Funniest Thing

What l thought was funny was when somebody posted, l think on here, that they were going into a train show, and shirtless guys all painted up as cats, or something, were making fun of the train guys while "cats?" were going into a sporting event (not the same as a sporting house?). Whatever rathole you want to pound YOUR money down....we have a little more tangible to show for it...

Probably a guy at work telling me they were a waste of money, while he was standing outside smoking a cigarette.

The "expert" who told me, when I was thinking about buying a rare train set at a great price, not to waste my money because it didn't run very well - it was just a collector's item !!

Last year I was on the Napa Valley Wine train and I told one of exec's there that I owned a railroad in NY where I live.

I gave him one of my WarrenvilleRailroad cards and suggested that he check out my website about it. He was very impressed that I owned a railroad and promised to do so.

I wonder what he thought when he saw that Warrenville was a Lionel railroad?

I did the same this May when I visited the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Ohio, just off the Kentucky boarder

I bought this car off of a forum member here, mainly because my wife's family is actually from Washington Boro, PA right on the Susquehanna river, and yes, many of them were in the Tomato Growers Coop program and grew tomatoes on the side. There's still the 'Tomato Barn' in town that specializes in selling the 'Jet Star' brand tomato in season. It's one of the best tomatoes I've ever tasted, but it doesn't ship well. But I tell everyone that it ships plenty well enough on my railroad. Shipments arrive daily is season!

My story happened in the mid 70's when I first met Jim Madden and Fred Hines. I had no idea grown men collected and ran electric trains. They brought me as a guest to the local TCA meet in Oakland Ca. At that time the local TCA was a very big group. The meeting was held in a large meeting room. I asked a million question on our drive from Marin to Oakland. The thing both of them told me is don't pay for anything on the first offer. You can almost always talk them down. When we finally got there I couldn't believe how many tables were full on Lionel and a few American Flyer Trains. To say I was nervous and excited was an understatement. I didn't have a lot of money but I knew what I wanted. Two Lionel crossing gates for my 4x8 train table. I saw a guy with two. I asked if they worked. He said "Yes". I asked him how much. Two dollars a piece he said. I was thinking what Jim and Fred told me. I told him in a loud voice like I knew what I was talking about. I'll give him five dollars for the both of them. I couldn't figure why he looked surprised. I guessed he knew I drove a hard bargain. It didn't hit me tell I was walking away what a fool I was. I didn't turn around and just kept walking. Don

A fellow club member told me shortly after I first met him................. "I got into model railroading for the groupies and the huge financial rewards". 

Many years ago I took a guest to the Eastern Division TCA meet.  When we arrived at the fairgrounds I pointed out the various buildings and took him over to register. As we were heading to registration he commented that all he really wanted to do was just look around.  Since our collection interest were for different periods and manufacturers we agreed we would go our separate ways and meet at his car at noon and go over to the cafeteria for lunch.  I strolled the halls, found a few things, and when noon approached I headed over to his car. 

  He had a station wagon and as I approached it I suddenly realized the entire car from the back of the front seats to the rear door was filled with trains.  He was just stuffing his latest purchase in the back as I strolled up.  I looked over his haul and said, "I'm not sure I want to be around York when you quit looking around and decide to start SERIOUSLY shopping for trains!"

One of my train friends, who is very good at repairing trains for reasonable fees, told me what happened to him when he was 2 years old.

The toddler had a beloved Lionel locomotive in each hand. As he was walking down the stairs, he tripped and fell down the flight of stairs. Battered and bloodied at the bottom of the stairs, he triumphantly held each locomotive, unscathed and in pristine condition, high above his head.

Now that's a toddler who has his priorities right! Arnold

I was in a train store and over heard some one.Say I do not think there be another train manufacturing company.This was about the time MTH came out.I turned around and there was a MTH Challenger on display.One of the guys must have seen me looking at it.He said "Yeb both sets of drivers have motors.It has real sounds and smokes headlight."Little did I know will be buying there products.Sigh and to think I just thought I would buy 1 lionel 736 a few boxcars and some track.Only to find I am sucked into the blackhole of o gauge trains.On the flipside I am not alone.

