a crystal ball gazing thread on another forum got me thinking. rather than a thread on what the future of MRing will bring such as dead rail or a replacement for DCC, I'd like to ask what is missing from MRing or needs better products for?
i post this under General Discussion because i assume it includes things other than tech, for example ground foam improved scenery.
so while you might think in terms of what you'd like to see, i'd like to ask why? is it missing from MR, needs improvement, ???
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
Model Railroading, as an industry, needs a simple and easy-to-understand way for newcomers to get involved.
Something better than a train set, well made, and affordable.
Walthers is in the best position to do this, and become the "recruiter" for the hobby, but an enticing package of fun that is reasonably priced and provides the gateway to the hobby for adults is missing.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
A wider range of eras. Right now, if you go into a hobby shop and look at the products, you would think railroads were invented sometime after WW1. The first 100 years of railroading is pretty much ignored.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
When I first posted in here several years ago I said that HO scale really needs a whole new track system designed for easy installation and lifetime quality.
That need still exists, but it will do me no good now. I have already purchased all the trackage I will ever need.
What we need is a good book. There are no good books that go into model railroad design and building that don't get caught up in "I think or my way" and even the experts on a method don't have the answers when things go wrong. I had the later when I was building my last layout with zip texturing, even asked and got responce from the guru at the time, I finally got it figured out myself. In this hobby we seem to get a lot of unscintific recomendations. Take another thing that happened to many, the car storage with bubblewrap makes on cars. Personaly never happened to me but I have seen it, but why?, only theorys exist but we do now no what that black crud is on our engine wheels are. Also things like foam, the tools for both expanded and extruded can be different and they both have differnt propertys and add different enviorments. I use beaded foam but you would not beleive the number of people who try to use a sarrated blade with that stuff wehich leads to beads everywhere etc.
I have thoughts on what the hobby needs, and what it does not need.
Needs:
Better product availablity, with less preorders. I don't expect preorders to go away, but the more the product can be available when people are ready to buy, the more likely the hobby will grow.
Less product overlap between brands. This ties into my first point. 5 companies fighting over the Big Boy collector market while other modelers can't get products they would buy makes no sense. I have made this point many times before. Look at the product offerings of Athearn and Roundhouse back in the 50's thru the early 80's - almost no overlap. Look at the early days of Spectrum and Proto2000 - no overlap. They all made lots money and the product was readily available.
Only the manufacturers can decide if it makes sense to continue to offer DCC ready (DC) locos. But all DCC/sound locos should be built to be easily backwards compatible by decoder removal or bypass, not by dual mode decoders that sometimes work ok in DC and sometimes not.
Better access to the wealth of information already created about this hobby. A search engine for the MR archive that works, a similar archive for other publications would be really nice.
Some things we don't need:
We don't need a "replacement" for DCC. There will always be alternative methods tried and that's fine. But it is unwise and unlikely that that the NMRA or the industry would or should look to replace DCC.
The HO and N scale hobbies in particular where built on product interchangeablity. DCC has already created a divide in the hobby because even after 25 years it has only reached about 60% useage.
I promise you, if some new system comes along and is pushed hard by the industry, MOST exisiting DCC users will not rush to switch, no matter how much "better" it might be. They have too much invested. New control systems only appeal to new users or those making big changes in their approach to the hobby.
And then you will have a three way divide that will be even more of problem for the industry and hobby.
We don't need another track manufacturer.
We don't need an "era" identification system, if manufacturers are so inclined they can just as easily put the most basic info on the package.
Sheldon
Lastspikemike What would benefit this hobby is a forum where excessive obsession with detail and accuracy was less prominent. Just my opinion but, objectively, this forum is unnecessarily intimidating to any newcomer. Seriously folks, an attitude adjustment is long overdue here,
What would benefit this hobby is a forum where excessive obsession with detail and accuracy was less prominent. Just my opinion but, objectively, this forum is unnecessarily intimidating to any newcomer. Seriously folks, an attitude adjustment is long overdue here,
Have you checked out the Bachmann forum? It is filled with much more casual modelers, and it is a good forum. I once spent lots of time there, but simply limit my online time now.
dehusman A wider range of eras. Right now, if you go into a hobby shop and look at the products, you would think railroads were invented sometime after WW1. The first 100 years of railroading is pretty much ignored.
I agree, and it is disappointing that Athearn has not done more with the Roundhouse line.
