Tough Crowd around here

[bob turner]

I apologize for posting so much, but am sort of surprised at the relative lack of enthusiasm hereabouts. I bet there are four times as many avid 2-rail O Scalers in the US than there are Piper Cub owners, but over on the Cub forum we get six posts a day. Here, two a week?

We are not alone - over on OGR the 2-rail forum is only a tad more active. I am going to violate the copyright of a guy named "Artfull Dodger" and post a couple of his photos here. He is getting zero response - If I had not been banned for life over there I would have posted a nice comment.

Herewith:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/som ... ie-indiana





The FT is one of the more accurate F-series doorstops.

[E7]

Suffering computer woes at the moment, thus a trip to the library necessary. Slow to get new ISP fired up.

Rich

[DaveJfr0]

Those look nice, though I know nothing about them to contribute to the conversation. Really should get the word out to make this place the home of the doorstop. Maybe it would attract others that are not aware of this place.


Some food for thought:
1. Do the piper cub owners have one or multiple venues to post on? 2R folks are fragmented across multiple venues. There is some special interests at place in some of those venues, which keep the discussions limited.

2. I hate shilling FB, but that is the most diverse crowd and one that continues to have dozens of posts/comments/etc a day. It's just super easy to discuss and share content there. You also get the most eyeballs on said content. If I had limited time to browse or post content, I'd want the biggest bang for my effort, so I'd most likely post only where it's busiest. That or write to a blog and post the link in 5 or 6 different places, but that gets old.

3. The technical means of posting photos here (vs the ease of FB) could dissuade people from posting here.

4. There some more psychological stuff at play as well. The MTJ stigma, the lack of posting (which is a snowball effect), etc. Things that don't necessarily help keep the flow of conversation to higher levels.

5. I'd stop comparing any 2R place to OGR at this point. Not a whole lot going on there 2R wise and hasn't been for awhile. Doesn't help when you ban or alienate all of the people that either provide wisdom or post stimulating content (both 2R and 3R). It's pretty much become a mini-Lionel complaint board (which they quickly delete since Lionel is a sponsor), "look at my new purchase", and "fix my trains" forum. The latter is really the only useful part of it for the 3R folks, IMHO. A few of those tech guys could make a few bucks going in together to create their own forum/venue and charge for their time. The biggest downside is the lack of exposure to 3R folks to help generate 2R interest. Dubious that most 3R folks seek out 2R otherwise. I heard that forum is due for big changes soon. Sounds like the paper magazine is going 100% digital, and the business strategy will increase milking their forum with stuff like pay-to-view. You gotta do what you gotta do, but it will be interesting to see how long it lasts if/when it gets to that state. Perhaps other forums will see giant increases in membership.

[bob turner]

I have a Facebook account, but was so completely turned off by the sheer garbage that appeared in my inbox thatI had to “unfriend” even family members.

I should go at this with an open mind - how do I get to the 2-rail O Scale group without opening myself up once again to photos of others’ meals, kids, and nasty politics?

Would that mean that I, too, would abandon MTJ? I do feel at home here, at least in this part of MTJ.

Yes, there are multiple light plane forums. Some are not particularly active, and participants blame Facebook. I depend on Supercub dot .org for a lot of technical solutions, J3 Cub forum for the same directly applicable to my birds, and a specialized forum for Champion lightplanes that sort of supports my Decathlon derivative of the old Aeronca.

I have saved thousands of dollars paying attention to experts and asking questions. Since I have rebuilt four Cubs and assisted in others, I can contribute as well.

Trains are just fun, but I do know my way around with a torch and an end mill. I can help now and then. But I do not miss contributing on OGR, for some reason. I like the folks there, but when I visit, lurking in the back of my head is this vision of the management . . .

[bob turner]

While lurking, I note that Dennis Holler is building an All Nation Atlantic. Five comments over the last five hours. That, I guess, is why he posts on OGR and not here. The A-N Atlantic does have possibilities - Ed Bommer did a really nice job on one, and Joe Ferraioli did one in B&O green. Both would be nice additions to Dennis' thread.

[R.K. Maroon]

There was a nice AN Atlantic in Southern colors at O Scale South this weekend. I didn't think to get a picture of it.

As to the Adams and Son FT, the one pictured above is a rivets version -- desirable but less common. I am enough of a prototype modeler though to not get excited about an FTA unless there is an FTB to go with it, as most were delivered as coupled AB sets. There were exceptions but not that many.

It appears that a lot of people read this forum but don't contribute. That's a shame but I understand it. I for one am trying to limit the time spent on any and all social media. There is not enough time to read all forums or look at all the videos on YouTube and elsewhere, much less time to post. I decided that posting here is similar to writing magazine articles. All the work is on me and most of my articles (and many of my posts here) never engender a single comment. Oh well -- As long as the "views" counter keeps going up, I'll keep posting, even if it's only every now and then.

Jim

[DaveJfr0]

I have a Facebook account, but was so completely turned off by the sheer garbage that appeared in my inbox thatI had to “unfriend” even family members.

I should go at this with an open mind - how do I get to the 2-rail O Scale group without opening myself up once again to photos of others’ meals, kids, and nasty politics?

