Large Scale Central

ARTICLE: Spoutin' Off II, An Editorial by Bart Salmons

Alllrighty folks!!! Here we is on the verge of a bran spankin’ new year. I looked long and hard at whut I got done over the last year, and thinkin’ about what I wanna do over the next. One thing comes to mind…Showin off… Now not to toot my own horn, but the weekend after Thanksgiving I had the honor of deeeesplayin’ my 7/8 handiwork at the local railroad show, and buddy I hadda ball!!!

Now I always said my stuff was fer personal consumption fer the most part, but it was really a charge to go public with trains big enough to see! This was the 2nd time I put out a setup at this baliwick, and I really got a lot better billin’ this time 'round! I was in a prominent place in the forum, and drew lotsa attention, specially from the 6 an unner crowd! Lotsa parents were impressed too!

What did they like about it? Many comments were on the fact the trains were just so darn BIG! ( I didn;t really bother to explain scale or gauge or the fact that my BIG models were really TINY things in the real world) Others were impressed with the reliability. But I think the biggest draw, especially to the youngsters was the lack of fussy detailing and the fact the trains were in their face so to speak.

I noticed that me, and the coupla a O scale and Hirailers got a big chunk of the action. cause we had big visible trains runnin’ most all the time. Now I had a few rocks and a coupla of Gramma’s Christmas ferns fer a little atmosphere, but by and large, I was relyin’ on all trains, all the time, and it worked!

Whats the lesson here? Perhaps its “Less is more”…or could it be “Children are our future, get hooked on trains while they’re young”, or mebbe it just “If yer havin fun, invite someone to join ya!” Why don’t you do a show, and decide fer yerself?