The Right Tools and Acquiring Skills to use Them
I started railway modelling as an adult hobby in the summer of 1990–91. One of the parts of the hobby I really enjoy is the opportunity it provides to listen to radio broadcasts, audio books and podcasts while I’m modelling. I started out listening to the radio as I built my first HO layouts in the early 90s, then began recording episodes of some of the shows that I’d been missing because the times they were broadcast didn’t coincide with when I was modelling.
These listening habits continued for well over fifteen years until my partner Louise gave me an iPod as a gift. This gift sat unused in its packaging for about six months because I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it. Being a grumpy curmudgeon, I’d gone on listening to my radio shows, tapes and CDs and hadn’t bothered to investigate what an iPod might have to offer. We were sitting at dinner one night when Louise asked me how my new iPod was working out to which I replied, “I hardly ever listen to music so I don’t use it much”. After dinner I was dragged reluctantly in front of a computer to be shown iTunes, at which point the
