Dumb questions at Train Shows

I get that one too Ken, people think I have to pay to set up and run trains.

Depending on the "show", before our disbanding, the Independent Hi-Railers, Midwest Division were paid to attend certain "shows", such as the International Hobby Show in Rosemont, IL.

JDaddy,

I had a little old lady walk up to my board at the Syracuse NY show last November 2014 and tell me I had to slow my trains down. I run primarily postwar Lionel and I run em fast. she said I HAD to slow them down so the kids could see them properly and I could tell them about the trains.

I said thank you maam, walked over to the control panel and push the throttle UP,

ZOOM ZOOM!

Hopefully, most of the posters here with "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" are just making jokes.

If you are publicly displaying trains, either as a vendor at a Train Show/Meet, or with a display layout, you are going to get the sort of questions listed here.
If you cannot answer each and every one of them with civility, perhaps its time to take a break, or even discontinue your participation as an exhibitor.

Being unpleasant to the event's "guests" certainly isn't going to help to grow the hobby.

Gentlemen,

    Lets hope they never stop asking questions, especially the kids!

PCRR/Dave

   

C.W. Burfle,

The day I told the gentleman, I could go up, I then explain to him that all my prices are discounted. Also, by keeping the prices at where they are, everyone pays the same price. That way, everyone gets treated the same way. Also, in answer to your question

yes sir he did. He also became a very good customer of ours. 

I'm sure the Old Lady and kids were impressed with that.

Club open houses are different from Seller's tables. At club functions you need to be cordial to everyone. ****ing off the public may have negative repercussions to your club. Especially one like mine that is based in a town owned facility.  

 

Peter,

I liked your approach and your canned answers. In my case, cost invested over 30+ years for the layout cannot and probably should not be estimated/provided. The price for the trains is an area we prefer to deflect. If a person is asking about a price of a set because they are interested, that's one thing but if they want to know the cost of my scale Pennsy S1, I will deflect the answer. The club room is not occupied a lot of the time and I don't want anyone to think there are expensive trains left there even though, in reality, we bring the trains home. We were broken into once with some loss in the way of damage to the layout. I particularly like your gauge example board. I might steal that from you and make one for the club.

Pat.......that board really helps when we are discussing the different types of Ogauge track. Furthermore, it is also a great help when we are discussing the differences between scale And gauge.

 

 I will take a close-up photo for you later. 

 

 

Peter

The kids liked it, they like em fast and furious!!!!

especially if I have a derailment, then they say

"do it again mister"

The most foolish question I was ever asked was, Jimmy, did you have to pay for all of these trains. I said in a joking way, no MTH, Weaver and Lionel love me so much they just give me these trains for free. After about five seconds, I told the person just like all the other dealers I had to pay for the trains.

Pat, and everyone....as promised....here's a close up of the boards....

 

 

 

These are easy to make and essential if you are going to display at shows. It is amazing how many questions and misconceptions are cleared out by this visual representation of toy train track.

The 2X2 piece of pine was pre-cut....and, I showed off my carpentry skills by putting 2 handles on the back!  

 

Peter

I believe there are no dumb questions. Each question poses an opportunity to further explain the hobby and get people interested. That is what those of us in modular clubs are there for. Face it, this hobby is changing and some say it is dying. I strongly believe modular clubs are there to promote the hobby. We, the National Capital Trackers, have several younger members in their teens, 20s, and 30s (myself being one of them). This is the future of the hobby and what will keep it alive. 

 

I also developed last year a "Welcome to O Gauge Trains" poster. I'm thinking on ways to expand this but having used it at 2 shows already, and given out MTH and Lionel catalogs and RTR train set catalogs, there is an interest in these things. Early September saw a show where I gave out nearly 1,500 catalogs and got a lot of good questions about getting into this hobby. There is also a time and place for the technical explanations and jargon. I had an older women asking me about an MTH RTR set for her grandson and explained the RTR catalog to her. Keep it simple, get to the point, do it with a smile. She went to the LHS and bought her grandson an MTH train set. 

 

See my poster here: 

 

 

 

I don't believe any question is truly "stupid" or "dumb." We all were new to this hobby at one point and in order to keep it alive, more new folks need to be brought in and attracted to it. 

