I went to the the Pasadena Model Railroad Clubs open house. They have one of the largest HO model railroads in the world. They're actively seeking members, by the way.
Most of the members were older men wearing vests with patches on them. They kind of looked like bikers, but without the tattoos. These were the guys I should have been hanging out with in high school. They probably went to Cal Tech and built rockets for a living. The men had a funny way of passing notes. They'd put a note on a long stick and wave it at the person it was intended for. The men in the club were wore headphones with microphones to talk to the dispatcher, so it would take a while for them to notice they had a note waiting.When I walked into the building, a big smile came to my face. There were mountains and lakes, tunnels and ports, ski slopes, forests and cities. It was amazing. The amount of detail was incredible. There was a whole bank of train operators and men stationed near the tracks to fix derailments and unexpected mishaps.
An operator named Ron gave us the inside skinny on the operation. It wasn't just trains running willy-nilly. There was meaning and purpose behind it. It was true to life and there were economic factors that needed to be considered when a train was moving from Zion to say, McSweeney. There was cargo to be delivered. The passenger trains had the right of way just like in real life. And every train had to get clearance from a dispatcher to proceed to the next destination. It wasn't quite reality, but it wasn't a dream either.
