What I don't understand about model railroading is the expectation of "Flawless Operation."
Any modeler who has a model railroad has hang-ups somewhere in the operation; I don't care if it is in HO, S or in any scale. I will admit that the most trouble free model railroads that I myself have seen in operation are pure O Scale. But then in O scale there is so much missing in layout detail because of the demand for over all prototypical size. Yes, it seems that model railroads can get to near perfection if one is a fanatic and stresses the point, but even then someone will find something missing. (Don't you just love those visiting nit-pickers?) I'm an old guy and like many other old timers over the years have seen many, many wonderful model railroads and so many times in our minds wished we could have built one just like it, or just maybe, we've taken a new idea home and used it on our model pike. In business there is a principle called "The Peter Principle," that is everyone rises to his highest level of incompetency. Now if only we could recognize that thought among all of us, we would then find that all model railroads are beautiful, regardless! Yes, recognize each model railroad is someone's personal Utopia [if you will,] but then somewhere, there will be an individual among us who will challenge that wonderful world, a world that many of us someday hope to achieve and live in. Dear friends, there is no perfect world, and in saying that, there is no perfect model railroad world, just in most cases nice people trying for prototypical perfection, a hopeless yet challenging goal. Now back to repairing my Jefferson Central! My gracious, the humanity [tolerance] of it all! LOve and Hershey Kisses, Bill (Fraley)
