What about this hobby has surprised you the most.

RonH posted:

Have to laugh, my daughter also talks about how the people smell or as she would say, "they stink".
It is not just the old people but it also applies to dealers and buyer

Qusrion: Never been to York, but do they have the same problem with the smell?
The only thing that helps is when it is lunch time when the "HOT DOGS" are sold. This helps in masking the smell but the hot dog smell leave a lot to be desired.
Sorry, but this is making me laugh

Lemme introduce you to the term "Con Funk"

(from Urban Dictonary

RonH posted:

Kerrigan posted:

p51 posted:

Terry Danks posted:

Gun show people are "scary." Dunn'o. Only been to one. No interest in guns at all excepting only Winchesters levers (which I love and used to own!).

Train show people are "stinky." Again, dunn'o. And again too, only been to one. Noticed no smell but hey!, a keen nose is not something I ever had.

‘Scary’ I suppose can vary from person to person. I was raised around firearms and have been an avid (and accurate) shooter all my life. But I hear way too many people talking how they can’t wait for someone to try to break into their house so they can cap them. Others can’t leave their political views at home and there can be a great deal of paranoia among those who go to these shows. I’ve heard it way too many times over the years.

As for train shows, they’re stinky. They just ARE. as many train folks don’t believe in personal hygiene. If you go to enough shows and have a working nose, you will notice it soon enough, trust me on that.

Never understood why so many toy train folks don't like bathing.

Have to laugh, my daughter also talks about how the people smell or as she would say, "they stink".
It is not just the old people but it also applies to dealers and buyer

Qusrion: Never been to York, but do they have the same problem with the smell?
The only thing that helps is when it is lunch time when the "HOT DOGS" are sold. This helps in masking the smell but the hot dog smell leave a lot to be desired.
Sorry, but this is making me laugh

Oh yeah, York has them.  The code word among manufacturers is smellies.  They sleep in their cars and carry a bankroll that I could buy a new Jaguar with.

Lou N

about how many of you are passionate about trains

before i found this forum i thought i was a black sheep because where i came from no one really cared about trains

in fact 99.9% of my family just hated how i had this passion for trains and it made me sad

Lou N posted:

RonH posted:

Kerrigan posted:

p51 posted:

Terry Danks posted:

Gun show people are "scary." Dunn'o. Only been to one. No interest in guns at all excepting only Winchesters levers (which I love and used to own!).

Train show people are "stinky." Again, dunn'o. And again too, only been to one. Noticed no smell but hey!, a keen nose is not something I ever had.

‘Scary’ I suppose can vary from person to person. I was raised around firearms and have been an avid (and accurate) shooter all my life. But I hear way too many people talking how they can’t wait for someone to try to break into their house so they can cap them. Others can’t leave their political views at home and there can be a great deal of paranoia among those who go to these shows. I’ve heard it way too many times over the years.

As for train shows, they’re stinky. They just ARE. as many train folks don’t believe in personal hygiene. If you go to enough shows and have a working nose, you will notice it soon enough, trust me on that.

Never understood why so many toy train folks don't like bathing.

Have to laugh, my daughter also talks about how the people smell or as she would say, "they stink".
It is not just the old people but it also applies to dealers and buyer

Qusrion: Never been to York, but do they have the same problem with the smell?
The only thing that helps is when it is lunch time when the "HOT DOGS" are sold. This helps in masking the smell but the hot dog smell leave a lot to be desired.
Sorry, but this is making me laugh

Oh yeah, York has them.  The code word among manufacturers is smellies.  They sleep in their cars and carry a bankroll that I could buy a new Jaguar with.

Lou N

 

with all this stink talk and how much of a foamer i am i actually sniffed my underarms to make sure i didn't smell

What the heck is a "foamer"?

Scrambler81 posted:

What the heck is a "foamer"?

Often used as a derogatory term towards railroad enthusiasts by professional railroaders.  I.E. we foam at the mouth when we see a train.  It's a mark of pride in other circles.

I have been to York 5 times and dozens of local train shows in Atlanta.   I have been reading about how some people at train shows smell.     Maybe I need to get a physical for my nose because I have never noticed it. I have noticed at various venues where the air quality was not the best due to the age of the venue's air control equipment and the number of people gathered there.  But as a rule I never sensed what folks are talking about.   Given the large attendance at York, I would be pretty surprised there were not a few in the crowd who possibly only has a passing fancy to daily showering.

