I don’t think this is just model trains. I recently took an interest in naval history and became interested in building a scale model of USS Missouri or Iowa. After researching how I could produce a realistic looking teak deck, I realized how big the model would be and how I don’t have the space for that.
Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
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Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#62Son is into R/C Drifting. He's 21 and throws a considereable amount of money at it (though not crazy when you consider what Records/Cassettes/CDs cost in the 80's)
There's a crazy national involvement and it's pretty common to see two dozen guys watching the cars drift around the circut on Thursdays-Sunday nights.
The cars are crazy with LiPO amperages and full suspensions, active cooling, and programmable throttle profiles.
I guess the point is: It's social, and in-person, and has a lot of similarities to something model trains in a communal location would provide.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#63How about real trains you can ride on? https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/historic-bay-area-mode... There's another one in the hills above Palo Alto that's open to the public once a year. Now I can't find it online. Anyone? It's not Roaring Camp. This was a real train on private land, with a machine shop and a crew of volunteers. It had a loop of several miles.
Portola Valley: https://www.pvarr.org/ I've ridden on the Roaring Camp Railroad, but not the Portola Valley one.
that's it. thanks.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#64I understand why model trains used to be expensive - they had hundreds of handmade parts. But every other toy industry has taken on mass production and most toys can now be produced mostly by machine for cents. Yet still model trains are beyond the budget of most 8 year olds.
Part of me feels like this is simply the result of it being an aged hobby. When most of the people involved in the hobby are of retirement age with plenty of money to spare, why would anyone try to compete on price?
When those people die, model railway companies better be quick to start releasing sub-$10 models to entice the next generation...
And while we're at it, lets add moving block signalling, app-control, departure boards and other 20th century features...
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the alienation of the young from messy analog physical dexterity, long low stimulus attention and slow progress I suggest any boomers with this attitude check out what the kids are doing with Gunpla and Warhammer. It's a space issue, not a "stimulus" or "physical dexterity" one.
At the same time modeling of "real things", except maybe RC airplanes, seems to be in a decline. For instance there don't seem to be many people into building models of ships/etc. The fantasy stuff goes a lot stronger. Kind of makes me wonder if declining social conditions have young people running to escapist fantasy stuff. Or maybe it's because the fantasy stuff is more profitable for corps thanks to trademark/copy…
I think it's hard to wrap all those hobbies up into one "reason" for the shift. One though is that kids probably see a lot less ships (in real life and film/TV) than they did 20, let alone 50, years ago. Kids will react to what they're told are cool and young adults will continue the hobby they had as kids.
That being said, the same place I buy my monster and spaceship painting equipment from seems to still do a decent trade in benders and slips.
And size is still an issue, the smallest ship I could build is about the size of the largest "miniature" I have.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#66How long until we have model networking? tiny racks filled with tiny Cisco routers. with tiny cables management and tiny blinking LEDs everywhere. You can even add buttons to simulate solar storms on your tiny microwave antena model which would change how the blinking lights work on the tiny routers. And if you want to splurge like some train modelers do with fake grass and such you can maybe even go for the middle m…
Have you looked at /r/homelab?
They are the prime market. With the space they got for their measly single rack they could emulate an entire regional branch!
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#67Funny to see this now. A couple days ago I was on vacation in San Diego and visited the San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park and a lot of the traffic flowing through my head about it are all points addressed in the above article: "Almost everyone working here is quite old" "The amount of space this takes up is incredible, I wonder how people get into this hobby, I've never lived anywhere where I'd have enou…
> "The amount of space this takes up is incredible, I wonder how people get into this hobby, I've never lived anywhere where I'd have enough space to set up a model railway long term" So much "millenials killing X" discourse is just "property prices killing X" in disguise.
I'm not sure how much of it is space, as I remember even 20-30 years ago the model railroad magazines always had a "how to fit a layout in the space you have" - up to and including elaborate folding layouts that would fit in something not much bigger than a briefcase.
If people really want to do something, they make space/time available for it, even if it involves clubs, etc.
The number of people who want to build models in general is down, I suspect, given that we have so many other things to do with "free time".
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only time that museum was filled with kids was the yearly "LEGO Train" exhibit, which I partook of once or twice. And the people I was with (setting up the exhibit) were mostly younger (at the time) ranging from the 10 or so year old kids of the people leading it to mid 20s - not counting the leaders who were middle aged. Everyone loved it and the number of visitors in that two week period or whatever it was woul…
“ But LEGO trains are not model trains (my goodness), they're toy trains - a completely and unrespectable thing.” I love this condescending sounding distinction, it’s actually very accurate! When I was 12 or 13 I had an uncle that was into model railroading and I thought it looked so fun and cool! Then I started looking into it more and it’s not really (at least to me at that age) because it’s not a toy you take out…
Model trains descended from toy trains at some point, but the hobby definitely split off decades ago.
What people forget is that the new blood in the hobby comes from the young blood and trying to keep them out doesn't help.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#69I think what drew people to model trains was the ability to create and automate your tracks. It's an interesting and fun thing to do, basically designing a system and going trough all the small things needed to make it work. I can see how today this itch can be scratched by many different videogames (Factorio, just to give one example), while decades ago it was either model train or nothing much else. I think younger…
My thoughts too. When I was little my brothers and I played a lot together with Lego. Now we’re all over 40 and occasionally play on a heavily modded Minecraft server to scratch that itch. In many ways it’s so much more practical, essentially unlimited building materials with no real cost, no issue with physical space in the house, we can do it casually in the evenings while doing voice calls on Discord, no unpacking…
Some of my friends are even already doing the meet ups in VR.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#70I understand why model trains used to be expensive - they had hundreds of handmade parts. But every other toy industry has taken on mass production and most toys can now be produced mostly by machine for cents. Yet still model trains are beyond the budget of most 8 year olds.
Model trains aren't toys, that's the problem.
Toy trains are available and cheap(ish) - but they are often not really the same as models.
https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/freight-train-60336 is a toy train that's $200 for a "full kit"
But I haven't seen an HO-scale toy train in ages, sometimes around Christmas you see the "larger toy train around the train" style thing for $50-150.