Hi guys,
this is my fourth year of attending model shows with the club and its got me thinking of some of the wacky and irritating moments attending shows in that time.
Probably one of the funniest moments I've had was one day on the retired HO layout when I was running a 'might have been' steam loco and one gentleman insisted he had ridden behind it as a boy!
The worst was probably an argument with someone from another club who butted into a conversation me and a mate were having about what class of loco we were looking at, and decided it was his duty to forcibly repeat to us we were mistaken in our casual observations....
I have the feeling most exhibitior experiences whether here or in the UK are similar but I bet theres some stories out there...
Matt
By and large I have found Brisbane modellers to be a pretty easy going lot that don't get carried away with their own self importance.
I helped one group of lads with an exhibition layout a couple of years ago, one of the blokes chewed my ear off about all the girlfriends he has had over the last 45 years, I think he only took about 10 breaths in about an hour and a half and my ears were nearly falling off, I eventually got away and saw some of the show.
Don't you just hate those people who must breathe in through their backside to keep their mouth going >:(
Quote from: newportnobby on March 15, 2013, 07:59:56 AM
Don't you just hate those people who must breathe in through their backside to keep their mouth going >:(
I think this bloke has a snorkel Mick :doh:
Quote from: newportnobby on March 15, 2013, 07:59:56 AM
Don't you just hate those people who must breathe in through their backside to keep their mouth going >:(
Or worse, the people that must breathe in through their mouths to keep their backsides going :oopssign:
One thing I will never forget is two old rivet counters complaining about the layout I was watching and which I thought was very well done and entertaining.
"Of course you would never have a station on a sharp curve like that in real life" they said very loudly. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself saying "So where are your layouts then?"
Regards
Veronica.
:NGaugeForum:
Silence is Golden Veronica :angel: there are plenty of twits like that around :doh:
I always enjoy viewing a good crash at a show :)
Can't remember when but watched someone mess up their points and an 8 coach HST tried to park in a bay platform at scale speed of about 125mph, made a mess of the buffer stops and killed a few figures as it mounted the platform, not to mention the stack of hst coaches with scrapes if Ionly I'd had my :camera:
Most memorable (that is publishable) is when George Smith of Dapol produced a prototype 14xx at TINGS from his pocket.
First time any Dapol N Gauge had been seen.
For me it's flippin rucksacks!! Having had my specs ripped off my face and damaged by a one they are my pet hate. Also the all to often rudeness shown to my wife when looking at a layouts and stands. She is as interested as me but for some railway 'enthusiasts' they seem to think women should not be allowed through the doors.
Quote from: swisstony on March 15, 2013, 11:17:45 AM
I always enjoy viewing a good crash at a show :)
Can't remember when but watched someone mess up their points and an 8 coach HST tried to park in a bay platform at scale speed of about 125mph, made a mess of the buffer stops and killed a few figures as it mounted the platform, not to mention the stack of hst coaches with scrapes if Ionly I'd had my :camera:
Perhaps they were just trying to make the layout true to life, its not like point failures dont happen...
Would model rail crash inquiry complete in a scale amount of time?!
Apart from the already mentioned rucksacks, the worst for me are the few persons who should actually be made to walk very slowly through a car wash.
Maybe they think it is more manly not to use anti-perspirants, but there are those about who certainly pen & ink :sick2: Well, I for one am stocking up on baked beans before the next show - you have been warned!
Quote from: newportnobby on March 15, 2013, 01:18:29 PM
Apart from the already mentioned rucksacks, the worst for me are the few persons who should actually be made to walk very slowly through a car wash.
Maybe they think it is more manly not to use anti-perspirants, but there are those about who certainly pen & ink :sick2: Well, I for one am stocking up on baked beans before the next show - you have been warned!
Oh you mean the "onions with your burger" brigade ?
Not in a club now and don't exhibit railways, but when I did...........
Best
A married couple that entered the room my 4x2.5 foot board layout was (as part of a very large NMod modular layout), double took the scene and came straight to me saying they used to live a mile from the spot (near 200 miles from where the exhibition was) . Then then went into detail on things I knew would not be known generally about the operation of the piece of railway in the 50s/60s, and added a few things I didn't. They stayed 45 mins plus and helped generate a large interested crowd listening to the discussion and operation. The best experience I have ever had with a model. They left saying I had "made their year".
