As some may know, my layout has been visited many times and I have hosted open houses for over 20 years. Many have commented quite favorably, many have asked good questions and many have offered really good suggestions....then there are the unsolisited comments....often bizzare and quite humorous. I'm sure all of you have had similar experiences with visitors, but are you willing to share some of them? I will share some of these as I hope many will recipriocate with similar tales. I never get upset as I know that if the good Lord made it, at least one of every species has been in my basement. Many times I have had to go outside and kick my huge oak tree to preserve my sanity or whatever is left of it. But all is fun!
Here are some of my favorites and almost verbatum as who could forget these??: My layout is HO scale.
1. Refering to my Overland brass a-b-a Sante Fe F7 lash-up. "Wow! I have a set of these, but they are twice as large and have real size couplers. How much did these cost? ( I answered with...$1175) Are you kidding? Geez, mine cost around $250 and they honk. Do yours honk? How fast will they go? You should see mine tear around the curves!"
2. From a mid-aged lady....."My son, Ronald had something exactly like this, but he grew up and went off to colege!"
3. "Do you take these down after Christmas?"
4. From a lady speaking to her husband. I was not to have heard this......."If you do this to our basement I'll cut off your (guess what?) and force feed it to you!" (When the gentleman realized that I had heard this, he asked me what I would do. I was going to respond with...shooting would be nice..., but I just I just smiled and let it go, but my oak got another visit from my right boot!)
5. From an elderly lady......"You can't possibly be married!!"
6. Referring to my over 500 hand built wood freight cars....."I did't know that Athearn made all of these!"
7. From a man with an 84" waist line and then some......"Your aisles are too narrow!" ( For the record...most aisles are over 5' with the minimum in two areas just a bit under 2'.)
It gets better (or worse!)....how about some of your tales!!!
HZ
In my house without a basement, I had to build an around-the-walls shelf layout.
A relative who knew very well of my life-long interest in trains took their first look at the layout and said "Gee, the next people to get this house won't want it like this!"
Bill
I know what you mean. I got one asking how do I keep the headlights on idling locomotives lit? I told him it's magic. (The wonders of DCC.) And of course, I always get this one: Do you take this down after Christmas? Then there's always one in the crowd that must sign my guest book ; Name: ELVIS PRESLEY Address: Memphis, Tennessee......chuck
I have an HO layout that fits into an 18x27 foot area of our basement...
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
The weirdest comment I heard was from some guy in his 40's..."you mean you still play with the little choo choo's?"...in a childlike voice....
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
You're much nicer than me, Howard. I'd spare the oak tree and have my foot halfway up their caboose, if ya get my drift.
Chris
Medina1128 Young visitors ALWAYS ask, "how fast will they go?"
When I was just starting my layout in my late 50s, an old college friend came over, looked at it, and said, "How fast will it go." Some people just never grow up.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
How fast is a common question from guests at our Boothbay club RR, followed by can I run it?
Another is Do you take it to train shows? This is an older photo from november 2009We politely say no and that it is permanently attached to the walls.
Then there are the parents with young children who, after we start to tell them about the layout, look at us like we are strange after saying to the child "CHUGGA-CHUGGA-CHOO-CHOO WHOO-WHOO"
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
How much does it cost?
and I answer how much do you pay for smoking?
How much work?
and I answer how many hours do you sit in front of the tv?
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
blownout cylinder The weirdest comment I heard was from some guy in his 40's..."you mean you still play with the little choo choo's?"...in a childlike voice....
I would immediately reply, "And I LOVE it." And smile....'cuz it's the truth. And Marlon, I actually tell people that I play with toy trains...it, too, is the truth. Let them bear the burden of any discomfort that notion may have for them.
Howard, I don't mean to be a drip, but when I hear people ask me about things related to trains or toy trains, or when they make coments that sound disparaging, I chalk it up to a lack of understanding or interest. That's all it is. Again, if it could charitably be called a burden, it is solely theirs. My burden would be to feel bad or uncomfortable about the way others think of me or my pastimes, a burden I have no intent to bear at this advanced stage of my life.
