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Author Topic: Vandals attack Model Railway show  (Read 8884 times)

Offline Volleyfire!

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #15 on: May 20, 2019, 06:15:31 AM »
Now past £40k on the Justgiving page, excellent news.

Offline Plynkes

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #16 on: May 20, 2019, 06:40:44 AM »
They'll be able to get their own full-size train at this rate.

The incident was horrible, and while it's not as if money can fix everything, the reaction has been heart-warming.

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Upon our prey we steal...

Online Captain Blood

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #17 on: May 20, 2019, 07:01:08 AM »
Yeah, saw this yesterday too. Despicable and pointless. Break in, cause damage - just because you can, just because it’s something to do. Happens a lot with ignorant, indolent youth... probably high as kites at the time, and probably sorry now - but the damage is done and years of creativity and skill down the drain, trashed in a few minutes of cruel idiocy... I know crimes against property are not viewed as significant compared with crimes against the person, but this isn’t just property is it? It’s art and years of dedication, ingenuity and skill. I sincerely hope they throw the book at them and lock the little fuckers up. The donations are wonderful, and I’m off there next. But I’m just imagining how I’d feel (I’m guessing we all are) if someone trashed, smashed and stamped my entire collection of a couple of thousand painted wargames figures, vehicles, buildings and terrain boards. So much of my life’s time and effort has been poured into them, that money can’t really buy what they mean. They’re beyond value in some ways. That’s what these poor railway modellers have lost. Very sad.

Offline Daeothar

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #18 on: May 20, 2019, 07:42:58 AM »
I was just gobsmacked by this.  :'(

I could not, even in my darkest dreams, imagine why somebody would do this. Especially with this level of dedicated destruction. It must have taken them quite a long time to wreak this amount of havoc. Probably to the point where they actually got tired. So there must have been plenty of moments to think, realize or reconsider. And to continue beyond those points speaks volumes about the morality of the perpetrators. Here's to hoping they get what they deserve.

Also, it's very easy to imagine what an act like that would mean to me and my almost three decades worth of miniatures and terrain.

Normally I don't do this, but I now felt compelled to donate...
Miniatures you say? Well I too, like to live dangerously...
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Offline sukhe_bator

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #19 on: May 20, 2019, 07:44:31 AM »
I had not heard about this - I am horrified!
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Offline carlos marighela

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #20 on: May 20, 2019, 08:37:35 AM »
On a positive note they now have a decent representation of the Bielefeld Viaduct or the marshalling yards of Hamburg, Frankfurt, Nuremberg or score of other cities in Germany circa 1944. My great uncle was among the culprits there. A very nice American chap, by the name of Marshall, stumped up a Kickstarter not long after.

Awful as such mindless vandalism is, it does make one ponder on the ephemeral and transitory nature of most hobbies/pastimes. How much of anyone’s collection, unless it’s rare coins or stamps is marked for posterity and how much for a skip? The key thing is to enjoy the hobby whilst you are doing it.

I’d be considerably annoyed if someone trashed my collection of toys but I recognise it would be both untruthful and pointless to moan about 25 wasted years. Time is one thing you cannot get back, whether you are making scale representations of the Burma Railroad or double entry book keeping. If you used it enjoyably or profitably, well then more power to you.
Em dezembro de '81
Botou os ingleses na roda
3 a 0 no Liverpool
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E no Rio não tem outro igual
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E agora seu povo
Pede o mundo de novo

Offline The Dozing Dragon

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #21 on: May 20, 2019, 09:18:48 AM »
This does defy belief. Or actually no it doesn't. I donated last night and am pleased to see it's passed £47K now. Maybe they can get a dedicated meeting place which may help towards closure......as for the 'youths' I am of 2 minds......we all know the first, the second being how do we integrate these types into decent society? Not a question for LAF really but I despair on humanity.

Offline Daeothar

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #22 on: May 20, 2019, 09:25:38 AM »
...Awful as such mindless vandalism is, it does make one ponder on the ephemeral and transitory nature of most hobbies/pastimes. How much of anyone’s collection, unless it’s rare coins or stamps is marked for posterity and how much for a skip? The key thing is to enjoy the hobby whilst you are doing it.

I’d be considerably annoyed if someone trashed my collection of toys but I recognise it would be both untruthful and pointless to moan about 25 wasted years. Time is one thing you cannot get back, whether you are making scale representations of the Burma Railroad or double entry book keeping. If you used it enjoyably or profitably, well then more power to you.

