Vandalism with no reason

I felt compelled to write something about this horrible event. Although not wargaming related, I'm sure we all can relate to how these guys felt when they discovered  what had happened Saturday morning. Market Deeping model railway club had set up their displays for their annual show ready for Saturday only to discover Saturday morning four young vandals had systematically destroyed the entire event.

Now as hobbying goes, there is a lot of crossover with our hobby (there is always a lot of flock involved and talk of scales) so I immediately knew exactly how the club felt. I am also the son of a train modeller,  so my childhood  home had Hornby train sets in the loft. It doesn't take a lot to transpose the event in my imagination to one of the many small wargame shows across the country and imagine how it would feel if it happened to our community. Some of these club members had spent years on their models and I can imagine no amount of financial compensation can mean they can be replaced exactly as they were.

Now I know there are more important things in this world than toy trains and toy soldiers, of course there are. I'm not so naive as to claim this is the crime of the century. To some people though their hobby is what keeps them going. I am sure that we all probably know a fellow wargamer or hobbyist whose mental health is improved by their hobby. I think an excellent example of getting into the mindset of a hobbyist is watching the TV series The Detectorists. I know nothing about metal detecting, but that show explains exactly what it feels like to me to have a hobby. I definitely recommend binge watching the lot.

The warm hearted feeling follow up to this story comes now though. The club started a just giving page to raise £500 to recover some costs after the incident, last I looked it's at £67,000. There are multiple comments from the wargaming community as well showing solidarity by making a donation.

I can only hope the culprits learn to understand the impact their actions have had, I claim to be no expert in the field of punishment but I feel maybe they should be made to contribute some of their time to the restoration of some of the exhibits. Maybe they will then understand what effort goes into them. We could jump on our soapboxes and talk political about youth culture, crime and punishment, lack of funding for youth clubs, etc. Let's instead take away from this the fact the because of the power of the internet, this small group of "train geeks" ( I call them this with the greatest of affection) had a horrible thing happen to them, that last century if it had happened, that would have been the end of it. In the 21st century though, they have been told by the internet that they are not alone and we love that they love their hobby as we love ours. They can stoke the firebox again and eventually rebuild.

You can read the news story here.