Does anyone else have this problem? I have an easy geographical question re: railroads, so I thought who might know the answer, so I found addresses to about 6 different model railroad sites that are located as close to the source of the question, O.K. so far?? does this make sense? I asked in polite way with as much information as I could provide, now generally these model railroad clubs advertise that they encourage some sort of participation and are willing to answer questions from their region, O.K. so far??? well , I sent off 6 responses and have had no answers as yet, I have no acknowledgement that the message was even recieved, could it be a lot of theses sites no longer even exist( google quotes that 30 to 40 % of all sites are now abandoned) I can believe this. Where did I go wrong? Did I not proceed in the right sequence, or did I break some cardinal sin of computer geek stuff? I also checked to see if you had to be member or not(in these cases NOT) Any help out there? I bet I’m not alone, thanks
You didnt say how long you have waited. Sometimes, these sites are one person operations, and the one person gets overwhelmed. Also, sometimes its not really as much fun as they thought it was going to be, so they lost interest. Perhaps it was a club project, and the club member who was all excited about it has moved on.
In all cases, it was probably “volunteers” who are responsible, and often their ability to commit time to the projects changes.
Possibly your inquires are on their list of THings To Do. Dont give up yet…unless it’s been a year or so!
You may let folks here know what area you are interested in; the folks on this fourm may be able to point you to a usefull resource.
…or they don’t know the answer. Sometimes it’s easier just just not answer if you don’t know rather than answer “I don’t know”.
You may want to post this on the Model Railroads forum as well.
If your question deals with geographic locations on real railroads, why not ask it right here? You know that there are some knowledgeable and helpful Forum folks here (sometimes both, even!). Some of us have been around; others of us are pretty good at using references to get the answers you may need.
Oh–and if we don’t know, you’ll find that out in a hurry, too!
I’ve had some of the same experiences, though I’d say it is more typical to receive a prompt response than no response at all. In a recent case, however, I sent some pictures to another site – no response. After a couple weeks, I e-mailed again, and followed up again in a couple more days. Finally! That one, however, said “I’m sorry, I don’t have time right now to add any photos”, which was basically what I was looking for.
My personal policy is to reply to my website’s enquiries promptly, though I’m sure some of them do slip through the cracks from time to time. I’d try again after a couple weeks, just as I did. If the site was truly abandoned, you’d likely receive a bounce-back e-mail, as the mailbox probably no longer exists. Otherwise, I’m sure your recipients will get to their e-mail… eventually!