Hello all. Some of you might recall me talking about one of my model railroading buddies named Rob. The guy loves trains, but he’s extemely destructive when it comes to details. I could understand this if he was 8 years old but he’s 38… Anyway, I’ve spent a couple of years building and working on his layout because he’s just not capable of doing so himself. As a matter of fact, all he knows how to do is buy expensive locos and rolling stock and start breaking parts off of them from the time he removes them from their boxes. I’ve put a lot of work into his layout by installing all kinds of tiny little details from people, street lights, telephone poles, etc, and he breaks them off every time… We’ve ruled out the possibility that he has eye problems, so it can’t be anything other than clumsiness. I finally told him it was a waste of time for him to have anything on his layout except track, structures and trees, and that he shouldn’t buy expensive locos or rolling stock because all he’s going to do is break them. Oh well. I tried.
No, but I see some of him in me. I get careless at times. I don’t know if we can characterize him as careless, but unless he suffers from a paucity of intelligence, what else is there? Barring a disorder or disease, of course.
Gee, I noticed something awful about MYSELF recently: I was trying to put together an HO scale structure, and found that my FINGERS no longer had the “grace” that I recall having when I was younger. I kept dropping the pieces, or found that my fingers were simply too big and fat, to take the place of something like a needlenose pliers.
That the box this stinking little building came in, has written across it, in big letters: “for ages 8 and up” did nothing for my ego, lemme tell ya.
I tend to cause more damage than good sometimes, but not too awful bad. Plus, I’m just now getting to the point of superdetailing on my layout, so there isn’t too much to break right now. I feel bad for the effort you put into it that was wasted, maybe you can cheaply purchase what he has for yourself and convince him that modeling isn’t his area of expertise. Just my [2c]
I try to stay away from hand-installing rivets or things like that. My hands are not what they used to be, too much gear-jamming and square wind fighting over the years. I can only deal with just so much before bad things come up.
To break something off an expensive model once or twice by accident, been there done that. But to deliberately destruct things little by little, I think something is wrong with the man in his head.
Perhaps take away the HO trains and give him O Scale, at least then the trains will have a fighting chance.
I wonder if we are dealing with someone who has been hurt as a child?
I used to be like that. Then I quit drinking. The layouts doing MUCH better now![:)]
“for ages 8 and up”- I think they need to put an upper age limit on that stuff. There comes a time when you just can’t build the tiny little things anymore. (He said wearing his lighted,magnifying head visor)
What this guy needs is a set of Lionels. The same ones they sell for kids not old enough for those “Ages 8 and up” kits. Lionels that are a TRAIN, solid and at least moderately indestructable. O-gauge citizens that you can’t accidentally break the arms off of, and of course that track that could live through a direct nuclear hit. Pound it into a heavy oak dining room table from an estate sale with 10-penny nails. Wire it with #10. Then put on a face shield and see what he can do to it.
i knew a guy who was a signal maintainer on a transit system. he was always breaking bolts when tightening them, putting too much grease where it could get on electrical contacts, tapping on delicate parts with a hammer until they broke, taking two hrs to troubleshoot a burnt out lightbulb. installing a blown fuse in place of a blown fuse, leaving the air valve to a switch off then going home at the end of his shift without testing it, and on and on. i’m the guy who had to straighten things out after he left. let him run his trains himself. at least he can’t hurt anyone. don’t give up on him though. your a friend to him and he may need that.
Being raised on Lionel as a kid, I wasn’t used to the fragility of HO and consequently broke MANY items including a few locos. To this day, I still have problems breaking let alone installing delicate details on HO and even On30 items. Because of this I switched to G scale narrow gauge (indoors), both 45mm (#1 gauge) and 16.5mm (Large Scale on HO track). It is almost indestructable and I love the bulk, detailing and working with it.
Sorry I blew my stack with you Gibson. I’m not feeling well lately. I also apologize for my heated response to your reply last week. Thanks for being a good sport about it.
Yah, unfortunately. ME, lately, LOL! My eyes have gotten smaller, my fingers have turned into ten thumbs and I act as if I were totally right handed (when I’m actually a Leftie). I’m hoping that it’s a phase, like adolescence, and it will go away as soon as I adjust to my new bifocals. So right now, I’m just running trains instead of trying to build any, and those little HO scale dogs and cats that I bought to add ‘color’ to my town will be patient enough to wait until I can actually SEE them, so I can pop them around garbage cans and fire hydrants (assuming I can adjust my sight well enough to see THEM).
As Bette Davis once said: “OLD AGE AIN’T FOR SISSIES!”
Try “EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING!”, GUB… I’ve never seen anyone like this guy in my life. If there was ever a human being that had no business being a model railroader it’s him… I guess I’m to blame for some of it because I tried to start him out in the hobby on my level, but then I’ve been involved in it off and on since I was a little kid back in the late 60s. I’m also very talented and skilled when it comes to building layouts and maintaining my locos, as well as in many other fields. No joke, this guy can’t even check the oil in his car… Oh well. I guess I’ll just have to bite the bullet and try to keep it all going for him.
Yah, unfortunately. ME, lately, LOL! My eyes have gotten smaller, my fingers have turned into ten thumbs and I act as if I were totally right handed (when I’m actually a Leftie). I’m hoping that it’s a phase, like adolescence, and it will go away as soon as I adjust to my new bifocals. So right now, I’m just running trains instead of trying to build any, and those little HO scale dogs and cats that I bought to add ‘color’ to my town will be patient enough to wait until I can actually SEE them, so I can pop them around garbage cans and fire hydrants (assuming I can adjust my sight well enough to see THEM).
As Bette Davis once said: “OLD AGE AIN’T FOR SISSIES!”
You’re not supposed to break those little things off? I always thought they were flash and molding sprues! [:I]
Is he appreciative of all work you’ve done for him? If he’s vandalizing your work, perhaps it comes out of jealousy of your abilities, in which case you may not be letting him do enough for himself. If he’s damaging his own locos, then I think he needs to change to Lionel or G Scale, as others have suggested. If he buys LGB he can even play with them in the bathtub and not worry.
I’m in a model railroad club, and there are guys like that in our group. What really annoys me is if something on the layout gets damaged and is left in a state of disrepair. If I notice something broken and I can fix it, I’ll put it back together.