Why are you here?
The opportunity to share our hobby with fellow modellers and the general public alike, engage others with the passion we channelled in creating our exhibits, perhaps even convert them to our cause? Listen closely to the typical conversation between visitor and exhibitor though and they travel along familiar lines:
‘This looks lovely, is that Peco track?’
‘How did you make the grass look so real?’
‘Is that the XXXX Class 47 / GP9 / Baldwin?’
In all the years stood behind (or even beside) layouts not once has someone asked me ‘This is a wonderful model, what has driven you to create this summery slice of Purbeck and the heath?’
Or ‘I love this locomotive, I can see a real artistry in its creation but what drove its generation as it can’t have been quick?’
So I ponder, what is the purpose of our halls of dreams if not to share in the energy and excitement of others in our diverse hobby, to understand through their hand and their words what drives them to create these miniature worlds or recreations? Perhaps it is unfair to expect this from the public, but what about our fellow modellers and enthusiasts?
What is holding us back from asking deeper questions and having better conversations with one another? We are shown how to undertake the tangible elements in magazines, books, even YouTube, yet the language used follows the same formulaic cold and, to be honest, boring formula. How many more times must we read how the Layout of the Month was laid with Flexi-track and the ballast secured by diluted PVA glue applied with a pipette… there are tiny glimmers but at best all we manage is a sentence about how the modeller remembers standing on the end of a platform as a child, or perhaps making models with their parents, even these are superficial and stumbled over quickly so we can get back to the comfort of talking about technique and materials.
I think our hobby deserves better.
If we, assuming you’re with me, want to see a change we must be the change. We, the people, must practice the craft of emotionally intelligent writing on our blogs, ask better, deeper questions when visiting others layouts and exhibitions. We must write and submit material to the popular magazines in this new voice, one that goes beyond how, one that isn’t scared to open up a little more, to go deeper, to explain the why and hence what drives us and helping others see why, as we already know, this is the greatest hobby in the world.
This is such a good question but to answer it properly would require something approaching an essay! Maybe that's why no one else has responded.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that much of the apparent reluctance to discuss motivation, rather than technique, is that motivation is deeply personal and emotional, and thus falls under the heading of things men don't usually talk about. This is particularly so with older men, whereas you have always been fairly open on your blog about issues connected to health, family, mental health, and such.
This is generalising, of course, but I suspect much of what attracts some men to spend hours at a workbench is the introspection and not having to explain yourself to others.
At a crude guess, I'd suggest motivation for modelling this rather than that comes down to varying degrees of nostalgia for youthful experiences, a sustained desire to depict a specific place at a particular period in time, and a more eclectic approach where much of the fun is challenging yourself with the unfamiliar. Some fall strongly into only one group whereas others are motivated by a combination of factors.
Although I do not disagree with your generalisations, I’m not interested in an overall explanation. Rather I think we should explode some of this ‘introspection’ for the growth of the hobby, for us all. You make some great general points, how would it feel to describe one of your own models in a more specific way? Perhaps a layout even? What drove you to choose the subject, and more than that, not just I went on holiday as a child, but what is it about the experience that has driven the creativity. Is it the smell of the fish and chips, the cries of the sea gulls, the sand in the sandwiches… or is it a later in life experience? For me part of the Canadian project is childhood, and part is the loss of my father much later, these experiences shape our creative outlet, and if people don’t want to share them that’s fine, but for me, it’s understanding others creative process and driving force that are a fascinating read, and make me question and interrogate my own drivers. Model railways as a hobby, with all our different facets, the best hobby in the world.
DeleteIt looks like I can publish now...
DeleteOn a general level, I think Colin makes an extremely pertinent point. in my work with people with Psychological issues, I find men relax when they have a meaningful job to do, and I suspect model making, which has clear rules within which you can be creative, is a good way to relax, create, and again as Colin says, not have to justify things.
That’s an interesting angle Andy. The psychological difference between male and female perhaps? It’s not a universal truth though, and I don’t think we should make excuses or explain away the current status quo, just question do we, personally want more and if so what are we willing to do about it?
DeleteThere is a difference in many ways between male and female, although they are broad tendencies and we are generally are more similar than we are different.
DeleteI don't think we need to excuse that, in fact we can celebrate and enjoy them without excluding people whose tendencies differ from the norm.
I'm not sure what you mean by "More of this?" More model making generally? more artistry rather than strict prototype adherence?
