Strollers in the halls

Sounds good. See you this fall with my new machine! Comin' in  Hot!

I am certain this will be welcome news for some.

Imagine, diaper bag, and lots of STORAGE for those finds you discover

My going to York is a non-issue as I live on the opposite side of the country and am not into 3-rail, but the stroller decision is great news in general anyway. These strollers keep getting bigger and bigger and we all know how the owners act when they're pushing their 'snowplows' through crowds. Heck, I know a guy who doesn't even have a kid and he puts his Yorkie pup in one and uses it at gun shows like a shopping cart and a way to get people to move aside.

Some gun shows I go to have aisles just wide enough for one of these big strollers. At one a few months ago. a stroller was crushing against the tables on each side. Nobody could stay in the aisle with that coming by. It came to head when an older guy just stood there very defiantly and said, "I'm not getting out of the way, because you don't get to have the entire aisle to yourself with that plastic SUV of yours!"

I think it's just another piece of the, "I'm special and here's why" mentality people have anymore, where they have to have something you now have to move around. Any venue that bans them gets my approval any day of the week.

They allow cell phones and the world will stop rotating...wait, never mind.

They allow photography and gravity will cease to exist..sorry, my bad.

They allow strollers and the sun will go out...TBD 

Jerry

Well, since it takes me half at day to race through all the halls, missing something, I

am sure, I want to use a Segway, and, if that is not fast enough, an ATV.  This must

be predicated on their doubling the width of all the aisles, and opening up for tables

every chicken coop (the stables?) on the fairgrounds to provide for that?

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be certain to bring extra Band-Aids for my Achilles tendons! Love children, hate getting whacked by strollers. The stroller rule was one that I was 150% OK with.

Since York went to three days people with strollers should have no problem navigating the Orange Hall, see the layouts, etc.  Now the Red, Blue and Silver...those isles are not for strollers...heck two people barely fit the width of an isle.  And if you really want to race around, hit the Orange on a Saturday.  You can run through with it and not hit too many people.  BigRail

Segway? ATV? I vote for this instead, 

No problem!!!.....

And therein lies the problem with shows, overall. By trying to fit as much as possible into a hall, the aisles are often made comically narrow. I saw a gun show a few months ago where the aisles were so tight, two guys on opposite sides of an aisle were able to pass a pen back and forth without having to throw it or move from behind their sales tables!

I remember hitting the Timonium MD show in 1998 (the last time I was in the area when it was going on) and found the aisles to be very wide, so much so that a family of 4 could probably have walked line abreast and people could still have gotten around them. I've never seen aisles that wide at any show since.

I am against it.  Walking the aisles is tough enough.  I would not want to be the person who made that decision.  Wrong on all counts.  When the child reaches out and pulls something valuable to the floor, who is going to eat that loss?  The halls are tough enough to get through.  

I wish they would't let them in, some are so large I really question the room for them. If used, do they have to have a child in them or can we just use baskets on wheels for gathering our bargins. It seems that some of the scooters have gotten so large that they are closer to golf carts and ATV's. Some of the users have little or no consideration for us walking slugs. They bump into you, refuse to not block the isles, go the wrong direction. I will probably feel different when I can't walk the lanes.

Buzz 

I think kids in strollers are better then the power chairs people use to get around. Most of them are too large and too many of them don't look out for other people. 

I would like to see some kids at the show instead of the place looking like God's waiting room.

 We don't have kids, but if we did, York is the last place we would bring them--at least until they're older and only if they have an interest in trains.  There are plenty of other places to bring a kid in a stroller where he/she can see trains, and for that matter, more interesting places too. I'm pretty sure little kids would rather see trains in action, not row after row of them laying out for sale on tables. I agree--bad call on allowing strollers.

Bluecomet, thanks for the support.  I figured I would get hate mail but I say what I feel.  This is only going to go VERY bad if they do this.  

 The ADA(Americans with Disabilities Act) comes in at some point on this subject. The venue has to provide aisle wide enough for wheel chairs, scooters, and other mobility aids. If the aisle are to narrow the fire inspector should could become involved.

  I have seen this problem at gun shows, and craft shows and think the solution is a minimum aisle size and only allow "small" strollers. Use common sense. Many parents can't attend an event without bringing a child or two. Single parents with no baby sitter for example.

Douglas 

Although I agree about watching out for scars on the achilles, I think allowing strollers is a good idea.  It will encourage parents in their 30's to attend a train meet.  I.e., allowing strollers isn't being done to recruit kids in strollers, it's being done to recruit their 20- and 30- and 40-something parents whom we need to keep this thing going.  

That said, please write me offline if you want my thoughts on what to do to some oblivious dingbat who runs over your achilles heel with a stroller...

Steven J. Serenska, who brought his oldest daughter at the ripe old age of 9 days to a NETCA meet, in 1990.

I want to chime in, because I wrote an email to EDTCA some time ago asking for a rule change to allow single width strollers and I believe this may have been the impetus for the rule change.  I understand others may differ, but it is not my intention to argue with people on the internet but simply to set forth why I asked for the rule change.

First, I enjoy O gauge trains, my wife supports the hobby, and we have two boys (4 and 6) who also really enjoy trains.  My wife and I are of the view that children must be well behaved and must understand that they cannot just grab things that aren't theirs.  Moreover, while we think our kids are cute, I don't expect you to think they are cute.  So we aren't raising brats.  That being said, I've gone to York for a long time, and we like to make it a family event. So how does one do a family meet at York with little kids without a stroller?  We can't stay together in the halls (wife watches kids, kids don't go, etc) or we have to keep them under control in the halls.  With a single width stroller (we use a dual stroller that is no wider than a single width stroller), you can keep the kids in the stroller, under control.  They can see the trains, we can keep them in check and out of people's way.  In this manner, strollers are certainly no worse than the power chairs that have become quite common and in many instances, are far less of an obstacle than the chairs.

Second, the demographic of the hobby is aging.  We have many conversations here about attracting the young people into the hobby.  We also talk about this being a great family hobby.  And yet we had a rule that makes it pretty clear that families and children don't belong at York  I accept that York isn't the penultimate train show for kids -- an operating show would be better -- but it is something I attended as a kid and that probably led me to stay with the hobby because it is such a train spectacle.  It still blows my mind today after so many years.  My boys really love going as well.  Point is that if you want to talk about bringing young people into the hobby and into TCA, and if you want to talk about trains being a family hobby, there is at least some inconsistency in having a rule that makes it impracticable for young families to attend. Moreover, by effectively excluding kids, you are excluding their 30-40 year old parents as well -- again, driving people away who I would think you would want to try to involve in TCA and the hobby generally.

Finally, I hear the complaints about stroller width, ankles, etc.  I understand the concern.  But the problem with these issues, with all respect, isn't strollers per se but it is inconsiderate people.  I've run into people at York who go down the aisles the wrong way, people in power chairs who block the aisles completely, people driving too fast in the lots, etc.  I also run into jerks in jogging strollers that are the width of a Smart car.  I get it.  From the perspective of stopping rude behavior, however, the answer there is to have the hall personnel rectify these situations, not just exclude whole classes of people.  That is not the way to grow the show, the TCA, or the hobby generally.  I understand that there may be a segment of TCA, perhaps older and either with grown kids or perhaps without kids, who simply don't want to be bothered, but with all respect if TCA doesn't branch out and get younger people involved in the show, the organization, and the hobby, TCA is going to die out in the next 10-20 years.  Accepting strollers at York is a small but meaningful commonsense measure that will encourage families and children to attend the show.