DAVID FORTNEYThe young kids today involved in trains today don't care at all for the steam era. They only see diesels today and that is what they like. Do they like seeing my big boys run, NO. They want to see today's diesels and the point is today's diesels, not from the 50's. They want the gevo's, SD70aces, etc.n
Do they like seeing my big boys run, NO. They want to see today's diesels and the point is today's diesels, not from the 50's. They want the gevo's, SD70aces, etc.n
While I can't speak for youngens wanting to see your big boys run, I have seen a number of kids at train shows who show an interest in steam. And I didn't see steam run in the 50s because it was pretty much gone. However, I enjoy the early 40s with steam and early diesel; a generation removed by the time I came along.
So, I guess there's always exceptions to the "rule". Oh, and you should see the number of little and big kids who come out to see NKP #765 run on 1:1 track.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
tstage DAVID FORTNEY The young kids today involved in trains today don't care at all for the steam era. They only see diesels today and that is what they like. Do they like seeing my big boys run, NO. They want to see today's diesels and the point is today's diesels, not from the 50's. They want the gevo's, SD70aces, etc.n While I can't speak for youngens wanting to see your big boys run, I have seen a number of kids at train shows who show an interest in steam. And I didn't see steam run in the 50s because it was pretty much gone. However, I enjoy the early 40s with steam and early diesel; a generation removed by the time I came along. So, I guess there's always exceptions to the "rule". Oh, and you should see the number of little and big kids who come out to see NKP #765 run on 1:1 track. Tom
DAVID FORTNEY The young kids today involved in trains today don't care at all for the steam era. They only see diesels today and that is what they like. Do they like seeing my big boys run, NO. They want to see today's diesels and the point is today's diesels, not from the 50's. They want the gevo's, SD70aces, etc.n
My 4 year old grandson just loves steam. Wonder where he got that from
Just as some people like Civil War, some like 1900's, others 1950's, others modern day, or something in between. I think every era will always appeal to some.
Enjoy
Paul
Sir Madog twhite Austria's only major east-west Alpine railway Tom - Austria is not big enough for two major lines!
twhite Austria's only major east-west Alpine railway
Tom - Austria is not big enough for two major lines!
You're right. They'll have to be satisfied with just four, then--Arlberg, Tauern, Semmering and Vienna-Salzburg. Oops, forgot Salzburg-Vorgel-Innsbruck. Stood at the station in the middle of the Alps at Bad Gastein on the Tauern railway before I went into town to "taste the waters" and couldn't get away, there were too many trains coming up and down the line (single track, right there) and they were all too fascinating. The only times I've ever seen so many trains in such a small area was when my nephews came to run trains with me on my garage layout, lol!
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
andrechapelon "Trans simple will not work here." Amazing statement. The busiest passenger rail corridor outside of the NEC is the LA-San Diego corridor, which actually extends up to San Luis Obispo. Metro-Link in SoCal extends 75 miles to the Palmdale/Lancaster area and 60 miles to San Bernardino. Ridership is growing and trains can run pretty full. I''ve ridden Metro-Link and had trouble finding a seat. Amtrak California's ridership is pretty high and growing. In the Bay Area, CalTrain trains run with a high ridership. Ever ridden a train anywhere in this country? I've actually ridden Amtrak from the SF Bay Area to Boston, in coach no less. As far as Europe goes, it ain't that small. I've ridden from Vienna to Paris by train (about the distance from SFO to Salt Lake City) and Barcelona to Paris (about 650 miles). As I mentioned in an earlier post, we will be taking the AVE from Madrid to Barcelona. Distance is roughly comparable to Los Angeles from San Jose and will be a good comparison for California's upcoming high speed service. I've driven in the UK and on the Continent as well as taking trains, so I have some actual basis for comparison. Picking up rental car tomorrow and heading to Segovia. Should be fun. Last time I was in Spain was 1989. Andre PS Have also made coast to coast road trips.
