Did anyone catch tonight’s episode “Loco Motives”. The CSI team has another case of the “miniature killer”. The killers builds exact replicas of the crime screen. Several clues lead the team to a model railroader who is very skilled at building miniatures. There are several scenes of his layout. Of course there are references made about our hobby.
Of course, they weren’t very kind, either. I will give the producers credit. They obviously talked to real railroad officials to get information before they cast the part of the ‘foamer’/killer.[:O]
Yeah, I watched it. It didnt seem too flattering, but the lighting and music was pretty cool for that scene.
I have a real problem with CSI to begin with, since I am a scientist. I just love how they can just put the “evidence” into some machine and 10 minutes later it gives them a conclusive answer. And all the labs have cool, eeire lighting. Let’s not forget, too, that the science geeks interrogate suspects and make arrests.
Did it surprise me that they cast us train geeks in a sketchy light??? Not really.
But I digress…
My wife called me in to see it when it came on. She thinks that is my plan for the house. I thought it was a pretty nice set up. They even ran the trains through nice terrain at scale speeds, not ripping around like one under the Christmas tree.
I just wish they would TURN ON THE LIGHTS. They wander around in the dark. Search for clues with flashlights. If they turned on the lights, they might find all the stuff faster and the show would only have to be a half hour long! [:D]
Right on. I watch the CSI shows from time to time and I like the part where they get one or two cells, put them in the DNA machine and 15 minutes later come back with a photo, name, address, telephone numbers, the latest meal consumed, telephone call records including location of cell phone calls and exactly where the individual has been located for the past three weeks.
By the way, did anybody catch the scale of the crime scene models? N gauge?
Hard to say. When they walked through the suspect’s workshop, there were figures in multiple scales on the table. He must have been into “forced perspective” on his layout. The molded frying pan had to be G scale, IMHO. The layout appeared to be HO.
I have a friend who works in the State Police Crime Lab… She’s a forensic toxicologist. She finds those shows hilarious, because it takes alot longer than the few minutes depicted to determine all kinds of things. She deals in blood samples, tissue samples and the like looking for whatever might need to be found. Most of the time she analyzes blood samples… you know what for??? DUI cases. That consumes nearly 80 percent of her work.
I would think it would be pretty rare to see model railroaders painted as anything but some kind of nut of one sort or another in movies and TV. I remember Robert (Arrrrr) Newton was in a British movie based loosely on the real Dr.Crippen murder case, his character was a wife-murdering Doctor (or Dentist??) who had a huge OO layout. I remember one good scene where he’s showing the police detective his layout, and the detective tries to shake him up a little by getting him into an argument about whether or not the tender on one of the engines is correct or not.
<> Of course, “Third Encounters of the Close Kind” [(-D] had Richard Dreyfuss’ character be a modeller, I suppose to show his “childlike qualities”. [:(!] Not sure which is worse, murderer or perpetual kid.
Wait! Do you mean to say that all modelers aren’t perpetual kids? [(-D]
I have been a child for 55 years and have no intention of growing up! But my body reminds me that I ain’t a kid no more![sigh]
The computer software for CSI is the same software used for the Holodecks on Star Trek: The Next Generation. OH, wait, which show exists in reality now? It is hard to tell. [%-)]
OK, I am a total CSI Junky. I have missed very few episodes. And I do know that the wole lab work is all not real at all. I actually really liked this episode.
But my favorite part was most definitly the guy stuck in the concrete.
Agreed. The stories from Las Vegas are certainly the wierdest, but what would one expect? How about the poor guy that gorged himself to death. Close second has to be the night bungie jumpers off the Brooklyn Bridge.
What about the one with the quadruple murder where the little girl’s sister turned out to be her mom?
I thought the guy in the concrete was funny. Talk about a guy having a really "bad’ day. [:D]
In one episode of CSI: Las Vegas there was a Commuter Train slowly moving on bridge in the background of a night time crime scene. It looked like a MetroLink Commuter Train, giving away the fact that this scene of the CSI: Las Vegas was filmed in Los Angles.
A model railroader with poor interpersonal skills? That show is sooooo far fetched I can hardly stand it.
Yeah I watched that episode and so did all my friends [|(] All day Friday I was constantly being asked if any of my model railroads we’re future crime scenes. I’m now in the process of considering that now[}:)]. Don’t mess with the model railroader he’ll turn your 1:87th world upside down.
Here is a challenge.
List hobbyists or groups of people in our society that have good and great interpersonal skills.
That’s very common. Many shows use a generic set of stock shots from the town or city where they are supposedly takeing place in, but are filmed in the LA area. next time you are watching your favorite sitcom / drama that’s supposed to be in Seattle or San Fran or New York, count the Palm trees [:O] in the background.