Even though I'm still appalled by the wanton destruction of people's pride and joy(s), I must admit that you do make a valid point there.

It's about the journey, not the destination and all that, right?

I get that, but I also very much get the notion that something you put your heart and soul in, becomes something more to you than 'just stuff' or the memory of past quality time. Most people will attach emotional value to things created in such a way, whilst the outside world will not.

So the value is only in the eye of the beholder, yes, so it cannot ever be quantified. But we, as miniature wargamers and hobbyists in general can still relate, because we often have the same investment in the products of our labours.

But this value is only there for those who created those things, and possibly, through projection or affinity, to those close to the creators. So my miniatures are worth more to me than the combined value of the miniatures and the hours spent painting them, might hold emotional value to my wife and daughter, and possibly to certain members of my close family and friends (because I spent so much time on them), but outside of this select group, the value of my miniatures reverts back to their nominal market value.

Now, I've heard and read about people in the hobby who will look at their hobby stuff as 'just things' and will just bin everything if the situation requires it without batting an eye. There is a certain merit and liberty to such a mindset, but I think I can speak for the majority of hobbyists when I say that for most it's not that easy, because of the unquantifiable added value of something created by oneself.

Which is probably why this resonates so deeply with most of us...

Offline Tactalvanic

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #23 on: May 20, 2019, 09:50:14 AM »
This does defy belief. Or actually no it doesn't. I donated last night and am pleased to see it's passed £47K now. Maybe they can get a dedicated meeting place which may help towards closure......as for the 'youths' I am of 2 minds......we all know the first, the second being how do we integrate these types into decent society? Not a question for LAF really but I despair on humanity.

sentence them to 25 years community service/supervision - making model railways..although that might not integrate them  -  It would keep them busy.


Offline carlos marighela

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #24 on: May 20, 2019, 10:31:24 AM »
Sentence them to 25 years of listening to train spotters whittering on about timetables and engine numbers. Alternatively, get them building their own, miniature, Burma Railway with the club members playing the Japanese. :D

Offline robh

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #25 on: May 20, 2019, 11:27:41 AM »
I was a Police Officer in the UK and have been to court in vandalism cases like this.
 >:(

Unless any of the youths have previous burglary convictions or they filmed themselves doing it for social media the end result will be a magistrates court reprimand and community service. Bleeding heart Liberal defence lawyer will play on the lack of jobs and difficult home life of the offenders, the lack of support in the community from mental health professionals, lack of education and training opportunities and they may even get consideration for having been drunk or high at the time so not totally aware of what they were doing.
The public donations will probably serve to ensure that no monetary compensation/damages claim will be considered.

Part of a wider and serious problem in British society for which the opportunity to rectify has passed.
 >:( :-X

Offline carlos marighela

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #26 on: May 20, 2019, 12:02:18 PM »
Yes, jolly good flogging and transportation for the term of their natural lives.....

Given that vandalism is by no means a recent or even modern phenomenon, I’m left wondering how far back that golden opportunity was missed.


Offline Plynkes

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #27 on: May 20, 2019, 12:07:36 PM »
Indeed, this sort of thing has been prevalent all my life. I think it was even worse when I was a nipper. At my primary school in the 70s, some public-spirited individuals took it upon themselves to emulate the IRA H-Block inmates and staged a "dirty protest" in the boys toilets. It was a very realistic depiction of the inside of a cell in the Maze prison. I remember teachers and other grown-ups declaring it a prelude to the fall of our civilisation.

I just hope they washed their hands after.


Online Doug ex-em4

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #28 on: May 20, 2019, 01:06:10 PM »
Yes we’ll we all know these incidents are not a modern phenomena - I grew up in the fifties in Liverpool and "juvenile delinquency" was, shall we say, not unheard of. But I do feel the vast expansion over the past 40 odd years in what is whimsically called the "drug culture" has been a game changer, spawning a massive increase in crime at all levels. Possibly?

Doug

Offline Codsticker

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Re: Vandals attack Model Railway show
« Reply #29 on: May 20, 2019, 03:56:55 PM »
But I do feel the vast expansion over the past 40 odd years in what is whimsically called the "drug culture" has been a game changer, spawning a massive increase in crime at all levels. Possibly?

Doug
Or just the increase in population means more incidents, even if the rate stays the same, and better reporting means we hear about them.