I will freely admit though that you could also pick out a fair amount of attendees are are definitely "no slave to fashion".  But then again I can relate.  I am surprised our daughter did not end up with chronic neck pain from all the times she should shake her "all knowing" head from age 13 - 17 because of what I was wearing!  Oddly though she never shook her head on the days my wife and I were writing Checks for college tuition, clothes, gas, etc.  But I digress.

Guess I am just too excited just getting in to see the trains to notice these things.

Ed

I've only been to one train show (Springfield, MA) and everyone's hygene seemed just fine.  However, I did notice one thing and, yes, it surprised me -- so, it's *sort* of appropriate for this post, if this subject is ever "appropriate".  

Regardless of which expo building I was in, it seemed that every other aisle that I turned into ... well, how shall I put this delicately?  Anyone remember the childhood rhyme, "Beans, beans, the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. The more you toot the better you feel, so let's eat beans for every meal"?

Let's just say that Boston & Maine baked beans must've been on the menu that day .

TRRR

Good gosh!  This thread had degenerated nicely! 

Another thought I had about what's surprising about this hobby is in spite of all the negativity about the train hobby slowly dying, the manufacturers of O gauge items continue to make more and newer items.  Especially in built-up buildings and kits.  Not to mention much higher details in locomotives and rolling stock.

True, there's not nearly as much product as in HO and N scale, but it seems a lot more O stuff is available in the last five or ten years. It's a bit slower than the rest of the world's progress, but I never thought back in the 1980's and 90's that we'd see what we have today.  It's kept me from wandering into the smaller scales.

Having been an O Gauger from my early youth, with only brief forays into HO and N, what has surprised me most is the vast improvement in quality and variety over the years.  In my 'umble opinion, the real change began when Mike Wolfe drove his blue van through the gates at Lionel and subsequently changed the course of this mighty hobby.

I'm in the process of resurrecting a trio of Lionel products from the '90's, locomotives that were important when I could afford to buy them then cherished but stored in recent years.  One is a SD18.  I can only salvage the unit by using the carbody on a newer "chassis" because the plastic trucks and mini-motor are utterly ridiculous.  The other two, an FM Trainmaster and an EMD NW2 with diecast frame, are going to be pure joy once the ERR packages are installed.  However, this project reveals just how much has changed in 25 years.   Who could have envisioned a "kinematic coupler" in 1990?

I'm as eager to gripe about quality problems or beg for additional locomotive models or road names as the next guy but we need to be grateful for the amazing improvements of the past quarter century.

RailRide posted:

RonH posted:

Have to laugh, my daughter also talks about how the people smell or as she would say, "they stink".
It is not just the old people but it also applies to dealers and buyer

Qusrion: Never been to York, but do they have the same problem with the smell?
The only thing that helps is when it is lunch time when the "HOT DOGS" are sold. This helps in masking the smell but the hot dog smell leave a lot to be desired.
Sorry, but this is making me laugh

Lemme introduce you to the term "Con Funk"

(from Urban Dictonary

The stench of unwashed bodies clinging to gamers at nerd conventions. I.E. Dragon Con, Comic Con, World Con, etc.

The computer programmer's con funk was so thick that Becky, on her way to a Harry Potter question and answer session, nearly passed out.

 

 

---PCJ 

I have been to some train shows and never ran into the stinkies.Could have some thing to do with the size of the building And the large open doors and wide walk ways.But I sure to encounter some people like that.That is if I keep going to train shows.One thing I have noticed is the deals one can make at shut down time.

The amount of money I spent on it.

Matt01 posted:

Grouchy people.

Honestly, I was surprised. I don't understand it. I don't see it in any other of my endeavors in life.

On the other hand, there is a camaraderie of really  nice folks .... just having a lot of fun with model trains.

(Maybe I'm the one being grouchy ..... for saying this? &nbsp

"You don't see it in any other endeavors in your life" You must be living under a rock.

Ha. Yes crop dusting.  Its been talked about as a strategic Avenue to clear a crowded area in the silver and blue hall.

Not to mention the products that reek with the cigarette and mold smellies

Speaking of oder at train meets.  Remember when smoking was commonplace ?    Some train meets reeked of stale left over cigarette smoke, not to mention the items we came home with.....

Traindiesel posted:

Good gosh!  This thread had degenerated nicely! 

Another thought I had about what's surprising about this hobby is in spite of all the negativity about the train hobby slowly dying, the manufacturers of O gauge items continue to make more and newer items.  Especially in built-up buildings and kits.  Not to mention much higher details in locomotives and rolling stock.

True, there's not nearly as much product as in HO and N scale, but it seems a lot more O stuff is available in the last five or ten years. It's a bit slower than the rest of the world's progress, but I never thought back in the 1980's and 90's that we'd see what we have today.  It's kept me from wandering into the smaller scales.

