A friend from work sent me this. It reminds me of some of the extremes a few of us go through in our modeling.
XKCD, funny diversion from work it is.
I wonder why he’s changed subject from computers and ect to trains all of the sudden.
The “Matryoshka Limit”. I love it! Call me a geek, nerd, whatever. I also like the so called first rule, “Do not talk about model train layouts”( to outsiders). We could all become so mysterious, get a secret handshake and all. Maybe the History Channel could have a show on the well known secret society the NMRA.
Lou
Oh, I fully agree. We ARE indeed a secretive bunch with our own “rules and regulations”, secret decoder rings and messages, secret handshakes, language and private rituals that should NEVER be shared with the outsiders and Uniterested parties!
Just like the secret fraternal societies of the Masons, the Illuminati, Loyal orders of the Moose, Lion, Reindeer,Wolf, Leopard or Gazelle!
I DO think the History channel should try to infiltrate our private domains and attempt to decode our doings to enlighten the world! There are those who would love to know just what exactly it is that we do in our basements, garages and attics! What IS all this talk of spline roadbeds, ground foam, “ground goop”, scale measurements, details, DCC and such!
Oh! The HORROR! If they ever found out! We would be RUINED!
SHHH! keep it quiet!
As most of the NMRA meetings I ever attended - they were pretty boring as all WE DID was talk about spending money we didn’t have.
Then after over an hour - we could go out to that persons layout (sponsoring the meeting) and just watch the trains run around in circles for how ever long we could stand it!
What ever happened to OPERATIONS ?
OH - wait a minute - that was not allowed - at least in our area it wasn’t !
I was the lone member that tried that - I has SHUNNED out of the Division because that is all I wanted to do instead of sitting in on the meetings - what a waste of time!
And it is TRUE - we are not allowed to have NON-NMRA members attend a meeting more than once.
OH - BTW - I was the Superintendent and Treasurer of the Division and attended the Region meetings - so I do KNOW of what I speak!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Ah… “Meetings - Because none of us is as dumb as all of us!”
My division of the NMRA is directly North East of where you live. We have learned about MEETINGS long ago! In fact we only have one general meeting every two years and that one lasted 7 minutes I think. Election of officers… “All in Favor? Aye!!! Motion carried!” Done! Glad I don’t live down there…[:-^][swg]
73
(What Ned? Operations at your house Tuesday Night? I’ll be there!)
As most of the NMRA meetings I ever attended - they were pretty boring as all WE DID was talk about spending money we didn’t have.
Why is it that that line causes me to flash on a room full of Ben Stein clones?
Oh the horror of it all!!!
Andre
I love the cartoon, but the post made me think of a couple things.
Now about those secret decoder rings, are they DCC compatible? Mine better be a Tsunami btw 
I keep on having this thought, kind of like something out of Fight Club (one of my favorite movies of all time) and something like this: “welcome to train club… the first rule of train club is that you do not talk about train club!..” hey those basements they used could make fine train layout spaces haha
Alvie
I always thought that part of the hobby was to introduce new people to the hobby and not pretend to be a secret group. So this talk about having secret hand shakes and passwords is out of the question and sounds like the hobby is only for super serious modelers and not to have fun. So GEEKS of the hobby lighten up.
The secret decoder rings will run BOTH DC and DCC! It comes both DC and DCC compatible and switchable between the two! Sound is optional and available at an additional cost. You should know THAT! I guess you don’t have yours yet!
You need to declare your loyalty to the hobby forever, kneel and Kiss the Royal National Grande High Pumba’s secret decoder ring, go through the first three secret rituals of MMRing, learn the secret handshake, Arm wrestle a wig-wag signal, Memorize 15 pages of the most complex DCC manual, and send $19.95 {$199.95 with optional sound} to MRRing Anonymous, PO box 1, Anytown, USA 12345 to get your secret decoder ring. WIth it you will be able to learn how to wire both a DC and a DCC layout, how to run a locomotive and keep it on the tracks, and how to couple cars on curves and MORE! {Any more and without your devoted membership and sworn MRRing oath, I cannot tell you more!} Every week you will recieve a new coded message, only translated by the use of your secret decoder ring!
Gee. Somebody here needs to lighten up for sure! [:(]
MY goodness.[8-|]
Galaxy: Oh yes! I’ll be a real model railroader now!
One thing about our hobby, as serious as it takes itself at times, there is a lot of humor in it too thankfully.
Alvie
I think we’re getting the wrong messages – yesterdays was “Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.”
I think Tom Waits may have written a song about model railroaders:
Andre,
I spent the majority of the first 39 years of my life living about 20 miles east of where Bob H. is from. I never joined the Clarion Model Railroad Club or the NMRA in the area because I never really had the time for it. That said I have been to the CMRR layout a number of times and went to the Greensberg Train Shows held in Pittsburgh. I am very familiar with the peoples from northwestern and northcentral Pennsylvania and your image of a bunch of Ben Steins sitting in a room is off-base! Think more of a room full of cast members from the Red Green Show and you get a much closer picture! [(-D]
I understand the Matryoshka limit problem here, but I have three questions, not necessarily in order of importance:
a) Does this also apply to other scales? ( O scaler primarily )
b) What’s a rivet ?
- What’s a geek ?
-Ed Kowal