One monster myth is that benchwork has to be built like the floor of an upstairs bedroom. It has to be stiff - but that can be achieved without the use of massive timbers or 3/4 inch plywood. Our little trains weigh ounces, not tons, and the scenery they run through only weighs a few pounds per square foot. Of course, if you want to climb up and jump around on your benchwork...
As for cost, it has always been possible to economize:
I haven't always done these things, but I sure do now!
As for the 4x8 with 15 inch radii and 3% grades, the Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo isn't a 4x8, but it does have 350mm (14 inch minus) radii and 4% grades - designed to be a challenge for teakettle 0-6-0Ts.
Last, a quote from The Green Dragon:
I have never done the impossible. If I did it, it was possible.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - inexpensively)
Refering to the digital achives disproves your point, doesn't it? A hobby is about what you want. A magazine subscription was good enough; it was all there was. Now besides your magazine subscription you want access to archives and premium videos via the internet on your smart phone which didn't exist back then either.
When we were kids, we had a World Book Encyclopedia and a bicycle. Now kids have a monutain bike, a cellphone, a computer, a subscription to netflix and $150 tennis shoes. Relative to inflation, I'll bet the price of bikes went down, but it still costs more to "equip" a kid.
Broadway Lion is a notable exception like using nails for contacts. He is not the only one, but if most real enthusiasts were doing it his way, DCC couldn't survive. Most of us want what we see other people have, locos that make noise, auto reversing circuits. The standard of living, if you will, for the hobby has evolved and improved. You do get more today, i agree, but it costs.
If you look at the world standard of living, where more people are going to have cell phones than have electricity, it has evolved too, but I don't think improved would be the first word that would come to mind.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
jecorbett I think the biggest myth of all is that the hobby has become much more expensive than it used to be. The fact is ...
I think the biggest myth of all is that the hobby has become much more expensive than it used to be. The fact is ...
It isn't a myth that the cost of new train products has been outstripping my take home pay by a large margin over the past 15 years.
That said, there is a ton of inexpensive stuff on the secondary Market and the value you get for the newer stuff is quite good.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I like that lots of folks think that if a product is called something like Gorilla Nails, then it must be far superior to a product NOT called Gorilla Nails.
Now introducing:
TYRANNOSAURUS TITANIUM BOLTS GLUE
Ed
pink or blue foam...I have both plus some gray
must use #1 select lumber and cabnit grade plywood...built mine from scraps didn't cost a dime, except for screws
toxic fumes in case of a fire..if thats your biggest worry while the house burns
the one that really gets me; you should build a ''shed'' before starting to scratch build; I have not built one yet, didn't need one
I think the biggest myth of all is that the hobby has become much more expensive than it used to be. The fact is that if you adjust for inflation, the model railroading dollar goes just as far as it used to if you compare like items. The MR digital archives allow those with access to it to go back in time and see what things cost in any given year. There are also numerous free online inflation calculators that compare today's dollars to what they were in just about any year going back to when MR was first published.
What has change is that there is so much more high end stuff available today that wasn't decades ago. Sound equipped DCC locomotives weren't around in the 1980s and earlier. RTR rolling stock and built-up structures are much more prevalent now than they were way back when. Naturally these items are going to cost more because we get more. Many of the structure kits today are the same ones we had years ago. Non-sound DC locomotives are similar to what they were in years gone by. If you compare the prices of those and adjust for inflation you will find they cost pretty much the same as what they did 30, 40, or even 50 years ago.
Hello all,
•You can't have a "real" layout in a 4x8 space.
•A 3% grade, 15-inch radius curves and #2 turnouts can't work.
•Bachmann Dynamis is not "real" DCC.
For a rebuttal, see my signature!
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
One belief is the expense and engineering needd for building a secure layout , and challenge of finding proper tools. I made my layout without using power tools or high-end lumber. Home Depot cut the 2x4 legs and I did the rest at home. The most expensive part of the layout was the foam sub-roadbed.
Anyone with basic home improvement tools should be fine. I 'cheated' somewhat in building the layout by asking a shop teacher and engineer for suggestions. Who doesn't want to get free advice?! They made this mechanically-limited person build a solid layout.
That is another of my pet pieves, people don't seem to relize that the way they build their benchwork has anything to do with it, most don't even use a sound meter which is an app now. Boils down to, if you build a drum, why do you not expect it to sound like one.
The one that gets me is when the topic of track noise comes up and everyone has an opinion on how the layout should be built to eliminate track noise. However when room acoustics are mentioned as being a big factor in layout noise, people just don't want to hear or talk about it.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
There are so many things that get repeated in model railroading, but are total untrue. I hear the same things over and over and they have no bearing on facts. One that comes to mind as an example is toxic gases from cutting foam. People are always talking about the gasses that come out, and they do, but only if you exced 467 degrees, thats why I use Woodland Scenics foam cutter, as it only gets to 425 degrees.