Worst
Roped into doing the catering for a different large and very very busy exhibition year on year , my family were all helping including brother and sister in law who lived 150 miles away. We were in our fourth year of doing it. Then my teenage daughter ended up in tears after receiving lengthy, loud and very public verbal belittling abuse from a member of the "greasy badge strewn anorak and have not washed this year" brigade when she simply asked for confirmation of his order as she didn't know for sure what he meant by a "round" of sandwiches.
Unfortunately I came onto the scene too late to forcibly eject the cretin. That was the last year we did it.
Prices doubled the following year and the choices available were markedly reduced by those that took over, and the club lost the location the following year due to the actions and bad attitudes of many of the visiting public towards site staff, so they would no longer attend.
As Ye Sow.....................
Best - Being lent the only working prototype Dapol Class 56 for the weekend and hearing a pair of older gents standing in front of the layout that I was operating to hear them saying i used to catch the train from that station. Even though it was a real place, the closest train passed about 15 miles away.
Worst - Didn't happen to me but one of my fellow club members, he drove 45 miles to get to a show, set the legs up and the table with all of the stock on it went back to the car to get the layout out, only to find that the layout box was in the car, but the layout wasn't in the box. He just about managed to drive home and back and got set up about 15 minutes after the show started.
My worst was I picked up a stock box that was full of my 0 gauge wagon kits and probably should of picked up the box of N gauge wagons. luckily we were at a localish show, so i was able to bring them back the following morning
Alistair
I might have mentioned this before, but:
I was at a show and one picture framed layout was positioned quite high up, so as to give a good view. The lighting was also very intense, so the room it was in seemed quite dark. A step had been placed in front, so that kids and shorties could get up and see the layout. One bloke came charging in and, blinded by the illumination, completely failed to notice the step, tripped over it and went hands first into the layout. Not the layout operator's favourite person!
My layout is nowhere near exhibition standard, so it goes nowhere, but i am happy to show it to anyone who's interested.
So why is it that i can play for hours on my ownio without a stall, derailment or scheduling error, but as soon as someone else is looking, nothing moves, and as soon as it does move it derails at the first opportunity, and it was the wrong train anyway? :-[
That's Rule 2 of model railways. When Woodbury came to see my layout, it had been running faultlessly the day before, as soon as he arrives, one loco stuttered all the time and another jumped off the rails, I reckon God doesn't like model railways and gets his own back when he can. :)
Tha syndrome is not restricted to trains, as soon as I switch a camera on to video me flying my helicopters, it is like I am just starting out instead of flying them for over 30 years :veryangry:
cheers John.
Oh the burger and onions smelling rucksack wearing brigade are the worst thing at exhibitions. :thumbsdown:
At least as a punter you can escape them, no such chance as an exhibitor! :veryangry:
Nearly as annoying are the nitpicking rivet counting brigade.
Many years ago I was running a OO scale layout with a club I belonged to at the time.
At this one exhibition, one of the above mentioned asked me what period the layout was set in.
I replied with late 40's to early 50's so we can run both SR and BR stuff.
He then pointed to a model of a post office van on the layout and said that they didn't use that model until 1956
so it shouldn't be on here! Cheeky so and so!
I said 'Oh, right. Well, thats a bit before my time as I wasn't born til the 70's.'
He walked off in a huff! :smiley-laughing:
I had 2 great moments whilst exhibiting a small layout I had, Great Buckland, at the NGS 30th anniversary exhibition back in 1997 at Bletchley.
One was where this guy was trying to get all the layout in a photo and kept stepping back until he could. (It was only 3' x 18"!)
He stepped back so far he collided with the Graham Farish stand opposite.
Someone on the stand appeared from nowhere to ask if they could help and he said 'No, I'm just taking photo's of that layout!' :laugh:
The other was a guy who asked loads of questions as he had never built a model railway and was just visiting as it looked interesting.
He went away and came back a few hours later with a Peco starter set and some 2nd hand stock and a controller,
thanked me for my inspiring layout and advice and that he was going home to build his own version.
Now that's what I call a happy result. :)
Quote from: whiteswan on March 15, 2013, 06:36:17 PM
That's Rule 2 of model railways. When Woodbury came to see my layout, it had been running faultlessly the day before, as soon as he arrives, one loco stuttered all the time and another jumped off the rails, I reckon God doesn't like model railways and gets his own back when he can. :)
Don't think the big fella in the sky has anything to do with it Caz, something always goes wrong when a few mates do the rounds of each others layouts, we think its an inevitable fact of life.
