Usually a kit for building a model-railroad structure comes with instructions and pictures. On the other hand, the last one that I bought just came with this explanation::

Hmmm… couldn’t they have found a competent English speaker nearby? I guess not, since it’s a “very simple” DIY. And what are “listing pictures”? I’m a word person, so I always want instructions in words, not just pictures. Pictures are great, but it’s the classic problem that “what you see is what you get” turns into “what you see is all you get,” and sometimes it looks right but is not the same.

A little research with that mysterious number (arcsin?) finally yielded a diagram of all the parts, with a label for each one:

Not too bad, but certainly not clear. Do I first assemble all the “A” pieces in numerical order, and then all the “B”? “I can’t read your mind,” as I often say to math students who don’t show their work.

“Just look at the photo on the box,” I hear you saying. Well, yes, that does show me what the completed structure looks like, and I suppose I can reverse-engineer it. Maybe. Grumble, grumble.

Categories: Linguistics, Model Railroading