I haven't had many outrageous comments about my layout (HO and 3 rail O).
What is interesting is that women who see my layout make more comments about it than men who see my layout.
Most of the folks who attend my open houses are really appreciative but I get my most annoying, if not outrageous, comments from smart-mouthed pre-teen boys. "Hey Mister! Are these trains REAL"? or "Hey Mister! Hey Mister, can ya make 'em wreck"? and of course there's the old standby "Hey Mister! Are these trains ELECTRIC"? but the comment that really amused me was a super critical older guy who told me that my layout showed "a total lack of imagination". This from a guy who runs his trains around a simple folded dogbone with no operating capabilities whatsoever! He is clever with scenicing, though. When folks bring toddlers to the open house I try and warn them not to let the tykes run because the benchwork is just about head high but there's always one thundering crash where a little one got carried away and ran headlong into the butt end of my staging yard. My lawyer would have fits if he knew I volunteered myself for this kind of activity.
Funny thread.
I recently showed a co-worker of mine my layout. He was absolutely stunned. He asked "have you received any awards, and have you had your layout featured in a magazine?" I just laughed, because my layout is far from even being finished.
Now he is very interested in modelrailroading, and I'm taking him to a local train show this weekend. And we might visit Caboose Hobbies. In which he will probably walk out with a bunch of new toys!
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
The only comment that has left me baffled was one back when I got into the hobby. A fellow I'd known for a few years said, "You're the last person I would have ever guessed to have gotten into model railroading"
I still haven't figured that one out.
The one thing we have to always keep in mind is that the non model railroader doesn't have a clue what the hobby is all about. Never has... never will.
Hmmmm.... I kinda like that. I think I'll make up a nice little sign and post it in my trainroom, then all I'll have to do is point to it when I get those certain remarks. Maybe put a smiley face at the bottom. Yeah.
Jarrell
Well. it is good to know that buttheads are abound in areas other than central Maryland. I actually enjoy the so many comments be it pro, con or whatever. Probably a small volume could be written about them and these could be fuel for the cartoons that occasionally appear in the model railroad press.
A few more just came back to memory....
1. Referring to my weathered equipment......"Look dear, he never dusts his trains!"
2. "Why such large curves. I can fit so much more by using 22" radius curves."
3. One of my favorites was not directed towards me. Two guys attended an open house. One guy had a shaved head and he commented on how he wished he could afford this. His buddy said that he could quite easily just on the money he saved by not buying hair care products.
For years before the idiotic political correctness phase, the local elementary schools would visit in medium size groups. Knowing that kids have a tendency to touch things, before they would descend to the basement, I'd have them gather around antique Russian wood stove near the stop of the stairs. Prior to the visit I'd put some cinders and novelty plastic bones (they look real) under the stove....
Then...."Any of you kids know what this is?" (Not an answer!) "Well it's a Bulgarian kid cooker..Bulgarians for centuries were know to cook their kids if they touched daddy's toys." Well it worked well as every kid seemed to have their arms affixed permanently to their sides and they were a delight. They asked questions and made comments far more astute than the so many adults who have visited over the years. I was indeed impressed.
Thanks for reading my rambles. Obviously I was inspired by some visitors week.
HZ
Back in the 1980s I had a 1-1/2" scale 7-1/2" gauge railroad running throughout my property. Much of it ran into a wooded area so you couldn't really see how far into the woods it went. The equipment was stored on a two track siding that ran under part of the house through a pair of small steel doors.
A bank sent an appraiser to look over the house in regards to a refinance. Upon walking around to the back of the house the appraiser saw the pair of tracks coming out of the woods and into the closed doorway and queried... "Do you haul coal from the mine and into your furnace with this train?"
Well, clearing my throat, I told her that the nearest coal mine I was aware of was about 200 miles away and my engines didn't carry enough fuel to get there from here. "That's too bad, you could save a lot on heating bills if you hauled your own coal."
I still shake my head over that one!
Ed
jacon12 "You're the last person I would have ever guessed to have gotten into model railroading" Jarrell
"You're the last person I would have ever guessed to have gotten into model railroading"
I get that one often. Probably because those who know me, wonder how I can stay inside, or sit still long enough to get anything done.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Texas Zepher 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. No, no, no Crandell, the correct response, in a very incredulous tone of voice is, "You Don't?!!"
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....
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.
No, no, no Crandell, the correct response, in a very incredulous tone of voice is, "You Don't?!!"
Actually that was my 'considered' response too!! ... I just worded it a little...ern...differently...
The one's about how fast it will go is about typical for these things...I think some of us still remember Cousin Gomez....
