Model Railway Club Seeks Help After Event Vandalism
May 20, 2019 by brennon
Whilst we're lovers of toy soldiers it was devastating to hear of the vandalism that befell Market Deeping Model Railway Club when youths absolutely ruined displays and more at an event set up to showcase the hobby to interested attendees.
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News of the devastating loss reached the BBC and the campaign on JustGiving has utterly exploded. They were looking for simply £500 but have now been able to raise over £48,000 thanks to generous donations from around the world.
So, if you have a few quid that you can send their way it will all help in their efforts to rebuild the impressive diorama, displays and maybe buy back some of the expensive items that were utterly trashed by these idiotic youths.
One hopes that they are able to bounce back from this and bring the joy of modelling to more folks!
Did you hear about this over the weekend?
"...have now been able to raise over £48,000 thanks to generous donations from around the world"
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That’s an incredibly low act. I feel for everyone that must have sunk so much time effort and cash into something they love and have it wrecked. I hope they’ve got the will to make it even better just to spite the mongrels that trashed everything
As someone who has done a bit of railway modelling in the past, it broke my heart when I read this yesterday. It is the lost hours of scratch building that will hurt the most. I remember my dad spending weeks just scratch building drainpipes and gutters for his stations and other buildings… half of which was never going to be seen as they faced a wall. It is heart warning to see the generosity of other hobbyists though.
Seen this at the weekend their is some sick low individuals in the world.
Heartbreaking
the little bar stewards need a bloody good thrashing for such a callous act. reading the various articles about this there were some elderly modellers whos lifes hobby was trashed with rare valuable models destroyed beyond salvage. i can only imagine the upset and grief these old boys would feel and coming from a different era probably never understand why either. i sincerely hope the police take a strong stance with these vandals to send a clear message, rather than as i fear let them off easily further compounding the feelings felt by the folk whose stuff they trashed. Modern… Read more »
The value is too high not to charge, even for the CPS. Sounds like the sort of offence that a judge will hopefully go to town on.
Sadly I suspect they will get a small fine, or community service. The legal system does not often dish out justice.
It can be hit and miss I accept but given the value of the damage you’d hope for a custodial sentence.
Seems like people these days have no respect towards property of other people. It makes me both sad and sick at my stomach so while I know they won’t learn from it I hope those mongrels get punished.
Always a fear for our hobby surely? Donated
Last year a club had all the fiTunes stolen they had built and painted for a massive Hastings game, and the day after Mantics open day this month they were robbed although thankfully that was just laptops and offices trashed
This is sad. Hope they catch the @holes that did this…
At least it brought something good from people who will never meet!
Were arrested on scene thankfully.
Very nice to know, thanks!
I saw this over the weekend. On this site we know what it’s like to pour *years* into projects. To see someone’s pride and joy be trashed like this is just heartbreaking. My heart goes out to these hobbyists and I’ll chip in come payday.
Castration is too good….
tie them to railway trails ( normal size ) and lets see if they like trains now…
I like it! I personally was hoping they’d tie the rascals down and let the club members stomp on them and do whatever they did to the train sets, but then again, that’s me….
I’m utterly baffled as to why people would ever do something like this. What goes through their minds to think it’s a good idea? Its just so sad.
Well some good news, the just giving page has reached over £60,000 according to the news today. The Club Chairman is apparently flabbergasted at the response 🙂 Apparently Rod Stewart bunged in 10 grand (never knew he was an enthusiast), he’s also asking fellow railway modellers Jools Holland, Roger Daltrey to pitch in. The “offenders” have also been described as “4 young males” (so probably under the age of 16 so can’t be prosecuted for the vandalism). So we’ll probably hear no more as to their fate due to the fact their identities will be masked from the public eye.… Read more »
Young males is anything under 18. Criminal age of responsibility is 10, anything older than that can and probably will get charged.
Rod Stewart? Cool! Quick Google Search showed this: http://mrr.trains.com/magazine/press-releases/2007/10/rod-stewart-and-model-railroads and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PylyazGY1AU — apparently he DOES do model railroading. Awesome!
If I recall the story correctly, when Model Railroad Magazine heard about his layout they called him up so they could get a photoshoot of the layout and do a story for the hobby. Somehow Rolling Stones also heard about the trains and also wanted to do a story about the train and Rod told them to f* off
The fact that there has been a considerable amount of money raised is a positive outcome.
What I find so sad is that for many of these modellers years, if not tens of years of work, were lost in this act of brainless vandalism. For some of the club members in their 60’s and 70’s money can’t give them back the time and passion they’ve put into their work.
That’s what makes this is so sad and same time infuriating. All that years or even tens of years work that those hobbyists put into those destroyed in an instant by bunch of badly raised kids.
Disrespectful little ***** need a hiding. The time and effort that gone into those tables only for that to happen. Amazed at peoples generosity. Hope these guys can get their tables up and running again in no time.
I’ve had a collection of painted models stolen at an event, so I can certainly sympathize with the Market Deeping Model Railway Club. I hope those little bastards at least have to help clean up and pay for some damages.
Some people destroy anything just because… But other people are willing to help, nice one everyone, who did help those in need.
Daily Mail. They did all this breaking into a school hall while drunk *before* their GCSE exams (these exams allow you to take higher level courses).
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7059229/Mother-teenage-yob-smashed-model-railway-exhibition-says-mortified.html