Over the many, many years of displaying our Houston S modules, we've had
all kinds of incidents, but really nothing major and as Jim indicates
sometimes damage is self-inflicted. We are preparing to display for
three shows starting in October and we do need some TLC to many units.
And yes with my home RR being on tours for many years we do have some
who like to 'pick or peck' at things. I had to speak rather sternly to
an older lady who insisted on picking up some vehicles. Most of my
vehicles are stock, but some are the Railmaster, PBL and others opened
up, so they will fall apart when moved (I was waiting for drivers and
glass at the time).
One incident that was quiet funny: We were at a mall for a Father's Day
weekend of running. We have the problem of getting lazy and not
'patrolling' all areas, the natural tendency is to gather in one area to
answer questions or BS a bit. Well we had a train derail and the fault
was a typical Erthl type vehicle had been placed across the tracks. We
cleaned up the mess and continued to run. After a couple of minutes I
spotted a mother dragging her kid toward us. I little guy had
grabbed/stolen one vehicle and apparently placed another on the tracks.
The little guy was made to apologize, return the vehicle and all was
forgotten.
Confession time: I once stole a 10 cent squirt gun from a store and
wasn't caught. I know I would have died to have to apologize to the
store owners. So that pretty much ended my career in crime; besides the
squirt gun didn't work anyhow and I had to explain the wet spot on my
pants to my friends!
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
Hi boB
Same goes for transporting layouts. I trust the fates and the good of
the public. I don't swaddle my modules in plywood coffins, I just
use end plates to stack em and protect the ends of the rails. Over
2-dozen shows the only damage I've ever incurred has been a few minor
bumps and scrapes carrying them up and down our narrow basement steps.
My fault, not my wife who has better spatial awareness. I did have
some trees shake loose and the lock washers actually spun off my
switch machine toggles on that violent trailer ride to Milwaukee a few
years back, but that's it.
Getting back to the public and our stuff...at a show here in Canada a
few years back, a guy who was my age, in other words old enough to
know better, was poking my trees and structure details while showing
off to his wife. I politely asked him not to touch to which he
replied while still poking away, "But some things HAVE to be touched".
To which I replied "NO THEY DON'T SIR"! One does meet all kinds in
this hobby.
Cheers
Jim Martin
On August 14, 2013 at 9:30 AM shabbona_rr <[email protected]>
wrote:
I assured the operator that "if I could build it, I could repair it,
which I did. Same with a RRM NW-2 that suffered a similar disaster
when a display case hit the deck face down
boB Nicholson __________________________________________________
