Another stereotypical portrayal...or is it?

[Torn-on-the-platform]

Watched the show. I don't think its a particularly negative portrayal. Other than his literacy difficulties he seems to be a pretty normal bloke who's had a difficult life. Its not like they have portrayed him as a loner. He's capable of banter with his mate, he's got a nice house and he's got a wife and a daughter.

 

I feel the press do patronise railway enthusiasts a bit, but its the same with any hobby really. They sometimes get the facts wrong, or emphasise the wrong points, for example the telegraph recently described the Flying Scotsman as a 'Pacific class' - some correct information, but they've still got it wrong! We're anoraks to them, and that's not going to change. But I can imagine most of the initial comments on here at least were written without actually watching the show, so I would suggest you do watch it before making any sweeping statements about the BBC.

 

I personally do worry about what others think of me far more than I should do. It applies to my hobby to, but in my rational moments I just think 'If they are going to judge me for this, they aren't worth knowing'. Having said this, I'm finding it very hard to justify spending £30 on 6 small wheels at Ally Pally... even to myself!

 

I get the most stick from people that don't know me very well. This will often make me feel they aren't worth getting to know any better, but the times it has happened, the stick has stopped when they've come to understand that I'm still a normal, functioning person.

[bluebottle]

Oh, and this thread hasn't (I think) yet mentioned Rod Stewart, rock star and darling of millions, whose very fine modelling skills continue to be honed in his hotel suite when he's on tour.

 

A certain Guardian columnist, writing in his usual priggish style, was contemptuous that Rod Stewart had his own private football pitch and a huge model railroad: "... his pleasures are childish...". But then, he was snooty about Stewart's music anyway, and shared the bad habit typical of some journalists of using one aspect of an individual's persona to denigrate another.

[Poggy1165]

The problem is - we are a small minority. And within that small minority, there are quite a few who are 'odd' in some way or other. 'Odd' can actually be a badge of honour - all the great scientists, writers, artists, composers - you name it - were distinctly odd. But 'odd' is rarely popular, and tends to be associated in the media with those who are 'loners' or 'sad', or actually a danger to others.

 

How to be normal - shave your head; put on a football shirt designed for a young athlete even though you may have seven beer bellies; sit on the couch drinking cheap canned lager; obsess about 22 men kicking a ball about a muddy pitch to the point where you actively hate anyone who supports a rival team; read the Sun, and get your opinions from it; never own a book unless it's a rent book; dream about the seven cars you will own when you win the National Lottery next week. That is roughly 'normal', at least in England.

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

There is no such thing as 'normal', even to yourself if you are troubled by it; thus if you are an unhappy railway modeller, doing it to impress others rather than for yourself then you are not being 'normal'.

 

'Normal' is a state of mind within yourself not a measure applied by you to others or by them to you. The beauty of this forum and others like it is that all modelling activity is 'normal' on here.

 

As to obsession, there is a difference between wanting to apply skill to a task that results in reward to the psyche and wanting to focus on something to the exclusion of all else. I suppose by the law of averages there must be some on here who are obsessed with railway modelling but I have yet to spot one.

 

I think that many men are accused of being obsessed with one thing or another ( I certainly have and always by women! ) and our pictured football nut could equally be accused of obsession with football. It is when the comparisons start that we run into trouble. How about a football nut who wears his teams away strip when he goes to a railway exhibition. So which is he obsessed with on that day? What about when he goes to work and his mates talk about football and he joins in? Nobody talks about model railways because that group of men don't indulge that hobby except for our guy. Perhaps he only runs football specials on his layout and spends hours, days even, researching which locos were used on that important cup tie in 19XX. Perhaps he know a lot about that....more than you do perchance.

[Black Sheep]

A certain Guardian columnist, writing in his usual priggish style, was contemptuous that Rod Stewart had his own private football pitch and a huge model railroad: "... his pleasures are childish...". But then, he was snooty about Stewart's music anyway, and shared the bad habit typical of some journalists of using one aspect of an individual's persona to denigrate another.

 

just jelous that he doesn't have the money or space for his own layout I'd assume

[steve1]

I'd be very doubtful that someone could build any sort of layout if they couldn't read...

 

steve

[Tony_S]

I'd be very doubtful that someone could build any sort of layout if they couldn't read...

 

steve

My Uncle Robert managed to build all kinds of things before he learned to read in middle age. I suspect that non readers use all sort of strategies to deal with it.

[coachmann]

I'd be very doubtful that someone could build any sort of layout if they couldn't read...

 

 

Reading not a necessity. How many people build up flat packs without the bother of weard instructions. Many electrical goods come with a 70 page manual these days with advice that one reads it beforehand. Never bothered in me life, but i do read it several weeks later, as by that time I actualy understand what the manual is trying to tell me!

[Guest Natalie Graham]

I don't care if the general public see me as loner with social issues. I avoid having anything to do with the general public anyway.