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/
When asked why I am involved in this hobby I kindly respond : "I'm married now and can't chase women any more." Although my wife doesn't really understand the passion, nor do I expect her to, she stands behind me all the way.
Regards,
Todd Arnett
ndbprr 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.
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.
^5!! <--- And that's not MY head being banged off the wall.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Motley Funny thread. I recently showed a co-worker of mine my layout. He was absolutely stunned. He asked "have you received any awards, and have you had your layout featured in a magazine?" I just laughed, because my layout is far from even being finished. Now he is very interested in modelrailroading, and I'm taking him to a local train show this weekend. And we might visit Caboose Hobbies. In which he will probably walk out with a bunch of new toys!
Is your co-worker married? You DO know it's only a matter of time before his wife rips into you for getting him "hooked on this"
I have enjoyed reading this thread and similar ones in the past.
I have also visited various train shows, clubs, and individual home layouts. I have enjoyed them all. I hear similar comments and questions that you all have posted and some of them are hilarious.
Here are some that I have heard.
When seeing an HO steam engine smoke at a train show. "That man shouldn't have that locomotive smoking. There is no smoking in the building."
"Can you crash them?"
"Don't you need a license to drive them?"
Recently, my mom was talking to a retired colleague and she mentioned my hobby and this woman's husband is a model railroader she invited me into their home and she said that I should bring some of my locos and rolling stock that I had worked on to join her husband in an operating session.
So I pack a few locos and about ten cars plus my Amtrak train with painted interiors into the truck and head over to her house. When I get there, her husband isn't home yet, but she wanted to see some of what I had done. When I began to show her, she had an embarrassed expression on her face. I asked what was wrong and she told me that her husbands trains are all N scale, mine are HO.
Her husband came home and was impressed and offered some suggestions on some things, then he invited me for an operating session. It was a great time. She later apologized because I gone to the trouble of lugging some of my stuff around. I told her it was alright and that we could laugh about in the future.
Will
I have only exhibited one home layout and that was on the last one I built before my 1st wife and I split the sheets twenty years ago. It was durinjg a division meet. The meet coordinator contacted me and ask if I would be willing to exhibit my layout at an upcomint meet. I informed him that I would be willing to do that but it needed to be stressed that trains were running but it was incomplete as far as scenery went.
It showed up in the layout tour guide as:
N-Scale;
over-and-under folded dogbone;
scenery in progress.
Comment:
"Oh! You model in N-Scale!" (Actually, its G-Scale, but a few more boxes of Cheerios and it'll grow up!}
"You sure don't have very much of your scenery completed yet, do you?" (No, I'm waiting for my next shipementt of Douglas Fir seedlings to arrive from the Pacific Northwest!")
Someone caught me at a droll moment with that old "playing with trains" comment. My response was: "No, I operate a scale railroad empire; I play with dissatisfied wives."
The most outrageos comment -- actually comments -- I believe I have ever heard was at the San Mateo NMRA convention in '81. We were on a layout tour and our tour bus stopped in front of a very luxurious house in the Burlingame(?) area -- somewhere in the vicinity of wherever Patty Hearst was from -- south of San Francisco. As we were getting off of the bus we encountered a fellow who had already disembarked and had lit up a cigarette at the foot of the stairs. As we passed by he said to this fellow behind us "Don't waste your time, Frank. It's only a crappy N-Scale layout!"
Well, this "crappy N-Scale layout" occupied a space of somewhere in the vicinity of 1000 square feet in the basement of this home; N-Scale was still in its infancy in those distant days but this one was beginning to take shape as a very fine layout regardless of which scale you were modeling in -- mountain scenery; 30" radius curves; twenty track yard with 20 stall roundhouse -- and it eventually graced the pages of both Model Railroader and N-Scale Magazine. I struck up a converstion with a two-rail O-Scaler who said "That is really going to be a fine layout when he gets it completed. (Note: this guy expounded the many virtues of "The King of Gauges' and tried to convince me that I should convert from HO-Scale; I have often wondered what he would say were he to learn that I had gone in the other direction.)
