statistics

[Anonymous]

I am looking for statistics about the hobby of model railroading. I need information such as the percentage model railroaders who are involved in a particular scale, weather they model after a particular railroad, how many people subscribe to a model railroading magazine, what percentage model steam locomotives vs. diesels etc.

[jcpmountain]

Try the NMRA website, and go to the library. They were very helpful to me.

[Anonymous]

According to a recent survey by Kalmbach, HO still leads in popularity by a large margin, with about 73 percent of modelers saying HO is their primary scale, and another 6.4 percent saying it's a scale they dabble in, even if their main modeling efforts are in something else.

N Scale is the second highest. A quarter of the modelers out there use N scale either as their primary or secondary modeling.

O is third with 13 percent of the modelers using it, followed by 10 percent in Gn3, 4 percent in S, 2 percent in Z and 1 percent in No. 1. (On Z scale, only .3 percent say it's their primary scale, and .4 percent say it's secondary.)

Those numbers may be changing, however, as the larger scale trains seem to be making a resurgence, both in basements and in gardens.

The favorite era remains the time of transition from steam to diesel, 1949 to 1960, attracting 44 percent of model railroaders. The present, from 1990 onward, captures 16 percent, and 1934-45 attracts 13 percent. Only two model the 19th century, though that time does seem to be attractive to the garden crowd.

Finally, nearly half of model railroaders base their layout on a prototype. The Northeast and Midwest of the U.S. are the most popular regions, each getting about 22-23 percent. Other regions are in single digits, including the Rocky Mountains at 9 percent.

Of course, times change, and so will those numbers when the next survey is done.

TC for t.c

[Anonymous]

Dear Tom,
thanks for the valuable info it will be a great help to me;however, I am doing this for a college research paper and if you could site exactly from where in Kalmbach Publishing you obtained this information i.e. magazine title, date, article title, author of the article etc. Plagarism is a crime you know, and my grade depends on this.

Sincerely,

Greg

[Anonymous]

Gregory,

e-mail me direct at [e-mail] so I can transmit or fax the material directly to you. The company did a pretty extensive survey a couple years back in connection with all its train magazines, and the material is in a press packet that I can share.

Tom Chmielewski

[MisterBeasley]

This thread started in 2001.

[tstage]

Wow!  Someone's been dumpster diving in the archives...

[rrinker]

Mark Twain: There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

                --Randy

[doctorwayne]

rrinker

Mark Twain: There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

                --Randy

 

In which category does Anonymous' over a quarter million posts lie?  Or his/her/its apparently multiple personalities?

EDIT:  Hah!  I just noticed that Anonymous was also able to post more than two years before joining the Forum.  How insensitive of us to not offer a welcome prior to his arrival.

Wayne

[Javelina]

Let's not forget that 78.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

Lou

[rrinker]

 I think it says the poster's name is Anonymous because they no longer have an account. Anonymous post #2 is signed TC, post 3 says Thanks Tom and is signed Greg - so there are at least two different people. Account date probably refers to the last deleted account or something, in 2001 one of those people was someone named Tom and the other was someone named Greg, not Anonymous.

                   --Randy

[doctorwayne]

Statistically-speaking, it would be unusual for Tom and Greg to have both joined at the same time and have the same unusually large post count - does Jeffrey know about this/these guy(s).

You are correct about him/them no longer having an account here, though....pity that David went to the trouble to offer good advice when they're not here to benefit from it.

Wayne

[richhotrain]

I find this all bewildering. 

Why would someone, anyone, revive a 13-year old thread?

Rich

[mobilman44]

And, how did the op get that high posting stat number?  

Is this a scam................. 

[zstripe]

If anyone looks at that high post count and compares it to all the other anonymous posters, you will find that they all have the same high number.

Just my nutty observation.

Frank

[Anonymous]

Whoever this guy is, he´s got a face!

[richhotrain]

Ulrich, you have to stop taking selfies.   

Rich

[richhotrain]

davidmbedard

It was a slow day on the forums.....thought I'd give the old thread a chance..... ;)

 

LOL

How did you manage to dig that one up?

Rich

[Anonymous]

richhotrain

Ulrich, you have to stop taking selfies.   

Rich

Rich -

[BRAKIE]

They are anonymous because they are the Men In Black..

[mlehman]

I believe the explanation is that anonymous postings were permitted at one time, but were later not (as they often degenerate into "issues".) The database for the forum postings simply lumped all previous anonymous postings together as one account after this happened. That's why the crazy number of posts as "anonymous."

But it is true that Anonymous IS everywhere. Rather not get into politics, though.

I was rather surprised that the Rocky Mountain region was only modeled by 9%. Maybe that's changed since 2003? We seem to be getting thick as thieves in recent years and that stat was taken pre-Blackstone, too, don't you know?

[NorthWest]

We recently had a poster leave the Trains side of the forum, and all of his posts are now signed "Anonymous".

So, I think that is the combined total of all the posters who have left the forum's posts.

[mlehman]

NorthWest

We recently had a poster leave the Trains side of the forum, and all of his posts are now signed "Anonymous".

So, I think that is the combined total of all the posters who have left the forum's posts.

 

That would definitely fluff up the stats for "anonymous," too.