Would that mean that I, too, would abandon MTJ? I do feel at home here, at least in this part of MTJ.

Yes, there are multiple light plane forums. Some are not particularly active, and participants blame Facebook. I depend on Supercub dot .org for a lot of technical solutions, J3 Cub forum for the same directly applicable to my birds, and a specialized forum for Champion lightplanes that sort of supports my Decathlon derivative of the old Aeronca.

I have saved thousands of dollars paying attention to experts and asking questions. Since I have rebuilt four Cubs and assisted in others, I can contribute as well.

Trains are just fun, but I do know my way around with a torch and an end mill. I can help now and then. But I do not miss contributing on OGR, for some reason. I like the folks there, but when I visit, lurking in the back of my head is this vision of the management . . .

I'm not asking for this place to wither away either, but it may do that on its own. Like most things in life, consolidation typically occurs, and people flock to where the action is at. (Like how OGR was the place to be for a long time.)

As long as you're signed into FB, this direct link should take you to the main page every time.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2railoscale

Some other FB groups that may of interest:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/271613788907918
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1423669694531548/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3Rto2R/

Now does FB itself put some other stuff sometimes into the center feed that's not from the group? Yes. You just ignore it and keep moving along. Hope to keep seeing your content, whether its here, FB, or elsewhere.

[steamaheadstephen59]

I noticed the door stop post as well, and no replies. I do go over to FB and have a look. Ive posted a couple of times. The truth is that FB moves too quickly to have a real discussion, and theres something about the format that leaves me less than excited. I must say posting pictures is supper easy. If we could only get that here on the forum!

[up148]

Ditto on commenting on doorstop threads, as it's not my bailiwick and I only know what I've learned here. It fascinates me, but to be honest, I've been losing interest in my 2R models for years.......and some of them are quite remarkable and valuable. I've been a passionate brass models collector for many decades, but always knew I enjoyed the search and acquisition as much or more than owning them. And at my age I'm done buying. I still enjoy looking at them on display, but other interests are taking precedent over my model trains.

I think the biggest reason this forum is slowing down is photo posting hassle. I communicate with Lee to inform him whenever the board goes down (like the start of this year), but he's never indicated he cares to do any more than keep it up and running.........and I'd rather have that, than nothing.....so I don't push him.

But I come to this forum every day along with the corvette forum and enjoy both very, very much. So long live MTJ!

Butch

[Dennis Holler]

While lurking, I note that Dennis Holler is building an All Nation Atlantic. Five comments over the last five hours. That, I guess, is why he posts on OGR and not here. The A-N Atlantic does have possibilities - Ed Bommer did a really nice job on one, and Joe Ferraioli did one in B&O green. Both would be nice additions to Dennis' thread.

I do both, I just hadn't gotten around to posting here. I post there so I can link the photos to here lol

I'll link em over in a little while.

Yeah I really like that FT, that nose looks great! But what the heck happened at the rear, looks like the side walls and roof were hacked off and reinstalled backwards.

And just to be clear, I am pretty reluctant to post any of my outside third rail junk over there as there seem to be a few that are a little touchy.

[Dennis Holler]

I noticed the door stop post as well, and no replies. I do go over to FB and have a look. Ive posted a couple of times. The truth is that FB moves too quickly to have a real discussion, and theres something about the format that leaves me less than excited. I must say posting pictures is supper easy. If we could only get that here on the forum!

we have a few players in that outside 3rd rail group but it is pretty slow lol.

Some of the other formal 2 rail groups seem so focused on the latest proto 48 stuff and fine detailing that it doesn't seem worth while to post anything about this old stuff.

I tend to get more response posting my doorstops to the tinplate group on FB but that is probably because quite a few of those guys are interested in a lot of different trains and the group is pretty big.

[bob turner]

The doorstops are getting significant interest on OGR. I suppose you are correct about the relative ease of posting photos, but I find photo posting here to be almost as quick.

Hi Dennis - I almost grabbed your Baldwin GG1, assuming you would not mind my violating your copyright.

Yes, it does look strange on that FT - I have a pair of those, and will post a comparison - in a minute or two.

Did you see my version of the A-N Atlantic? I shall find and post a link. Again, in a minute or two.

[Dennis Holler]

Sure Bob, no problem on the photo.I have so many I need to work on, I seem to be more in the aquisition phase than the getting them going phase. Btw, did you see the Lobaugh challenger bits that went on ebay the other day?

[bob turner]

Yes - see my post on the eBay thread. The price was not way out of line, roughly $30/axle for really good Lobaugh drivers. More than I care to pay.

I am sure you know how easy it is to use OGR as a host - just right click, select image address, put it in between the Img button, and boom:



Took five seconds, for a guy who doesn't understand Facebook.

[bob turner]

Here is the Atlantic link. I note that my conversion to a ten-wheeler didn't show up in this thread - I will look for it. The A-N Atlantic in my posts has been converted to a somewhat longer TNO style model.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=19663

Here is a repeat of the FT photo:



and my FT set:



Apparently that is exactly what happened. Maybe the real FTs were that way?