The problem, as I have talked about before, is the ever increasing number of eras modelers have to choose from. Even if the number of modelers is steady or growing, I suspect the growth is not as fast as the march of time and thereby there are few modelers in ANY given era, and the eras before the 50's are quickly becoming less popular.
If I was to model a different era from my 1954 choice, it would be 1910-1915.
The OP's question begs the difference between newcomers and veterans to the hobby of model railroading.
After 17 years in the hobby, I consider myself a veteran hobbyist, and my MR needs are stuff like advanced signal systems.
But, newcomers face a more difficult task. When I started out in HO scale modeling in 2004, I had three local hobby shops. One in particular told me, and showed me, everything that I needed to know to kickstart my way into the hobby. The owner and his sidekick introduced me to DCC, decoders, flextrack, turnouts, Tortoises, wiring, electronics, and on and on and on.
Without them, I would not be in the hobby today. They referred me to this forum and others. Once all three LHS closed a few years later, I had the foundation to continue and use this forum as backup.
For those newcomers today who don't have a LHS, as local hobby shops fade away, they are in for an uphill struggle. I don't know how you solve that problem.
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrain The OP's question begs the difference between newcomers and veterans to the hobby of model railroading. After 17 years in the hobby, I consider myself a veteran hobbyist, and my MR needs are stuff like advanced signal systems. But, newcomers face a more difficult task. When I started out in HO scale modeling in 2004, I had three local hobby shops. One in particular told me, and showed me, everything that I needed to know to kickstart my way into the hobby. The owner and his sidekick introduced me to DCC, decoders, flextrack, turnouts, Tortoises, wiring, electronics, and on and on and on. Without them, I would not be in the hobby today. They referred me to this forum and others. Once all three LHS closed a few years later, I had the foundation to continue and use this forum as backup. For those newcomers today who don't have a LHS, they are in for an uphill struggle. I don't know how you solve that problem. Rich
For those newcomers today who don't have a LHS, they are in for an uphill struggle. I don't know how you solve that problem.
Agreed, but I am starting to think that for those younger than us Rich, social media and Youtube will do at least part of the job.
As may know, I stareted young in this hobby with lots of good mentors, and by young adulthood I was working in a hobby shop helping others get started just like you experianced.
I owe a lot to those who got me started, and gave me the opportunity to be in clubs with experianced modelers and to work in the industry.
I belong to two Facebook model train groups, and I have only made about three posts - it is the only thing I have done on facebook.
But I can see how it is connecting modelers like the hobby shop and clubs did years ago.
The other thing I will make a pitch for, which can be connected thru social media, is round robin groups. Clubs without club layouts, dues, LLC's. A group of guys who meet at each other homes to run trains, work on layouts together and share the hobby.
I belonged to a great one for many years, only left it because of other personal commitments and need to balnce my modeling time.
rrebellWhat we need is a good book. There are no good books that go into model railroad design and building that don't get caught up in "I think or my way" and even the experts on a method don't have the answers when things go wrong.
A better forum.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Maybe model railroading is not in need of anything -- or rather I should say, we are already model railroaders and seem to be doing OK so what WE might like to see is not necessarily what the hobby of model railroading needs to grow and thrive. Our side of the hobby is mature.
The current distribution system for the hobby seems entirely oriented to existing hobbyists. We know what websites to go to, we know what firms offer what and what we have to do to order it in time to get it. But what non-model railroad hobbyist wanders into that world of catalogs and website ordering and pre-orders and the like?
That is where the old local hobby shop served both sides of the coin: the experienced model railroader and the person, maybe a kid but maybe not, who just wandered into the store, or saw something interesting in the window, or had another hobby that was catered to by that same shop and found themselves wandering in the train department.
Similarly many hobbyists used to tell of how they came to be introduced to the hobby by looking at a magazine rack and finding a model railroad magazine with an interesting cover and decided to just buy and issue - and got hooked.
So to my mind what the hobby really needs is a way to interest the folks (adults; I would not hold out until kids are interested like they were 60 years ago) who are not already intersted but might be predisposed to becoming interested. But since LHSs and magazine racks are not coming back, I don't know what it is. Maybe the model train displays at Menards stores can help a little. Viral videos from Miniatur Wunderland help a little. Photos of Rod Stewart's layout help a little. I do not know if Big Bang Theory helped or hurt.