Right,I've had a good read of this thread and feel I have no option but to mention the funniest moment I have ever experienced at a model railway exhibition.
It was also experienced by Mick(Newport Nobby),Davieb and the chaps operating the layout North of England Line at the 2010 Wigan Model Railway Exhibition.
One word is all I need to say and that is all I'll say becausw those who were there that day know exactly what happened and commentwd on the Wigan Exhibition thread.
That word is LOLA.
Sorry davieb if I've brought back you're PTSD,he was quite severely traumatised by the event and actually thought it was stalking him,cos it kept appearing where ever he went for a while afterwards.
Worst one was when our club was exhibiting at a bus enthusiasts wxhibition in Sheffield.I was operating a club members layout(quite badly as far as I can remember) when a chap came up and commented that a particular horse drawn carriage would never have been swwn outside a LMS era raulway station.I was gobsmacked and Pete,the layouts owner looked kike he wanted to take the bloke out back for a chat with a closed hand,he was so patronising.Hard crowd to please are the bus people.
Pete
:Class31: :Class37: :NGaugersRule:
Quote from: Pete Mc on March 15, 2013, 07:43:37 PM
Right,I've had a good read of this thread and feel I have no option but to mention the funniest moment I have ever experienced at a model railway exhibition.
It was also experienced by Mick(Newport Nobby),Davieb and the chaps operating the layout North of England Line at the 2010 Wigan Model Railway Exhibition.
One word is all I need to say and that is all I'll say becausw those who were there that day know exactly what happened and commentwd on the Wigan Exhibition thread.
That word is LOLA.
Sorry davieb if I've brought back you're PTSD,he was quite severely traumatised by the event and actually thought it was stalking him,cos it kept appearing where ever he went for a while afterwards.
Worst one was when our club was exhibiting at a bus enthusiasts wxhibition in Sheffield.I was operating a club members layout(quite badly as far as I can remember) when a chap came up and commented that a particular horse drawn carriage would never have been swwn outside a LMS era raulway station.I was gobsmacked and Pete,the layouts owner looked kike he wanted to take the bloke out back for a chat with a closed hand,he was so patronising.Hard crowd to please are the bus people.
Pete
:Class31: :Class37: :NGaugersRule:
Thanks for reminding me Pete :doh:
Just as i was starting to forget the whole episode :uneasy:
Now i will have to have a large scotch to get to sleep tonight :beers:
dave :thumbsup:
Quote from: whiteswan on March 15, 2013, 06:36:17 PM
I reckon God doesn't like model railways and gets his own back when he can. :)
Quote from: Reverend Lovejoy (The Simpsons)
"Lord, why do you hate my trains??"
:D
Quote from: swisstony on March 15, 2013, 01:53:25 PM
Can't remember when but watched someone mess up their points and an 8 coach HST tried to park in a bay platform at scale speed of about 125mph, made a mess of the buffer stops and killed a few figures as it mounted the platform, not to mention the stack of hst coaches with scrapes if Ionly I'd had my :camera:
That's REALLY not funny! :P
I only say that because it happened to me at the 2009 AGM Layout Competition, although luckily in the fiddle yard. 2+8 HST going at full pelt pushing found a small part of track I hadn't stuck down properly. As it went over the 'bump' the whole lot left the rails resulting in carnage and three lost coupling springs! Since I only had four trains chipped for DCC anyway that reduced the stock by 25% :worried: Had to quickly steal springs from other coaches to get it running again. THAT is why I came up with the idea of gluing all my coupling springs in ;)
Best moment for me was at Royston Show last year. Looking at a pretty good N gauge layout (can't remember the name, age ya know ;) ) I asked the lady operating what they had used for the water as it was particularly impressive, and also where did they get the cruiser boats as I had not seen them anywhere? She replied that the water was good quality yacht varnish applied in layers and was over 15 years old! But she couldn't remember where the boats came from but would ask her hubby when he came back from the tea bar. Thought no more of it but 20 minutes later we were passing that room and she came rushing out to tell us that they were Graham Avis models and we ended up chatting for about half an hour about model railways. Really nice :)
Paul