GrumpyPenguin Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 In the past I have exhibited a couple of layouts & I don't like it when people seem to think it's OK to lean on the baseboard edge. Yes, you can have barriers &/or perspex but I like people to be able to see closely. What puzzles me though is that one of the clips on RMW shows someone talking about a layout whilst leaning on it, half an arms worth ! 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
34theletterbetweenB&D Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 I lean on my layout, but it is 'one that never leaves home' and constructed to stand up to this - and it is mine. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ba14eagle Posted April 19 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 19 I like to video layouts, so really don't like perspex frontages. Whats worse, exhibitors hanging hands and arms over the backscene! (which means they are leaning on it 😄). I would never knowingly lean on a layout. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steadfast Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 (edited) I'll quite gladly lean on my layout while operating, especially if a steady hand is required, but that is cheeky to lean across from the public side! Sounds like there's a few layouts that could use (blatant plug time!) some stickers, penalty fines to the new loco fund. 2 quid a go, https://steadfastmodels.wordpress.com/vinyl-stickers/ Jo Edited April 20 by Steadfast 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 I did have someone absent-mindedly lean on my layout once at a show, while he was deep in conversation with his friend & not really watching the layout. I immediately said - politely and with a smile - that he might not want to do that.... he apologised profusely and removed his arm. I was actually more concerned that the way he was leaning was putting sideways weight on the last board, which it wasn't designed to support, being 'cantilevered' off it's neighbouring board, lined up with split-pin hinges, and one set of wood legs at the end. The other end of the layout was secure on two of those metal trestles that are quite popular as layout supports, he could've leaned there no problem!! 3 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Vigor Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 32 minutes ago, Steadfast said: I'll quite gladly lean on my layout while operating, especially if a steady hand is required, but that is cheeky to lean across from the public side! Sounds like there's a few layouts that could use (blatant plug time!) some stickers, penalty fines to the new loco fund. https://steadfastmodels.wordpress.com/vinyl-stickers/ Jo 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
'CHARD Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 Rule One applies. I sometimes sit cross-legged on my layout. Wearing a bowl of dry cat-food like a fez. 1 2 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Vigor Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 28 minutes ago, 'CHARD said: Rule One applies. I sometimes sit cross-legged on my layout. Wearing a bowl of dry cat-food like a fez. Oh my! The rmweb fakir! 1 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted April 19 Share Posted April 19 29 minutes ago, Paul H Vigor said: Oh my! The rmweb fakir! I am immediately reminded of a classic two-word line from "Carry On Up The Khyber.... 2nd word "off"... 😂 1 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCB Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 My layout has hardboard projecting above the baseboard surface to stop stock falling off so leaning on it is painful. Leaning on an exhibition layout is sheer bad manners, why it might damage the static grass or fencing which should like the railway boundary! 3 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted April 20 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 20 (edited) When I went to exhibitions, as a kid, a few layouts had signs "WARNING DO NOT TOUCH 12,000 MILLI VOLTS" on them. I think they may have been produced by Triang. Edited April 20 by Siberian Snooper 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 12 hours ago, Paul H Vigor said: I had a small sign - "WARNING - Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again". Well it was an American outline layout. But I don't think I'd use such a sign now. 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Vigor Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 1 hour ago, F-UnitMad said: I had a small sign - "WARNING - Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again". Well it was an American outline layout. But I don't think I'd use such a sign now. Back in the early 1980s there was a long closed free mine in the Forest of Dean that displayed a sign reading: 'Trespassers will be prosecuted. Next of kin will be informed!' Must say, it sent a chill up my spine! 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ron Ron Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 (edited) ScrewFix is your friend.... https://www.screwfix.com/p/apollo-2-ply-steel-barbed-wire-50m/38515?tc=YB3&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwz42xBhB9EiwA48pT7zu92rhNkTCtyuZuygAbm2HQzipmwh5Mj_gl0MFI-svwLFDMIeEb6hoCuFUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds https://www.screwfix.com/p/stockshop-bx100-electric-fence-energiser-battery-powered/4858f . Edited April 20 by Ron Ron Ron 1 1 1 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium TheQ Posted April 20 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 20 Bird spikes... 