But more than that stuff is needed.
Dave Nelson
Seems to me there are much fewer real size trains. No visual stimulation results in lesser interest. (Insert joke about girls here). I now live in Northern Michigan where we get one engine with one load of lumber every 3 to 4 weeks and it runs slower then 5mph. Not very exciting to even railfans
Texas Zephyr rrebell What we need is a good book. There are no good books that go into model railroad design and building that don't get caught up in "I think or my way" and even the experts on a method don't have the answers when things go wrong. Unfortunately fewer and fewer people are reading books. Seems they want everything in "video" format. I am not certain a book would be profitable for one to write.
rrebell What we need is a good book. There are no good books that go into model railroad design and building that don't get caught up in "I think or my way" and even the experts on a method don't have the answers when things go wrong.
Unfortunately fewer and fewer people are reading books. Seems they want everything in "video" format. I am not certain a book would be profitable for one to write.
It's mostly well-fixed men whose kids are 'paid out' and on their own, with homes they own and disposable income who can do this hobby 'seriously.' Whatever that means, it means bucks and time. And not a little nostalgia.
As someone just said above, trains are like the bowels of ships. Interesting, but only if you find yourself down there. Not likely when the psychology of amazon and your current smart phone are working against you and your spare time. Besides, how much did you spend on your hobby when you were 30? Isn't that going to a data plan and a new $500 phone 'bout every 24 months?
The hobby is frustrating, and newcomers are soon swamped with the complexities and vagaries of it. They find that their trains don't turn on and run like their Samsung/Apple phone does. First time your train derails, or it stalls due to issues of one kind or another, it takes the starch out of one's verve for the hobby. Phones bring cudos, thumbs up, interesting info-bytes, recipes, nudges, and all the motivation and encouragement that a body can stand. Trains don't do that unless you know what you're doing, and it takes work besides.
So, while Sheldon has a point that we don't need a replacement for DCC, we do need a different way to power our locomotives. They mostly run well enough out of the box, but they won't run long before we have to fix something to get them to run reliably. I have yet to use alcohol-soaked rags, a Bright Boy, 600 girt paper, or fix a solder on my S9. Which, by the way, is marvelous, and I won't be replacing it until at least 2023.
Oh, and I can't cast from my BLI UP 9000 hybrid to my Samsung 65" OLED to watch bike races. Not yet, anyway.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Agreed, but I am starting to think that for those younger than us Rich, social media and Youtube will do at least part of the job.
richhotrain ATLANTIC CENTRAL Agreed, but I am starting to think that for those younger than us Rich, social media and Youtube will do at least part of the job. Maybe, but there is nothing to compare to the old fashioned LHS hand holding. Rich
Maybe, but there is nothing to compare to the old fashioned LHS hand holding.
Agreed, but I don't know how we can get that back? At least not on a large scale like when I was in that business.
In the 70's there were over dozen train stores/hobby shops in the Baltimore Metro, today, two/three, maybe 5 if you count some of the ones in the "farther out suburbs".
In fact, in this region, and I'm talking from Phily to Richmond, more of the successful shops are in truely rural areas, or very small towns, and not in the population centers.
Maybe this reflects who is a model railroader, where live, and where they will travel?
selector It's mostly well-fixed men whose kids are 'paid out' and on their own, with homes they own and disposable income who can do this hobby 'seriously.' Whatever that means, it means bucks and time. And not a little nostalgia. As someone just said above, trains are like the bowels of ships. Interesting, but only if you find yourself down there. Not likely when the psychology of amazon and your current smart phone are working against you and your spare time. Besides, how much did you spend on your hobby when you were 30? Isn't that going to a data plan and a new $500 phone 'bout every 24 months? The hobby is frustrating, and newcomers are soon swamped with the complexities and vagaries of it. They find that their trains don't turn on and run like their Samsung/Apple phone does. First time your train derails, or it stalls due to issues of one kind or another, it takes the starch out of one's verve for the hobby. Phones bring cudos, thumbs up, interesting info-bytes, recipes, nudges, and all the motivation and encouragement that a body can stand. Trains don't do that unless you know what you're doing, and it takes work besides. So, while Sheldon has a point that we don't need a replacement for DCC, we do need a different way to power our locomotives. They mostly run well enough out of the box, but they won't run long before we have to fix something to get them to run reliably. I have yet to use alcohol-soaked rags, a Bright Boy, 600 girt paper, or fix a solder on my S9. Which, by the way, is marvelous, and I won't be replacing it until at least 2023. Oh, and I can't cast from my BLI UP 9000 hybrid to my Samsung 65" OLED to watch bike races. Not yet, anyway.