I agree! I said earlier I got back in the hobby in 2011. I am still amazed by the selection of product in O gauge compared to when I left the hobby many years ago!! The hobby may be slowly dying, but it all still looks pretty good to me!! Looks more like the hobby's prime time to me?

rockyshores posted:

It always catches my attention, however not really a surprise anymore, that during a train meet  I will hear vendors talking to each other and to customers complaining  about  customers, cost of the tables, money, food, etc.   in loud enough voices for others to hear.  

The last train meet i attended, that had anything close enough to call food, was the Greenberg show in Delaware last Spring.  And the prices were actually almost reasonable.  And there was a decent separate room in which to sit and eat in peace.    

The food at the Greenberg show in Oaks, Pa.  a couple of months ago should have been condemned !   First, the food was pathetic.  Second, they could't keep up with demand.  Third, my grandson and I just needed something to hold us over 'til we got though the rest of the show, so we each had a hot dog and shared a soda and fries that we had to wait twenty minutes for, $15.00 !!!!!!   The eating area consisted of maybe four tables.  

I'm fairly easy going when I eat out.  But when the food concession looks like something the show managers were forced to provide, I draw the line.  Even the Gilbertsville, Pa. show a couple of weeks ago has a better food concession than what I experienced at some Greenbergs shows.  

rtr12 posted:

I am still amazed by the selection of product in O gauge compared to when I left the hobby many years ago!! The hobby may be slowly dying, but it all still looks pretty good to me!! Looks more like the hobby's prime time to me?

In terms of the stuff you can get and the quality of it, I agree 100%.

I simply don’t get how people talk about the ‘golden age’ of the hobby, except maybe in how big it was and how many (non-retiree) people were in it at the time. For the size of the hobby, I agree fully. But for the stuff you had back then? Wow, how could anyone think the ‘do it yourself’ nature of the hobby, with stuff that simply wasn’t all that great no matter how good your skills were, with very poorly running locomotives, was better than it is now? We have stuff the old timers would have given their left legs for, back then!

P51, I also agree with that. I certainly don't want to offend any of the conventional runners or postwar collectors, but for me it was the modern stuff, details, command control, electronics, etc. that really sparked my interests again and got me going. I still find all the new things fascinating. And as I said before the amount of product and selection available is still amazing to me.

Now, as for conventional operation it's not totally out of my interests. I actually thought about conventional operation and trying to do something like Dale H has done with all of his relays, timers and things fully automating his conventional layout. I also find that very interesting and it would definitely be challenging to do, IMO. But, in the end it was the command control, electronics and new stuff that got me. 

Scrambler81 posted:

What the heck is a "foamer"?

First time I heard it uttered was by HotWater on a 4449 trip decades ago ... or maybe it was Yeager.  They were standing next to each other at the time as we observed some very weird railfan behavior :-)

J Daddy posted:

Ha. Yes crop dusting.  Its been talked about as a strategic Avenue to clear a crowded area in the silver and blue hall.

Not to mention the products that reek with the cigarette and mold smellies

When I worked in crop dusting the stink always smelled like money to me.

Not much surprises me at this age, maybe how much the trains are perennially so much fun to own and operate.

Sometimes I will surprise my liver and have a drink of water while running the trains, but that is about it.

Kerrigan posted:

J Daddy posted:

Ha. Yes crop dusting.  Its been talked about as a strategic Avenue to clear a crowded area in the silver and blue hall.

Not to mention the products that reek with the cigarette and mold smellies

When I worked in crop dusting the stink always smelled like money to me.

Before I retired I was looking for a chase in a multi story building remodel. One guy told me the plumbers had been using one somewhere. I found the plumber foreman, he took me to a small room in the basement, opened the door and I about fell over from the smell of sewer. It was bad. I said man that really smells bad, he said exactly what you did, 'smells like money to me'. I was always thankful I wasn't a plumber. 

QUOTE #AUDI........ Hilarious! I did spit take, and thanks for that. I needed an out loud laugh <salute>    

 Wow, how could anyone think the ‘do it yourself’ nature of the hobby, with stuff that simply wasn’t all that great no matter how good your skills were, with very poorly running locomotives, was better than it is now?

I guess we didn't know how poorly our locomotives ran.
Funny, I think most of my "O" gauge stuff runs pretty well.
And I'll take a reliable pellet smoke unit over a flakey modern smoke unit that has to be babied and "tuned" in order to work properly.
Run a smoke unit dry..... death to the smoke unit.
Create a few spikes on your layout...... death to the control boards.
Yup...... the new stuff is better.