My copy of the May, 2025 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman arrived in the mail yesterday, and – in my opinion – it contained one of the most important pieces of writing about our hobby in recent memory. This came in the form of the monthly column by Jason Shron, the founder of Rapido Trains. In it, he addresses anxiety, depression, and other issues related to mental health. I’ll get back to his column shortly…
I’m fortunate to not be living with the Black Dog of clinical depression, but I’ve dealt with anxiety. Most of my friends have too. It seems to be an ever-present part of most people’s lives these days. I recently described is to my wife as follows:
“Normally, my resting stress level is around 2/10 but for many months now it’s been hovering around a 5 or a 6. Some days, even a 7. That means when something actually stressful happens, I have less headroom to cope with it.”
The epiphany for me came in early March, when I decided to stop arguing with myself about how to expand my S scale Niagara St. Catharines & Toronto Railway, and just buy some lumber and get on with it. I had no plan – at least, not what someone in the Layout Design SIG would consider a plan. Instead, I knew what would physically fit in the layout room while leaving adequate aisle space and I hoped the plan would resolve itself once the benchwork was up. (It has.)
I thought I was building a layout. But what I was really doing was directing my energies into something that was not driven by anxiety, but by something positive. Each day, I spent my free time in the basement instead of doom-scrolling. I worried about working safety and building a solid foundation for my layout instead of worrying about… {looks around]… “all this stuff”.
And I started feeling better. My resting stress level dropped back to a 2.
I still worry about all that other stuff: How can one not? But I have more headroom to cope with it. That’s important.
Not everybody copes. If, like me, you’ve been around for a few decades, you probably know someone who has not. I know a few who have committed suicide: classmates from high school and university… people I’ve worked with… people I know through the hobby… even a couple of friends.
Almost all of them have been men.
Statistics bear this out. A significant proportion of men experience mental health challenges, including a high rate of suicide attempts and a higher prevalence of depression and anxiety compared to women. That’s important to acknowledge in male-dominated hobby such as ours.
Many men have trouble talking about their mental health. Some may be looking for “permission” to broach the subject – either about their own state of mind, or to ask friends about theirs.
That’s why I was pleased to see Jason’s column.
Jason is a high-profile personality within our hobby. He has not only built one of the largest businesses in the hobby, he has also built a sizeable, global community of modellers. Addressing mental health and anxiety so publicly like this is brave – and because a household name in the hobby did so, it destigmatizes the issue. It gives others “permission” to open up.
For that reason alone, I think Jason’s column is important – so much so, that I approached RMC for permission to share it here.
Kudos to Jason for writing it.
Thanks, also, to Railroad Model Craftsman for publishing it – because it reminds all of us that the hobby is about so much more than creating miniature railways.
Here’s the column:
I hope you find it useful. If you do, let RMC know.
I’m heading back to the layout: I have ties to lay, rail to spike, and a candle to light.
The Model Railway Show 