 

I've also observed other clubs at shows. The smaller scale guys and those interested in "serious railroading" often have ropes several feet from their layout. We have a small plexiglass barrier and that is it. Same goes for the local garden railroad club. We engage the crowd, pass remotes over to kids to let them blow the whistle or run the train, and answer questions. Everyone I've met has been enthusiastic and I believe some have gotten into the hobby thanks to our efforts. 

 

 

Great job, SJC!

I've done something similar (scale vs gauge)....but, I LIKE YOUR IDEA BETTER!!!

 

Here's my display at the Science Museum of VA show.

 

 

 

I love your idea.....I may have to copy it....with your permission, of course!

 

Peter

I would say I was surprised to hear that module groups were paying to display at events, but hardly anything surprises me anymore.

The only time I'll ever pay to display anything is when I take my WW2 Jeep to local car shows, as they're usually for charity and just $10-15.

I'd never dream of considering paying a high dollar amount to display at a show.

Heck, at many shows, I've been paid to display things from my military collection...

Sounds like Yogi.

It all depends on what you mean by a dumb question.  There certainly trolling questions and ignorant questions and supercilious questions but I'm not sure any of those questions could be considered dumb. An example of the first might be "Why would anyone pay that kind of money for X?", an example of the 2nd might be the above cited questions about prices or worth and the 3rd might be "Why would you pay X for Lionel when you can get MTH for less?"(which I guess could also be considered a trolling question).

 

To me dumb questions are either ones for which the answer cannot be known or questions where the answer is obvious to any normally intelligent person. An example of the former might be "Does anyone know what the prices will be in next year's Lionel Catalog?"  and the later might be "Why are you wearing shoes when walking on that bed of broken glass?".

I guess I've been lucky.

 

Our club layout is open every weekend to the public, and we charge a small fee to cover the electric, a/c, etc.

 

Most people seem genuinely interested and ask intelligent questions such as how long have we been in operation, who built it, where could they buy similar trains, do the same trains run all the time (although the club has several dependable conventional engines, we encourage members to bring their own) etc.

 

Never had a "how much" issue or an inference that we're a taco short of a combination plate.  People have paid their $1-2 admission, and on their way out have handed me a $10 or $20 additional donation because they thought we did a good job.

Can you post a picture of the Hay Stack car?  

I hope that makes you feel good. I have been to a lot of shows, small stores, etc that have a dish of candy set out for their customers. At a train show, a gondola makes a great "take one" candy dish.

 

 

Another good one was when is I asked the Antelope Valley N scalers why do they have module pieces with just dessert scenery and just single tracked? Then I was asked about when I ran my Thomas and had Spongebob Squarepants and Patrick Star figures being pulled by Thomas. Kid asked why is Patrick and Spongebob out of water? 

       
       


It was a NYC Bulkhead flat car with cut logs on it. Made by MTH!

I have to say, in the ten years I have had a booth at the TCA Meet @ York, PA, it never occurred to me that a question was "dumb." I was always glad for the interaction and colloquy and very happy when somebody liked what I had created and offered for sale. The whole experience was great fun. Condescending or getting snarky was never part of my portfolio. No question was a burden; rather, answering questions was a way of being helpful to others, for me, at least.

FrankM.

Layout Refinements, Orange Hall.

Has anyone ever have a kid walk up and ask, "Can I have that?"

Happens all the time at military displays. Seriously, kids into their teens will walk up and not any hint of a joking expression, will point to something comically expensive, rare or illegal for a minor to own and ask that.

Can't count the number of times that's happened. I'd bet dollars to donuts it's happened to some of you!

We had a middle schooler flipping coins onto the store display layout in hopes of a derailment. I don't know about dumb, but he definately popped a 'bucking for a Darwin Award' question when he asked, "Can I have my quarter back?", after landing it across the center and an outside rail.

Ah, I was picturing something along the lines of;

 

 

 

No but we had a guy come in with a satchel who said "if you are good, I'll let you run my engine on your layout". We politely declined his offer.

