Courtesy While Visiting A Layout

Well said. Especially the shower issue. I have been to layout tours where guys are wearing tank-tops or muscle shirts. I don't think most of us intended to have aroma therapy like that to show how hard their railroad works. I will admit I have been caught in a muscle shirt from time to time and I kick myself in the butt for doing it around large groups.
Your reference of the general inaccurate impression is difficult to overcome in many circles so this is something to always keep in mind.

 

I'm a 'newbie' to the forum, so I haven't had a chance to answer to this post yet. But my 'California Basement' (garage) layout is pretty visible from the street when I have the door up and am working on it.

Though I'm a "Lone Wolf" and have never really opened up the MR for a 'tour', in the eight or so years I've been building it, I've had a lot of people walking by on the street stop in and ask about it. And that's everything from kids to adults. For the most part, I've found them to be really kind of polite and fascinated by what I'm doing, and I always take time out from working on the layout to answer questions.

Oddly enough, I've never had kids try and 'touch' things, they all seem to stand back respectfully and just look at the layout. Of course, I always get the "Can you run a train?" question, and generally I will for them. And with a lot of kids, I get the old "Can it run FASTER?" question which cracks me up, because my MR is a mountain layout with lots of (generous) curves and a couple of sections of almost-ceiling to concrete floor drops. I patiently explain that I try to keep the trains at a relatively slow speed as they're trying to conquer some relatively stiff grades. That seems to satisfy them.

I've only had one incident where I felt I had to actually DEFEND my model railroad, and that was from a father and son walking by who stopped in to see it. While the son--about ten or so--was respectfully examining the layout, the father decided to become an expert on what I was doing wrong with the scenery. This kind of tree didn't grow at that elevation, stuff like that. I politely told him that the area I was modeling was the area that I had been born and raised in and was intimately familiar with. It was then that I realized that he was putting on a 'show' for his son. I had a feeling that when they left, Daddy looked at his son and said, "The guy doesn't know what he's doing." Oh, well---

But for the most part, the people that occasionally drop by when I'm out working on the layout are very nice. I've never actually 'opened' the layout to fellow model railroaders--not because I'm nervous about it, but because being a 'Lone Wolf', I really don't know that many.

Another poster on another MR website suggested I open it for the NMRA convention coming to Sacramento in two years, however, I'm not an NMRA member, so I don't think that would work.

I don't think I'd be embarrassed to show the layout to a fellow modeler at all, but the only thing that would worry me is "What the Heck do I do about all the JUNK under the layout?" LOL!

Tom

 

Tom, welcome to Trainboard. Maybe new here but I think many here already know that you are quite an accomplished modeler. You will be a great addition here.

 

John:

Thank you. I'm really glad to see a lot of old friends from the 'other' website. I think I'll like it here a lot.

Thanks again.
Tom

 

This is a post from another site but might be of interest to everyone. Thanks to Rob from ZTrack Magazine for providing this info.

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Ztrack: 2003 Back Issues
Collectibles Insurance Program | American Collectors Insurance