Leaning on/touching Exhibition Layouts.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

2 hours ago, Ramrig said:

Try putting this on the front 😉

 

What this requires is a picture of a beefy male nurse, ideally from the RAMC.

[GrumpyPenguin]

2 hours ago, Ramrig said:

Try putting this on the front 😉

 

Would you by any chance share a copy of that please ?

[F-UnitMad]

2 hours ago, Ramrig said:

Try putting this on the front 😉

 

Unfortunately that looks more like an Invitation.... 🤪

[Steamport Southport]

15 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

Unfortunately that looks more like an Invitation.... 🤪

 

I'm more thinking 

 

[Ramrig]

3 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

Would you by any chance share a copy of that please ?

I don’t have the original. That was a photo I took at an exhibition some time ago on my phone. Sorry. I am sure you could make one up on your laptop/ computer. 

[njee20]

If an exhibitor wants to lean on their layout that’s their prerogative. One assumes they’re doing so consciously in the knowledge that the layout is not about to buckle under their weight/fall over/get broken.
 

If a punter does it that’s beyond rude! A lot seem to do it to steady a hand while they video. Madness I tells you. 
 

same goes for all sort of things frankly. Cars, bikes, bags, food. Not yours? Don’t bloody touch it. 

[Jeremy Cumberland]

3 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

I'm more thinking 

 

I say...you've got Leslie Phillips mixed up with Terry-Thomas.

[Dagworth]

If someone leans on my layout then I reserve the right to paint the offending part of that person to match the scenery

 

Andi

[Steamport Southport]

11 minutes ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

I say...you've got Leslie Phillips mixed up with Terry-Thomas.

 

Not me old chap.

 

Nicked off that interweb thingy and couldn't find one of Sub-Lieutenant Phillips so that will do.

[kes]

I exhibit layouts in N gauge and O gauge. I have had kids picking the bushes off the front of Mickleover, watched by the mother. At one exhibition, a mother carrying a young child SAT it on the end of the fiddle yard. You can imagine my expletives !!! I also don't like having to use perspex screens but they do reduce the damage on the N gauge layouts. My pet gripe at the moment is photographers who think they have the right to insert cameras and selfie sticks all over the layout tracking trains. I had to stop one at Doncaster just before he demolished a balanced dolly signal on Badgers Bottom with his sleeve. Another one tried to put a Go pro cube camera on top of a moving train.  I don't think there are any personal limits recognised by the current generation. I am thinking of adding a wire around the edge of my layouts fed from a  10,000 volt very low amperage supply with adequate warning labels -all PAT tested of course.  Kevin.

[Suzie]

It can be a serious problem - I saw one very large chap lean all his weight up to his elbow on to a large 0-gauge layout supported on slightly fewer trestles than it should have had which dipped about six inches under his weight. I think it survived but there could have been a very nasty mess.

[snitchthebudgie]

9 hours ago, kes said:

I don't think there are any personal limits recognised by the current generation.

 

From my experience, problems with the current generation seem to be mainly from overenthusiasm.  The real troublemakers are us oldies who ought to know better, but think they can do what they like - or just can't support their own body weight!  

[009 micro modeller]

On 20/04/2024 at 12:50, Paul H Vigor said:

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!

I’ve seen a photo of that but I think it actually said ‘Trespassers will not be prosecuted. Next of kin will be informed!' (i.e. ‘you will get shot or fall down a mine, rather than the police being called’).

 

On an 009 military NG layout I used a version of this sign: 

 

(embedded link - not my photo).

[MarkC]

It's always a worry. I'm just back on the show circuit after a few years' absence. Have experienced the leaners, finger pokers and, on one memorable occasion, an <entitled person> who actually lifted up a kit built locomotive WHILST IT WAS MOVING...

 

...I fear that one or two folk in earshot that day had their vocabulary expanded, & not in a good way...

 

Mark

[009 micro modeller]

14 hours ago, Dagworth said:

If someone leans on my layout then I reserve the right to paint the offending part of that person to match the scenery

 

Andi

Do you add scatter, small trees, weathering etc. to their elbow/arm as well to increase the realism? 😂

 

On 20/04/2024 at 15:47, Neil said:

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.

Generally I agree with this, and in particular I couldn’t really get angry at a young child for trying to touch the layout to explore the textures as at very young ages it’s often how they explore the world around them, and for some children it might not be obvious what can and can’t be touched. My gripe would be with the parents if they didn’t do anything about it.

 

Last week I took my 1:12 scale/T gauge Christmas layout to an exhibition. It was very well-received by the punters, whether adults or children, as I think a lot of people can relate to it on some level. However, I did have a few instances of people trying to touch the layout, though usually children and generally only right at the front. With this particular layout though I sense that there might be a few elements that inadvertently encourage this behaviour:

 

- The subject of the layout - it’s a boy playing with a train set, complete with cat waiting to swipe the train off.

- Being a very large 1:12 scale I wonder if there’s a perception that everything is less fragile because it’s very big, though this obviously doesn’t apply to the train itself, which is tiny.

- It’s quite colourful and at a child-friendly viewing height. Because of the side walls some kids almost end up putting their whole face into the front of the 1:12 scale ‘room’ to get a better look. This is generally less annoying though than adults doing the same thing with a massive camera lens (which could whack the scenery).

