'CHARD Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Okay, let's set my stall out. It keeps happening - complete strangers engage me in conversation and before long I'm asked what I 'do.' To which I usually give a generic 'oh, I work for the railway,' response. Once we've established that I'm not a train driver (default railway job), the other party or parties frequently confess that they are 'interested in railways,' 'a railway enthusiast,' or 'ex-trainspotters,' to which I usually bolster them with a witty retort. Frequently it's their SWMBO who applies the aforementioned description, to 'out' them, in a playful and generally loving way. The purpose of launching this topic is to see if actually we've met virtual friends or long term correspondents, that when facing each other in the flesh have no idea and retreat behind the usual bluff and self effacing traits.... So, this evening I met two couples waiting in the Chinese in Sutton Coldfield, both well-preserved males I guess were in their early seventies. One was a retired plumber, the other a quantity surveyor. Paradoxically it was my Motorhead T-shirt that caught their attention! They had both spotted in the field at Tamworth in the fifties. I was in awe - but they wanted to learn about HS2 and so on! Was that plumber or QS you? A few summers ago I was accompanying my other half on a 'club weekend' to Portugal. A pair of retired dentists (with their wives) engaged me in lengthy chat about Tornado, once they had learned that I 'worked for the railway.' I heard wonderful accounts of steam age travel that enraptured me. A similar dialogue happened in Spain this May, a fully passed-out sea captain - once he learned my job - told me how he travelled from Surrey to North Wales to boarding school in the early fifties. As you might imagine, I was agog and wanted to hear more, but his younger wife intervened to unhelpfully suggest that the old seadog 'must be boring me.' Is it just me, or do others think they have met potential RMWebbers incognito....? 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 (edited) ..... do others think they have met potential RMWebbers incognito....? If I have, I'd rather not know; it kind of spoils the mystique. Edited July 29, 2017 by Horsetan 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
'CHARD Posted July 29, 2017 Author Share Posted July 29, 2017 I half agree - but only where mystique is subservient to mates' rates, if we could help each other out! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 I went to a meeting of a local model railway group last year, and talked to various people. Afterwards I PM'd the RMweb member who I'd been in touch with about going to the meeting, to say I went but he wasn't there. He replied that he had been there, had been talking to me, but didn't realise it was me! 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul.Uni Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 I know I have met 2 RMWebbers, but I'm not sure if they know that they have met me... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium New Haven Neil Posted July 29, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 29, 2017 I've me a couple when driving or guarding at Groudle or at a railway event here, I also know two or three locally anyway, small place. I met another by arrangement which went well, I suppose I must have spoken to others at some time when at preserved railways or the like. I work with one too, of course, but his ID on here is a closely guarded secret! In another larger scale place I have met a lot of the members there. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul.Uni Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 I've just remembered the time a RMWebber posted their video of the Tube150 runs on the Circle Line and it turned out we shared a compartment in the Chesham Set. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 As a breed we do not seem to be very good at introducing ourselves. We can't all be shy - can we? Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium njee20 Posted July 29, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 29, 2017 Part of the problem I find with forum folk in real life is that you may not know their real names, and saying to someone "are you 2402 County of Hampshire?" Is likely to elicit, at best, a bemused response! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Gwiwer Posted July 29, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 29, 2017 complete strangers engage me in conversation and before long I'm asked what I 'do.' I would normally assume they are simply being friendly unless some circumstance suggested otherwise. But then I've just spent 18 years in a country where this sort of thing is not just a daily occurrence but absolutely normal behaviour. I can also claim to be among those who have met other RMwebbers in both hemispheres and am one of the furthest-travelled to meet them specifically at a number of events. Barring those events (Staplegrove twice, Ricoh once) I know I have also met RMwebbers elsewhere because we are friends outside of this virtual reality as well. Another group I am a part of has lanyards to allow members to identify others. That is a walking group; the lanyards mean that two random walkers passing on the path can immediately identify that they are members of the group. I don't suggest that RMweb (which has a very substantially greater membership even if we only count those who post) does the same thing but it would be of more than passing interest to know who we are. In most cases at least Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold BoD Posted July 29, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 29, 2017 Perhaps it's time to develop a secret handshake or roll our left trouser leg up when out and about in public. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leopardml2341 Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Perhaps it's time to develop a secret handshake or roll our left trouser leg up when out and about in public. Ah, I see you've yet to be invited into the inner circle 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertiedog Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Perhaps it's time to develop a secret handshake or roll our left trouser leg up when out and about in public. This could cause deep problems with the Masons and even deeper with Masons who are Rmweb members, total confusion for the first greeting upon meeting, and thoughts flit through by in the mind of a Lodge meeting where it is found they are all Rmweb members.............and the Lodge being used as a secret MRC.....now there's a thought....... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted July 29, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 29, 2017 Part of the problem I find with forum folk in real life is that you may not know their real names, and saying to someone "are you 2402 County of Hampshire?" Is likely to elicit, at best, a bemused response! Maybe not. When the club was exhibiting at Grantham 2 years ago a chap walked up to the layout and said "Is Chris P Bacon here" .... the club Chairman pointed at me completely unfazed. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
