There are exceptions such as public shows at fair grounds… Every year the public walks through the club and some even make 2 trips around the layout and will stop and ask questions.
The toughest questions comes from teenagers asking about DCC… I even removed the shell from a Athearn BB GP38-2 and showed the steps of adding a decoder. The kid wanted to install a decoder in his older BB GP38-2. Apparently he had a Bachmann DCC train set on a 4x8.
When I looked up there was 3 adults listening.
I’ve been to lots of railroad shows held at the Ohio State Fairgrounds and most of them will have large modular HO and N scale layouts and occasionally and S or O layout. They are all set up pretty much the same way. A lot of modules creating a continuous running oval. Double track on the HO and triple track on the N. They will have a large staging yard where trains get parked after taking a good long turn “on stage”. Trains run in opposite directions and they are usually prototypical length on the N layout and nearly so on the HO. Not sure what limit they set on the number of laps each train runs but usually after a while one train will park and another take it’s place. The modules usually are from clubs and it looks like they allow for some switching when the club has operating sessions but at the shows they pretty much just run trains.
Every year, I go to the Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum to see what they’ve done since the last time I was there and to just watch the trains run on a pretty massive (40x100) layout. I listen to what people are talking about around me. Given that it models real locations, a lot of people are talking about how it reminds them of a place or that a scene looks like the real location or they’ll start talking about some memory triggered by one of the locations.
For about twenty years I took part in five or six shows in High School gyms, arenas, etc.
My experience was that most people wanted to see trains rolling thru scenery.
Doing switching only worked if someone was there to answer questions, indeed half or more of mine time at show was spent standing outside our club layout, name tag on, looking I was interested in answering question (I was).
Tunnels impress all children, and many who recently learned to count enjoy counting train cars going by.
In my estimate, in small towns, three quarters of visitors to a show will not be model railroaders. Of the new to the hobby railroaders, if they are met in a friendly fashion some will join the local club. Be friendly, please.
Dave
One feature that I noticed really packs 'em in is the animated models of amusment parks with all the rides lit up & working with blaring music. People seem drawn to that section. They love all the noise, light, & action going on. It is pretty impressive to take it all in visually. Amazing when it all works.
What I have noticed at train shows is the layouts are too high for kids to see well. Holding a child up so they can see the trains becomes a real pain. Why doesn’t someone put some steps in various places around the layout that the kids can stand on? Keep the kids interested for a few minutes lets the parents get interested.
Setting cars out on a siding and doing yard switching is only interesting if you are the one running the engine. It is really boring to watch.
With all the computer control, why do the trains just run in a continuous loops? A passenger train can’t stop at a station while another train goes by in the other direction? A steam engine can’t stop at a water tower? One train pulls into a siding so another train can pass on the same track? Why can’t the trains slow down going through a town or at a grade crossing?
With radio controlled throttles, why don’t the club members mix with the crowd and let the public run a small train? The last show I was at there were plenty of layouts with trains going in circles, and the club members sitting in the middle drinking coffee.
After just a couple of minutes, the constant blast of horns and whistles really gets annoying.
South Penn
Hi guys
Well thats one surprise. no one has mentioned my bug bear.
Which is when I look at a layout that was built by adults and the the first thing I think is “thats %$&^ work I can do better than that!!”
That really bothers me because it tells me builders are not taking the time to produce a quality exhibit
I am definatly not a Big name famous modeller but seeing a layout of a lesser quality than I can produce bugs me.
I don’t care if its a work in progress but I want to see quality and care in it.
regards John
And one should take time to study the great outdoors. One of my gripes is seeing a beautiful waterfall that dumps into a farm pound with no where to go…Why not make a stream and have it to flow off layout instead?
The Appalachians is not the Rockies so,no need to make tall mountains… Nor is a mine over a railroad tunnel.
Take care in doing industrial areas and industrial scenes and remember for security reasons shipments is not left on the dock. None of the forklift drivers I worked with would sit a loaded pallet on the dock since it doubles your work. Once you grab on to it take the pallet(s) inside and sit it down in the receiving area so,it can be process.
In short pay attention to real life detail.
This spectacular module is often seen in New England as part of the Northeast N-Trak group:
There is always a crowd in front of it. The main lines from the adjacent modules run through, of course, but the other levels are also kept active by hidden loops behind the module.
My interest in my own layout is scenery, so when I go to shows I generally concentrate on those layouts which have the most effort put into them to set the “stage” for the trains to run through.
Several years ago I suggestted the same thing at a club I belonged to. Many of the memberss were afraid of legal liability if a child fell into the edge of the layout. I don’t know if that concern is valid in Canada, let alone any place else in the world.