Crandell
I get all of the ususal ones - How fast will they go? How much do they cost? How much time did this take?
but...Probably the best line came from my daughter. Several years ago I was showing her my new Spectrum shay and she asked: "How SLOW will it go???" You coulda knocked me over with a feather.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
G Paine, how about more pic's of your layout? looks great, thor
trainnut1250 I get all of the ususal ones - How fast will they go? How much do they cost? How much time did this take? but...Probably the best line came from my daughter. Several years ago I was showing her my new Spectrum shay and she asked: "How SLOW will it go???" You coulda knocked me over with a feather. Guy
Actually, my 3-1/2yo kid is obsessed with how slow they can go. I often have to get on him to 'speed it up' Go figure... :-)
John
Someone alluded to John Allen's old response about cost, IIRC he said he figured he spent the same amount on the hobby as he would if he smoked two packs a day. As a non-smoker I always thought that was a great answer.
One time at my bowling league one guy was telling another guy about a friend of his whose son had a big layout - "ya he's got cities and mountains and bridges, even an old-style streetcar line that works". Just as I was going to say something about my being a model railroader, the guy continued "but of course you know, he's retarded".
I had a guy rip everything about my layout and rolling stock without knowing he was in my house. When he was done I asked him why he was there and he mumbled something about a friend. Once I determined who the friend was I threw them both out.
Not about a railroad as a whole, but about one specific locomotive, the Baldwin 0-8-0T imported by Ken Kidder back in the early '70s
I had taken the, `as buil from a kit,' model (1897 design, with buffers) and upgraded it to, `as in service at a Japanese colliery in 1964.' That included axing the buffers, installing a turbogenerator and Westinghouse compressor, air tanks and intercooler coils in typical Japanese fashion. When I was running it on a club railroad, a, "Brass Collector," took me to task for, "Ruining that Ken Kidder model that I need to complete my collection."
I don't think I made him happier when I told him that I had bought it - as a kit - to switch hoppers at my coal mine, not to sell to some collector. The twit didn't even know it was a 1:80 scale model of an Imperial Government Railway 4020 class, not even American prototype!.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Guess the same type people live near me. Heard it all about my love of HO and former layouts I had. " That stuff's only for kids " was a usual one.
AND: Own/drive motorcycle sidecar rig[50 yrs. on & off]. " You can get KILLED on that thing! "
One man's food is another man's poison, Guess I'm a Goner..,,., twice over.................. ROFLMCO! [ c = caboose ]
I rest my case. TTFN. .....Old Tom aka papasmurf in NH
As at car hot rod shows I congratulate the members with" sure beats sitting in a smelly bar inhaling beer and rum eh?) the same comment is unleashed at train shows and layouts.
Just ask the next bozo at your open house how much he spends on booze, that usually quiets them down.
I agree with Crandell and his views on how he feels and deals with comments from visitors. On occasion however I have been unable to keep my mouth shut. As I have said before we have a lot of people come through our house because of my wife's involvement in the Dog world. A few times woman have come in and said "if you were married to me you wouldn't be doing this to my house" My rebuttal was "that's okay because I would never be married to a woman like you".
The other comment that gets me from obese people is "you have made this isle way to small, I can't fit through it" (the photo above). It is 17" wide and I can walk through it straight on. I usually reply with "who's fault is that". I am full of Arthritis and it is very difficult to stay skinny but I do it by getting on the Recumbent bjke for a good 45 minutes every morning. And it's not just so I can keep those big radiuses on the layout.
One husband tore into his wife once because he was embarrassed she walked into our home and had the nerve to tell us what we should or shouldn't be doing in it.
I have the perfect wife. I am lucky.
