Cue the Rage

— Reproduced from March 2023 Railroad Model Craftsman. ©2023 White River Productions. Used with permission. To subscribe to RMC, click here. Click here to see the rest of the March issue, click here

Back in the February 2022 (Diverging Points, Railroad Model Craftsman) issue I discussed the nastiness of some of the emails that Rapido — and other model train manufacturers — occasionally receive from customers. I encouraged readers who get all steamed up over a perceived mistake on a model to just wait five minutes before sending that email... a little civility and politeness go a long way. We’re always open to constructive criticism. Sometimes we can fix the problem, and other times we can’t. But we will always do our best.

These days, we often don’t hear about model problems from emails. Often, we only hear about a problem because someone posted it on a discussion forum and it has generated pages and pages of online rage. Have you noticed how much anger there is out there these days? I think the pandemic has had a psychological impact on the human species that will take our social scientists years to unpack. We’ve all got our own stories of encounters with this new rage. Nowhere is this rage seemingly more present than on the internet.

When I started Rapido, there were plenty of model train discussion forums on the internet. We had our fair share of “flame wars” and arguments back then, but overall the conversation was not nearly as negative as it is today. Recently I asked my employees not to participate in some of the discussion forums because the atmosphere was so toxic. (This, in turn, seemed to up the rage because we were no longer responding on these forums.)

The criticisms routinely devolve into personal attacks, and this action has real-world impacts. Several Rapido employees have told me of serious anxiety, and even depression, brought on by the unending online criticism. One employee expressed concern for his personal safety. Someone from a model train forum even called the Canadian National police to “tell on” Jordan and me after we posted a photo of us near (not on) the tracks.

If you’ve participated in personal attacks on model train industry employees online, I have some questions for you. What is your end goal? Is it your desire to be correct, to show that you know more about model trains than we do? Is it to show that you know how to run a business better than we do? When you talk to people in person rather than online, do you shout in their faces? Do you call them names? Do you threaten them? And do you feel you have scored some sort of victory if you successfully get them arrested while railfanning? If it seems like I am being overly emotional in this column, it’s because the attacks really hurt. They hurt me and they hurt my team.

Model railroading is a tiny industry in North America. I can safely say that all model train product designers are railfans and model railroaders themselves. When there is a mistake on a model, we did not put it there on purpose. It is easy to sit at a keyboard, blow up a photo of a model to 10 times its actual size, and then list everything that is wrong with it and attack the designer. It is less easy to spend months or years designing a model and doing your best to make a product of which you can feel proud.

I look at the Alco PA and PB locomotives that Bill Schneider spent two years designing, and I am filled with pride. The amount of care and attention that Bill put into that model, the dozens of hours of meetings, the hundreds of hours of design work — it all paid off. I think it’s a gorgeous product and, based on how they’ve sold, a lot of customers agree. However, read the online discussion forums and you’d be forgiven for thinking that Bill drew a vaguely PA-shaped blob on a napkin, sent it to the factory, and let them give it their best shot.

I’ve written before in this (Diverging Points, Railroad Model Craftsman) column that the hobby of model railroading should bring you joy. Apart from spending time with my family and friends, the thing in my life that gives me the most joy is working on my layout. I imagine that is the same with most of you. Our hobby brings light into our darkest days. It is rejuvenating. It is a solace from the heartache and the pain that we all face at different times in our lives.

I cannot see how sitting at a computer and attacking model train manufacturers and their employees can bring anyone joy. Take that negative energy and transform it into something positive. Start building a layout. Join a club and run some trains. Head trackside with a couple of friends and photograph some main line action. Do something that brings you joy. Please.

(Cue the rage.)

JASON SHRON is a lifelong model railroader, and the founder and president of Rapido Trains Inc. See his layout progress at facebook.com/KingstonSub