locomad Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 I went Along to a local model railway exhibition spotted a layout, thought I've seen this before it look familiar then realized I had been following for months on this forum, then preceded to start telling someone how this was done, and that was done etc, after some member of the public asked us a question. He then introduced himself as "a member of rmweb", then started congratulating us on a wonderful layout, how he enjoyed the posts etc. Didn't have the heart to tell him I wasn't the owner Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BG John Posted July 29, 2017 Share Posted July 29, 2017 Maybe not. When the club was exhibiting at Grantham 2 years ago a chap walked up to the layout and said "Is Chris P Bacon here" .... the club Chairman pointed at me completely unfazed. At least he didn't ask for the bloke who sets light to farts . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chris p bacon Posted July 29, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 29, 2017 At least he didn't ask for the bloke who sets light to farts . We all would have pointed at each other......it's that sort of club.... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 5944 Posted July 30, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 30, 2017 We all would have pointed at each other......it's that sort of club....Especially Simon during the Ally Pally show... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 As a breed we do not seem to be very good at introducing ourselves. We can't all be shy - can we? Chris ..and a little bit private, too. I'm happy to share and converse here, but getting comfortable with that took quite some time. I'm not part of a real world club, and don't plan to be - that's just me - but being here in the virtual world brings most of the benefit of club membership, without most of the politicking, and dealing with people whose personalities are a clash with my own. Meeting others in the real world swings the pendulum back the other way, so I tend to be guarded about it. Living in the most isolated city in the world helps (although that's *not* why I chose to move here!!!) Scott Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Another group I am a part of has lanyards to allow members to identify others. That is a walking group; the lanyards mean that two random walkers passing on the path can immediately identify that they are members of the group. I don't suggest that RMweb (which has a very substantially greater membership even if we only count those who post) does the same thing but it would be of more than passing interest to know who we are. In most cases at least I have tried this. Those who attended the last Stafford members' day were issued with very fetching neckwear kindly made by Coombe Barton. Provided my forgettery does not let me down I sling mine round my neck at most shows that I attend. The responses, such as they are, have been mixed to say the least. Perhaps it enables those who wish to steer clear of me to run the scale mile when they see the badge approaching. The Scalefour Society encourages members to wear name badges at shows and the take-up is encouraging but far from total. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Phil Bullock Posted July 30, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 30, 2017 So were there any RMWebbers at Toddington yesterday? Phil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted July 30, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 30, 2017 A number of RMwebbers have had the misfortune to meet me in known gatherings - Taunton, Railex, and a most pleasant late afternoon with three senior members chasing steam in South Devon were highlights - but earlier this year the scenario 'Chard describes happened, but too late for the meeting to really blossom, which I greatly regretted. I had been invited to a gathering in a pub in Sherborne. The convenor was Bob, the ex-flatmate from whom I stole a girlfriend, who then became my (sadly now late) first wife, in 1973. All the 7 or 8 attendees were retired railwaymen, and I think I recognised one apart from Bob. A large table meant that inevitably conversations flowed in different directions, but it was the chap furthest from me, whose forename I had barely registered on introduction, who turned out, at the last gasp as my train ran in, to be the owner of a most interesting thread on RMweb about a former layout set in the South West. An opportunity sadly missed. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackRat Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 I've met several at scenes of collisions or during the follow up enquiries. I think one or two we're glad to have had the distraction of railway chat and banter, taking their minds off what is a distressing situation. I'd be dealing with the collision, or speaking to witnesses and was asked a few times........do you know NS? Yes I'd reply, very well......it's me! 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted July 30, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 30, 2017 I've met several at scenes of collisions or during the follow up enquiries. I think one or two we're glad to have had the distraction of railway chat and banter, taking their minds off what is a distressing situation. I'd be dealing with the collision, or speaking to witnesses and was asked a few times........do you know NS? Yes I'd reply, very well......it's me! Were you wearing one of your loud shirts whilst on duty? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackRat Posted July 30, 2017 Share Posted July 30, 2017 Were you wearing one of your loud shirts whilst on duty? It has been known! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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