I recently posted this on another thread, but this is the funniest thing on my layout IMO:

I think you can't go wrong with having funny little people on a layout. 

A layout can be a stage from which to entertain. 

When I went on a TCA tour in 2015 and saw Phil Klopp running his trains for 50 people visiting his magnificent layout, I thought, OMG, this guy is like the Wizard of Oz!

LOL, Arnold

Everybody here so funny ...: (

I had a guy who bought a engine from me and about 4 years later he contacted me and told me how much he liked the engine but wanted to know if he could return the engine because he was tired of running it. He wanted me to give him the exact amount he paid for it four years earlier. I guess he thought I was running a lease program and no I did not take it back. 

He was not happy with my decision, he complained to the TCA but that got him no where. He did contact me every so often to see if I changed my mind. 

Dave

I have nothing worth while to post but I sure hope this topic runs a few pages.

My card: 

Mitch 

I don't know if its funny or sad, but I'm on a couple of Lionel groups on Facebook and some have truly redefined the term "NOOB".  So much of what we take for granted here is completely lost on a generation raised without fathers and now getting into trains!

Jon

david1 posted:

I had a guy who bought a engine from me and about 4 years later he contacted me and told me how much he liked the engine but wanted to know if he could return the engine because he was tired of running it. He wanted me to give him the exact amount he paid for it four years earlier. I guess he thought I was running a lease program and no I did not take it back. 

He was not happy with my decision, he complained to the TCA but that got him no where. He did contact me every so often to see if I changed my mind. 

Dave

I’m thinking that might be more scary than funny.

If you know how many trains you have, you don't have that much.........

PAUL ROMANO posted:

If you know how many trains you have, you don't have that much.........

8 Sets (8 Engines, 37 Individual Items Total, 29 pieces of rolling stock), 2 Separate Sale Engines, 70 pieces of rolling stock, 3 track expansion kits and two accessories (one of which is broken). All in all I have 80 Items, 109 Individual Engines & Rolling Stock. (7 Postwar Items, 11 MPC Items, 91 Modern Items, not counting track & accessories).

And my family says I still have too much! Oh yeah, just wait until I show them my list of things to get in the foreseeable future.

Ben put a club car up on eBay a little while ago.  Price was $80 or "Make An Offer."  Now when I see that I always make an offer for less than the price (that's how it works, right?)   Someone made an offer for $125, so of course it was accepted.  Ben then put another one of the same car up for $80 with MAO.  The same person offered $125 again!  Either he doesn't understand how MAO works or he REALLY wanted those cars!

For years, I collected trains, but didn't have a layout. This fact gave rise to a few funny expressions which I coined. For a while I lived in a one bedroom apartment. By the time I left there, every wall had train shelves on it. I called it three dimensional wall paper.

I later started referring to the collection as a railroad in exile or a railroad looking for a place to happen. 

EnterTRAINment at Mall of America was a temporary cure for that problem, but it would take another ten years for a permanent solution.

This is where comedian, Billy Crystal, and I believe Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Miller Huggins are buried, center field of the old Yankee Stadium:

LOL, Arnold

I believe I posted these before but here goes.......

I designed digital sounds for Right of Way Industries and one of the guys made a sample sound board for York.  One of the sound samples was titled DAYLIGHT WHISTLE, a 16 second sound bite of a SP GS4.  A fellow listened to it very carefully a few times, turned to me and said, What kind of whistle do they use at night???

Right of Way was housed in an old book warehouse.  The storage areas had a great echo.  Bill Benson was a barbershop quartet singer and had a great voice.  I was recording and asked him to do a few ALL ABOARDs. Got them on tape.  Then I said, how about:  HEY A******E, DON'T TOUCH THE TRAINS.  Got that recorded too.  So this ended up on the sound board marked "Don't press this button".  At York I watched in horror as someone pressed this button, a priest!

