Extroverts

 My local train club got a small home layout donated to it. We had to go over to this families home to remove the layout because they were cleaning out the house to get the house ready to sell. So about seven or eight club members went over there. Afterwards we stopped for lunch and talked about layouts we’ve been to.

I get around a bit. Over the last thirty years I’ve made a commitment to fly, and now drive, around the country to visit and operate at layouts all over the U.S.

I’ve tried to make connections with layout owners so that I can finagle invitations for follow up op sessions. I think I can get invited to a lot of places, or in most cases bring a group of operators for an ops weekend. As is my nature I try to keep planning to an absolute minimum. Planning is WAY over rated, and in my opinion often ruins trips. To much thinking caused re-thinking, and the results are, trips get cancelled.

But I digress, my club members are, as a rule not extroverted, like me. To be honest one can take this extroverted behavior too far, and I’m the poster child for that. I’m an acquired taste, and I find I rub people the wrong way.

In any case I think if you do not step up, you get left out. Our group mentioned they would like to visit a layout, that I’ve been to twice before.  They recently saw on a video of this layout on You Tube. I told them that I was friends with the layout owner and that without too much planning, I could organize a visit. And since this layout was pretty far away, it might be better if we organized several layouts as well.

One guy summed up the consensus by saying they didn’t want to go to operate because they felt they needed to see the layout first. That is they thought it might be better to organize a layout tour FIRST.

WELL… why fly all that way, get a rental car, get a hotel, just for a layout tour? I’m not telling you the cost will be cheap, it’s going to be AT LEAST  $1000 just for the basics of this trip. But to spend the money and just look!? The extrovert in me demands that I operate while there. I never go just to look.

A lot of people ask me how I get all these ops weekend invitations? Not to put too fine a point on it, but, …

I force my way in. 

If you do not ask, you’ll never get invited. You have to speak up.

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