Do you physically handle/move freight cars

[dknelson]

riogrande5761

 

 

Do you physically handle/move freight cars

 The title of this topic reminds me of a cartoon in MR magazine back in the 1970's.  It shows a layout owner getting a visit from a famous model RR figure who finally accepts an invitation to some see his layout - sort of like getting Tony Koester or someone else famous to visit.

In the scene, it shows the layout owner picking up his steam engine which is parked in a house track.  The famous visitor is SHOCKED and says, "You don't actually pick up your trains do you?"  The layout owner is impossibly embarrassed and then the famous visitor explains how to build a feature into his layout so he doesn't have to pick up his trains.

I always got a laugh out of that cartoon, the someone could actually react that way and never gave it a though again until this topic was started, jarring me back to that cartoon.

 

 

I remember that cartoon too!  But it wasn't really an MR cartoon per se, it was a series of advertisements for Kalmbach Books with cartoons all featuring the "Ralph" character, the big, impossibly good looking know-it-all guy (sort of a model railroading Super Hero) who would tell everyone around him what they were doing wrong and just what Kalmbach Book could set them straight.  In this case I think Ralph was peddling Track Planning for Realistic Operation, and its section on run around tracks in engine terminals.

 

There was one I remember where "Ralph" got a call from a modeler-in-need late at night, and it showed Ralph in bed answering the phone.  On the bedstand next to him was a framed photograph of ... Ralph.  That told you all you needed to know about Ralph.  Kind of a creepy guy, probably been a bully but also teacher's pet in high school.

 

Finally someone wrote a letter to the editor stating that every issue of MR that had this advertisement featuring Ralph was being torn to bits and crushed under foot, and that Ralph stood for everything that was wrong with western civilization.  The editor of MR at the time said the Ralph series was being discontinued and that "nobody was sorry to see him go."

 

Dave Nelson

[riogrande5761]

Hah hah, Ralph sounds right.  Your memory is better than mine!  I just remember the cartoon but not the context.  I still have a few of my old MR magazines - I've thinned them way down but keep a few for historical and posterity reasons.

As for handling my trains, yes, I actually handle them - so Ralph would not be happy.  Sorry Ralph.  However, I do try to only handle when needed - less handling less chance of breaking a part or something.  It's never something I've given any thought to for many years but this forum comes up with all kinds of strange questions I'd never think of asking - many of them "whimsical" and from a lot of people with more time on their hands than I do to think of wierd stuff - you know the old saying about the idle mind!   LOL