Darryl Noble said:
Really ?
As I’ve been saying all along, I have no opinion on this topic anyway.
Hi Darryl,
OK. It was poorly phrased.
Of course I have an opinion but my opinion is simply that the topic (LGB bankruptcy protection) involves a situation that I have no vested interest in and no control over the outcome.
What I was trying to say is that facts are facts and it is up to each of us to determine how (if at all) the facts are of significance to us.
I determined when the situation first started to develop that I am no more than a concerned (because of the significant amount I have spent on LGB and other brands of toy trains) spectator.
If you will do me the courtesy of going back to my initial posts on this topic you will find that the translations had already been published and I made no reference to them either positive or negative. I had no intention or desire to get involved in this topic.
ALL I said was that I thought Ron Wenger had posted a good comment (and remember that Ron has a strong association with LGB’s competitor Aristo-Craft). I respect Ron for speaking out for what I consider to be the good of the industry.
I came to this topic at the suggestion of and following a link sent to me by TOC in a private email. I was drawn into the topic by HJ’s post directed specifically to me.
I have been saying over and over the same thing:
I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care.
I have not made any effort to convince anyone else to do anything.
I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care.
People keep telling me to read something.
I read whatever that something is and I keep on saying:
I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care.
Of course that is a lie (remember I previously said I don’t mind admitting to changing my mind or making mistakes).
The truth is that I really do care.
The difference is that I only care about what I do.
I don’t care what anyone else does, I don’t care what anyone else thinks and I don’t care what someone else thinks that I should do.
Someone likes batteries? Fine. I don’t care.
Someone else likes rivet counting? Fine. I don’t care.
Someone else likes Aristo-Craft, Bachmann, LGB, MTH, USA etc.? Fine. I like them too but I don’t care what someone else likes. I only care about what I like.
Actually I have lied again.
I said I don’t care what anyone else does or says. There is an exception.
Sometimes someone may try to influence a manufacturer (LGB) to throw away their R1 rule. Then I do care and I do respond because just as they have a right to ask LGB to throw away the R1 rule I too have a right to ask LGB to keep the R1 rule.
Come to think of it, I lied again.
Someone may want the manufacturers to give up previous scales and move to a more common scale. It is their right to do so but I personally encourage the manufacturers to keep their present scales.
Why?
Because I don’t want and could not afford a 1:29 Big Boy (OK I would really like to have a 1:29 Big Boy but I cannot buy one for $1,000 so I prefer my MTH Big Boy).
On the other hand I find 1:32 too small for me for anything but huge locos.
I like 1:29 for large mainline locos but I actually prefer the scale LGB has (whatever it is) for their Mikados and F7’s even if it only (best) matches LGB rolling stock. I don’t wish my Mikados and F7’s were smaller - I wish my Heavyweights were bigger but I know that will never happen.
I also like the scale of LGB Moguls and matching rolling stock (1:22.5) better than 1:20.3 narrow gauge because I don’t mind running both my LGB Mikados and LGB Mogul trains on the same track in front of my 1:24 buildings and (1:24?) people.
In other words I tend to use a sliding scale. The smaller the original was the bigger I prefer the toy to be and the bigger the original was the smaller I prefer the toy to be.
Does this put me at odds with some other folks? Of course it does. Does it make me or them right and the other wrong? Of course it does not.
Will I ever convince anyone else? No. I would never even try (other to encourage the manufacturers not to make drastic changes that would not fit my layout).
Will anyone ever convince me to change my mind? Probably not but I’m happy to listen to them if they want to respectfully try to convince me.
It was a lot easier for me to say “As I’ve been saying all along, I have no opinion on this topic anyway.”
I would have been happy to have left it at that. My comments regarding other scales were not an attempt to change the direction of the topic. They were simply in response to other’s comments regarding scale comparisons.
Some of the folks I have the greatest respect for totally disagree with my thinking and I with theirs. We simply accept our differences and enjoy our mutual hobby in very different ways.
Cheers,
Jerry
ahhhhhhhhhh … now that is a concept! I wish that would be the case in each and every review. However much more frequent are the instances where the mfg provides a “free of charge” sample of the item to the publisher of whatever magazine and many of those samples are then considered “gifts”. I know of at least one instance where it took repeated attempts and reminders to get the valuable merchandise back. I won’t mention the merchandise, nor the publisher involved.
