Don, Mike, ... others,
At the risk of pissing off the foamer / whiner types, .... if a person is sincerely interested in seeing steam trains run as their foremost priority, the undercutting, crappy comments would stop. At least for THAT person. Some do NOT hold this as top priority, and get caught up in emotional responses that do not serve the purpose to support, and are often contrary to such goals.
In criminal psych, when this behavior becomes a set pattern, it is considered a mental block, and is referred to as "arrested development", .. where a person seems to get stuck at a childish level of thinking and remains there, using this position for an immature stimulation (we calling it "stimming").
Serious and / or professional railroaders just laugh at these boobs who get all foamed up over anything involving trains. We all know the type. This interest / hobby is rife with them. There is a large gap that separates full scale railroading from modelers. Some can do both with a serious, PRACTICAL approach, but most do not. Some of the worst cases find their way to discussion boards and some of these just cannot see their way clear to understand what is productive and useful for the 12" to the foot gaugers to wind their way clear through the politics of committee oversight to actually run trains, instead focusing only on their introverted / sometimes narcissistic perspective of "I want! I want!".
Sorry for being so UN - PC. It is about time someone puts it straight.
The foamers are like brat kids in a sandbox. Foaming, self-absorbed Trekkies of railroad. Unable to interact socially or make mature dersonal decisions. That whole "Cargo" thread was a festering pot of this crap. The remedy is easy, though. I have a delete key.
For those borderline cases, I hope you think about this next time some brat drops a bomb here on the board and before you respond in kind, you think if what you are about to write helps the bigger picture of keeping the trains running or just serves your inner need for attention.
Enough said.
