Hi all
Well with absalutely no caroberating evidence what so ever to base anything on.
I would think the highest % per head of population model railway figures.
Would come from the cradle of railways it's self the UK, followed very closely by Germany.
A coment has been made on hiding railway's in the urban enviroment I don't think this is only happening in the USA, us modern humans want an urban enviroment pleasing to the eye clean, green and quiet which is what the railway hiding is all about.
In Europe the UK and to a certain extent in Austrailia this railway hiding is also going on.
But it's not denting the usage of trains or interest in trains in general.
I think there are still enough people in these countries that remember the almost Astronaut status given to the steam express drivers
In the USA that got taken over by the real deal I would think.
regards John
MalcyMalc Da Stumer A bit late here, but I can put in a few words about places not mentioned yet. Japan has a pretty huge model railroad industry, from what I understand. Mostly n scale, with a bit of ho. Koreans have about the same amount of space that Japanese have, so space must not be an issue. So it leaves me stumped. Actually, I'd suggest space is an issue for most Japanese (which is probably why N is more popular than HO) - so I'm not sure where they fit all their layouts. Here in the UK space is an issue for most home builders - small spare bedroom or loft space is the most we can hope for. I live in the suburbs of london and our little flat is 645 sq ft - the only place I could put up a permanent layout would be in the loft, once I'd insulated it properly. Which is why so many British modelers tend to build small shelf layouts. As for European railways - I have relatives in Scotland (420 miles as the crow flies) and I wouldn't dream of taking the train - way too expensive v flying - and I don't own a car as I have no need of one living in London (5 minute walk to the Tube station then 40 minutes to Central London). I used to use Eurostar for work once a month or so (London - Paris then Paris to Reims by TGV) and that was fine. I very much like the Spanish railways though - very cheap, good quality fast trains. British railways are rather a victim of their own success - because they are so busy they are very unpleasant to use in my opinion. I've always been rather confused at how you Americans have failed to build proper railways on the East Coast between your major conurbations. As for "queueing at your model shop on a Saturday morning" that would be nice if there were such a thing in London. I think high rents and business taxes have put paid to them. There is one in Tooting but that is about 20 miles away on the opposite side of the city (probably an hour and a half away by public transport and more by car). I suspect part of the reason for the UK having so many model railway shows is that they allow traders to sell direct and modellers to get hands on with the toys.
Da Stumer A bit late here, but I can put in a few words about places not mentioned yet. Japan has a pretty huge model railroad industry, from what I understand. Mostly n scale, with a bit of ho. Koreans have about the same amount of space that Japanese have, so space must not be an issue. So it leaves me stumped.
A bit late here, but I can put in a few words about places not mentioned yet. Japan has a pretty huge model railroad industry, from what I understand. Mostly n scale, with a bit of ho.
Koreans have about the same amount of space that Japanese have, so space must not be an issue. So it leaves me stumped.
I guess I could have worded that a bit better. I meant that since Japanese seem to be able to deal with a lack of space, it really shouldn't be a big is for Koreans, either.
-Peter. Mantua collector, 3D printing enthusiast, Korail modeler.
Da Stumerguess I could have worded that a bit better. I meant that since Japanese seem to be able to deal with a lack of space, it really shouldn't be a big is for Koreans, either.
Indeed they favor N Scale and Kato Unitrack. There's several interesting Japanse layouts on you tube.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
IMHO, the Japanese are the world´s champions when it comes to making best use of very little space.
One of the ways is to build mini-modular layouts, which are simple to construct, yet very efficient.
If you are interest, take a glimpse here
I think there are a lot of stealth modelers in this country. I base that on the number of folks who used to come into my hobby shop for supplies, information, etc., but had no interest in clubs, NMRA, or social activities. Many had layouts, but were not willing to show them or share them.
I would agree that there are more modelers per capita in Germany or England, but there are lots and lots of folks in the USA who are in the closet, so to speak.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL So I looked up the cost and schedule to take the train from Baltimore to Detroit. Worse than flying, you cannot get there from here, you have to go somewhere else first. Leave my house drive 25 minutes to nearest Northeast Corridor station - Aberdeen, MD. Ride the Northeast regional for 1.5 hours to Union Station in DC, get on the Capital Limited and ride 13 hours to Toledo, OH, then take an Amtrak bus ride or rent a car to Detroit - twice as long as the car ride - cost, 2 adults, $286 coach. Even at $4 a gallon, the Flex gets over 20 MPG on the highway, no more than $100 in gas. At current prices - $67 16 hours on a train - my wife would go nuts.......... Sheldon
So I looked up the cost and schedule to take the train from Baltimore to Detroit.
