Train Shows and Clubs

You're under sixteen, and yet you have a wife and a 22-month old son? North Carolina sounds like a fun place...

Paul, I believe this hobby attracts folks who feel secure only when the utmost order is maintained. Children playing? Heaven forbid!

Many hobbyist also are poor communicators, and are quite successful at alienating each other, and at driving all women away from model railroading.

I think this dynamic has always been a part of the hobby and yet it has continued to survive.

I encourage you to join a club to enjoy the hobby, and voice your opinion. Despite the gloomy assessment I gave, I can also say that I have seen it getting better over time. You can help by participating and making it better.

paul:

that really sucks, but don't give up! you are right about alot of them, but we're not all like that.

and by the way, whenever ANYTHING bad happens, just remember you're in nc.

nc boy stuck in michigan, calvin. ncsu 85

Fisty Nickle wrote:

That would explain the poor spelling and run-on sentences.

NO i am 32 but if my son is not welconme at a club then i am not .

A couple of observations:

You never claim to be a teen-ager, people should really take the time to read and reread before making negative comments. Just a sign of these fast-paced times, I guess.

In regards to your original comments, it's a case of emotions running high. The train club member was likely at once relieved and angry about the caboose and just took it out on your family since they had it. This got you going (quite understandably). Your wife, though, should have noticed it and not let it get that far. A G-scale caboose!?! However if they club member had thought first, he should have realized: (1)little children don't "steal", they often just attach themselves to colorful things that catch their eye. They have to be taught not to do this. (2)if you were indeed making off with the caboose, why would you have had it out in plain sight? Doesn't make sense, does it?

Like anything else, ya gots to take the good with the bad so please don't stop enjoying the hobby.

In God we trust,

Dan T

Everyone is critiqued, whenever they say or write something. Sometimes it is not what is said, but how it is said that shows more about someone.

Anybody who "grabs" something out of a stranger's kids hands and then calls the kid and his mother thieves needs to be taken outside the building and have his ass kicked. S/V Express 30 "Ringmaster" "No shirt, no skirt, full service"

And if they stealing the caboose? I'd be interested to see your reaction if it had been your model...

Yep. This whole thing sounds a bit over the top.

All we have is one, very biased post saying a nasty model railroader snatched a caboose from a tender infant's hands and yelled at sweet innocent mommy...

There's always two sides to a story.

Possible side two:

a) G scaler notices his $500 brass caboose is missing from the layout and frantically goes looking for it.

b) Said G scaler finds it in the hands of infant in a stroller being pushed in general direction of exit.

c) Said G scaler rescues his caboose and lectures mom about kid taking caboose.

d) Mom goes postal, dad goes postal.

Sorry, but given the lack of attention many parents give to what their darlings are doing, I don't automatically buy mom's innocent story. Maybe it happened that way, maybe not.

I was at that show, but didn't witness the incident. But at all shows, you see a lot of kids that haven't been taught not to touch what isn't theirs. I finally bought some small plexiglass shields to protect my merchandize.

Not all kids are that way. You'll see many that come up and look - with their hands clasped BEHIND their backs. They've been taught well.

Others? Well, with some of them you feel like yelling at the kid and spanking the parent.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin" Operating Traffic Lights Crossbucks Special Effects Lighting

Agreed Mike, their are always two sides. But from what I have seen of new parents lately, they don't watch their kids, they are too busy with their own thoughts (or lack thereof).

I was in a Zellers store last week, mom was pushing the toddler in his stroller, the kid kept grabbing things from shelves he could reach. He was tucking things in around him. I notified one of the employees. Her comment was "Is she back here again, I thought she was banned?" Turns out the mother taught the kid to grab stuff and hide it. That is how the kid got his toys. The employee said the mother used to come in once a wek and just walk around then leave. Mall Security caught her 2-3 times shoplifting.

Of course when asked she denied everything, she was a good mother and did not take anything... the stuff "fell" into her bag.

What if mom knew kid had caboose, but also knew papa wanted a caboose? You never know. But with the price of some of these models, I don't blame the guy for getting upset.

I think this is a case of "you protest too much".

DOTH! DOTH!! "doth protest too much".

The place ain't got no culture!!! *8-D

Paul

Doth Vader never protested. That was CP3O that was always whining.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin"

Caboose cost $25 crapey 20.3

was on the way to the kids play area not an exit

no not even caboose owner just a local club member and a asshole as was called by club members and was later told that same guy had been in trouble with show goers earler in the day.

MOM left crying that is why i went off on this asshole

Maybe you sould ask first

I was at that show, but didn't witness the incident. But at all shows,

This was a pice set up on a table next to the far wall no one near the table that is how whoever it was that took it to the Kids area took it without anyone seeing them take it. and yes i know where you are comming from on some people taking shit that aint there . but to just go off on a 22 month old kid is just wrong.

Paul

one more point here i posted this not to get a bunch of you all PISSEY. I posted this to point out that some people in the clubs, or running shows need tokeep an eye on there stuff not put stuff on a table way away from anyone and then get mad if it walks away. My wife was doing the right thing looking for the person it belonged to. she got jumped on by an asshole who thought he had a right to do what he did. alos for the post that i needed a caboose for my trains. I DO HON3 NOT G OR 20.3 so there but head. yes i get pissey too. but my son is not a Thief, nor am i. it is people like these that have run the world of model railroading into the ground. I have been a model railroader for 20 or so years. and do love trains but i do not love alot of the people in the hobby.

Paul

True, you should not hassle a 22 month old kid. You should hassle the parent. A child is only the product of his parents.

I bet you would have kicked that kid right in the balls, wouldn't you Mark? Marty Hall

YOU KNOW TO EVEN EMPLY SOMTHING LIKE THAT MAKES ME SICK. model railroading is soupposed to be fun. what i see here are a bunch of people who only look for the bad in everything i for one am ashamed of each one of you that has been rude about this and even more so to the ones that have emailed me with rude remarks about me my wife and my son,.