A comment from the delightful Harry Potter thread at dear Mr John C. Wright’s blog:
It’s at times like this that one sees the real value of the world’s greatest pastime: model railroading.
Model railroading teaches its practitioners useful skills and knowledge ranging from engineering to carpentry to history to geology. It also teaches one the ability to find transcendent beauty and joy – the magic of which John speaks above – in such mundane sights as a steam locomotive switching a cut of hopper cars into a coal tipple.
And there are no spells or incantations involved, although the level of esoterica required to become proficient could be considered excessive.