Interesting story in the WSJ about the future of model railroading, along with a nice video of a superb HO road: http://www.wsj.com/articles/end-of-the-line-for-model-trains-aging-hobbyists-trundle-on-1455157546 http://www.wsj.com/video/working-on...ins/3DCFC24A-E417-452D-9173-B1AEE8EB29B3.html
It's interesting to see that the main theme is that this is a dying hobby. It makes me think about what that means. When I was a chess player, we'd always sit around and ponder how to get more people interested in chess. In the end we realized it was a fringe hobby. People blame computers, but I host a computer game group that is focused on an old vintage main frame game; we love it, but we're a dying group and there is no way we can lure any young players to our game; it isn't flashy enough even if the game itself is still the best multi player strategy game. I know a lot of teachers and they describe how passive the new generation of students are. They expect to come to class and sit there while the teacher puts on a circus show for them. With the computer games, you see a similar type of thinking at work. The market has figured out that people now want to be entertained. So while the old games were complex and learning to play them meant you had developed your ability to do something, computer games are now designed so that 90% of the users will have a positive experience and want to come back for more. I don't really think our hobby is dying at all. Model building of any kind is something that appeals to a certain demographic. There will always be people who are interested in models of all kinds. I think back to when I was a kid. Serious model railroading was not a child's hobby. Most of the really talented model railroaders were elderly men. When we see a layout like the one in the video, most people do not understand what it means to begin building something that may not look finished until ten years from now.
I fail to understand the fixation on "if we don't get younger folks in, we're dead" thinking. It does not matter one little bit when a person enters the hobby! Yes. We could have more youth in the pastime. No. It's not fatal if they are not here. We constantly are seeing people who were model railroading as youths, returning at a later age. We are constantly seeing folks re-start or begin for the first time, after college. Or when their family is reared and gone. We are constantly seeing folks pick it up, or again, after retirement. Age? So what? As long as they are active, THAT IS ALL WHICH MATTERS. As for any reliance upon magazines for a trend, that's a worn out old false lead which people of poor researching ability just simply cannot get past. In large part, those have been supplanted by THE INTERNET. Ever hear of TrainBoard? Yahoo Groups? (And so many others!) Facebook is overflowing with groups which are quite active. The Model Railroad Hobbyist E-zine is very, very well known and popular. For now, print magazines still have a place, however that has severely been eroded not just by electronics, but intransigence. This exact topic and links came up on a FB group which I am a subscriber, on Thursday of this week. Several youngsters jumped in, (teenagers), and were quite indignant about how they are being minimized or trivialized by such article authors- as they very well should have been upset. We'd had no idea of their ages, until they spoke up! So how does anyone else know, with the slightest accuracy? What has come about is that we no longer have even a semi-decent way to guess demographics. No one survey ever reaches enough people to even be considered statistically significant! What has changed is that more and more, people cannot afford housing which allows the old mega-layouts. What has changed is that less people have the discretionary income to build and collect "large" amounts, in any scale. What is changing are the ways we model. Witness the explosive growth of small modular concepts. T-Trak, (N scale), from a Japanese small space origin, now grasped by other scales from Z to O! There is an excellent idea which came out of Germany several years ago, which has been rapidily growing in acceptance. Which I am getting ready to try. This hobby has always been in flux. Evolving. Starting from earliest days of wooden trains, through clockwork, to tinplate electric, to semi-scale and to two rail outside (third rail) pickup. On to S, HO, TT, N, Z, T gauge. Not to mention in there are all the assorted narrow gauges. On30 is booming in popularity. HOn30 has re-surged with the advent of Shapeways and MinitrainS company re-launching. What is true, are that articles such as these are damaging to us, if not destructive- as are attitudes that of those who fail to take time and look around, and in their laziness simply agree. Perhaps their authors are well intentioned. But too many times it's also an ignorant presumption by someone with a bias, or simply a sad fluff piece for space filling.
