Railway modelling diorama destroyed by mindless vandals

[DeanKB]

1 hour ago, Markjames1968 said:

Ignore this https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Tow RagAND MY PLEASURE

You are relying upon Urban Dictionary to support your rather insubstantial case?

 

It's a crowd-sourced website. They decide to publish only those articles that have sufficient votes. In other words, there is no quality control, nor factual basis, required. The only attribute required is that it's popular with the - mainly - 14 to 24 year old male readership.

 

It's akin to saying President Trump said something so, ipso facto, it must be true - when, in reality, Mexico is not actually  paying for the completely non existent wall.l

 

Half of the entries in urban dictionary are just made up, purely for entertainment purposes. For example "tow rag" has multiple listings.

 

You are digging that hole deeper & deeper. I hope you've got a ladder.

[DeanKB]

8 minutes ago, AlanG said:

Just to add another prospective. I totally believe Dean is right that for the most part, poverty makes falling into a life of crime an easier option, not inevitable, but easier. Lack of good role models and the ability to have a place where you feel safe enough to vent your frustrations/worries to are essential. With the cuts in funding for youth services and such it's only going to be a problem that gets worse imho.

 

I come from a respectable family and was taught right from wrong and yet because of a few serious incidents in my life i went 'off the rails' (no pun intended) and resorted to petty vandalism and self harm. Yes i am from a different generation to these kids but the same issues can still be around these days.

 

I am in no way defending these idiots but i will say that there may be other factors at play rather than they just wanted a laugh.

 

That said i hope the modellers involved some closure and get the chance to replace their prized builds. The law will deal with the young lads, rightly or wrongly depending on you viewpoint. 

That's exactly what I meant!

 

I was brought up in abject poverty, the details of which you wouldn't believe. Throughout my life, I was - to not put too fine a point on it - surrounded by criminals & ne'er do goods, with a succession of step father's of questionable ethical standards.

 

Many of my contemporaries ended up in jail, addicted to drugs & alcohol, prostitution, following a life of petty crime, unemployment or death via suicide.

 

Not many of us managed to escape that existence. Not many of us knew how to, or were equipped to do so.

 

So, when I see stories like the vandalism of the railway model club, I often wonder how close I came to a life like that. 

 

It's no conicidence that your life chances are increased markedly if you have a stable, loving family, a decent education, a reasonable amount of money, a good home, parents who take an interest in you, and are surrounded by people who work for a living and encourage you to do similarly.

 

A substantial number of people experience none of this, which many take for granted. Almost by osmosis, they follow the path of their parents and contemporaries. Many, like me, avoid doing so - but statistically, people brought up like this tend to populate prisons in far greater proportion than chance should dictate.

[CATCplSlade]

Still doesn't absolve them of personal responsibility. 

[AlanG]

38 minutes ago, CATCplSlade said:

Still doesn't absolve them of personal responsibility. 

 

I don't think anyone here has said it does. I have learned to take personal responsibility for my past actions. At first i didn't care but as i grew older i found that i needed to  and now i pass those same core values that my parents did to me and hope my children don't make the same mistakes i did.

Edited May 22, 2019 by AlanG

[BiggTim]

Here we go again. 

[Out2gtcha]

Indeed. Guys, this thread was/is about what happened at the train show and the good news of them raising a lot of funds to fix it.

It really does not need to turn into a social commentary on punishment and how it gets applied or not........

 

Let's keep this one on the straight and narrow boys. 

 

[blackbetty]

my wife is working as a therapist and psychatric nurse and is confonted with all kinds of abuse. you wouldnt believe how high the percentage of kids is that have to go through this. its not only poverty, some of the young minds are just cruely distroyed - and this shows in later life. therapy is the only way to get out, its not always a matter of chioce what you get into.

....and i do not defend what these idiots did. i would sentence them to a day in the week where they would have to help rebuild the model railway, as long as it may take - maybe the hobby grows on them....

Edited May 23, 2019 by blackbetty

[Radub]

The most obvious "measurement" to gauge the daftness of using "disadvantage" and "class" as an explanation or excuse for this incident is that we actually do not know anything about the background of these kids. Everyone took the idea that these kids belonged to a certain category of society and ran with it. What if they turned out to be "posh"? What? Privileged people don't do stupid stuff? Only lower class kids are jerks? 

They are idiots who chose to invest effort and time into doing something stupid. 

Radu

[LSP_Ray]

Well said, Radu. In many instances the factor isn't class but simply boredom. Sad to see unthinking people trash someone else's hours and hours of work. Not the first time I have seen that. Similar to the boy scout leaders toppling one of the natural stacked stones in a park in Utah. Probably took thousands of years to form and stood there for hundreds, than a couple of idiots take minutes to knock it over. 

[GrahamF]

What this incident has done however is chip away a little bit of the negative stigma that model makers occasionally suffer in the UK [ no other country seems to have this problem ]

that it's a square or boring hobby by people who are deficient  socially in someway.

With Sir Rod Stewart donating £10,000 to the club as he is a very talented Railway modeller himself who models the American scene it will in the end make more people think about 

the hobby and the wide range of people who enjoy it.

 

Graham

[Out2gtcha]

1 hour ago, GrahamF said:

What this incident has done however is chip away a little bit of the negative stigma that model makers occasionally suffer in the UK [ no other country seems to have this problem ] that it's a square or boring hobby by people who are deficient  socially in someway.

 

 

That seems an unfortunate stereotype.  I would say that the majority of us are "nerds" so to speak in our own right, but are generally just very detail oriented folks who enjoy very specific things like trains or planes or automobiles.

 

 

 

[DeanKB]

18 hours ago, LSP_Ray said:

Well said, Radu. In many instances the factor isn't class but simply boredom. Sad to see unthinking people trash someone else's hours and hours of work. Not the first time I have seen that. Similar to the boy scout leaders toppling one of the natural stacked stones in a park in Utah. Probably took thousands of years to form and stood there for hundreds, than a couple of idiots take minutes to knock it over. 

Hang on - a Mod requests that we move the discussion back to modelling, then another Mod, no less, keeps it going?!

 

I don't understand?

[LSP_Ray]

Don't worry, that was my one and only post on the subject. And yes, we should focus on modeling, and this whole subject is really off-topic. 

[Radub]

I deleted my post.

Radu

Edited May 24, 2019 by Radub

[DeanKB]

4 hours ago, GrahamF said:

What this incident has done however is chip away a little bit of the negative stigma that model makers occasionally suffer in the UK [ no other country seems to have this problem ]

that it's a square or boring hobby by people who are deficient  socially in someway.

With Sir Rod Stewart donating £10,000 to the club as he is a very talented Railway modeller himself who models the American scene it will in the end make more people think about 

the hobby and the wide range of people who enjoy it.

 

Graham

I think there is some truth in it.

 

You only have to visit a model show and there are some people who mill around, desperately avoiding eye contact, plastic carrier bag in hand, with sensible coat and shoes and a packed lunch, who pop from stall to stall, offering completely uncalled for criticism, telling everybody who will listen that the 1944 Spitfire Mk. XVI did, in fact, have a slightly narrower cord propellor, and the wheel wells should be a lighter shade of green, and the tyre treads are wrong, before moving onto to his next victim. It's always a him. Always.

 

Like me.