Worse than flying, you cannot get there from here, you have to go somewhere else first.
Leave my house drive 25 minutes to nearest Northeast Corridor station - Aberdeen, MD.
Ride the Northeast regional for 1.5 hours to Union Station in DC, get on the Capital Limited and ride 13 hours to Toledo, OH, then take an Amtrak bus ride or rent a car to Detroit - twice as long as the car ride - cost, 2 adults, $286 coach. Even at $4 a gallon, the Flex gets over 20 MPG on the highway, no more than $100 in gas. At current prices - $67
16 hours on a train - my wife would go nuts..........
Sheldon
That's what you get when a viable transportation system gets abandoned in favor of something that only seems to be better.
From the standpoint of commuter transport, SoCal used to have the biggest interurban system in the U.S. and it was gone by about 1960 or so. As a result, passenger rail transport (light and heavy) has had to be rebuilt from scratch at great cost.
With respect to viable high speed inter city corridors outside of the NEC and California, there are more than most people think:
Portland, OR to Vancouver, BC (with Canadian involvement)
DFW to Galveston via Houston, Houston to San Antonio and east to NOLA.
Chicago to MSP via Milwaukee. Chicago to Omaha via Quad Cities and Des Moines. Chicago to OKC via St Louis, Joplin and Tulsa. Chicago to NYC via Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, .... you get the picture. Obviously built in stages.
There are more, but I'm a fumble finger on an iPhone. BTW, I don't cost out car trips based solely on gas, but on the IRS business allowance for car operations, which allows for acquisition , maintenance, fuel, depreciation, and insurance costs. Any other way doesn't reflect the actual pro-rated cost of using a private vehicle for any given trip.
Just to make this even vaguely on topic, I discovered today that a hobby shop in Barcelona I visited 30 years ago is still in business.
Andre
andrechapelon ATLANTIC CENTRAL So I looked up the cost and schedule to take the train from Baltimore to Detroit. Worse than flying, you cannot get there from here, you have to go somewhere else first. Leave my house drive 25 minutes to nearest Northeast Corridor station - Aberdeen, MD. Ride the Northeast regional for 1.5 hours to Union Station in DC, get on the Capital Limited and ride 13 hours to Toledo, OH, then take an Amtrak bus ride or rent a car to Detroit - twice as long as the car ride - cost, 2 adults, $286 coach. Even at $4 a gallon, the Flex gets over 20 MPG on the highway, no more than $100 in gas. At current prices - $67 16 hours on a train - my wife would go nuts.......... Sheldon That's what you get when a viable transportation system gets abandoned in favor of something that only seems to be better. From the standpoint of commuter transport, SoCal used to have the biggest interurban system in the U.S. and it was gone by about 1960 or so. As a result, passenger rail transport (light and heavy) has had to be rebuilt from scratch at great cost. With respect to viable high speed inter city corridors outside of the NEC and California, there are more than most people think: Portland, OR to Vancouver, BC (with Canadian involvement) DFW to Galveston via Houston, Houston to San Antonio and east to NOLA. Chicago to MSP via Milwaukee. Chicago to Omaha via Quad Cities and Des Moines. Chicago to OKC via St Louis, Joplin and Tulsa. Chicago to NYC via Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, .... you get the picture. Obviously built in stages. There are more, but I'm a fumble finger on an iPhone. BTW, I don't cost out car trips based solely on gas, but on the IRS business allowance for car operations, which allows for acquisition , maintenance, fuel, depreciation, and insurance costs. Any other way doesn't reflect the actual pro-rated cost of using a private vehicle for any given trip. Just to make this even vaguely on topic, I discovered today that a hobby shop in Barcelona I visited 30 years ago is still in business. Andre
Andre,
I don't live in place where I could do without a car, so I have to have it anyway. For my wife and I, long distsance travel is very small percentage, like less than 10%, of our travel miles, so the "impact" of such trips on our "cost to own/operate" are also very small.
I'm not against public transit where it makes sense, and I agree we should have never abandoned the systems in the late 50's and early 60's. But those systems were not built with public money.