In the beginning, electric trains were a status symbol. From there, we got two types of trains--cheaper trains and more realistic trains. The more realistic trains were for kids who grew up wealthy enough to have electric trains, and who developed a real interest in something more like the world around them. Since then, the cheap trains have still been for Christmas and the others for those who got Christmas trains and got bitten by the bug, so they'd have something more meaningful to grow into. Through much of this time trains were an integral part of many people's lives. Not many people go over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house on trains any more. Undoubtedly this has to make a difference in how relevant kids perceive electric trains to be to them. That said, the internet allows kids to casually explore a greater variety of potential interests. No longer does someone who knows no one interested in a thing have to seek someone out, or go to the library and dig through the periodical indexes, to find information on a subject to see if it sparks a real, lasting interest. Whether the hobby dies or not has nothing to do with whether Rupert Murdoch and his legions of molders of public thought pronounce it dead or not. He may be able to kill the chances of the only presidential candidates in the race (now all dropped out) who were in it to represent We, the People. But he can't kill this hobby. Not even the government can do that. They can classify everything as toys and make us make them out of something besides white metal. Even though if some child grabs a scale model of a 1950 DeSoto badge engineered into a Dodge with a Dremel, a bent paper clip for a grille, some epoxy, and very judicious applications of silver paint, and sticks it in his little mouth, the biggest and most immediate threat to his health will not be from a few milligrains of lead (it'll be from the person who spent hours and hours making it look perfect). The government can always be a pain in the ass. But it can't kill this hobby either. Whether the hobby thrives or fades away depends on whether the things we do with it are interesting, and whether or not we share those interesting things about it with the world freely and effectively. So I say, Stuff it, Rupert! If you can't say nice things about our hobby, then get out of the way and let other websites have the hits. And on a related note, here's my Tip of the Day: If ever you encounter some of those parents who refuse to teach their children not to grab stuff, remember that every piece of detail on your whole layout is cast in a white metal alloy comprised of about 80% lead. Even the crossbucks you cut out of cardstock are made of lead alloy. Tell the errant parents that, and those children will learn some manners that way. And you won't have to teach those kids those manners yourself.
I think that I may have said some of this before! I got my first train, HO, when I was 14. It was, if I remember properly, made of tin, powered by an on-board battery, and peaked my interest. Not as a toy, but more as a sourse to kindle my imagination. I didn't have any money, and asking my foster parents for anything was not, to me, an option. I got up the nerve to ask the old man, well at 14 any male adult over 30 was an old man, for some empty boxes that chocolate bars came in, they were about 6" by 8", and stood in for buildings, any and all buildings! I spent hours running that train with it's three cars and a caboose around a 3' circle of track until the battery died. I would would eventually accumulate enough pennies and nickels to but a new battery, and do it all over again. In a couple years I got interested in other things, and abandoned "model rail roading", if you could call it that. 20 years later, I got the bug to get back into it again. That produced a 4 foot square setup, I wouldn't call it a layout, that I spent the odd hour here and there working on. Which I eventually felt was taking too much time away from my family, so after a few months I put that aside. About 10 years ago the model rail road bug bit again. This time, a few years away from retirement, I was financially able, and motivated to really get into it. However life kinda got in the way. I built a table, 10 X 4, and started accumulating and building model, and that was it. My life took a big stumble, trip, tumble, what ever you want to call it, and I changed my address. Down came the table, into storage went the accumulated models. 3 years ago I retired at age 68 and started again. Built a platform on wheels, built models, started to lay track and wire the track, and that is where I am now. Model rail roading is not, to my mind anyway, dying, except in the minds of people who have no intimate knowledge of the hobby. I am convinced of this by the number of magazines that cater to the model railroaders out there, the number of merchandisers that are offering huge varieties of models of anything railroad related, (which is just about everything that we may encounter in life) and online groups, such as TrainBoard. As far as the demise of local Hobby shops are concerned, that I attribute to progress and finances. Rent is high in an urban setting, web sites are much cheeper, and reach a much larged clientel. That is how I see it anyway. Pardon the miss spellings, incorrect syntax, and long windedness. Live Long and Prosper Jim
Guy evidently never thought about punching "N scale" into Shapeways search engine. Let alone any other scale. Mega layouts certainly are in decline, but the hobby is far from dead or relegated only to old timers. Unless 30 is the new 60. I will agree with the one sentiment about how trains are less a part of the every day for most people. Unless one lives in an urban area and uses rail transit, most people don't see or think about trains like back in the day. Due to terrorism and litigation, one cannot get close to modern freight trains nowadays either. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
As I am involved in railroad museums and tourist railroads, I encounter many folks who are dragged to these venues by their children. They wonder what is wrong with the kids but cave in and take them to a place where they can get up close or climb aboard these machines. It is not just Thomas the Tank and Brio that are the gateway "drugs" to a fascination with trains. Some kids are hooked the minute they first see a train. Some go on to become model railroaders, others just seek out the big trains whenever they can. I encounter many adults who just enjoy riding trains. Trains are not as central to our civilization as they once were, but they are still there doing their job and inevitably people see them. Many become fascinated by them, most don't.