 

Despite that though I had no major problems. There was one boy who kept coming back to the layout (which he said was his favourite at the show) and did try to briefly touch the layout once or twice. But he was well-supervised by a parent, obviously really liked the layout and didn’t mean any harm, and no damage actually occurred, so I can’t get too worked up about this. I was a lot more concerned about transporting the layout to the exhibition and the potential for damage there.

 

I’m much less tolerant of adults who should know better, and still lean on or poke the layouts.

Edited April 22 by 009 micro modeller

[Dagworth]

22 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

Do you add scatter, small trees, weathering etc. to their elbow/arm as well to increase the realism? 😂

Electrostatic grass! 

[Clive Mortimore]

I have cured the problem of people leaning on my layouts. Table top height, just right for kids to view without them trying to pull themselves up to see and too low for those who are older to lean on. Plus I get to sit down to operate not stand all day. 

 

Sadly at the last show I took a layout to I still had to say "Excuse me" no reaction,  "Excuse me" no reaction, "Excuse me" no reaction, "EXCUSE ME" wow he looked my direction..."I have enough problems with children picking things up". With that he put the bus back on the bridge (where all busses should be) but no apology. And that was with this as my side kick to scare bad people.

 

Dagworth considering a new home, a LNER concrete fogman's hut on the site of Five Mile House station. http://disused-stations.org.uk/f/five_mile_house/index.shtml

[birdseyecircus]

On a similar theme but not touching or leaning, I was at recent small show with a second hand sales stand next to a small depot layout with only around 18 inches between them.

I saw someone going between the two to look at items for sale at the back of the table, then turn to come out giving the depot layout a really good clout. As the layout was supported on trestles it really moved with most of the stock sliding an inch or two and a good couple of seconds for the movement to stop. 

 

Paul

[2E Sub Shed]

Mentioned in another thread,

 

I have seen a mobility scooter drive into a layout at an exhibition. Very significant movement of layout, enough to derail stock.

 

Not sure how you stop that unless you use .

 

[009 micro modeller]

3 hours ago, birdseyecircus said:

On a similar theme but not touching or leaning, I was at recent small show with a second hand sales stand next to a small depot layout with only around 18 inches between them.

I saw someone going between the two to look at items for sale at the back of the table, then turn to come out giving the depot layout a really good clout. As the layout was supported on trestles it really moved with most of the stock sliding an inch or two and a good couple of seconds for the movement to stop. 

 

Paul

I feel like the problem there could be partly solved by the organiser allowing a little bit more space between stands when planning the hall layout though.

 

1 hour ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

Mentioned in another thread,

 

I have seen a mobility scooter drive into a layout at an exhibition. Very significant movement of layout, enough to derail stock.

 

Not sure how you stop that unless you use .

 

The late John de Frayssinet, as well as building County Gate etc., was quite an advocate for improved disabled access at model railway shows and a mobility scooter user himself. I read a piece that he wrote on this subject, possibly on his own website, arguing that not all such scooters are suitable for indoor use and that ideally some lighter alternative should be provided at shows so that they don’t have to be used. Perhaps not particularly contentious in theory, but if it’s not practical for the organisers to provide something themselves  I’m not sure what the solution is. Again, would it have helped if there was more space to manoeuvre in between the various layouts and trade stands?

[GrumpyPenguin]

23 minutes ago, 009 micro modeller said:

I feel like the problem there could be partly solved by the organiser allowing a little bit more space between stands when planning the hall layout though.

Not quite that easy - exhibition venues are getting more and more expensive and space is often at a premium.

[MichaelE]

If I had touched another's personal property when I was a child, it was an automatic trip to the Loo to have my ass tanned. I was taught not to touch anything that didn't belong to me, without permission.

 

That included the grocery and department store shopping trips, relatives' houses, etc. 

 

In my experience, parents don't teach that any longer, nor are they disciplined when they do muck up someone's property with their grubby hands.

[Hibelroad]

I must say I am appalled by the incidents which have been recounted above, I would never dream of touching a layout, just like you shouldn’t touch a museum exhibit or anything in a National Trust property unless invited to do so. I can only think this is an education issue, respect for other people’s property starts at primary school and should be taught in the home. 

[Andymsa]

I wonder if this a uk problem, having just returned from the Dortmund intermodellbau most layouts you could go right up to and ppl seemed well behaved in regards to touching layouts, of course there may have been exceptions. On a different note yes they have the rucksack brigade as well. 

[TheQ]

I had a small child " feel the textures" on my layout at a club open day .. layout still under construction..

So it didn't have the perspex cover on the front of the sea...

The seaweed was made of wire, sharp points.

She didn't do that again..

 

At the Radar museum the first thing i do in a morning is go see the 1/1000 radar station dioramas I've built. About once a month someone will have prodded and broken a radar.. so far no one's stolen one...

Second thing is go look at the learn to write backwards board.. and remove any rude words or symbols.. that happens less often.

 

The biggest damage I've seen at a show was self inflicted..

The train arrived in the fiddle yard... An open frame cassette based yard. Loco and complete train hit the floor which has tiled. Cassette not in place!!

 

Edited April 22 by TheQ