Hi James, what an interesting and thought provoking post. I follow your blog posts most weeks and always find your ideas and suggestions to be of great interest but this one really made me stop in my tracks and I've spent quite a bit of the last 24 hours pondering what you've said. As Colin has suggested, it would probably take me a lot of words to explain my modelling rationale and then only after a great deal of thought.
ReplyDeleteOn the first read through though what came to mind was when my wife brought one of her friends to have a look round our local show when I was the exhibition manager. In fact, I think it was the first exhibition that I had put together and, if I do say so myself, I had assembled an eclectic and diverse selection of layouts that showcased many aspects of our hobby. Now my wife is quite a deep and thoughtful person, fascinated by 'people', the workings of the human mind and what makes people tick. She is though quite a private person and not one to engage in mindless chit-chat. The friend that she brought along that day, probably for moral support in a hall full of railway modellers, is equally interested in people but much more forthcoming in social situations. I thought that they would pop in for twenty minutes, have a quick wander round, have a cup of tea and a piece of cake and leave ...bish, bash, bosh! No, not at all. For two hours or more they worked their way round the dozen or so layouts, engaging with the exhibitors and asking all sorts of questions along the very lines of what you were suggesting. "Why did you build a layout set in Ireland/ the USA/ Germany/ the 1930s?", "Do you speak German? Really, how long did you live there?" "So you made this yourself, from brass, have you always been a good metal worker?", "So you're married, what does your wife think about your hobby?" and so it went on, questions that it would never have occurred to me to ask.
I'm now giving serious thought to your comments. I contribute the occasional article to one of our popular magazines, perhaps I should look at that formula and try to break the mould with the next one?
Thank you James, keep up the good work.
Patrick
I’m really happy that this post is generating such thought provoked conversation and reflection. Your anecdote is fascinating Pat, I think we, the probably male majority, are missing out by not engaging in the hobby in a complete manner. Perhaps by even opening up a little like this we’ll find it uncomfortable but rewarding and that loop will get easier in time. I’d love to think this approach does expand beyond this blog post into our writing and articles and conversations beyond, if I can help let me know!
DeleteI’ve had a few emails from people hoping to comment but not able to log in and I think I’ve a solution. Anyone struggling should check if their browser has ‘block cross site tracking’ enabled as this seems to cause a problem and was rolled out by Apple in their Safari updates late last year. I’m not sure if it’s now a standard setting in other browsers. Turning it off will mean you can log in to your Google account to post comments here (this keeps spam to a minimum for me!) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi James
ReplyDeleteI was one of the " unable to post" but seem to have found a way. If you can use any of my e-mail that would be good
Alan
Alan, great to see you’ve managed to post. Happy for you to ‘copy and paste’ your email into a comment, however if I do it, of course it will have my name on.
DeleteHi James
ReplyDeleteI was taken with you post “Why are you here”. I do think I have asked at an exhibition what made you chose the subject of your layout on a several occasions. However often the exhibitor and the other “punters” seem more interested in the choice of hardware or techniques. As somebody else said perhaps in a male dominated hobby it’s not the thing to do. I am more, like you, interested in the reasons for a choice and how the exhibitor reproduced the atmosphere of their chosen prototype ( even if I the layout is freelanced). For me a model is like a painting where you can leave things out but still give the essence of the subject. Locos and rolling stock are the important characters but the stage even without the characters should say where you are. I am sure I fail in many respects but that’s what I try to achieve. However too often it seems there is no atmosphere just “stuff” however beautifully modelled the “stuff” is. There is also a tendency especially in narrow gauge and/or maybe US/European prototype layouts to model “models” rather than looking at the real thing even in photographs which tends to distort what is modelled. I do not see this in your modelling and that is why I will be happy to work with you on Puerto Bello
Best regards
Alan
That statement ‘a layout is like a painting’ is exactly my view too Alan, and yes, I’m interested in how the artist took inspiration from a prototype to create the model, and on top of that, the motivation specifically behind that particular model.
Delete"What you do turns me on and I don't know how to tell you" always feels like my experience. There's this wiring deep inside me that attracts me to model trains or real trains. I'm using an "or" there because I think the interest is one independent of the other. We tend to perpetuate this sense that the models only exist to serve our desire to play with real trains, but can't, so instead build this as a concession prize until we can have what we really wanted.
ReplyDeleteOur popular media lauds the many craft skills any one of us can practice because we're building a model railway from metal or wood work through to painting or composition but seldom interrogate the very motivation that causes us to practice these skills here, this way. Our vocabulary seems to completely lack the ability to express why we want to do this things using model trains as our medium. Is our motivation simply to create a domain in which an intoxication on nostalgia is the only rule or a place where we can use what we're creating to help us understand a facet of the real world we can't otherwise relate?
