non-mrrs annoying comments.....

[salt water cowboy]

A venting rant: In my restaurant business I come into contact with literally upwards of 5000 guests per week. A good few are regulars and a nice clientele whom I've gotten to know over the years> Many know I'm into model railroading and I enjoy talking with them about my hobby. One elderly gentleman in particular has a beautiful and "locally" famous S scale layout. He is retired from PRR, Penn Central and Conrail and we talk and talk and talk railroads every Sunday. Heck, he even used to own an actual caboose he turned into a camper! But what I'm getting at is the comments I get from others....like "how is your trainset coming along?" or "how often do you set your tracks up?" or the best one yet...."Here's the general manager! Did you know he likes to play with toy trains?!"  ................geeeez. oh well........

Matt

[grizlump9]

 maybe you are just a little thin skinned. perhaps their comments only show a lack of knowledge about this hobby. 

when i think i am being ridiculed because of my interests in trains and models, i tell them about my other hobbies.  defacing churches, senior citizen porn, and strangling small animals.

grizlump

[BRAKIE]

Matt,The ignorance of the general public about the hobby and railroads in general is unbelievable..Consider the source and shrug it off...

 

On the other hand questions like "how is your trainset coming along?" or "how often do you set your tracks up?"  can be genuine questions asked by those that don't understand the hobby.I hear similar questions a lot during the 8 day county fair and other open houses.

 

[RedGrey62]

I think Brakie may be corrrect, without hearing the tone of the question, it would be hard to judge whether or not it was a genunine question.

I find myself using some of the terms you mentioned in conversation with my non MRR friends just because its easier to use terminology they understand than to try and change them.  Most don't understand layout, but do understand trainset.  Then I have to get thru the inevitable "are you going to have mountains and tunnels and such" by explaining that I'm modelling a specific RR in Nebraska where they didn't have either of those.  It just takes patience and putting everything into terms they understand.  If they want to learn more, you'll know and they will adapt, if not, enjoy the conversation anyway.

Ricky

[jeffrey-wimberly]

 When somebody asks me 'how often do you set your tracks up' I just tell then I set up my current tracks in 1995 and have seen no reason to take them down, rather I've added to them along the way. You welcome to come and help. The 'toy trains' statement is one I recognize as being born of sheer ignorance on the part of the party making it or that this particular person may be one those who has to tear someone down to make themself look good. In either event I just ignore them.

[salt water cowboy]

sigh.......I know, I know.....I don't mean to sound pompous but the (world's greatest) hobby needs more people to know WHAT it is! Heck, everyone certainly knows what an RC airplane is..... When I come across people who ask the "silly" question I patiently explain to them more about the hobby. I usually have a few photos of my layout in my briefcase I show to people. The comments I get then are "Neat!" or "Wow!" which makes me feel good after the initial "trainset" question. And even though I've been mrr-ing for 25 years, it is nice to educate people! Sorry, but the word trainset rubs me the wrong way, but I do get over it!

Matt

[HHPATH56]

 HI Matt,

I just made a long Reply to a new model railroader and then typed in Joe Fugate on the Internet, where in addition to the great series of videos, there was an ad for a tee shirt with "still playing with trains" emblazoned across the front.  Along with some 150,000 others, we still like to be grown-up kids, with a hobby that enables one to dabble in many crafts and skills. Bob Hahn

[IRONROOSTER]

Sometimes, when I want to put it on a high plane, I tell people I'm building a scale model of the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad. 

Other times I talk at length about model trains, the different scales, how they started, what's available in the hobby, how to handlay track, etc and they never ask again.

But mostly I have found that most people are not really interested so I usually don't mention the hobby.

Enjoy

Paul

[TMarsh]

"All trainsets on sale" That's what people see in adds because that is what's for sale. That is what they heard about as a kid and that is what they think it is called. They do not know the difference any more than I would know all the terms for crochette or knitting. Keep in mind that, though it would be nice I suppose, not everyone is into MRR anymore than I am into in scrapbooking. Many people have seen large layouts and think they are "neat" and like to look at them, but really have no interest in modeling or have anymore than the "trainset" under the tree. Like someone previously said, without hearing the tone I would have to say they are just being nice and trying to be friendly by asking about something you are doing that they just don't do themselves. Shoot, half the time when someone asks what I've been doing today I'll respond, this and that and worked on my "choo choo train" a bit. They don't even bat an eye. Of course I respond about the same when they go off on some baseball players stats and how it compares to something and how someone else is only doing some percent and how they would do this different etc, etc.....

I wouldn't get to worked up over someone using terms that are well meant. I know I wouldn't want people to say,"Gee I just asked about it to ne nice, I didn't want a lecture about it. I couldn't really care less."

As far as playing with trains goes, well... technically..... since the trains don't really haul goods and usually there isn't a real business on a persons layout, and whether it is a model or a freelance the operations are made up, (that is to say "pretend") actually......we are playing with trains. I can live with that. Nooooo problemo.

[blownout cylinder]

Some comments require that person to clarify what it is they are having an issue with. So I ask them what that issue is/was.

Sometimes it is just that they don't understand what MRR'ing is--and when I tell them about it I actually get them interested in the hobby

Other times---not so much-----

[dinwitty]

 

Look at the cute trains

[jeffrey-wimberly]

dinwitty

 

Look at the cute trains

I get a lot of that.

[ef3 yellowjacket]

Just shrug it off.  As Don Ho used to sing:  "Ain't no big thing".  I am single and date; when a woman comes to my house and is curious as to "what is in that room?" I simply tell her "a studio", which in effect, it is.  Curiosity satisfied (mostly-you know women...) she and I go on to better things.

YOur post also got me to thinking about all of the dumb things I have said over the 64 years being a guest on this rock, and lame train comments would probably pale; you know the instructions:  "open mouth, insert foot".