That is an interesting perspective, and I can't disagree, but I don't have a smartphone, and I only have a tablet because I need it for work and navagation since I was not paying $6,000 more for my pickup to get it built in.
I'm not really on social media, my web activities revolve around work, trains, garden tractors, and sometimes classic autos. I avoid the rest as much as possible.
I'm generally an optimistic person, but I don't get young people, and I'm prefer any "people" in small doses.
So I'm way past the point of figuring out how to "save" the hobby or recruit new people.
Well, here is my list:
-Less expensive decoders. I can't understand why the cost of simple decoders (motor control and headlight) has not come down
-Acrylic paint for model railroaders
-Good DIY decal systems
-DCC system with smartphone control capability "out of the box"
Simon
snjroy Well, here is my list: -Less expensive decoders. I can't understand why the cost of simple decoders (motor control and headlight) has not come down -Acrylic paint for model railroaders -Good DIY decal systems -DCC system with smartphone control capability "out of the box" Simon
Simon, this is no way a criticism of your list, those are all very logical needs.
But just to show how diverse the hobby has become:
I don't use DCC so I don't need decoders, but I thought they had become pretty affordable?
I don't use acrylic paint in my airbrush, and after one bad experiance with it I'm not in a hurry to try again. Happy with Scalecoat.
I'm a freelance modeler so decals are important to me, but based on what I have paid to have them made, I'm in no hurry to buy equipment make my own.
Even if I used DCC (which I have used a lot on other peoples layouts), I would not want a smartphone to ever control my trains. I would have to buy the smart phone.....
And that is one of the challenges today, the hobby becomes ever more diverse with the march of time and technology, all the while those not already interested in railroading see less of it in real life.
So, I will regurgitate Crandell's main points.
Ain't that the truth.
Besides, how much did you spend on your hobby when you were 30?
Yep, the hobby can be expensive and, perhaps, out of reach financially for younger folks with limited or no discretionary income.
The hobby is frustrating, and newcomers are soon swamped with the complexities and vagaries of it. First time your train derails, or it stalls due to issues of one kind or another, it takes the starch out of one's verve for the hobby.
Tell me about it. How often as a newbie did I suffer derailments, unintended uncouplings, fry a decoder, etc. I am surprised that I am still in the hobby.
We do need a different way to power our locomotives. They mostly run well enough out of the box, but they won't run long before we have to fix something to get them to run reliably.
Why do we as grown men put up with this frustration?
As a younger modeler with a "limited" income I can speak from experience when I say that model railroading is just too expensive sometimes. For example, here is how I started out when I got into "real" railroading. I wanted to get a decent dcc system. NCE powercab for example. $170 at a retailers sale. Dcc and sound equipped locomotive, let's say an Atlas model, $200 on sale. Rolling stock? 5 accurail cars for $100. Then I need track. A basic oval with a passing siding is $60(atlas brand). Add in your wiring, benchwork and any incidental costs, and presto! You are north of 600$! Could you go cheaper? Absolutly! But this is the path I wanted to take. I wanted dcc, I wanted sound, I wanted a quality locomotive without paying for super duper details. So this is what I ended up with. Cost is my biggest limiting factor in the hobby, not space. Some railroaders complain that they don't have enough space, which is a real problem, I'm not saying they don't have a valid complaint. Yet here I am wishing I had the money to fill the space I do have. My two cents, take it as you will.
Also, I have met so so so many modelers that talk down to me just because I don't have a basement sized layout, these older men's attitudes are a real problem. Glance around the forum, look at some people's reply's, and you'll see what I mean. Not to say the whole forum stinks, there are some real awesome people out there To be sure.
JJF
Prototypically modeling the Great Northern in Minnesota with just a hint of freelancing.
Yesterday is History.
Tomorrow is a Mystery.
But today is a Gift, that is why it is called the Present.