Here, we host public train shows always to "promote the hobby to the public" and I always wonder why we do this? Not "why at all" but how is how we do it sparking that connection and what is our desired outcome. Most people know this hobby exists so that can't be it. Because there's model trains on offer the invitation to attend a show is an easy sell but there's always that awkwardness waiting inside the room. How can we evolve our sense of language so when we describe our work it's a more honest representation of our motivation? Not why am I doing this in broad terms but why did I choose to do this, this way? What about what I've done represents my curiousity to explore this muse in this format? Those are real art questions that guide creative work through a variety of media while the artist explores their relationship with their motivation. That education expands to the audience in equal quantity. How can I become comfortable learning to ask questions that expose my own motivations without dominating the conversation? To express my interest in the spirit of what we share in common.
We're encouraged to practice this hobby as solo "lone wolf" modellers and is this another of those conflicts we could navigate? We are ashamed of being portrayed as doing something frivolous with our time and wasteful of resources to the general public so we insulate our vulnerability with an armour of dedication to prototype replication and accuracy, some sort of contrived sense of historical or archival relevance, really anything that drives the conversation away from a joy we derive in seeing these small models doing things that spark our imaginations and calm our hands. This identity is one we forge from within the hobby no matter how much we think it's an identity cast on us from some external body. We've perpetuated it for so long is this too part of what causes that boring, disconnected, series of questions. We're standing there, looking at some truly beautiful layout like your East Works, our hobby's own Romeo and Juliette, and our questions describe the weather.
"Looks like rain. Is that flex track?"
I'm so grateful you're asking this question. I've really enjoyed reading everyone's replies here. This is a huge topic of conversation and I'm so glad to see it happening.
Apologies for my wandering text. Certain symptoms of enthusiasm overtaking good editing.
Chris
Romeo and Juliette, that’s poetry right there, so emotionally and intelligently expressed… our conversations often spark these posts, this one no exception, so I’m so happy to read your views here.
DeleteI wonder, the few of us who have commented are sharing openly, but hundreds of people have read this and not offered a view? How can we encourage the conversation amongst those slightly anxious or nervous of sharing like this…
I've wondered about this on a personal level, and I suspect it's different for different people. I've realised that whatever I do it seems to come down to Storytelling; everything I do seems to be telling a story, including building a model. My main project at the moment is a story about what could have happened if some towns in the Black Forest retained a Narrow Gauge Railway in a similar way to some Swiss lines, but on a more localised scale; how would it fit into the German culture and local transport networks? how could it run trains, and what sort of freight traffic would be feasible? What sort of locomotives and rolling stock would it have?
ReplyDeleteBecause of this my models tend to be more "artists impressions" than "accurate" models; the question is always "does this fit the story?" and it applies to everything from choice of scale (1:55, so I can make a reasonable representation of metre gauge and largish prototypes with HO mechanisms) to types of rolling stock, which details to include, and even colours.
Nostalgia is less of a factor, although German speakers would be able to translate the name of the project as a location in the UK I spent a lot of time watching trains as a child...
So what sort of questions would encourage you to share that more widely? Do you feel your own blog gets this emotional connection over to the reader? How effective is it do you think?
DeleteI think your own blog is very well written and has a personal and conversational style that is open, honest and much more than I cut this and stuck it with that. I hope your writing encourages others too, I enjoy reading it.
I'd hesitate to "share more widely" until I have the story in model form; that is the point after all. I also think people will be more willing to read about it in the model making press, for example, when I've got something solid that I've achieved. I've written a bit for the 5.5mm society newsletter but as yet I don't have much to say to a wider audience.
DeleteThanks for your comments on my blog. I'm glad it comes over as you describe, because that's my goal. I want it to be a story of learning and creating that's entertaining for people who aren't necessarily interested in model making, so it tends to focus on success and failure rather than prototype detail...