 

Rich

Yellowjacket EF3

[Anonymous]

I get a lot of remarks about my "train set" or "train layout" while I prefer "model railroad" personally. The most prolific question I get from people visiting the layout is about my unpainted white plaster cloth hills around Mascoma Lake. "Is that snow?"

 

[blownout cylinder]

dinwitty

 

Look at the cute trains

I got "Look at the pretty little choo choos----" a few times----

[4merroad4man]

I am hardly an expert in things that do not interest me, and I presume that others are the same way.  If the inquiry is a polite comment, I do not take it as a slap in the face toward the hobby or me.  I simply smile and try to give an answer that is on the level of the question.  If the guest is truly not interested and was just being polite, the conversation shifts to something else where there is mutual interest or expertise.  If the guest is interested, the conversation continues on a more elevated level.

No big deal.

[West Coast S]

I've gotten this response, " with the money you spend, you could take the wife on a European vacation".  

Dave

[Anonymous]

 Choo choo trains? So what! I´ve got a very thick skin ...

[reklein]

About ten years ago I built a scale model of Sitka, Alaska as it looked in 1840,during russian times. Essentially a model railroad with no railroad. No one ever commented about"sets" or "cute" or "pretty little this or that". The comments were "so thats how it looked then" "now is this where such and such is now?". Kinda curious how people regard things,huh?   BILL

[tatans]

Try setting up a model wooden trestle that is pretty complicated (of course it's scratchbuilt) and set a nice steam locomotive on it in your restaurant (out of reach) and let people see what a part of MR is all about, just a thought.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

West Coast S

I've gotten this response, " with the money you spend, you could take the wife on a European vacation".  

Dave

Wouldn't work for me. No wife.

[TheK4Kid]

 Hi everyone!

Well I used to take a lot of teasing and ribbing back in junior high and high school, becuase I
liked not only model trains , but model( flying) airplanes and full scale airplanes.
I was called "Sky King"
Well I continued to pursue my dreams.
Today I have a nice but unfinished HO PRR layout.

I have a number of RC airplanes that I have built and still fly. I also own and fly a 1946 Ercoupe.I also am rated on a Cessna 172, Cessna 150, have flown a 1948 Stinson model 108 and several other classic airplanes which includes a 1929 Ford Trimotor from the right seat, a 1945 Boeing B-17 from the left seat and actually logged the time in my logbook.

So as I flew that B-17 over my hometown in 1996 ( the EAA B-17 Aluminum Overcast) and my former school chums might have been looking up and saying, "I wonder whatever might have happened to Sky King?"

Little did they know that "Sky King" was at the controls of that B-17 !!!

Let them say what they might!
Pursue your dreams!

Men Dream, Machines Do, and from this we build the "American Dream!"

TheK4Kid

[Flashwave]

TheK4Kid

So as I flew that B-17

Oh, by the way, PPPHHHHHTTTT!!!!!

It can be worse. Round here, toy train is quickly replaced with Thomas, and little kiddie jokes soon follow. I'll tolerate toy train, and i have nothing against Thomas, but when it's used as a deragatory comment...

[markie97]

Anybody see "Gary Unmarried" last night. Where Gary's ex-wife's older, nerdy boyfriend is ridiculed for having a train room? Scratch that show off my list!!!

[tstage]

I don't think I've ever gotten a derogatory comment about my interest in MRRing.  (Or, at least what I considered as derogatory.)  Maybe it's because I take a general interest in what others do in their free time and/or hobbies.  Even if I did, I would just smile and take it as a opportunity to correct/educate the "offender".

Not everyone whom you cross paths with is ever going to understand trains...or you for being involved with or interested in them.  That's okay.  Some people didn't understand me - even before I got into trains.

And other's views of what I do really have very little bearing on my well-being.  If someone seems insistent about criticizing or jibing you about "toy trains", it may be an indication that they themselves are either envious (of your enjoyments)...or insecure (about their own).

Tom

[BATMAN]

 My wife and I have a huge circle of friends and acquaintances due to our varied interest in life. As a result a lot of people come and go through our home constantly. The only people who have ever scoffed at my hobby are the ones who have no interest in anything or hobbies of their own. The kind of people who just exist, but don't live life. Most people think that what I am creating is awesome. I usually ask the critics what their interest or hobbies are and they turn beet red when they can't come up with an answer.

 

                                                   Brent

[twhite]

Mine's a "California Basement" (garage) layout, and while building it, I had the garage door open all the time.  I live in a neighborhood where just about everyone knows each other (imagine that!), and so I had a lot of guys dropping by to see what I was doing. 

Only got one weird comment, and it was kind of funny.  I was putting down the foam base and one of the guys was watching and said, "You didn't order that color SPECIAL, did you?"  It was pink Corning foam.   And when I laid the white WS risers, later, my next door neighbor commented on "Tom's big Strawberry Sundae."  

These days when I've got the garage door open and am working on the MR, about the only comments I get now are "Wow!"  or "Cool!".  And funny thing, the question "How fast do they go?"  doesn't come from kids or teenagers, it comes from the ADULTS!    Cracks me up. 

Tom

[0-6-0]

Hello Life is to short to worry about what people think of me and my hobbies.If they show an interest I will tell/show them about my MRR and maybe someone will get into the hobby.But if they are going to put it or me down for being in the hobby then I have know time for them. Have a nice day Frank

[wedudler]

 Show them your railroad and you will get the questions:

"How much money...?"  - "How much time...?"

And my answers are "What do you spent smoking....", "How much time to you sit in front of the tv?"

Wolfgang

[Margaritaman]

I just show them pictures which is usually followed by a lengthy pause then..."Wow, I had no idea, that's more art than toy."