Central Maryland once had one of the fastest Interurban lines in the country, the WB&A, connecting Washington DC, Baltimore and Annapolis in a triangle. The Severna Park Model Railroad Club, where I was once a long time member, is in one of the stations from that line. The right of way is now a bike path.........
I have no interest in living the way people live in Europe, I have no interest in living the way some people live in major metro areas of the US. I have no desire or reason to change how I live. I like my big house, land, big car, pickup truck and rural life style - and I can afford them.
Others are welcome to do whatever suits them.........
Sir Madog BigDaddy China rail has 2.3 billion passenger trips a year. That's where most of the model trains are made and WeHonest is a local train store. I vote China. I don´t think that model railroading is a wide-spread hobby in the People´s Republic of China. They make model trains to sell them!
BigDaddy China rail has 2.3 billion passenger trips a year. That's where most of the model trains are made and WeHonest is a local train store. I vote China.
China rail has 2.3 billion passenger trips a year. That's where most of the model trains are made and WeHonest is a local train store.
I vote China.
If you check the Bachmann China website, you'll find a lot of Chinese prototype models which are not intended for export but for the Chinese market. Most of them are as accurate as the best USA or European models. This doesn't mean that a lot of the population are modellers, but there is a big enough market to justify production.
Railways seem to be a relatively popular hobby in Hong Kong, although I don't know how seriously model railways are taken up. Many of the people from Hong Kong I meet here in Australia are railfans, at least four of them driving trains as a career.
So China may never have a big proportion of railfans and modellers but there will always be a big number there because of the huge population and the size of the country.
M636C
M636C Sir Madog BigDaddy China rail has 2.3 billion passenger trips a year. That's where most of the model trains are made and WeHonest is a local train store. I vote China. I don´t think that model railroading is a wide-spread hobby in the People´s Republic of China. They make model trains to sell them! If you check the Bachmann China website, you'll find a lot of Chinese prototype models which are not intended for export but for the Chinese market. Most of them are as accurate as the best USA or European models. This doesn't mean that a lot of the population are modellers, but there is a big enough market to justify production. Railways seem to be a relatively popular hobby in Hong Kong, although I don't know how seriously model railways are taken up. Many of the people from Hong Kong I meet here in Australia are railfans, at least four of them driving trains as a career. So China may never have a big proportion of railfans and modellers but there will always be a big number there because of the huge population and the size of the country. M636C
A better measure would be the number and variety of models available compared to the population. The UK has a population of around 63 million and there are an astounding number and variety of available models even compared to to the US with nearly 5 times the population. Not only that, there are at least 5 hard copy model magazines, including a magazine aimed at modelers of non-British prototypes. The number of prototype publications is downright phenomenal.
Andre - here is an excerpt of what is available on the German market
Not all, but most of them are available at the newspaper stand at your gas station!
Those are just the leading ones, there are smaller mags catering for specific interests, like LGB-Depesche, Bemo Post et. al.
Difficult to say in which country you can encounter more MR activity, but I am quite positive that either UK or Germany are top ranking countries.
Sir Madog Andre - here is an excerpt of what is available on the German market Eisenbahnmagazin Miniaturbahnen (Miba) Modelleisenbahner N-Bahnmagazin Eisenbahnkurier Eisenbahnjournal Marklin Magazin Modellbahn-Illustrierte Not all, but most of them are available at the newspaper stand at your gas station! Those are just the leading ones, there are smaller mags catering for specific interests, like LGB-Depesche, Bemo Post et. al. Difficult to say in which country you can encounter more MR activity, but I am quite positive that either UK or Germany are top ranking countries.
Except for N-Bahnmagazin, I seem to recall all those magazines from the 1980's. Somewhere in my collection, I have a booklet (published by MIBA, if I remember correctly) by Rolf Ertmer describing his layout based on Altenbeken. Oh yeah, "Damals In Altenbeken". It's all coming back.
One of my brothers lived in Germany for 10 years in Gauting. He married a German woman and came back to the States in the early 90's with his wife and two sons. We visited them right after the Berlin Wall came down. I remember having to dodge Trabants and Wartburgs on the Autobahn since they topped out at about 100 km/hr. There was some incredible hoar frost on the ground and in the trees. It was beautiful. Cold as all get out, but beautiful.