Rod Stewart is a huge enthusiast: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-50403561
Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
111–120 of 137 posts
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#112I'm 41, just recently got back into the hobby. Have rejoined the local club I was a member of as a teen.
Membership average age is like 50-60ish. We do have about 10-15% of members like me under 50. Some even in their 20s. Doesn't seem quite like its in too much trouble around here. The pool is shirking with apartment living becoming more normal though in the area. But maybe because this is a club with its own layouts that members can use is one way for the hobby to survive & thrive.
There are 5 layouts, 2 in N scale. 3 in HO. 3 of the layouts are able to be broken down and put on a trailer and taken to an exhibition.
I do think that home built & run layouts are probably on the decline with cost of living & housing so high compared to years past. But I think club layouts that members can use is a way to help keep the hobby relevant.
There are cool projects like https://dcc-ex.com/index.html and arduino based control for layout automation bits. That historically cost a lot.
My observations of the US is that mostly ready to run models are sold now, haven't seen too many kit makers around for US stuff. Still kit makers for Australian & NZ stuff. With some decent ready to run Australian prototype available now.
The next house will have a train room or area of the garage available. This is definetly a middle class hobby. Its not cheap.
I have wanted to work with my hands again. Sitting at a computer all day or parts of the evening playing video games is only so fun. Would rather build something physical.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#113Here's a layout I've been following: https://www.youtube.com/@rcgrabbag Easily highlights the issues in messages here, takes room, time and money to do this.
Yup, been following this build as well. There are plenty of other decent layouts that can be built in a shed, half a room etc.
A different aspect is the shunting layout, this guy's channel is amazing. https://www.youtube.com/@boomerdioramas
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#114All of you complaining about space, you just need to move to the country. I hear real estate in Missouri, Alabama, etc. is pretty reasonable.
That's like living in Ohio
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#115The hobby is changing, more people build modules or small shelf layouts that emphasize a particular scene or prototype behavior.
The large layouts are less often built, due mostly to the amount of maintenance needed.
Most young enthusiasts don’t show up at the traditional clubs or shows, there are quite a few nice private forums out there for younger work.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#116The fun of a model train is in the building and as a kid I really could spend time with this (on other people's train setups because I really didn't have the money to spend on something like this and if I did have it I would have probably spent it on books, electronics tooling or computing gear instead). But once it is done it's done, there is zero fun in watching trains run around.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "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.
My maternal grandfather was a pipe fitter on the railroad, before becoming a defense contractor, and also before contracting mesothelioma and dying when I was 6. He owned a sizable property in California which included a large home and some attached apartments. They ran a boarding-house for immigrants, and later, my widowed grandmother became a landlady. I was raised with a fervent love for railroads of all types. I…
What a fantastic story! Thank you.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’d be curious how mobility plays into that as well. The YouTubers I see often seem to be well settled in their large-enough-for-the-hobby houses. If you end up moving often, or just _feel_ like you might have to, it’s more difficult to invest time and money into it.
I've just been thinking about this in terms of metalworking. I've long wanted to have a home lathe, welder, possibly milling machine or at least a drill press. I recently moved into a house with a sizable basement workshop space and am enjoying setting it up and doing some simple projects (none of those high-dollar tools yet, but I have a selection of files, rasps, a nice vice and workbench, etc.). The thing is, I do…
One tip: stick everything on a small platform with wheels and have a spot where there is an anchor embedded in the floor so you can fix a machine when you need to. The best kind of wheels are the retractable ones so when you set it down the machine is planted properly. I'm pretty space constrained here as well and this is my strategy for maximizing the use of the workspace.
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#119I 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…
Seems to gloss over the physical space required to have a model train. A video game can come in many sizes from phones to consoles and is much more accessible and even portable. Growing up, we had a 4'x8' sheet of plywood covered in the fake grass and then decked out with structures, trees, people, cars, and all sorts of stuff. It was a lot of fun setting it up, building the models, and deciding on a track layout. To…
> Took weeks building it. It took days to get bored with it.
That's my experience as well. A guy I met in a store had inherited an absolutely massive Rokal set, a lesser known brand so there wasn't a lot of documentation about how it all worked. He asked me to get it all working. The whole installation on 8 full sized sheets of plywood had been cut up to move it into his basement, they'd cut a temporary hole in the floor to move the sheets in but all the wiring had been cut and there was zero documentation. It took many months to figure it all out and to get it connected to the point where it would all work reliably. But once that was done I think I looked at it for 30 minutes before moving on to something more interesting. I loved working on the set itself though, especially because I kept finding new details that had previously eluded me (such as working traffic lights!).
Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track
#120One of the giants in this industry, Lionel, has been struggling for the last 30 or so years to stay alive. It’s been through several sales and I think two bankruptcies.
One thing about them though is they continue to innovate with new ways to put effects into their locomotives. Other companies have contributed as well, like MTH, ESU LocSound, SoundTrax, Broadway Limited, and others.
Model trains have a pretty loyal following, but the industry continues to narrow year after year.
IMHO all of these companies, but particularly Lionel and MTH missed out big time in the “maker movement” due to their closed, proprietary command and control systems. The patents have expired though, and many people have started to reverse engineer everything about them.
I think they also have completely failed on the marketing aspects of their businesses. Model trains have so many educational opportunities, and pitting this against video games could be a big win for them IMHO. The great thing for programmers and engineering types is it’s low threat to us since there is still a lot of software and hardware that could be built around model train products in the form of control and automation, and maybe even gamification of the operations of a model railroad.
But all of this is coming from a long time model train (and real train) enthusiast who is software engineer by day, so I’m biased.