I posted this blog on our weekly bulletin yesterday and it provoked quite a response - which is nice. Do have your say...
Look at the pages of Model Railway Enthusiast magazine and I bet you'll soon see a really big toy train set that's unexpectedly come up for sale. Much of it is quite new, though the last two owners both ran out of money and didn't enjoy playing trains nearly as much as they thought.
The trains are really fast though, and it's got some amazing toy stations - the main one is just being rebuilt and it's a cracker.
Actually you can't really own it. You just pay to play with it for a few years. The man who built it still owns the baseboard and the track and buildings. And he's a bit huffy and is taking his toy back and not letting the previous kid play with it at all any more.
It's made the boy who was playing with it so upset that he's gone off somewhere into the desert.
And now the man who owns it is in such a mood that he is also wanting to take two more train sets off the poor kid who was struggling with the big one - even though he's made a right good job of one of the other sets and everyone says how nice it is all the time.
The problem is - if you want to play with the trains - you have to pay the man who built it quite a lot of money indeed. That used to be OK as loads of other boys and girls would pay to come and see your train set. But really the last boy who bought it paid far too much and now there's a recession playing trains isn't as popular and he isn't getting all the admirers coming to play any more.
In fact he lost so much pocket money he got rid of all those nice toy dining cars recently, which was a shame as they were one of the best bits. The lamps on the tables lit up and looked really nice. He even started charging people extra if they booked to play with a specific carriage in advance.
Now you might think the man who owns the layout would see all this and let the kid off a bit of dosh a month - especially as the lad only bought the thing recently when the parents of the last boy who ran the trains got skint and couldn't give their child his pocket money any more. So he never really had much in the way of good times racing his trains.
But it really is a great set, you can play Harry Potter on it and everything.
Oh and did I mention some other kids have also paid the man some money to use the tracks and you have to let them have a turn though they may get in the way of your best fast trains?
Sounds like the man himself is going to run his own toy trains for a while, just like he used to. But I think he'll get bored soon and everyone thinks it should be for sale again late next year.
I love toy trains, but somehow I don't fancy this set though, do you? It all sounds a bit complicated and will blow a big hole in my piggy bank. I might borrow it at a much cheaper rent. But if it's the case that he does lend it to someone next year cheap; how come he didn't just let the other lad keep it at a lower rate? Then there would have been much less tears all round.
Sounds odd. Unless you think that the man suspects he might not own the layout at all next year....what a shame people can't just play trains nicely.
.