Anyway to add cream to the crop of outrageous comments as we were leaving I heard a 2nd one: "Boy! If I had a space like that I could build a real railroad!" Keep in mind that I was still an HO-Scaler at this time but this was not a very good day for respect for N-Scale. Anyway, assuming that this guy was an HO-Scaler it would have taken between 2500 and 3000 square feet to duplicate this N-Scale layout . . . . . and that's a lotta' room for a home layout.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
One of the reasons I never get ticked off with stupid comments is that I fancy myself as sort of and ambassador for the hobby as should we all. Folks, it ain't gonna grow unless we expose model railroading to the great unwashed. In my neighborhood here in Columbia, I'm known as the nut in the basement....but there have been many times non-model rails have responded to invitations, and some have taken to the hobby. Most dumb comments have come from folks already in the hobby. From "civilians"...most ridiculous comments rarely have gone beyond the "do you set this up every Christmas? and calling the layout a "train garden".....a term which gives me an inflamed hemorrhoid!
Every hobby has this issue. Bottom line is. If thier not into this or another perticular hobby. They just dont understand.
I'm another fellow high school .modeler and I usually get comments like, 'Oh, you play with Thomas the train stuff." I tell them no, I model a freelance British style steam facility.
One friend of mine though has taken an interest to the world of Lionel collector trains. When I was helping him get everything set up, his brother came in and asked why we were doing it. My reply was fun. And he stayed and watched as I spread some of my tips I picked up from here to him and finally he asked me how much a bunch of post-war lionel stuff, with boxes would go for. Not my specialty, but I am helping another guy get in the hobby.
If you can read this... thank a teacher. If you are reading this in english... thank a veteran
When in doubt. grab a hammer.
If it moves and isn't supposed to, get a hammer
If it doesn't move and is supposed to, get a hammer
If it's broken, get a hammer
If it can't be fixed with a hammer... DUCK TAPE!
I don't have a problem, since I never invite anyone who isn't already a model railroader, to see my layout. Non-modelers who ask to see it have never asked stupid questions...I've been lucky, I guess. At one public display meet, I was asked, "Have you done this all your life?" I immediately replied "Not yet", and the questioner cracked up.
Anyone could comment on my GER. Good or bad it didn't matter. I never took offence.
The first thing I did was consider the source of the comments. A person 's comments, pro or con, who was more skilled and knowledgeable than I was carried more weight than someone who was perhaps less skilled and knowledgeable than I.
Otherwise, just water off a Duck's back. Remember, not everyone likes the Mona Lisa so not everyone will like your work.
Cheers
Roger T.
Home of the late Great Eastern Railway see: - http://www.greateasternrailway.com
For more photos of the late GER see: - http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/
rogertra not everyone likes the Mona Lisa
not everyone likes the Mona Lisa
Yeah, it is kinda small. And a bit dark for my taste. And it would be a lot better if she wasn't smiling. How unprofessional! But other than that I guess its okay...
John
jwhitten rogertra: not everyone likes the Mona Lisa Yeah, it is kinda small. And a bit dark for my taste. And it would be a lot better if she wasn't smiling. How unprofessional! But other than that I guess its okay... John
rogertra: not everyone likes the Mona Lisa
Only you, John, only you...
Oh yeah....the comments. I was dating a woman who 'couldn't get over' the fact that I built everything but also told me that I was 'out of my mind' for spending the amount of money I did on a monthly basis. Needless to say, the break-up was quick and painless.
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
I am really lucky I have Audrey...she has everything sorted when it comes to me and my hobbies.
I have really had no majorly coocoo comments coming out of any non-modelers except for that one who was very strange himself...his wife had to guide him away from the layout telling him that he was rude...I just thought he was a bit of a
I must be lucky. If anyone is saying things weird or bad about my hobby, they are not saying it to my face. The most common comment is "Wow; How long have you been working on this?"
Slightly off topic:
I keep reading all these comments about wives and girlfriends supporting, not supporting or tolerating your hobby. I see no comments about husbands and boyfriends supporting or not. Are there so few ladies in model railroading, or are they just too busy working on the railroad to hang out in these forums? I know at least one, there must be others.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I also build plactic models.I get the "you still play with little cars"I answer yes i do.
I knew an elderly lady minister who said she had always wanted a "train set" but she grew up in a time when little girls didn't play with trains. (Before the Lionel robin's egg blue and pastel pink set?) I surprised her one Christmas with a small portable N scale layout thast I tried to make a little more special than a generic "train set." She took one look and said -"THIS is where I grew up!!"
She was amazed t the "co-incidence." Of course, it had been my intention to model
And she "got" it. Neat!
Re: Mona Lisa;
Did you ever wonder what it was she has in her left hand, given the "stoner" smile she has plastered across her face? I remember artist Jim Beaman once did a Playboy cartoon of her sporting a syringe... (stona Lisa?)...
Hit the mark, eh Jim?
Rich
yellowjacket EF-3
Bruce;
IN the words of the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield:
"Ooh death; where is thy sting?"