I 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…
This is where sectional track is a godsend. Easy to rearrange before worrying about tacking it down. For example, Märklin C-track. Ballasted roadbed. Clicky connectors that stay connected. Metal bits for attaching power+control leads.
And for tacking it all down, Homasote makes it easy to detach+reattach and deadens sound.