Best Guess, What % Modelers work in Garden

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

I've got a semi silly question. What percent of the model railroaders model in G Gauge.

I know HO has the largest percent. With it seems, N comming in a close second.

What I don't know is how close are the other scales. My LHS (before it closed) had about the same amount of store dedicated to larger scale as it did to N Scale.

So, your best guess. What's the break down by scale. (

HO
N
O
S
Z
G
(others I know if forgot a few.)

Oh, why? I was putzing around my current LHS and told them the HO and N scale layouts were in the process of biting the dust, and that I was taking a serous look into G. They told me there's a local small G Scale club and there;s a larger g Scale society in San Diego. This took me somewhat by suprise, as I had not found any clubs for N or HO close to me. I really didn't expect there to be enough folks in the area to support a G Scale club. So it got me to thinking. A sorry state of affairs when I start to do that. How big is G Scale in relation to the rest.

[vsmith]

G is still the orange haired *** child of HO, at least thats the way the crotchety old rivet counters in HO want to beleive..seriously LS is still a solid minority compared to HO. Remember 75% of HO layouts are the venerable 4x8 sheet of plywood type layout, then you get into the larger more elaborate layouts. garden RRing is a fast growing part of the hobby, but On30 might give us some competition, I find it funny tha a great deal of model RRers who make the switch to LS were once dyed-in-the-wool-card-carrying-NMRA types who discovered that as they got older, the trains got smaller. Add retirement for many and the call of the garden for others and its easy to see where the appeal comes from. I would still think we are no more than 10 to 15% of the universe of scale model RRing. I think it goes like this...

50% HO
25% N
10% G
5% O (scale, not 3 rail-thats an entirely different animal)
5% Z
10% S,TT, and everything else

HO will be around forever, I see no end of that. your LHS though might go the way of the Dodo due to internet sales, either that or they'll switch from mainstreet storefront busineses to business park warehouse operations where the main operation is internet sales but theres a stack of racks you can browse thru, I'v already been to a couple of these...

[Anonymous]

My best close LHS already closed it's doors.

My current LHS, is actually a small train area cut out of a tourist gift shop. The owner is into trains and so he sells a few. In the last few months he has reduced his shelf space to 1/3 of what it was when I met him. He also took the HO layout out of the store.

He keeps just enough shelfs with train stuff so he qualifies as a brick and morter LHS. Also will special order and keeps his prices to a minimum. Close to internet prices.

[SandyR]

SK, I think that a good many LS modellers are doing mailorder. If you look at the advertising in Garden Railways magazine, you'll find tons of stuff for sale there, and at good prices too.
There may not be as many large scalers as HOers, but we are certainly here to stay, and we have a lot of material available to us.
SandyR

[Anonymous]

Sandy,

Thanks. Suppliers right now, not so much of an issue. Mostly just poking around and trying to get a handle on the LS side of the hobby.

Always fun to take on something new.

Thanks again for the replies.

Steve

[Anonymous]

Hi Steve,
For me the garden is the railway and the railway is the garden, they go together so well that I couldn't imagine one without the other. I have been the route of most model railroaders, 'OO' brit outline, 'N' brit followed by american outline and now 'G'. As you get older the joints get creakier and the eyes get dimmer, for me it became the logical way to go. Within the next few weeks I'm taking my track up and I'm having dwarf walls built to raise the track a foot or so off the ground, just to make it that bit easier to get at. I should have done this last year, it would have saved quite a bit of work, and yes, I did ignore the advise from the forum at the time. I have always learnt my lessons the hard way!!
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[Rene Schweitzer]

SK,

I don't have any specific numbers, but Model Railroader regularly asks their readers which scale(s) they are interested in. A 2004 survey lists the interest in this order:

HO
N
G
O
S
Other (not specified which)
Z

Rene

[Anonymous]

Based on what I have seen over the past two years I would guess that the percentage is close to 15-20%. Nothing here that you could call sceintific, but based on the number of folks that I talk with that are new to the hobby and the increased attendance at the ELCSTS that I run in York, PA. A lot of these folks will not post on the forums because they are intimitdated by some of us who post here and on the other forums. Each year at the ECLSTS and at the MWLSTS last year I spoke with folks who said I see and read your post but I don't post even when I have a question. Thats really kind of sad, these are the best tools these folks will ever have.

