I don’t get on social media much, or at least I try to avoid it most of the time.
I just think that there are too many fake products or scammers that use social media’s platforms, and the platforms don’t do nearly enough to protect against them.
The few times I do get on social media is to drop in on a few online clubs I am a part of. Sometimes, I pick up ideas, and once in a while I learn new tricks for the model railroad. There are other times when someone asks a question because they are stuck and looking for a solution, and I can actually help. This brings me to the point of this post.
When modelers (either new to the hobby or re-getting to know the hobby after years of being away) ask a question because it is a new technology or they are just trying to learn, many times I read snarky responses to those questions as if they should already know the answer.
When I read some of their responses, I feel my anger start to creep up. I’ve been modeling railroads for a long time now, and I know many quick and easy ways to get the results I’m looking for. Some of the questions I read come from those who are mostly just starting or don’t have the years of knowledge behind them. Giving them a snarky response to their question really angers me. Just because it might be common knowledge for me, to a new person starting out, it’s not common. They wouldn’t have asked if they knew the answer.
I know there are all kinds of people in the world, and not all of them are nice. I would like to think that in model railroading, the men and women involved are kind enough, understanding, and want to help others to keep the hobby moving forward. These snarky responses are nothing but detrimental to the hobby.
I can look back and remember when I first started my first layout. I had no idea what I was doing and had no clue where it was going to take me. All I wanted to do was have a nice little layout and run some trains. If I ran into a problem I couldn’t figure out, I tried to find help.
Back when I started model railroading, there was no internet, no social media, and railroad clubs didn’t want people under 21 to join or wouldn’t let them. So the only place I really could go for answers was to a hobby store. Even then, most of the time yielded no results because the workers knew less than I did about model railroading.
On the rare occasions I could find someone with knowledge, my question was looked upon as dumb, because that person thought I should have already known the answer. So, I learned model railroading by trial and error (more errors than trials), but I slowly moved along and learned.
This is one of the reasons I started this post, to help anyone who reads this and maybe provide them with a solution to a problem. My solutions or suggestions are by no means the only way a problem can be solved, but at least they get you thinking in the right direction.
There is no such thing as a dumb question if you don’t know or understand something. I detest anyone who belittles a simple question.
I have seen many great changes in model railroading over the years, especially in electronics. I try to embrace the changes, and even though there are new techniques, some of the “old ways” still produce the best results.
So please, if you have been in the hobby for a while, give the new people who are starting out a helping hand when they have a question. Just because it’s common knowledge to you doesn’t mean it’s common to them.
Happy Railroading!