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Cancelled due to vandalism- Stamford show 18th May


Trains4U
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35 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

I wasn't complaining about someone poking fun about my hobby. It was the fact in the article he was saying that you can't be into model railways and be masculine. Virtually blaming people with testosterone for ruining the layouts.

 

 

The last line of the article makes clear that masculinity can be explored in many ways, one being our railways
"If there is something positive to be taken from the Market Deeping disaster, it might be a chance to look at the world of modellers not merely as a bunch of sad anoraks, but a space in which masculinity and mental health can be positively explored, a novel and creative form of #selfcare."

 

Andi

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Firstly, I would like to extend my deepest sympathy to those who have seen their work so cruelly destroyed. Desperately upsetting.

 

On the news coverage, for what it's worth, while the mail article was the worst sort of say-the-same-thing-seventeen-times-without-providing-any-insight journalism, including a lot of photos of grim looking men of a certain age, the Guardian article did at least try to provoke people into thinking a little about the stereotypes, in what I thought was a refreshingly sympathetic way. He didn't say 'you can't be into model railways and be masculine', he said that they can be a perfectly valid and rewarding activity for people who are not cut out for running around a sports field. Very different thing.

 

The hobby is predominantly male, and the higher end of the hobby does appeal to people who have a tendency to finding attention to detail rewarding, which is a predominantly male trait that is not (sufficiently) appreciated by society. Nothing very controversial there, but I thought it was rather nice (of the editor) to include a piece in a national newspaper, in this age of body image obsession and social media self publicity, saying that it is actually OK to stay inside and be a little nerdy. I also thought that it was nice that they got a relatively young journalist to 'come out' as a model railway guy, and included a photo of an N gauge cameo, trying to show what a model railway can look like, rather than concentrating on the destruction (I know, they could have found a better picture, but at least the effort was there). 

 

Bravo the Guardian, I think.

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On 19/05/2019 at 09:56, Bucoops said:

 

I keep coming back to this post - I wonder if perhaps something special could be done for this chap? Perhaps some kind of day out at a preserved railway?

 

The donations to date are amazing! I sincerely hope something nice will be done for this particular gentleman? I am sure it will be, having watched a couple of interviews the chairman of the club seems an absolute credit to them.

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I have:

  • posted my donation to the Market Deeping mrc.
  • sent a gentle e-mail to the Grauniad, noting that the Chairman, vice Chairman, Secretary and Exhibition Manager of the St Neots mrc (who had a layout trashed at Stamford) are all women.

Bill

Edited by bbishop
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48 minutes ago, GreenGiraffe22 said:

 

An extremely relatable article for me. =) 

Regarding the Article in the Guardian by Luke Turner:  It was a curious article, which seemed to overlook that there were ever any women who participated in model railways. It is true that women are in the minority, but the committee of the St Neots model Railway club proves that this is not entirely the case. As someone who along with my siblings exhibits a vintage O gauge model railway at exhibitions all round the country,  I can vouch for the fact that building a model railway can be every bit as strenuous as 90 minutes on a football field.

Edited by Claire RJ
To clear a possible ambiguity
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As someone who regularly exhibits with my club and takes stock for use on the layouts my sympathy goes out to all those affected by this attack.

 

With all the attention being paid to the success of the appeal there is one thing that is not, in my opinion, being emphasised enough. This is that all the money in the world cannot replace the models that have been destroyed. Yes, the lost model can be replaced with another, but if the original was scratch built, kit built or even modified RTR then the new model if built by someone else will not be 'your' model in the way the original was.

 

Given the mentality of the type of person that carries out this sort of destruction, one concern I have about the amount of publicity this incident is getting is that it brings model railway exhibitions to the attention of vandals and could encourage 'copy cat' attacks on other events.  

Edited by JeremyC
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12 minutes ago, JeremyC said:

 

Given the mentality of the type of person that carries out this sort of destruction, one concern I have about the amount of publicity this incident is getting is that it brings model railway exhibitions to the attention of vandals and could encourage 'copy cat' attacks on other events.  

 

Always a possibility, but the publicity is now fast fading, as is the rate at which people are donating, so I would suggest this will disappear from most peoples' minds pretty quickly, bar us and those affected of course. There are far more obvious targets for vandals - we do not yet know whether these youths broke in and attacked the school because the exhibition was there, or because they wanted to attack the school for some other reason, and chanced upon the layouts and stands. Attacks and arson by students, or ex-students, or rival students, on school buildings are regrettably not that rare (and not just in the UK). This could have been just bad luck.

 

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2 hours ago, Bucoops said:

I notice that Magnet insurance for model railways is currently a prominent advert on the forum for me. Can't be a coincidence.

 

The adverts tend to be context sensitive, selected by google etc. I doubt they've made a conscious decisions "Look, they're all talking about Insurance over on RmWeb, lets whack an ad there."

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4 minutes ago, Mike Storey said:

 

... we do not yet know whether these youths broke in and attacked the school because the exhibition was there, or because they wanted to attack the school for some other reason, and chanced upon the layouts and stands. Attacks and arson by students, or ex-students, or rival students, on school buildings are regrettably not that rare (and not just in the UK). This could have been just bad luck.

 

 

Mike, 

 

I think it's almost certainly the latter, and the sentiment of those club members I've spoken to is along similar lines.

 

It wouldn't have mattered if it were a wedding show or a craft fair - the target was almost certainly the school, and anything else is "collateral damage"

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The response by the club and the officials to this dreadful event has been fantastic and it shows that whatever life throws at you, its how you react (with, it must be admitted some luck) what is what matters.  To have an effective media campaign, been if it is speaking to the local news and it escalates, is truly admirable, and of course to be able to get a foot in with one of the nationals is very good.  So often clubs shirk from the limelight - it's hard to say any publicity is good publicity, but just like the shows such as the model railway building series, carriage restoration, Fort William to Inverness, all go a long way to keen the idea of model railways in the collective mind.  I look forward to the fund growing and growing. 

 

JG

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https://www.spaldingtoday.co.uk/news/market-deeping-model-railway-club-to-rise-like-phoenix-from-the-ashes-with-a-display-on-friday-9071053/?fbclid=IwAR2YpWJ3ew-MwIUYgAb3DKZbKnMdYMGs05YToUqhcwsNHaacn-m97B7nS0Q

The news coverage continues and well done to the club for making every effort to honour their commitment to the literary festival.  I'm sure given what has happened everyone would have forgiven them for having to cancel.  I hope the event goes well for them.

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8 hours ago, Trains4U said:

 

Mike, 

 

I think it's almost certainly the latter, and the sentiment of those club members I've spoken to is along similar lines.

 

It wouldn't have mattered if it were a wedding show or a craft fair - the target was almost certainly the school, and anything else is "collateral damage"

Regardless of the reason why the school was targeted the result was an awful lot of damage, some elements of which could be  replaced with funds available from the tremendous response, but some of which is irreplaceable as the original construction involved a tremendous amount of man-hours from skilled individuals.

 

Whatever total value could be put to all of this is a net worth that was left unguarded for a reasonably long period of time. 

 

I am in no way criticising anybody involved in the exhibition arrangements but maybe a lesson for the future (insurance cover notwithstanding) may be that it would be worth investing in continuous on-site security from start of set-up , even if this results in a necessary increase to the admission prices.

 

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