and manga (library link forthcoming). Are there any other otaku on here? One thing I've found is the widespread depiction of railroads in Japanese media. Just about every series I've seen shows railroading somehow. This can probably be attributed to the greater integration of public transit in the Japanese culture, but I digress...
Since I'm now rambling I'll just say that my other interests include travel, American history, cooking, and gardening and leave the floor open for the next one to reply...