😀 1 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted April 20 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 20 Punters leaning on my layout (or touching any part of it without a specific and supervised invitation to do so), is an absolute no-no. This is one reason why I am always more comfortable with barriers in front of the layout. 2 4 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium TheQ Posted April 20 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 20 (edited) More seriously I've seen these deployed (door bump springs) With a dowel plugged in where the plastic cap is about a foot long, spaced 2 ft apart, then the dowel ends roped together.. Edited April 20 by TheQ 2 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium TheQ Posted April 20 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 20 Since my layouts have radars on them... 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Vigor Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 An if all else fails: - Electric Cattle Prod! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul H Vigor Posted April 20 Share Posted April 20 41 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said: ScrewFix is your friend.... https://www.screwfix.com/p/apollo-2-ply-steel-barbed-wire-50m/38515?tc=YB3&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwz42xBhB9EiwA48pT7zu92rhNkTCtyuZuygAbm2HQzipmwh5Mj_gl0MFI-svwLFDMIeEb6hoCuFUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds https://www.screwfix.com/p/stockshop-bx100-electric-fence-energiser-battery-powered/4858f . I understand that military-grade wire has longer barbs?? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted April 20 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 20 I don't often take layouts to exhibitions (building rather than playing with trains is my thing) but when I do I do so in the knowledge that damage might take place. It might be as a result of transport, self inflicted clumsiness or unwanted audience participation. I try to be careful and I appreciate that others generally are too but damage sometimes does happen. I take the line that I go into the whole exhibiting thing knowing the risks and accepting them; after all I built the thing so I know I can repair it. I once had an an obviously autistic boy lean over a whack the controller up to full; his parents were mortified, far more bothered than I was. Nothing was broken, it was just a burst of enthusiasm in an unexpected direction. 3 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Johnster Posted April 20 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 20 Leaning and touching is one of the reasons I would find exhibiting prohibitively stressful, and don't do it. It's my railway, for me, so leave it alone and get your own... I am perhaps a little too sensitive, but notices on exhibition layouts requesting 'don't touch' or the rather precious 'these models take hours of work to build and are extremely delicate &c', inevitably on a layout featuring RTR and RTP out-of-the-box stuff, also ramp up the tension and the stress level. Exhibitions are by and large not Johnster-friendly, usually too crowded and pushy, so I go to the smaller ones and aim for Sunday lunch time when it's quiet and scarper over the pub at about half two when the post-lunch crowd starts rolling in for my own scran. Order of business; do the shopping, around the trade and 2h stands, request items to be put aside for pickup later, then the layouts, then a cup of tea, then a return to the best layouts, then pick up your purchases and hoof it over the pub. I find even this a bit stressful. There's no easy answer to the leaning/touching issue; as an exhibitor (and I did plenty back in the day) you want the punters to engage with the models but not interfere with them. Interference can come in different forms; I remember a Bridgend Model show, not just railways, back in the 80s when the layout was repeatedly hit in the legs, hard and at speed, by 1/24th and 1/16th radio (un)controlled cars, resulting in shockwaves derailing trains. One of the cars got 'accidentally' trodden on and totalled, which was what we should have done in the first place as it effectively prevented further incidents. They hit several of the punters as well, knocking a little girl over, which they seemed to find most amusing. Shoulda been outside, of course, where there was an R/C tank battle and construction site going on. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Captain Kernow Posted April 21 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 21 17 hours ago, The Johnster said: I am perhaps a little too sensitive Not at all, it is surely just good manners not to lean on or otherwise get too close to someone's personal property, even if it is at a public exhibition. I have hardly exhibited at all in the last ten years, but my tolerance of this kind of thing is going to be significantly less that it used to be, and I was pretty intolerant back then. 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Ramrig Posted April 21 RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted April 21 Try putting this on the front 😉 1 2 20 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyPenguin Posted April 21 Author Share Posted April 21 On 20/04/2024 at 14:53, Ron Ron Ron said: ScrewFix is your friend.... https://www.screwfix.com/p/apollo-2-ply-steel-barbed-wire-50m/38515?tc=YB3&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwz42xBhB9EiwA48pT7zu92rhNkTCtyuZuygAbm2HQzipmwh5Mj_gl0MFI-svwLFDMIeEb6hoCuFUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds https://www.screwfix.com/p/stockshop-bx100-electric-fence-energiser-battery-powered/4858f . If I could get away with it I would ! 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now