Ben Ando is the founder of Revolution Trains and a regular contributor to Model Rail.
Rivet counting, or constructive criticism..?
I count rivets. I also count the slats on grilles, bodyside ribs, visible bolt heads, roof seams and even the number of coils on a suspension spring.
For a manufacturer, this is a pretty obvious base requirement. Like all manufacturers, we at Revolution strive to get our models as accurate as possible – and that means paying fastidious attention to detail, taking dozens of measurements and counting pretty much anything that can be counted – especially rivets! We do it so you don’t have to.
But in a wider context, over the years the term ‘rivet counter’ has come to be used as a derisory description of the kind of enthusiast who, attending a model railway exhibition, takes great delight in pointing out mistakes or errors in the work of others.
These can range from decrying the wrong shade of lining on a pre-Grouping steam locomotive to suggesting that a certain locomotive ‘would never’ have operated in the area depicted at a given time, or with the rolling stock on display.
Such remarks, often accidentally-on-purpose and said loudly enough for all nearby to hear clearly, can be discouraging, especially to those starting out in the hobby.
And in any event most of us subscribe to ‘Rule 1’ – which states simply that it is your layout, so you can run whatever you wish.
However, are rivet counters really so bad? And should we all be a little less sensitive to, and more willing to learn from, criticism?
It is often said that the hobby of railway modelling is a broad church, and welcomes all. This is true, but at the same time surely most of us are striving for some degree of realism, and if we choose to display our work publicly – whether at an exhibition, in a YouTube video or even on the pages of this magazine, then we should expect others to pass comment.