JDawg As a younger modeler with a "limited" income I can speak from experience when I say that model railroading is just too expensive sometimes. For example, here is how I started out when I got into "real" railroading. I wanted to get a decent dcc system. NCE powercab for example. $170 at a retailers sale. Dcc and sound equipped locomotive, let's say an Atlas model, $200 on sale. Rolling stock? 5 accurail cars for $100. Then I need track. A basic oval with a passing siding is $60(atlas brand). Add in your wiring, benchwork and any incidental costs, and presto! You are north of 600$! Could you go cheaper? Absolutly! But this is the path I wanted to take. I wanted dcc, I wanted sound, I wanted a quality locomotive without paying for super duper details. So this is what I ended up with. Cost is my biggest limiting factor I the hobby, not space. Some railroaders complain that they don't have enough space, which is a real problem, I'm not saying they don't have a valid complaint. Yet here I am wishing I had the money to fill the space I do have. My two cents, take it as you will.
As a younger modeler with a "limited" income I can speak from experience when I say that model railroading is just too expensive sometimes. For example, here is how I started out when I got into "real" railroading. I wanted to get a decent dcc system. NCE powercab for example. $170 at a retailers sale. Dcc and sound equipped locomotive, let's say an Atlas model, $200 on sale. Rolling stock? 5 accurail cars for $100. Then I need track. A basic oval with a passing siding is $60(atlas brand). Add in your wiring, benchwork and any incidental costs, and presto! You are north of 600$! Could you go cheaper? Absolutly! But this is the path I wanted to take. I wanted dcc, I wanted sound, I wanted a quality locomotive without paying for super duper details. So this is what I ended up with. Cost is my biggest limiting factor I the hobby, not space. Some railroaders complain that they don't have enough space, which is a real problem, I'm not saying they don't have a valid complaint. Yet here I am wishing I had the money to fill the space I do have. My two cents, take it as you will.
richhotrain JDawg As a younger modeler with a "limited" income I can speak from experience when I say that model railroading is just too expensive sometimes. For example, here is how I started out when I got into "real" railroading. I wanted to get a decent dcc system. NCE powercab for example. $170 at a retailers sale. Dcc and sound equipped locomotive, let's say an Atlas model, $200 on sale. Rolling stock? 5 accurail cars for $100. Then I need track. A basic oval with a passing siding is $60(atlas brand). Add in your wiring, benchwork and any incidental costs, and presto! You are north of 600$! Could you go cheaper? Absolutly! But this is the path I wanted to take. I wanted dcc, I wanted sound, I wanted a quality locomotive without paying for super duper details. So this is what I ended up with. Cost is my biggest limiting factor I the hobby, not space. Some railroaders complain that they don't have enough space, which is a real problem, I'm not saying they don't have a valid complaint. Yet here I am wishing I had the money to fill the space I do have. My two cents, take it as you will. Well said, JDawg. Rich
Well said, JDawg.
Thanks Rich
Folks, just so you know, this forum is "social media". Seriously. Social media isn't just Facebook and Twitter, it includes online forums like this one.SeeYou190,"Well made" and "affordable" are contradictory terms. In this hobby, like many others, you get what you pay for.
Lastspikemike,Seriously? "...(E)xcessive obsession with detail and accuracy..."? This forum is all rainbows and unicorns compared to other model railroad forums I've seen. This has to be one of the least obsessed with detail and accuracy model railroad hobbby forums on the internet. The only one I've heard of that's close is the old A.W.N.U.T.S. (Always Whimsical Not Usually To Scale) G-gauge group, but the modeling they did was (is?) first class even if it was bonkers.
As far as this group being intimidating, frankly any newbie to any group will feel that emotion. I recently joined an online forum that has nothing to do with this hobby, and I lurked for months before I made my first post because I didn't want to step on any potential landmines against group culture.
dehusman,The problem of doing pre-1900 stuff is physics and knowledge. Running 2-2-0's hauling "stagecoaches on railwheels" at slow speeds isn't much fun. Trying to operate before knuckle couplers isn't great either. Trying to find accurate color information, loco/car information, etc. is close to impossible for some roads. I'm not saying it can't be done (that recent Civil War layout in MR a while back was quite good), but it's going to be a niche market (like Narrow Gauge modeling) for the forseeable future.
rrebell,The best book I've ever seen on designing and building a model railroad is "How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork" by Linn Westcott. An updated version using more power tools and some newer techniques & materials would be an asset to the hobby, IMHO.
Sheldon,More pre-orders = more product availability. Cutting down on pre-orders means cutting down on products in the marketplace.
