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Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track

theguardian.com

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Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track

#121

Post by theallan »

AlbertCory wrote: post #18

How 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.

For anyone in central Scotland, come and check out the Scottish Model Engineering Trust - https://smet.org.uk . We've got everything from N gauge to 7 1/4 inch. I haven't been a member for long yet (a few years), but I am constantly impressed with what the folks there can build.

Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track

#122

Post by stuaxo »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #73
lupusreal wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honorable mention for OpenTTD

I was going to mention it too. Though after billions of billions made in TT/OpenTTD and whatever imaginable railroad systems it lost most of it's magic for me. Every once in a while I install it, browse and add some mods (FISH of course) and... after I'm on +300% profit each year it starts to get boring.

The multiplayer one on OpenTTD is a bit addictive, but each game takes about 3 hours, and the other players are very very good.

Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track

#124

Post by 83 »

ElevenLathe wrote: post #58
Timothee wrote: post #19

Earlier 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…

You definitely are locked into a location. I went this route with a large basement lathe, milling machine, drill press, welders, etc and while I love them all if I ever move more than a couple hours drive away I'll probably have to sell them and start over.

I started in an apartment with the small Shurline lathe and mill and they were quite fun and capable for their size.

Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track

#126

Post by dionidium »

bb123 wrote: post #17

Model trains require a large amount of dedicated indoor space. With millennials and zoomers frozen out of the housing market I expect a large proportion of them simply don't have the room.

It's wild that this has become unchallenged conventional wisdom. There's basically no evidence for it:

https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1690894492688437248

Young people own homes at higher rates than they did in the 90s:

https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1690951544240484352

Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track

#127

Post by IshKebab »

londons_explore wrote: post #27

I 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.

That may have been why they were expensive in the past, but now it's pretty clear that they're expensive because they are niche and their buyers are old people with money.

Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track

#128

Post by porkbeer »

ReleaseCandidat wrote: post #81
nlnn wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've wondered this about a lot of hobbies, e.g. drumming, pottery, woodworking, anything that needs space or sound insulation. There's a lot you can do at shared spaces, but cost/availability/inconvenience of those is just such a big barrier to entry for many younger people.

Neither drumming nor woodworking (necessarily) needs much space or sound isolation. Of course a "real", big drum set or a panel saw need both ;)

You just voided your own point. Also, you will absolutely notice your apartment neighbor using a hand saw, or drumming on an electonic kit.

Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track

#129

Post by robotguy »

1oooqooq wrote: post #46

How 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…

https://www.miniatua.com/work/ibm1401/

Re: Enthusiasts struggle to keep model railway industry on track

#130

Post by euroderf »

Model railways versus video games:

Decades(!) ago I read an essay wondering: What's the deal with model railroading ? What's the attraction ? Why are people compelled to build these little worlds and be their masters ?

But then, heh, along came Sid Meyer's Civilization and scads of other world-building video games.

So who's feeling compulsion nowadays ? Sitting on your duff in front of a video game for hours on end could seem somewhat inferior to actually using your hands to make and do things.

I think a key to keeping the hobby alive might be to play up the modelling aspects. How often does one get to build a mountain ? Or a multimodal transportation system ?

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