I just thought of another jewel.... "Where's Thomas?" This is usually followed by somne variation of "Pull everything off the track and run it for MY kid" or "Why didnt anyone think to bring Thomas? Didnt you know that kids like Thomas? What the heck is wrong with you people?" (aside from the fact that we're giving up our free weekend to come and run trains, for free so that you, Whiny Mom Q. Public can complain to us about not bringing what you thought we should be running)

It should be rule #1 that Thomas should never be left visible on a layout at a show, unless there is an intent to run it immediately. As much as the blue guy probably does to promote the hobby, after a while, it drives you nuts.

Thomas or his friends are always running at our open house. We have a small loop where he runs. Sometimes we have to explain that Percy is pulling the train while Thomas rests.

yes me too... but alas did not have one of these on the table for sale...

 

 

 

 

 

From then on I call these Hay stack cars... my friends just chuckle

FYI....... I was an Instructor with AT&T for 18 Years Teaching Data Communications. I always told my Students, there was no such thing as a STUPID Question!!!    LOL

 

FREDSTRAINS

 

I'm surprised someone even asked.  Most of the time it's just plop down wherever.

As an occasional spectator at train shows, I enjoy having the freedom to wander around until I find intelligent and interesting people to talk to. 

Get the first one a lot; the second one -- not so much.

 

The fun begins when we let a kid run an expensive train (no other traffic on the same line, of course) and his/her parent asks the first question. The color runs out of their face, then we assure them that the kid's doing fine. Never gets old.

 

Get a lot of the manufacturer-related, where to buy, and what kind of track questions.

if you want the hobby to grow and you are representing the hobby whether you are at a train show or a modular setup,you need to be a good ambassador for the hobby. sometimes the simplest questions to someone who knows all about everything in this hobby may seem stupid, but many times a person wants to know not because of stupidity but because they may have an interest.

think about the question of price someone might want to get into the hobby and since there are few hobby shops now they may question what it costs.just like someone who owns a boat, a hot rod,or any hobby fields questions about cost.

so before you get jammed up at the questioner think when you started in this hobby how many questions you asked, but i guess they were all intelligent questions? right??

From my perspective, a very fair point to make, 69nickeycamar. When I first pulled out my father's 1666 and Lionel Scout, in 1995, after decades of storage, I had no idea anybody else was out there still interested in trains their dad's had. I even had to ask my LHS (and it was my wife who spotted a Lionel sign in their window) what kind of lumber to use to make the "platform,"and as far as track was concerned and electricity, I only knew of the track in my hands from my father's '40's-50's era layout and his two remaining clip-on's.  Also, I had no idea, back in 1995, if anybody made building kits, so when my wife discovered a mall store window full of Dept.56 buildings, we went in and bought every building in sight. For real. But not so realistic, huh.

FrankM.

During Christmas, we also make a point of running Polar Express. We have "complete" passenger as well as freight.

My club the Black Diamond Society of Model Engineers usually takes 10 to 12 tables at local train shows and it never fails that someone will come up to me and ask "are these your trains" to which I reply " no the true owner is tied up under the table I am just collecting the money". 

 

Usually they hey just continue shopping and buying. I go by the policy that a stupid question deserves a stupid answer. As long as nobody get hurt what's the difference.

 

JohnB

I have been reading this thread now since it stared an I am amazed at how some people can be. If you set up at a show or are having a public display people who are not in this hobby are going to ask questions. Maybe they think if I ask a simple question that will break the ice so I can ask more questions.

I find the above post to be about the biggest jerk response a person could have. Even if the person IS truly asking a the question to be dumb you don't have to respond like that. It is so off putting. If someone didn't know you you and had never been to a show or club meeting and saw you running a large group of trains they might  think that all those trains belong to you.

If people want this hobby to grow and get new people interested in model trains I would hope people would be more understanding to "dumb" questions.

If I were at a show and asked someone a question and got a response like the above I would be ready to go home right then. There is enough negativity in the world today there shouldn't be any when it comes to a hobby like this, but then you have people who think they know it all and can't handle a simple question.

I hope the people on this thread that are complaining about the questions they are asked are just a small percentage of this hobby otherwise no one will want to get involved and this hobby will be dead soon.

Kudos to every positive response to this post. I swear that some people here have received to many low voltage shocks from their trains.