When taking my grandsons to a show, I used to take a rubber maid step stool for them to stand on. On one occasion a “lady” shoved them off because they wern’t sharing with her daughter.
Just my nickle worth.
Dave
Hi Dave
I would have said liabilaty was with the parents for failing to control them.
Unfortunatly there is always some one who acts first and thinks afterwards
Oh! and it’s never thier fault.
The concern I have with “high” layouts is the kids then climb on the barrier the smart ones put around to protect thier layout and keep a clear acsess way around the layout.
Climbing to see the layout that I think would be a larger concern.
I have seen propper ramps clearly marked for the mobilaty chalanged to see jambed up with Kids that just won’t move.
So how do you get it right if you hope in good manner you get it wrong
If you try having rules it becomes your fault you can’t win you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Just ask any body who has done the job of club exhibition manager.
regards John
my dad shows his layout high because n scale looks more realistic to adults at eye height. For many years I worked in a grocery store, I watched human behavior and I can say there are a lot of idiots out there. You post warning signs or rule sign and they do it anyway. When you confront them they say they did no see it. This is when they are standing by it and you just watched them read the signs.
I am the show co-chairman and show cordenator for the green county train show. I try to predict what might happen and solve it or plan for it before all our shows. Most of our worst incidents happen because of stuff that should be common sense.
justin
Exactly and be willing to listen what they say with a open mind and not fall into that curt reply of “people want to see trains run” should you be asked about switching.
Remember this… If the club has a donation jar the donations will be bigger if you are friendly-let’s face it…Nobody likes stiff shirts with a frown.
If you’re not a people person then learn to at least acknowledge when you’re spoken to. They won’t bite you,so what’s the harm?
I’m going to go against the general trend and say that realistic operations interests most of the general public.
Years ago I was helping at a Tech Model Railroad Club of MIT show. There were four or five trains orbiting the layout. I got bored and had been working on switch list software, so I randomized the cars in the freight yard, printed out a switchlist, and proceeded to sort the freight yard for my own amusement.
About twenty minutes later I looked up and every vistor in the place, including the little ones, was clustered around me watching my every move. I asked with some surprise “why aren’t you watching the trains running?” and everybody said “This is more interesting, you’re actually doing something.”
Been there and done that over the years. Like I said earlier switching fascinates the public and I will add always did always will more so then mindless lap running at Mach 5.
The questions I have been asked over the years was interesting as was my answers about blocking cars for certain distentions,how interchanged of cars worked,this was after being ask why a PRR car would be in a C&O train.
I agree about stuff moving. There also needs to be a mixture of trains- IE I’m a steam guy and a show that only has Diesel doesn’t hold my interest. I enjoy seeing the Diesels though, just not as much. Also, run consists that make sense. I went to an open house where they have people that sponsor train cars and they only run those and not normal model train cars. By this I mean they have box cars wrapped in ads for local denists and box cars that have auto parts business cards on them. Totally lost my interest in the place as a model RR club.
While I agree with you losing interest in the club ,I wonder if the club needed the funds?
Hi daleBchevyss
I think an over supply of local advertising at the expence of normal cars would bother me to.
I still have a City Models box car and bill board that was specialy done for me as they helped me put together a layout, I once took to exhibition, they went above and beyond the call of duty to help.
This was done as a thankyou to the hobby shop and the proprieter did the bill board as he was a model railroader as well.
He even spoke to a friend who worked for the local phone company to find out how many numbers to take off the phone number to have it fit in and be in keeping with the rest of the layout.
The box car was done as a propper one (no stick on business card) would have been done so that did not stick out like a sore thumb.
Although some people noticed them and some comented the adverts where not all over the place.
The biggest laugh I got was when some one told me the phone number on the bill board was wrong and I had to explain that the number was right for the period modelled
In the end I had to very politely suggest he took it up with the maker who was on stand what ever the number was over there.
When asked why, I said because he had made the bill board to suit the layout not to advertise his business not strictly true, but it explained the apparent anomaly in the phone number to the member of publics satisfaction.
That hobby shop has gone the way many have now and I still have a quiet chuckle about the phone number thing now and then.
Wish I knew how I could restore the bill board it’s very tatty now and its a one of there only ever was one made and it was not made to be a perminant fixture
The card was not shelaced so it’s in a pretty poor state
regards John
Not my video
I would have rather seen some handouts or stacks of business cards on a table or signs on the walls instead of all those business cards on the train. I think it really takes away from the layout and the running train display. The club layout looks really nice except for the business cards and advertising boxcars.
Just 1 opinion.