You had to start the weekend by opening a can of worms didn't you?
The thing here is that this is a perrenial issue around this site. Kitbuilders are finding it harder to find kits because a lot of manufacturers are going into RTR or even RTP--ready to place. So there are many different issues involved. Dig back a few pages and you'll find threads about Bowser leaving manufacturing kits of any sort in the drive towards distiship. Or any number of things, really.
My take is that you can get into the scratchbuild side of things and have a good time designing/building your own creations. That and haunting fleamarkets, trainshows or even eBay, or other bidsites and you'll come up with good deals. I've got a good percentage of my lokes, ~70, from places that you'd never even think of--such as those I've mentioned. There were a few that I fell over in a Goodwill of all things--so I never say that one can't find them anywhere else. Some of them had to be fiddled with but hey what prototype have you seen that never had to fiddle with their new lokes?
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Hey all,
This is a subject I have been thinking about for a long time. I read Neil's editorial in the new issue of MR and thought I'd come here and get some thoughts.
I am a mid-thirties father of two with a full time(10 hour a day) job, mortgage, car payments, etc. I have enjoyed model railroading since I was a kid. Before the above expenses I was able to occasionally purchase models and supplies, but for the past few years it hasn't been realistic. Now I know that we can all decide how to spend our money and what is important, but I think we all agree that the basics of food, shelter, etc. come first. What ever is left over is free to spend (or save) as you like. Everything has gone up in price in the past few years, but the price of model railroad items has really taken off. I seem to remember getting a locomotive back when for $20.00. Granted, it wasn't nearly of the quality of today's trains. I am into realistic modeling and not a plywood oval. But at some point any moving train is better than nothing.
MR and others have been trying to make this hobby friendly to a new group of people and I think that the industry is asking a lot for people to spend $400.00 for a decent locomotive.
Perhaps I'm being unrealistic to think that manufacturers could produce nice quality, less expensive items. We do live in the land of capitalism after all and everyone is trying to make a living and a little profit. I admit I don't know what it costs to design, build and market these items.
I do peruse my old issues of MR and RMC and occasionally see old articles about building models out of found items. The one I remember at the moments involved sawing the erasers off of pencils to make model oil drums. I think that in today's economic environment, more articles about low cost modeling options would be welcomed. I also think it would present an opportunity to flex our collective imaginative muscles and come up with some creative modelling work.
Again, I hope I don't come off as bashing the hobby and its industry. I guess what I'm saying is I wish we as a hobby could move a little bit away from the 21st century modeling and back to the 20th century modeling. We are graced now with so many product options that we could have only dreamed of 20 years ago. Our "forefathers" (or us 20 years ago) were forced to be more creative. If you wanted to model some obscure prototype, you virtually had to scratch-build or kit-bash. Now there is a better chance that someone somewhere makes the item. Also, why make oil barrels (and ruin a bunch of perfectly good pencils) when you can just order them and have them shipped?
I don't mean to dampen everyone's weekend (ours is pretty damp here on the East Coast anyway,) I just thought this might begin an interesting discussion. I don't desire to hear everyone's complaints about particular product prices and such, just a discussion of the state of the hobby, economics, creativity and a future full of pencil eraser oil drums.
Thanks, Matt