Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for May 14, 2022

I once went to pick up a train set for my nephew at model train shop in Brooklyn. It was quite a shock to find another customer who had flown from Colorado to pick up a train set.

well, at least Goat and Pig found some common ground for a second.

Simple is good

My FIL had a major interest in model trains. He made some of his own, as well as all the scenery in his layout in his attic. Don’t know where all his trains have gone now.

I saw one train set where somebody put a mousetrap under a building to simulate an explosion.

Loco.

Or the models in the swim suits.

you are well trained Pig!

I like to go to the park and climb on the old steam engine.

And try to keep it cheap! It’s a wonderful, but expensive hobby.

Which you drive the train around in circles.

H0 is the best

Goat, it could have been TT or S scale. Or even #1 Garden.

I even had a little Z scale.

I’m with you, Pig! When I was being “put together” instead of brains they put in trains!

In days of yore, it was almost as much fun to set up Plasticville.

When I was a kid, I had one made of bubble gum. It went “Chew chew”…

My first husband (RIP) had his bachelor apartment decorated completely in “train” motif. Railroad lanterns as lights, paintings and huge panoramic black and white photos of special engines (Big Boy), and had made holes in the walls, laying tracks so the trains could run from room to room. Kinda cool but of course, not what every woman dreams of in home decor. He had O gauge. Cool stuff, though.

Gomez Addams had a wonderful train set.

IC? How wide is that? (Am I off track here? Gone off the rails?)

Pig is a pig of simple pleasures.

Fun for the fun of it. Nice to see it.

At least it’s modeling and not just “toy trains”.

I thing Pig’s train might be the type that is made of wood blocks as scale tracks from Tyco or Lionel are a bit over Pig’s head.

Was it Thomas?

Simplicity, I can respect that. No need to overcomplicate things, unless one wants to.

Has anyone priced model trains lately? They’re expensive!

I’m with you Pig, I like simplicity. My refrigerator is a basic model, freezer on top, no ice and water maker. Less things to break.

The KISS principal is always best.

I think Pig’s train of thought has left the station a looong time ago!

Wherever possible, Pig, wherever possible

One that goes “Choo Choo” if you say choo choo yourself.

He has one for fun, which is the right reason. He has no plans on obsessing or making a life’s work out of it…

I’m with you, Pig.

One of my former boss’ owned a model train store in La Mesa. I’ve been in it twice since we both retired just to visit him. I couldn’t believe all of the stuff in there! He sold it a few years ago.

“East is east and West is west,

and never the twain shall meet…"

…unless they’re both on the same twack.

At first I thought this was gonna be one of those strips, because it started off so randomly.

I’ve got one that goes choo-choo. It’s O scale.

Actually, even without sound effects there’s something very soothing about just running a model train. It’s in the sound of the wheels on the tracks.

coo coo ka-choo

Does the engine produce smoke?

When I was a child, my mommy played choo-choo with a spoon of food-food. Choo-Choo! Here comes the train, into the tunnel, choo-choo! Choo-choo, I would say, and chew chew I would do do. I was a monster! All those poor people…

Pig got the one that sounds like a real train. The others don’t make any noise. They’re imposters.

Hmmmm – I had one as a child and pretty sure it didn’t go “Choo Choo”…

And it “goes ‘Choo choo’” because you make that sound while pulling it along its widdle pwastic twain twack. Ah, the memories! Maybe in my second childhood…

Did he pick a Pikachu choo choo?

“Simple” is appropriate for you, Pig. The simpler, the better.

Way, way back, when I was in high school, a friend invited me over to his house to see his model train layout; I don’t recall what scale, though….

Simple would describe the drawings. Same ones for 4 panels

As someone who sells them for a living I appreciate this because those are exactly the two types of customers you get. Goat, who understands the details, and Pig, who has no idea of any of that he just wants it to make noise.

pastis has done one like this before…

Lazy Stephan ran this strip already