I know we've had this discussion before, but can't you understand that trying and failing to buy things that don't exist is just as frustrating as trying and failing to buy things that are out of stock? At least with items that are out of stock, you might find them in the secondary market and there's a very good chance the item will be re-run. If they are never made in the first place, you can't buy them at all.
I don't understand why today someone will "rage quit" the hobby because they missed out buying a prouct that came out a few years back, but 30 years ago that same guy would look for the same item, not be able to buy it because it didn't exist, and calmly buy something else. I don't get it.Product overlap happens because it sells, Sheldon. That's why there are so many F-units, Big Boys, and GEVO's on the market. They sell. They keep the lights on at the various manufacturers so they can make unique things like SDL39's and FL9's.We used to have a great online searchable database for all hobby magazines...
I agree that DCC isn't going to be replaced. Is it a divide in the hobby? Meh. You could say the same thing about Kadee couplers vs. X2F Horn Hooks yet we've seemed to weather that as a hobby.I don't think a "better" control system will take off because the difference between today's DCC and whatever comes along isn't going to be that big. It might be simpler, easier, and more dependable, but it won't be that much different. Meanwhile, I'm sure I don't have to tell you how much difference there is between DC and DCC.
I would like to see a better flex track, honestly. Something with the scale look of Micro Engineering but with the flexibility of Atlas would be great. I love the looks of ME track, but bending it is such a pain. Atlas lays down so nicely, but even their Code 83 looks like a pair of huge I-beams.npdprr,Don't forget the rise of the Virtual Railfan cameras. One doesn't have to stand trackside to watch real trains anymore.selector,This is a tinkerer's hobby. Always has been, always will be. Expecting to jump into this hobby and have everything work perfectly and not have to perform any maintenance is about as logical as buying a new car and then being surprised when you have to add more gas or change the oil every so often.
Trains today run superbly compared to trains of the past. Athearn BB's with sintered wheels & rusty electrical pick-ups, pan-cake motors, half-wheel pick-ups, growling gears, etc. There used to be a whole sub-segment of this hobby obessed with getting engines to crawl at slow speeds measured not in MPH but in ties per minute. Today, most every brand new engine will run very slowly that right out of the box. What more do you want?snjroy,Actually, the cost of a basic decoder has dropped by 1/3rd since they were introduced around 1998, and now they are better. When my club got into DCC in January 1999, the Digitrax DH120 was $20. Today, the much-improved DH126 decoder is $20. Yes, I know that's that the same price, but consider the cost of inflation. That $20 decoder in 1998 would cost $32.66 today, yet it's still just $20...all while having more advanced features.
Paul, do you mean like all the stuff that has not been made yet even with preorders?
Like a non brass B&O P7, B&O streamlined passenger cars built from heavyweights, a Challenger that is not a UP prototype, one, just one, modern 10 wheeler like a B&O B18, and on, and on.
I get it, I really do. But I'm 63 and my modeling is based on what I can by today, not what might be here next year or the year after.
Lucky for me I now have most of what I want after 50 years of "gathering".
New layout starts soon.
An alternative to the much missed huge offering of turnouts from Shinohara.
I'll be at right angles from most anybody else here.
What I've wanted 'all these years' is more functional realism in 'relatively attainable' technologies: steam-locomotive valve gear that works, control of diesel and steam that can be like the prototype rather than 'turn knob to go faster' -- and realistic motion of 'all the things other than the trains' in the model world. That includes model crews that act like people, not just little figurines stuck here and there... watch the John Pechulis videos with Mike Bednar and friends to see the idea. There are a number of famous layouts that have a history, moving features, vignettes ... and as with cartoons, they need not be in photorealistic, nietenzahlende precision to do that quite attractively. Much of the 'renaissance' the New York Times recently predicted for model 'railroading' was in crafting stories, and peripheral details, for the worlds in which trains incidentally move. It will be interesting to see what comes out of that.
Wise and caring mentoring has to be done via social media now -- I think the last generations of people running storefronts with it are going down the westbound slope faster all the time. Who the next 'generation' of wise heads will be is, I think, an interesting question: our helping to inspire them to develop the 'right stuff' is critical.
TheFlyingScotsman An alternative to the much missed huge offering of turnouts from Shinohara.
Walthers is working on it. I think they were completely blind sided when Shinohara closed up.