A lot of these folks have something differnt in their back ground, many were never in the smaller scales. A lot have never seen a Garden Railways Magizine. I grabed a handfull of those that were left in the GR booth at the MWLSTS and have handed them out to new folks. These were headed to the dumpster so I put them to good use. You would not belive the look on some folks face when the see the GR Issues. "They have a Magizine for this hobby" is usually the first words out of their mouths.

We just took 5 new families into our local GR club, four of them have never been inot model railroading before this. Three of those familes have family members who have never owned anytype of train before this.

We picked up four of the five new members from doing a display in a mall.

We have to be willing to do show and demonstrations if we expect this hobby to grow.

Ron

[Anonymous]

Ron, Rene,

Thanks.

It's always interesting to see how the different groups look at this kind of question. The assumption, and it's valid to be sure, is that HO has more % than anyone else.

I'm going to try to say this right so I don't tick off our hosts. In the N Scale world, MR is considered to be to heavly biased toward HO, so the majority of N Scalers I have talked with don't subscribe to MR. (Note, I don't know if this is true for all nScalers, so don't shoot me. It's only evidance from two active nscale forums. Oh and I'm not going to agree or disagree with any statement about bias. I don't read MR, but thats cause my budget will only allow for a certian amount of magazines, and I have better alternatives for NScale.) If NScalers don't subscribe to MR in a ratio similar as the whole, then any poll of readership is going to be biased toward HO. I'm to new, but I would guess that since LS has the Garden Railways Mag, that a smiliar statement could be made about LS and any poll in MR.

My gut feel is the %s are closer to this over all.

HO 35%
N 30%
G 20%
0 10%
with the rest balancing out the total.

Ah heck, just an interesting thought question for the day.

[Anonymous]

I don't believe any of it; no one knows nor could it ever be truly worked out for the very point Vic alluded to and that is what is a layout?

Anyway who cares; these other people in other scales are slowly but surely losing ground, as they are mostly living in the past and little has changed for years. This is a changing world and you can't tread water, you must make headway or be swept away into the past.


Rgds ian

[TurboOne]

Just read in the Atlas track book that 96% of all model trains are in order HO, N, O. Based on that info that means G,S and others make up 4%. But on a O scale website, thor trains, they have articles that if O manufacturers don't wake up G will pass O. Also after reading LGB goals, they seem to be the only manufacturer in any scale that wants to market to people other than collectors or rivit counters. They are going after the kids. I have a book from 1966 that says the average MRR is 33. Today new books say the average age is 55. What will become of MRR if only the elderly like trains.

I have got two kids going in the world of trains, and I might see if I can start a train group at church for kids. Not sure how yet, but anything to show the kids trains. Can't think of anything more positive than that.

Take care all

Tim

[Anonymous]

Well put Tim.

Rgds Ian

PS I still don't believe any one knows nor is it easy to ascertain any sort of accurate figures. even if accurate figures were available the very premise of the figures will be suspect.

Taking the chance of being censured for bringing religeon into it but that is how I feel about the bible.

Rgds ian

[pbjwilson]

Hey all - A toy train O guy here, but I have LGB in the garden. I think it's a natural to have trains out in the garden if you have trains in any scale in your basement. I figure that theres the indoor train season - about November to April. Then you have your outdoor season May to October. I'm not hangin out in my basement in the middle of summer, it's time to be out in the garden. And though I'm not big into G GAUGE, i do have a little garden railway next to my tomatoes and cukes.
Anyway when I saw this topic I thought it was what % of gardeners have trains in their gardens. My second hobby ,as I like to call it, is gardening.
I just think everyone that has an indoor train should have an outdoor train come summertime!

[Anonymous]

This is a lot of rubbish Paul, the months you mentioned only apply to the northern hemisphere, why would we do anything like that here in Australia at that time?

And what about living in a tropical climate here you do not have a basement; why would you need one, an upper story maybe so you can catch a cool sea breeze.

I think we should all consider that this is a big world and what you have and where you are may not apply to all. Not only may it not apply to all but if you had it, it may be a disaster.


Rgds Ian