The Home Machinist!

Now here is a subject that deserves some attention. Being in close quarters with men and machines would certainly cause some things to happen which can turn a happy meeting into a group acting like my relatives at a meal with only one serving.

you mean like a roundhouse fight?

The folks I know well and play with regularly are no problem---- we share everything with hardly a word, seeing one of them digging in my tool box is not a worry, digging in their toolboxes does not give me any twinges of conscience--- sharing coal, blowers, lighters, shovels, coupling plates, nuts and bolts, spare gauge glasses, kerosene,allen keys etc etc is part of our regular routine, but the problem comes when the fellow we do not know very well, perhaps who only comes once a year to the club, sees this and does likewise WITHOUT asking. Then we start looking at each other and asking what is going on and then all watching him like a hawk examines roadkill!! In our world you make friends first before assuming anything about the fellows around you. We are well aware that tools and accessories can accidentally go astray, for a meeting or two and then are likely to make their way " HOME" to the fellow who actually owns them and make no big issue of loosing and reacquiring items. indeed it can be a good way to confirm a friendship by ringing someone up and asking if the extra shovel you found in your coalbucket is theirs. Maybe I have been lucky, or perhaps I am rather thick skinned but I have only been annoyed a few times in many years of running models, and I am sure that the offences have always been due to haste or thoughtlessness and with neither malice nor mischief intended.Regards David Powell.

In my experience its always best to ask. Since I dont have any running equipment of my own I usually am working on others loco's. But in any event if the loco owner does not have a needed tool etc. I always ask even if its someone I know and am good friends with. Just to cover my rear and the biggie is to make sure it gets put back. In most cases the people at the meets I attend know each other but most still follow the same rule. Its all about courtesy imho.

Jason

Most of the time we have plenty of time to ask for help and wait for the response and the help. BUT when we are pulling the public there simply is not time, nor enough non driving help around to allow that. Typically the driver is also the loader and unloader at the station, so along with crowd control,child management, safety officer (NO madam you cannot ride while wearing your backpack you could fit an elephant in!!!)the driver is also fireman, water filler,coal and oil carrier etc etc. To stop everything including the next three trains waiting for station space and wait to find Fred to ask if you can borrow Fred's spare shovel which is on top of his toolbox 6 feet away because you dropped yours somewhere on the back curve is nonsensical, especially if Fred's engine has been on your bench so often it almost climbs there by itself and you go on holidays with Fred, Bert and the rsst of the gang. to visit other tracks. Certainly courtesy has its place, but this level 0f implied permission to use and borrow as needed exists only among a few regulars. A stranger taking liberties will shortly be told " Hands off"Regards David Powell.

Biggest annoyance with the steaming bays is the person who hogs the transfer table or leaves his equipment parked in the way of the through tracks.

Best practice is to always keep the main in/out tracks open, and to only get the transfer table when you are ready to use it. I have seen someone roll their engine out onto the transfer table, then proceed to make an adjustment to it that took 4 or 5 minutes to do. They could have rolled it back 15 feet, released the table for use by others, and then made their adjustment. I don't think it was malicious or anything, they were just not thinking that they might be blocking or hindering someone else.

Only other thing is the person who is really messy and leaves all their stuff scattered around. I admit that I do this sometimes, but I always try to keep my stuff put under the track so that people can easily walk through without stepping on or tripping over it.