Lou N

About 20yrs ago I was construction inspector for the state. One project my manager was a young guy who looked down at anyone in a lower classification then him. The first night on the project, because I never worked for him, he wanted to know some things about me. One question, he wanted to know what I did as a hobby. I said model rr. He said with a smirk, oh one of them choo choo wacko's. I told him, don't knock it, you'll be surprised to find out who's into model rr'n, I started mentioning some of the big kahuna's in the main office. His mouth dropped open, I said yep a lot of the big guys are choo choo wacko's. To make it even better, a week later his boss came down on the project to talk to me about a prewar set he had, and the young manager stood there w/a baffled look on his face.

I paid over $1,000 for the figure in the photo below. He was originally on Cornelius Vanderbilt's layout, which Cornelius had as a child  before he became Commodore Vanderbilt and acquired the NY Central Railroad:

Just kidding, that guy was a throw in that I got for free at a train show for purchasing something else. I think he will look good next to the Automatic Gateman because both of them are way too big for O Scale. LOL, Arnold

I'm thinking of changing the title of this topic to: "LOL."

Do you think I should do that? 

LOL, Arnold

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

I paid over $1,000 for the figure in the photo below. He was originally on Cornelius Vanderbilt's layout, which Cornelius had as a child  before he became Commodore Vanderbilt and acquired the NY Central Railroad:

Just kidding, that guy was a throw in that I got for free at a train show for purchasing something else. I think he will look good next to the Automatic Gateman because both of them are way too big for O Scale. LOL, Arnold

LMAO.... When I read the first part, I'm thinking WOW..... Arnold paid $1k for a metal figure, when I have a hard time parting w/ $300. for an engine. ;-)

Good one Arnold.

I just got another idea for a new topic: "The Case for Never Selling Anything?"

Do you think that is a good new topic?"

I would appreciate your honest feedback.

LOL, Arnold

My mother was helping me re-arrange my room yesterday, and one of the "big" tasks I wanted to do on my own was re-arrange all the Lionel boxes I had into some new shelves. I have a floor layout (the proper way to play with model trains) at the moment, I am honestly not very fond of leaving my room to grab boxes from another room. I was excited to move mostly everything I had to my room, so that way I can run what I want, when I want, without the need to leave my mini-man-cave.

For a bit of context, I should also add that I play video games when I am not running trains or at college. Growing up I played a lot of the classics alongside some new stuff that is coming out (Mario Bros, Battlefield, Roblox, Minecraft, etc). My mother used to play the classics when she was in her teens, and one of her favorites was Tetris.

Mom was very proud of the end result after placing all the boxes where they needed to be. Then she made a comment saying "You've inherited my Tetris skills, Im glad to have you as my son!"

Gave me and my mom a good laugh If it wasn't for her, this would probably be even more of a mess or in more shambles than it needs to be,

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

I paid over $1,000 for the figure in the photo below. He was originally on Cornelius Vanderbilt's layout, which Cornelius had as a child  before he became Commodore Vanderbilt and acquired the NY Central Railroad:

Just kidding, that guy was a throw in that I got for free at a train show for purchasing something else. I think he will look good next to the Automatic Gateman because both of them are way too big for O Scale. LOL, Arnold

Thank God that was just a joke - I just about had a Jack Benny-type heart attack when I started reading your post!!!

Arnold, you rascal, you! 

Paul, thank you for your above reply, which made me laugh. 

And thanks to all for your amusing comments.

I know my Forum contributions tend to be unconventional, but my goal is always for all of us here to maximize our fun and comraderie.

I greatly appreciate this Forum; I no longer feel like a lone wolf train collector and operator. Arnold

When l got to "Cornelius Vanderbilt's layout", l thought "April Fool!, as l doubted train layouts were of his era. However, most of us involved for some time, probably have had "weird" experiences in this hobby, such as the above posting about the "no charge renter"....please post yours.

Arnold, I vote to leave the title as is. Changing now will "orphan" some posts.

I think I'll start calling my silly one liners Big Boyisms. I have another, regarding my buying habits. I am a roach motel for trains. Trains check in, but they don't check out.