I have been put down too, even by my Mother.
What your friend said should just be forgotten, and you might want to re-consider whether he's your friend or not.
It's also good to limit how much you talk about trains around your friends, I've had to do the same thing. Leave the train talk for the forums, model railway clubs, tourist railways and places like that where nobody will get hurt for loving trains.
Kieran.
Thats not correct at all. For example, i talk with my friends about trains, as trains are familiarizated with cars (both uses diesel, both have horsepower engines, both are driven by people, and both go on tracks), and many of my friends talks about cars. But you need to know how much you can say, for example, how Horsepower moves long trains, or how its the work of a train employee/train driver, but not to say, "i like this, this and this train too" or "you should like trains, or know more about them". Altough we are not less people, we are many and many every day, and railfanning, train talk and model trains attracts people so we fill the list of train buddies. And yeah, you cant take too much trainz or you wont get it out of your head
To be a real RR employee one must be physicly fit, and have 20/20 vision, non-color blind, with a college education.
To be an engineer you would need to work odd hours, always on call, 24/7/365, be able to permanently relocate to far away locations, inside of 5 days. Very bad for family life and hard on relationships.
Working in a loco/car shop, car repairman, or wreck crew, or MOW crew might require less educational background.
But with 2,000 people all applying for 2 jobs, your chances of being hired will be slim.
RR's of the future will be scaled back even more than today, with one man crews, and remote control.
While Trainz and RR are fun ... one should not be totally absorbed into the hobby and dream ... as studies, homework, grades and graduation from school will be effected. Canceling out a successful college education.
You should not put all your eggs in one basket ... as the job may not exist, or pan out for you in the future.
So spread our life around, and do multiple things besides Trainz and RR dreaming, especially daydreaming.
Just in case a RR job never works out for you ... prepare alternate plans.
And if you have amblyopia in one eye, but the other is perfect? Can you be hired for at least RR employee?
I talked with a friend of the US that is driver and he told me that if you are able to see at 100 meters, you are in.
And yes, if the train world doesnt come suitable to you, search other hobbys or dreams as you said CascadeRailroad. I recommend you guys to play a sport, it helped me too much, and find something in you know that will help you and the world in a future. To be train driver its too easy out of here, because only, only in spain, the train driver career costs "20000€", "30000$" to be exactly, and then you need to be hired in a company
Ah and if you like trains, is because someone in your family liked them before, it happened to me, as my mother grandpa was railworker, in the extint railway of my village, a narrow gauge steam train of cereal and animal transport, so there i know why i like trains, and im proud of it
Greetings
mop: I just feel like every time I talk about Trainz/trains I am being put down. Reguards, BDP