Re: Today's Pet Peeve - Use of Tables at Train Shows

[Bill Lohman <844bill@gmail.com>]

As a relatively new member of the club, I didn't think there would be anything wrong with bringing my own much smaller white foldable table.  It cost me an extra two way 100 yards trip during setup and teardown to do so. 

 

This table is about a third the of size of those that are usually provided.  I brought it for my personal use so I could more efficiently and safely unpack, run and repack my trains.  I planned to use it only if there was clearly room for it  - which there was.  And I took care to place it in a manner that didn't interfere with others.  This effectively freed up space for others on the Convention-provided tables.

 

 It's easy to see in retrospect that other club members might not have realized this was my own table -- and that is was indirectly benefitting everyone by providing extra tabletop space on the convention provided tables and in a non-interfering manner.

 

I guess I could have taken the extra step and repacked and unpacked my trains and let others use my table. But, I don't have commercial boxes for my passenger cars and so unpacking and repacking is a real lengthy process that can and has led to damage   I have a lot of trains with small, fragile details.  That's why I brought the table.

 

I'd appreciate feedback from the Board as to whether or not it is acceptable for me and other members to bring a small table to future events for our personal use, -- as long as there's room inside the layout and as long as it doesn't interfere with other club members's activities. 

 

My apologies to anyone who didn't understand what I was doing and therefore took offense.  In the final analysis I feel I took up zero common space on the provided tables and did so in a non-interfering manner.  Talk about a great benefit for my fellow club members l!!!

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 3:55 PM, Ira Schneider <ira_schneider@iname.com> wrote:

Hi,

For those of you who have been around for a while, you know I occasionally sound off
about my latest pet peeve.  It has been a while, so here is today's rant and rave.

We generally have a few tables inside our layout at a train show.  These tables
are for all members to share.  We normally use them to stage trains on and off
the layout.  Members will unpack their trains on the table so they can put them
onto a track.  When a member is finished running a train, he will take his
trains of fthe layout and put them on a table while he is packing them up for
storage.  This normally only takes a few minutes.  Members usually store their
trains under the layout or under the tables, out of the way of the other members.

In my opinion, it is rather unfair for a member to monopolize one or more tables
all day to store his trains.  At the show this past weekend, one member had
one table entirely full of train cars and a second table half full of boxed trains
for a portion of Saturday and all day on Sunday.  I feel this is inconsiderate
behavior.  We have to share these tables.  Trains should be stored under
the tables or the layout, not on top of the tables.

Also, even though it didn't happen at this show, members sometimes leave
trains on the tracks (especially on the sidings) over night, intending to use
them early the next morning.  Again, if the member doesn't get to the show
bright and early the next morning, we have a track (or a siding) which
contains trains which the members who are there have to remove to be
able to use these tracks.  In my opinion, this is also behavior which we
should discourrage.

We have limited resources (i.e. tracks, table space, etc.) and we have to
share them among all of the members.

Please keep this in mind for future shows.  (The opinions stated above are my
personal opinions, not club policy.)

Thanks for listening to my rantings.


Ira


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