Sometimes it's hard to keep my lips zipped but I try.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Howard,
Being married only for 4 years, and being a single parent - I could fill up 1/2 of my basement with no argument from my son! The other half of the basement is the 'Crew Lounge'. Several women who I have dated have mentioned that at least 2 bedrooms could be put in the same space(there are already 3 bedrooms on the main floor). Usually that ended my interest in them. My current female 'friend' also does not understand, but has chosen to give up on converting me!
I get the usual comments as noted above. The 'professional modelers'(usually don't have a layout) are some of the best. My layout has NO legs - It is held up by brackets I designed. One section is over 25' long and has two brackets holding it up. I was 'told' that it will fall down over the next few years(It has been there since 1987). Or your 3M IDC connectors will fail over time(they have been there since 1994). My favorite one is the guy talking to another modeler about what he is going to use when he builds a layout). 'I will use Walthers/Shinohara code 83 just like this layout'. My layout was built with Atlas code 100 that is painted/weathered. It is amazing how rail 'shrinks' after it has been painted!
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I am actually very lucky with my wife. She was the one that got me started back into model railroading after about 20 years of marriage, because she knows how I love it. Recently my unwanted long term dead beat house guest (sister-in-law)(another story) made a comment about how much I spend. My wife told her that we both work and if I want to spend money on my hobby then it was none of her concern. Did I say how much I love my wife.
Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j372/curtwbb/
Time to add storage to your sister in laws room, maybe a walk in closet (basically minimize her space)!
At the club I was asked "how many trains sets did you have to put together to make this?"
Springfield PA
selector blownout cylinder: The weirdest comment I heard was from some guy in his 40's..."you mean you still play with the little choo choo's?"...in a childlike voice.... I would immediately reply, "And I LOVE it." And smile....'cuz it's the truth.
blownout cylinder: The weirdest comment I heard was from some guy in his 40's..."you mean you still play with the little choo choo's?"...in a childlike voice....
I would immediately reply, "And I LOVE it." And smile....'cuz it's the truth.
Hamltnblue At the club I was asked "how many trains sets did you have to put together to make this?"
But that one is sorta understandable. In my mind that's more of an invitation to be educated than a jeer. If people don't know where things come from, or understand the level of involvement or effort it takes to make something, and all they've experienced is a train around a xmas tree-- you could see that they're attempting to process the situation with the information they already have on-hand.
Curt Webb I am actually very lucky with my wife. She was the one that got me started back into model railroading after about 20 years of marriage, because she knows how I love it. Recently my unwanted long term dead beat house guest (sister-in-law)(another story) made a comment about how much I spend. My wife told her that we both work and if I want to spend money on my hobby then it was none of her concern. Did I say how much I love my wife.
Would you mind if I borrow your wife for a bit, to have her talk to my wife for a bit... ???
I don't like when my sister refers to my layout as a "train set." I could see why younger people ask how fast they could go.
The Lone Geep
Lone Geep
\
When you die whoever buys this house is going to tear all this out of here. My layout is 52'x20'. My answer is I will be dead and wont really care.
I don't have a layout, I've been doing modeling on HO scale modules and dioramas for 25 years now. I have gotten comments from the general public when my modules are set up at local and area train shows. There are several small water scenes on my modules, made using Envirotex. I think I've gotten the most comments re the "water' than anything else.
"Look, he's put in real water" - If I hear this comment, I tap on the "water" with my finger and mention it froze last night.
And of course, "How long did it take you to make this (module, diorama, model, etc.)? I just say I don't count the time when I'm having fun with my hobby.
"You must have a big setup at home". Nope, this is it - the modules stack onto each other and make a box, which I place in a closet.
I don't think I've had any/many comments on the cost of our toys. I do know I've inquired how much does an ATV, snowmobile, golf club membership cost if asked.
Bob Boudreau
CANADA
Visit my model railroad photography website: http://sites.google.com/site/railphotog/
When some one asks what some thing costs I use the J P Morgan response when one of his weathy friends asked what his yacht cost. If you have to ask you can't afford it. That makes for a silent moment.
Happy railroading
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up