A couple months ago i was at the LHS and i saw a child from my school in the tain section the next ile over. i was so happy there was some one eles in my school who model railroaded!!! so the next day at school we got together and talk about our trains. we told each other what scale we modle in. i am HO and he is O. then he told me the most horrible thing that ever went into my ears. he said that he sets up his track on a tall table and puts his rolling stock and steam engine on and turns the throttle up all the way. now this didn’t seem to bad. he just left out a major part. he puts the track in a strait line on the high table and hangs it over the edge turns the throttle up all the way and launches his 7 cars and steam engine off the table. this is 300 dollars worth of trains. you should see them they are in horrible shape. so here is the qustion. should we call in modle railroading Socal Services. for abuse against trains? well that is for you to decide! lol
Sounds weird to me. Ask him why he likes doing that. If he says it’s more fun, then ask him what about it is the fun part. If he replies that the fun part is seeing the trains get broken or damaged, tell him a hammer would be as much fun…get him one and tell him to pound on them.
apparently the dude doesn’t pay for his own trains. Age has nothing to do with it, I used to have an uncle with a little mean streak who’d run my $300 engine right up to the edge of the table and then giggle this maniacal little giggle. I’m not sure where this mentality comes from. Ever read Calvin and Hobbes? I think it comes from there . On the other hand if he puts his little brother in harms way and then giggles about it… well, take it from there. Maybe Crandell will weigh in on this one for an in depth look into the pschology of how we enjoy our trains.
Obviously this is a case for the Model Train Crash Institute. More information about the M.T.C.I. can be found in this video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC8VzVmNPOI
The only time my trains bang into each other is strictly by accident. Three days ago I forgot to close a turnout and a high speed freight zipped through the turnout onto the siding and collided head-on with a parked freight in a corn field meet that would make Gomez Addams proud. F units are bad enough, but when it’s two Proto 2000 E units hitting like that, things get broken. Those locos are heavy!
Pablo, that video is great, lol. I must confess that on occasion I too have crashed a few loco’s into each other on purpose. They were a couple old Athearn’s I had sitting around and for some strange twisted reason I felt great afterwards, lol.
The reason is simple. Mankind has an inherant need for destruction. How else can we build things anew?
We hate temites because they destroy our buildings. Yet their primary purpose is to destroy dead wood(and our structures are made from dead wood…live wood still grows out of the ground)so new wood can grow and be fertilized.
Mankind also has a morbid curiosity within him (or her, they, them, us…whichever you prefer to be politically correct.) It works the same.
Mankind has an inherant need to surpass each other. Thus, the need for competitions, moderated or not. Sometimes this takes place regardless the cost.
In a two-way competition,anyone will seize and take whatever edge they can, even if it results in injurious behavior.
If a wall is to come down to enlarge a room and repair/paint the scars removing it has left; everyone, and I mean everyone will want to swing the sledge hammer. Few will want to spackle/sand/spackle/sand/prime/paint to finish it.
It is called the rebuilding, survior of the fittest, and most egregiously man’s inhumanity to man.
That, little grasshopper, is the way of humankind.
The sooner you learn it, the better for you.
So he shall tear down trains…just DONT let him ANYWHERE near yours!!!
Back away (from him) slowly and swallow hard and no one (or train) shall get hurt…
I think he’ll learn his lesson when he has to buy new trains. Even Tycos and Bachmann’s add up after a while. On the other hand if it’s momsy and dadsy footin’ the bill for all his carnage than hop in and bum some stuff off them too. Never give a sucker an even break.
He needs either just help understanding and respecting his possessions and in extension, those of others. If the answer to my question is yes, then he needs more professional help. It may be normal to break things, but there is a time and place for it.
Best advice yet[oX)] I belong to a kids club(im 17), and whenever I see a kid speeding i put a quarter on the track and, problem solved. I never run my trains over 50 MPH(scale of corse).
Ask if he’s paying for the trains or if his family is.
I know I’ll be in the minority by saying this, but if he is paying for them, he can do whatever he wants to do with them. Whether that means run them, paint them, or run them over with front-loaders, he paid for them. If putting all of his money into buying trains to smash is worth it to him, then oh well, that’s his choice and we have no right to stop him.
When I was young we had special toys for that purpose. (the smash up derby cars) And who didn’t launch Evel Knievel off a ramp that was just a little too high.[}:)]
But to wreck perfectly good trains on purpose? That’s just so wrong.[V]
