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(erielack) Good enough

Paul Tup's comments a few weeks ago about not noticing small deficiencies in
a model when it is part of a moving train left me pondering the issue of
model accuracy right up to this current thread about "good enough".

 

We need to be very humble about our own standards of modeling and very
tolerant of others' standards - because ALL models are compromises,
especially railroad models. It is illusory to think that any model under our
nose is not a compromise in some way or does not force compromises in other
ways. I have a neighbor with an uncompromising 1" scale PRR E6 Atlantic live
steamer plus ten freight cars and a caboose to go with it. When you look at
that model, you forget about all others. Somehow the one big model can put
you in touch with all of railroading and its mystique. My neighbor's
compromises? One engine and 11 cars is all he can afford. He cannot run in
winter because his club shuts its operation down. Did you ever hear of a
steam loco that had nowhere to go because it was winter and that even when
running never hauled more than eleven cars? Did you ever hear of any
prototype steam loco where the engineer sat on the tender and reached down
into the cab to run his engine? Compromises! The most "uncompromisingly"
made and detailed  HO car may have couplers sticking out one-half inch so it
can go around 24" curves and #4 turnouts. Compromises!

 

Passenger train and Erie lover that I am, I have over decades accumulated 32
NWSL Stillwells, because I want to model not just one train but many, so
that one feels that one is by a railroad system. It was rather deflating
when I finally realized that my modernized Stillwells lacked a pair of
windows on each side. It was more traumatic to suddenly discover last year -
after having looked at these models and the prototype for decades - that all
the models have THREE steps. The real Stillwells had FOUR steps! So what do
I do with 128 incorrect stairs? Answer: live with them!! The models are
"good enough". Put ten of them into motion behind a PA and all your mind
sees is a Port Jervis express.  All you feel is the delight at recreating
history and a train-watching experience. As Paul Tup implied, when the train
is moving, we don't have the mindsets we have when staring at one model on a
shelf.

 

I have been reading FineScale Modeler for the past several years. The
primarily military and aircraft models there are amazing for their accuracy
and the techniques used as in weathering are complex and creative. But even
this magazine will admit that some of these top modelers make only 2 or 3
models per year. At that pace, how could we ever get a whole railroad going,
let alone a long freight train? What if we wanted not just one model with
such accuracy but a string of 25 for a whole train? Recently the editor's
page also addressed the issue of "good enough", stating that it was each
modeler's prerogative and need to declare when a model under construction
has reached the subjective "good enough" stage. Then it is time to let go
and move to the next project.

 

The danger is when one puts one's own standards out as the expected norm for
all. And it is even worse when we give someone else's standard the power to
become our own -- before we ever give ourselves a chance to listen to what
our own standards and needs really are.

 

Joe Braun

 



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