[coachmann]

I thought social issues were drug abuse, violent crime, teenage delinquency, family breakdown, welfare dependency, poor urban environments, educational failure, poverty, the loss of traditional values, teenage pregnancy, dysfunctional families, binge drinking, children who kill: all have been cited as proof that we have a broken society.

 

Hardly the description of a 'railway enthusiast'...

[Claude_Dreyfus]

A certain Guardian columnist, writing in his usual priggish style, was contemptuous that Rod Stewart had his own private football pitch and a huge model railroad

 

I'm suprised that a journalist working for The Grauniad can even spell Rod Stewart!

 

Not that I am stereotyping, or perpetuating an outdated perception of course...

 

Talking about perceptions...part of it is because railways are not very popular in this country. So much media bashing has resulted in the general perception of trains in the UK being very low (although the Government and railways themselves have not helped here). In this situation, someone who expresses an interest in them will be considered odd. Even more so if it is modern railways...at least steam fans can get away with being 'nostalgic'...in the general sense and neglecting the fact that diesel/electric traction has been in widespread use in the country for over 50 years.

 

There is also laziness in attitudes. When people hear I like railways, I am immediately a 'train spotter' - even though I have not taken a number in 20-odd years. I think nowadays society needs to feel better than someone else, be it in social standing, financial clout or appearence. Interests that do not fit to conformity, or this norm, are seen as odd and something to be looked down upon or mocked.

 

In other countries - such as Japan - they do have some pride in their railway system. Net result; plenty of rail fans, and a huge model railway market...and a far more understanding general population. The again...railways are probably a lesser of a number of evils in a country noted for its obsessiveness..

[jcm@gwr]

Rod Stewart ? He's some old bloke my Nan used to like wasn't he

 

Wake me up when Dappy from N-Dubz shows off his P4 layout.

I don't believe Dippy could even spell P4!

Did you not see him when he was on Buzzcocks, that showed him up

for what he is and what he represents. I doubt if his IQ reaches the

above mentioned number.

Jeff

[Guest]

Did you not see him when he was on Buzzcocks, that showed him up

for what he is and what he represents

I saw Jedward on Buzzcocks the other day and Jack Dee described them as 'making Dappy look like Stephen Fry'

[DDolfelin]

There were some decidedly odd folk on a Steam Railway in India on TV last evening.

Unless it's just me.

[Revolution Ben]

I watched the drama and thought it was really good, tbh. Mind you, the incomparable Julie Graham helped!

 

The loft layout was an important part of the plot and it was where she took the illiterate central character to learn to read because it was somewhere he felt comfortable. And when she first saw it, she was impressed that he had built it all.

 

Nothing negative or patronising about it at all IMO.

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[jcm@gwr]

I saw Jedward on Buzzcocks the other day and Jack Dee described them as 'making Dappy look like Stephen Fry'

Yes, I saw that and you're right, amazingly there are people that are worse than 'Dippy'.

Both in dress sense and IQ!

Jeff

[MJI]

There are all sorts.

 

I remember a few years after school while job hunting in mid 80s a lad from school (quite thick and younger than me) coming up to me in a squeaky voice (about 20 or so and voice not broken) just say "Did you know the Deltics have been withdrawn". I reckon it was 1983 or 84!

 

At school the railway enthusiasts were 3/4 bright kids and a few thickos to put it mildy.

 

I do know the difference between thick, uneducated, and mental issues as one of my friends was not bright but very well read, not thick, and good company, also a very hard worker, our other friend in that group was intelligent, but suffered with depression. None of them were into modelling but they never knocked it as they thought it a constructive hobby, and one of them loved his built kit of a Lotus 7 as No 6s car.

 

But everyone can be obsessive.

[Horsetan]

..... someone mentioned a layout by a Col R.J.Hoare. Who? How many men of that name and rank can there be in that era? To me, Ronnie Hoare (no, of course I never met him) was the founder of Maranello Concessionaires, the British Ferrari importer, and a key entrant in top sportscar races of the era. You could hardly call that under-achieving, yet he apparently had a notable O gauge layout.....

 

Isn't he the one whose initials were behind "RJH", manufacturers of "O"-gauge modern image diesel loco kits?

[coachmann]

The infamous Colonel Hoare was one of the characters of the model railway world. I'm sure it was him who wrote to the 'Modeller' saying the LNWR Directors must have been a lily-livered lot to let Webb produce so many dud compounds. And Cyril F. responded by saying he wasn't going to let him get away with that! All the fun of the 60's.

[Ravenser]

Isn't he the one whose initials were behind "RJH", manufacturers of "O"-gauge modern image diesel loco kits?

 

Yes. The layout was Bromford & High Peak

[Horsetan]

The infamous Colonel Hoare was one of the characters of the model railway world. I'm sure it was him who wrote to the 'Modeller' saying the LNWR Directors must have been a lily-livered lot to let Webb produce so many dud compounds. And Cyril F. responded by saying he wasn't going to let him get away with that! All the fun of the 60's.

 

Someone will write a play about this one day. I've got a great idea for a title. It could be called "'tis Pity He's a Hoare".....