What Would You Do To Improve This Hobby?

[willy6]

The key to the whole issue is "advertising".When is the last time you saw a Model Railroad subject advertised other than a MR magazine.
Acouple of years ago Hobbytown USA came to our area, it never advertised in the local newspaper and still does not. I happen to find it by mistake looking for a shoe store.
How can people get involved in something if they don't know about it?
I think an easy way to start to improve this hobby is Kalmbach flood the mail boxes with MR subscribtion post cards.A good example of this is my son. We got a post card in the mail on day concerning fishing, I took him to that store,bought some gear and he's been fishing almost everyday since.
With the mass media this world has now, it should be easy to get the word out.

[cmrproducts]

Bring back "Model Trains" magazine. It was a beginners magazine back in the late '50s and early '60s. I used to read it when I was much younger and learned a lot from it.

And we have quite a collection of them at our Clarion Club.

Bob H Clarion, PA

[Anonymous]

I'd vote for making entry (re-entry) into this hobby less intimidating by spinning off a version of Model Railroader magazine targeted at new train hobbyists. As two of my other interests are flying and astronomy, I'd use examples like "Flight Training" magazine which is a beginner publication compared to "AOPA Pilot" or "Night Sky" a really good beginner magazine to compliment the lower end of their main magazine "Sky & Telescope"

In these, I'd concentrate on getting started in the hobby, simple explanations, acronym sections, background sections, easy layouts, low cost models, etc, etc. (y’know I don't know what an F7 is or what EMD stands for, I would like to know, but don't think that is really a pre-requisite for having fun, but if you don't know about half these posts and most of MR doesn't make a lot of sense).

I think somebody at MR should look at these two publications (and there are many others in other fields) of ways to make this less intimidating to newbie’s.

It's my own personal issue, but I don't care too much about trains, I like model trains. I haven't grown up around trains (and I don’t think many under 40 have either), so I'd try to steer away from the emphasis on literal prototypical and what the LCE&WD really looked like 50 years ago and, instead, point out the aspects of having fun with the hobby as a hobby, not as a re-creation of a past I have no real attachment to.

[Bikerdad]

Good question, and approaches! If I were the Grand Poobah of MRR, I'd do the following, adding to what you've said:

1) In addition to more public setups by modular clubs, I'd update all of the modular standards.

2) Produce a high quality "Surprised By a Railroad" limited series that traces the development of a club layout for something like TLC or the Discovery Channel. Don't forget the bloopers. Emphasis: normal folks can do this, and THIS IS FUN STUFF. Do one for garden railways and modules as well.

3) Yank all of the outdated How-To books from the market, send them to the book liquidators.

4) Hey, Kalmbach, Hundman, et al, how's about lowering the price on them thar books?

5) Big pu***hrough the Scouts for the MRR badge.

6) Scale specific: Outlaw Rapido couplers in N-Scale! There ARE inexpensive knuckle couplers out there that can be used instead.

7) Christmas sets: Require that the electrical/mechanical components of the Christmas set locos be top notch. The quality of the rolling stock is no big deal, but the loco has to be just like the Energizer Bunny. Its gotta keep going, and going, and going....

8) Community education: There are many excellent MRR who could teach Continuing Education / Parks & Recreation classes centering around modules.

9) Have each scale standardize on a single integrated track format, a la Kato Unitrack.

10) Bribe, cajole, intimidate, whatever, J.K. Rowling into making the Hogwarts Express a centerpiece of her next Harry Potter novel. Make sure that any MRR merchandising satisfies #7.

11) Put a subscription to MR and Trains into every middle school and high school library.

12) Send the prototype railroad executives and management to public relations school.

13) In conjunction with #12, establish a National/International Model Railroading Museum, funded by the licensing fees that are causing such a brouhaha.

14) College competitions centered around working scale high speed trains. I'm talking maglev and the like here.

15) Repeal the prohibition on using prototype boxcars as rolling billboards. This restriction is absurd considering the competition's use of truck trailers as rolling billboards. (Does anybody really think they're shipping Marines in all those "The Few, the Proud, the Marines" trailers?)

16) Use untalented taggers (graffiti hacks) in live safety demonstrations. [}:)]

[MAbruce]

I am still amazed at all the terrific posts in the “What really keeps people from this hobby?” topic, so I thought it might be interesting to ask a follow-up question.

If you were somehow put in a position of great influence in our hobby (assuming there is such a position), what would you do to improve it?

Here are my ideas (in no particular order of importance).

1. In order to reach out to the general public, I would get (urge) mobile clubs like Ntrak to concentrate more on general public displays. I’m not talking about train shows where I think they are “preaching to the converted”, but at museums, malls, schools, etc. They need to get to people that don’t usually see our hobby – especially kids. Maybe start a program where layouts are set up for a” train day” at elementary schools or at Cub Scout packs?

For those of you familiar with the Chantilly show earlier this month, imagine a layout that size put on display at major metropolitan museum or sporting arena where it’s more accessible to the general public (and for free with NO MRR vendors on hand).

For clubs building a new fixed layout, I’d urge them to put more room in the aisles. Most fixed clubs I’ve seen have astounding layouts, but hardly any elbow room for more than a handful of people to move around. This makes public shows a real challenge, as people get frustrated because they are constantly bumping into each other or unable to see everything because of overcrowding.

2. More positive mainstream media awareness in movies and on TV. I’m not talking about being portrayed as part of what some nutcase character does for a hobby in some obscure “indy” production, but in an affirmative role in a mainstream movie. For example - I recall a movie called “Murder at 1600” where the main character (played by Wesley Snipes) had a large Civil War battlefield diorama in his apartment. Someone in Hollywood went out of their way to place this hobby in a positive light for the general public to see.

3. In real estate, the three commonly known key factors are: Location, location, location. In the MRR world, I think the three main factors should now be: Cost, cost, cost. There has been great advances in quality over the past decade (and there is always room for more), but now it’s time to make equal advances in bringing costs within affordable reach of the average household. What use is all the effort of reaching out to the general public if they are ultimately chased away by sticker shock?

4. Better (easier) access to information. Forums like this are nice, and this site has some great resources as well, but I find (more often than not) that how-to information too often comes with a price. Yes, it’s possible for one to eventually find free resources, but it often requires a great deal of searching around. Many people just don’t have the time to do this, so they are forced to “buy” this information in the form of (in my opinion) over-priced books. Not only is the general public seeing high costs on MRR equipment, now they have to spend more on books to learn how to model? We have to find a way to make it easier. I think there needs to be a comprehensive website (perhaps run by the NMRA) that freely shares modeling techniques, railroad info, basic how-to’s, in an easy format which is not sponsored (influenced) by any MRR manufactures. Maybe too far fetched?

I know there have to be more ideas out there.