Discrimination for 2-rail types?

Sounds like the 3 rail people in your area should have a dinner party featuring raw liver, raw onions, hot mustard, and pass out the guns at the door.

 

Seriously, I am tempted to switch to 3 rail sometimes when I see the beautiful locomotives that are available....

I grew up with Lionel in the late 80's and 90's.  My exposure to other scales was from train show layouts and through various model railroad magazines.  Scale meant brass back then.  I didn't hear anything derogatory until I started reading this forum.  Then I became defensive in the face of "scale" and "rivet counter" complainers.  My low point was two years ago when I posted some hate about traction tires.  That was when I realized I had become a hater.   Since then I have made an effort to appreciate other people's interest in the different scales. 

 

3 rail not scale

Nathan

I must be perfectly honest when I say that 3 rail and 2 rail is meaningless too me. I mean the real point is fun, growth and enjoyment within the hobby regardless of ones gauge/rail preference. That being said, I do have three rail and would not mind trying out 2 rail one day. Could be fun.

 

Pete

That is just bad salesmanship. Then we all have been guilty of getting to enthusiastic and narrow minded at times.

 

on a bit of a tangent For me I have watched as DCC has removed old fashioned transformer and block control from the market. Finding switchers also is getting harder looking at Walthers web site, probably due to not having the space for as many electronics. It seems great, but on the down side, aside from low end train sets makes entering the hobby more expensive, unless you can find well looked after used equipment. Looks like the old fashioned ways of control and small engines also have met a bias. Not a mean spirited one mind you, more of a victim to more advanced technology.

 

In turn the increased cost of getting into the hobby has the knock off effect for some pushing egos in a negative direction. Then we do have a way of weeding our social groups.

 

In the end every one who welcomes all and does so even while under fire still has contentment. Holding true to ones self in a constructive manner just works.

 I have always felt almost the opposite to be true. Ie, For generations, two rail tended to look down on three rail as toys, not even in the same class with their models. Cant tell you how many small scale shows I left early after admitting to 3-rail. Being "abandoned" to regroup 10ft away seconds later, eye rolled, laughed at, and/or down right dismissed from the conversations like I was no longer there. I used to belong to another forum too. "friendly, and open to all scales and brands" The relentless peer pressure by the two rail extreme rivet counters, and their blindered corporate loyalties, drove away new, and (real quote) "those less serious about being a train fan"(PW & tin folk) regularly for about a year, then me too.

 Maybe those O guys felt threatened? Maybe the thought of being "bested" by the deep detail of many On30 modelers is too scary for them to bare? 

 

   I find On30 extremely appealing both by itself, and as a supplement to wide gauge O. What sounds cooler then filling a big train, from a smaller one. Especially if delivery is separated by a step in an industries process, like food, saw mills, and ore processing. I'll tell you what's cooler! An unavoidable focus on the effect the narrow rails had on early rural America, and its role in supplying the building of this nation, and the ability to root for the underdog (besides just the scale being one.)

 

And I didn't even touch on the colorful, real life characters of the past, that seem to go hand in hand, with narrow gauge.    

 

 

Some people get mad when other people discuss the trains and track. They seem to transfer the things that are said about the trains and track to THEMSELVES. This even applies to some on this thread. Why is this?

 

Trains and track are a preference. Nobody would get offended if I said I did not like green beens, but if someone says anything about the center rail, pizza cutter flanges, giant claw couplers, or wide wheel treads, all heck breaks loose. It is a train forum, or it is a train show and it is natural to discuss the train positives and negatives in this environment. Why do you transfer the opinions people have about trains and track to yourselves? 

 

I model in regular 0 scale which is 3.5 scale inches extra wide in gauge. I'm not the slightest bit offended if someone points it out, or that my track has plastic ties with raised grain. I'm open to feedback about anything on my railroad. If there were something untrue that was said about the track, I would likely argue that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think there is something that can be learned or re-purposed from almost every scale. There is a clear difference between sharing information and dealing with an individual who is looking to sell.  Selling should be about establishing a relationship because you never know what that person might buy or where your next referral will come from.  If they stick up their noses they lose in the long game.  This of course isn't unique to model trains.  Cycling has it's own community of snobs.  Roadies vs mountain bikes vs recumbents and all of the individual parts that hang on them all have their own unique gang of snobs.

Like converting some of my old On30 stuff to O-27?  

I wonder if this goes back to the old American Flyer vs. Lionel rivalries from the Postwar period, just updated for the modern age?

 

To me, any train is better than no train.  I can appreciate any aspect of the hobby being pursued in any fashion.  No one way is the right way, and when it comes to my enjoyment of the hobby, I'll paraphrase a famous fellow toy train lover by saying "I'm doing it my way."

 

Andy

A huge part of the problem is that WAY too many people can't express their opinion without coming across as a conceited jerk.  There's a big difference between "I prefer HO scale" and "3-rail O gauge trains are junk for little kids".  It's not at all limited to trains, mind you, but if people could express their opinions without acting like a pompous ***, there would be much less conflict.

My favorite new term that I have heard at train shows in the last couple of years is

"Big HO" - to refer to On30. It makes some HO types cringe, as it introduces the 

ambiguousness of O and G, relative to scale and gauge. Funny.

 

So, Big HO it is.

 

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"G" somehow gets lost on me, as does Z (funny extremes, there). N is just too cute for

words, and has reliable articulateds, so I'm impressed. HO is too big for Cute, and too

small for Impressive, so I tend to wander away. S is the eternal Perfect Scale...that nobody buys (that may yet change...nah). The True Perfect Scale is 1:56 (think K-line Alleghenies, good RK Imperial and Lionmaster - these all fall closely that size), which would preserve

most of the heft of O, but lose some of it's unwieldiness - and acreage requirements.

 

 

But no one makes it - and the track (one-inch gauge 2-rail) to go with it.

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If 2-rail O had been willing and able to compromise and offered some of the flexibility of

3-rail (easily mounted blind drivers; easily converted/un-converted swinging pilots, to name two examples), I would have been there. But, the really good stuff is in 3RO, so here I am.

 

On30 is very appealing, though usually a little "teapot steamer" quaint for my taste.

I like it, and all that HO machinery that can be used for building locos, well, neat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree, Dave.

And I think part of the reason you don't find scale/toy arguments in other scales is the toy sect is almost non-existent outside of O(or standard). But is it the toy, or modeling segments fault or both? In comparison the scale world is much larger in population than the toy world, so, post for post with percentages in mind, Id say its pretty even. But why it happens is obvious, the goals are almost polar opposites. The art world will  stop debating realism, vs impressionism before this bit is settled.