Are You A Rivet Counter?

NO.

I guess that would depend on your definition of a rivet counter.  I do like for things to be as prototypical as possible, but as long as it looks real to me, I'm good with it.  Even if there are glaring things wrong, as long as I'm not aware of it I'm good.  But once somebody points it out to me, then it will bother me forever after that.

Art

Yes.

Yes.*

*Which I freely ignore if it serves the Greater Modeling Good.

Depends on what it is

Tim, do you count rivets on your Care Bears train?

Found this somewhere on the Internet.

I'd say 80% rivet counter. Yes, I would like things to be as prototypical as possible when it comes to the scale locomotives and cars, specifically my favorites like the SD40's and the Blue Comet, but I can tolerate some inaccuracies. Hence why I don't get up in arms about the 'traditional' detail on the Vision 700E.

If not, I can always look to the other manufacturers for the more accurate model.

No rivet counter here.  I run trains every day and enjoy.  I know guys who count rivets and they go nuts when I tell them they are not accurate running on 3 rail track and no steam boiler on board.

Nope.  As a postwar collector/operator I proudly PLAY with TOY trains.

I only count the rivets if I am having to match a panel next to the one I am working on.

PAUL ROMANO posted:

Are you a rivet counter or just live with the stuff they make? I'm not a rivet counter, but do make detail improvements wherever I can to make my engines and cars look better.

Earlier but not anymore. Most important is a just keep fun and run my 3rail trains.

-Johan

I don't think you could find anyone less into rivet counting than me.

No, I thought I wanted to be, until I realized how impossible it was, unless I was willing to modify and repaint everything. Nice details, great paint and smooth running is what I want. 

Yes.  I get paid to be one so most people who aren't interested don't have to be.  It is very enjoyable to me because I have learned so much about roads I don't personally model and that has enriched the hobby for me.

Having said that, there is a point where enough is enough.  You can't replicate it all exactly correct at 1:48 scale.

Like forumite D500 said.

Oh .... rivet.

I really like many fine details on my stuff ... and pay a premium for them. But, other than the special marking lights that CNJ had on their ALCO road switchers ... I don't know or really care if they are actually correct.

So, I guess I'm not.

Jim

I'm a rivet estimator.

Rusty

Yeh, I dropped a full packet on the floor the other night and had to count them to make sure they were all there when I picked them up.

Sorry couldn't help myself suspend me for a couple of days. Roo.

A true rivet counter would not be caught dead in this section of the forum!

A true R.C. would settle for nothing less than Proto 48!

I am a "Proto 48 Wannabe."

It's never going to happen. I did check my latest acquisition, a GGD 12-1 CP sleeper. Just arrived today. The name at least is totally accurate! CP scrapped a 12-1 sleeper bearing the name "Salmon Arm" in 1968. Or was it 1970? I have two, both correctly named. The other is Steelton. One scrapped in '68, the other in '70. The Kadees went on it within two hours of its arrival. 

I don't like the 3rd rail . . . or the big flanges but I'm stuck with them. I won't buy fantasy cars . . . or toy accessories. I don't run the CP E8B units MTH made even though I ended up with both of them as CP did not have any E8B units. I count the rivets . . . until I know I can't do any more without driving myself nuts and into bankruptcy. 

"No rivet counter here.  I run trains every day and enjoy."

There is a myth in this hobby (and others, I imagine) that we "rivet counters", even a casual and apostate one like me, don't "enjoy" ourselves. That somehow running equipment in "Whee!!!" mode, and ignoring egregious errors, is the only proper thing to do. Somehow we are not "happy".

Feh. Seeing stupid blue locomotives with rolling eyeballs running cheek-by-jowl with 1:48 Berkshires blasting along at 150 mph - that makes me unhappy. The very Counting of the Rivets and such is enjoyable to us. Toys? Not so much, or in limited doses (like my modest Lionel PW #221 "Dreyfuss" collection).

However - now that I've gotten the "harrumph" out of the way - nowhere else in this hobby do I see the little twist of humor that I see in 3RO. A good thing. We just need to control ourselves lest we look like clowns, and nobody likes clowns. Creepy. Me - I like Hi-Rail with the odd Post War bone showing. With the proper rivet count, of course. 

Whether it be 100 % accurate down to the vaccination scar on the engineer's arm, the tender equipped with real coal or an inaccurate model of any class of motive power, it is what it is: a model train. I believe a rivet counter is probably the most hated type of customer by most train shop owners.

Just give me a 60+ year old engine that runs as good as the day it came off the assembly line I'm happy.

No.  What I enjoy most is realistic movement.  The wider the curve the better for me.  I currently have a Lionel PW celebration set of F3's on my layout and 2 MTH RailKing NS engines.  I just love watching them move around.

However, I always say "to each his own".

Tony

Roo posted:

Yeh, I dropped a full packet on the floor the other night and had to count them to make sure they were all there when I picked them up.

I've just been looking for the last packet of true O scale rivets I ordered from Micro Mark (or somebody else). Yeah, I count them - or I will when I've lost my senses.

No. anything but. My stuff doesn't even have to be close to perfect. 

Nope.

ll no, you silly rabbits.

No. How much more detail do we need. If I need perfection I'll go to true O scale.

Rod Miller

I'm not a rivet counter, but I won't put a rocket launcher next to a milk platform or an oil derrick above a tunnel portal.

No, I am extremely prototypically challenged and have no idea what the prototypes are supposed to look like. If I like something in my preferred road name and I can afford it, I buy it and thoroughly enjoy it. However, the detail on the O gauge offerings today is just incredible to me and if they are missing a rivet or two I will never know the difference so I never worry about it. Also, the selection we have to choose from these days is incredible. I am extremely happy with the O gauge products today, rivets or no rivets there are some amazing products out there that I never dreamed of being available 30-40 years ago. Not to mention the addition of command control!!

No, just a toy train operator, but did not "Frankenstein" have two rivets attached to his neck?

What's a Rivet???

wtjohn posted:

No, just a toy train operator, but did not "Frankenstein" have two rivets attached to his neck?

 

I think they were an early form of DCS clamp-on connectors..........

I keep losing count of the rivets, so I've given up.

Well, I thought I was until I read the level of rivet counting from purchasers of Pacific Limited and Precision Scale box cars at the recent Seacrest auction.  I'm a rivet piker compared to these folks.

Not me..

NO, if i like it I buy it. Right or wrong doesn't matter to me.

There are some rivet counters who can't count RAILS

In MY version of the Union Pacific Steam Era, the UP DID have Hudsons and Berkshires, and SP might even have a Skirted DAYLIGHT AC-9 some day

Doug

No!