I can't believe the debate I've just had on a garden rail scale society page. Someone was literally arguing that if exhibiters just want to play trains at a show they shouldn't be expected to engage with the paying audience,
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that this topic is getting people thinking, even arguing, because that means it has meant something. The fact you even started that conversation is important, even if the audience (and I don't think Facebook is a great forum for that sort of debate as it usually sees terse short 'off the cuff' replies - although I notice, not entirely in this case) don't get it, it's a start. Wheras I think here I'm advocating we engage at a deeper level, rather than engaging more per se, you seem to be asking how can we encourage more engagement full stop? I do think that if you don't want to talk, and you're exhibiting, then unless you've a condition that makes it difficult for you, that it is part of the same thing, sharing your hobby in public means engaging positively with the public. That doesn't mean long conversations, a polite hello can be enough to have that shared feeling of 'I'm all right here'. It can also garner a question, or kind comment that perhaps will lead to more. The other thing to note is that I'm suggesting this is between modellers and not the public, as I think is your point on the Facebook group too, and that I would have imagined, would garner a more positive and welcoming approach. The fact you say you'd like more, but find it awkward, to me is a brave thing to do - and I would, now knowing that, encourage a conversation if we met along your terms. It is difficult, we find our own ways of coping with life, and being shy isn't something to be made fun of or glossed over, but whereas I've learnt through my career, to take the first step and say hello (even though inside I'm such a shy person) I don't always recognise the same challenge in others. Thank you for taking a step forwards James, thank you for sharing my post more widely and thank you for being honest about it.
DeleteAll that said, I'd love to hear more from you about your modelling. Do I recall you have a blog? Perhaps writing is a good place to start?
Maybe the difference is how people see the medium of exhibitions specifically.
DeleteThere are similar differences in Theatre where some presentations barely acknowledge the audience, and others rely on the interaction to move the action along.
The person above maybe appreciates being able to meet people they trust and this is their opportunity, whereas if I would work in an exhibition, I'd probably design an interactive storytelling stage with the trains as "characters" and storytellers with costumes running little 5 minute shows explaining about some aspect of railway history, or just telling a story.
Unfortunately, even if a show manager booked this, we'd probably be beaten up be the exhibitory along side us having to listen to the same shows for the fifteenth time while trying to explain how they made track to an interested onlooker
Andy this still missed the point of what I was saying to me, what I’m asking people to do is to explain why they do what they do… nothing more or less, and do that in a personal way, either through exhibition or written in a magazine article or just the way they write a blog on their website.
DeleteI’m not expecting a wholesale change, I’m not asking people to explain or justify their view on this subject, just if they agree with me, to get involved and try it.
It is complex. We have a diverse audience with different needs. Why do i model? To recreate a nostalgic Adlestrop moment than never really existed and because I like problem solving at a manageable scale, in all senses of the word. That has never changed
DeleteWhy do I go to exhibitions? I think that has changed. I make more use of the specialist traders than I used to, and you often need face to face contact for that, I certainly go for inspiration and cross fertilization. I'll probably never build a American N gauge layout, but I can learn from those that do. In the past I often went just to see specific layouts. Finally there is the advice side of things. I couldn't build an EM gauge point without the advice I got at Warley one year, for example.
What I don't go for is the social side of things, except perhaps for the 16mm show. Or the cake. But a good bacon butty helps
How do we share this more widely, rather than just with like minded souls in my echo chamber of a blog post?
DeleteWell we tried that a few years ago in the 16mm world, driven by Ian Stock . It is fair to say we got a lot of criticism, though it doesn't seem to have ended up influencing the manufacturers.
DeleteIn my day job we can be quite harsh about it. But it only really happens if there is a "burning bridge" that makes change inevitable.
And then again, does it matter? If X wants to salivate over their out of the box Hornby loco running round 12" radius curves should we not let them continue to play trains?
What we can do is allow the generations after us to change the game. I grew up with horrendous whitemetal kits. If you put one together, somehow, and brush painted it, you thought you were a real modeler. The sad thing is that attitude stays with you for the rest of your life.
I consider myself the next generation, and this sounds very gloomy, but it won’t dishearten me from trying. I’ve blazed my own path in the hobby for 40 odd years, and I’m sure I shall continue to do so, if I can encourage and inspire, enthuse and engage along the way even better…
DeleteIf that means putting a magazine to print I’m up for that challenge too…
Sorry, meant to say it DID end up influencing the manufacturers. We went from Roundhouse scale via rubber scale to some incredible models now available.
DeletePeople have always done that, look at John Ahern for example.Again I'm going in to day job mode but our role is to advise when advice is asked for, and to slowly let go of the controls We can inspire, enthuse and teach but we can't dictate.
DeleteMind you, if I see one more 70s/80s MPD layout I might take a sledgehammer to it!
If we only advise when it’s asked for, then there is nothing to aspire towards. We must surely share our own thoughts and modelling output in a widely available format?
DeleteI love this conversation.
We need to advise in the right way, rather than preaching. We (well some of you) inspire by example and demonstrating the art of the possible, which hopefully drives aspirations.
DeleteGoing back to our email conversation there is also something about helping people strive to do the best they can. I know the limits of my own skills, but I try and make the best use of them.