"Trans simple will not work here."
Amazing statement. The busiest passenger rail corridor outside of the NEC is the LA-San Diego corridor, which actually extends up to San Luis Obispo. Metro-Link in SoCal extends 75 miles to the Palmdale/Lancaster area and 60 miles to San Bernardino. Ridership is growing and trains can run pretty full. I''ve ridden Metro-Link and had trouble finding a seat. Amtrak California's ridership is pretty high and growing. In the Bay Area, CalTrain trains run with a high ridership.
Ever ridden a train anywhere in this country? I've actually ridden Amtrak from the SF Bay Area to Boston, in coach no less. As far as Europe goes, it ain't that small. I've ridden from Vienna to Paris by train (about the distance from SFO to Salt Lake City) and Barcelona to Paris (about 650 miles). As I mentioned in an earlier post, we will be taking the AVE from Madrid to Barcelona. Distance is roughly comparable to Los Angeles from San Jose and will be a good comparison for California's upcoming high speed service.
I've driven in the UK and on the Continent as well as taking trains, so I have some actual basis for comparison. Picking up rental car tomorrow and heading to Segovia. Should be fun. Last time I was in Spain was 1989.
Andre
PS Have also made coast to coast road trips.
Andre, OK I was typing too fast and had too little time to respond.
Let me explain better. Here in the Mid Atlantic, we have the NorthEast Corridor/AMTRAK and MARC commuter service. And Baltimore has a limited subway and light rail system.
All of these lines work well and have good ridership - BUT, they only serve the limited needs of a very limited percentage of the population.
My comment was aimed at the false notion that somehow more rail lines could or should replace auto travel for large percentages of Americans - its not going to happen - not anytime soon.
So the fact that most of the American public does not see trains as part of their daily lives is not going to change. And if that effects peoples interest in model trains, well, it is what it is..........
From where I live, it takes 25 minutes by car to get to the nearest MARC/AMTRAK station on the Northeast Corridor that would then take an additional 30-40 minutes into downtown Baltimore - in 35 minutes I can drive to downtown Baltimore.
But my daily/weekly activities do not take me to downtown Baltimore. As a family, we only go into Baltimore about 6-12 times in a whole year.
Where we live, again in the rural suburbs, people are too spread out, and their travel needs do not coincide in ways that would make additional rail lines effective.
Yes, I have traveled by train, and by air. I can't say that most of our personal travel needs/desires are well served by either.
My wife prefers the independence of having her own car - It is generally impossible to rent the kinds of cars we prefer to drive once we would reach a destination. And the pleasure travel we do does not generally involve desintations that are major metropolitan areas with airports or train stations. What do we drive? My wife's car is a 2015 FORD FLEX LIMITED with the eccoboost performance package - roomy, comfortable, powerful.
We don't travel for work, we don't work for big corporations in big cities. We don't have family spread all over the country.
We have used the Metro to sightsee in Washington DC - drove to Union Station and took the Metro to all the sights.
While we are at this, here is my take on air travel as well. You need to be going 800 to 1000 miles with time being an issue to make flying worth while. Our only out of town relatives live in the Detroit area. Our closest airport is Baltimore's BWI, 45 minutes away, the other side of Baltimore from us.
If I leave here in my car, and head West/North to Detroit, and you leave here the same time and head to the airport, I will nearly be in Ohio about the time you take off. By the time you land, I will be closing in on the Detroit metro area. Then you need to collect your luggage, and get from the airport to the suburbs west of Detroit. Our portal to portal travel times will be about the same - 8-9 hours. You will have spent more, and will need to rent a car - no thank you. I doubt rail service would do any better......
Yes, we are boring little country home bodies living in our parochial little rural suburb with the dairy cows, horse farms and corn fields right up the street.
It is fun to live here:
One of our favorite travel destinations, Cape May, NJ - just a few hours away.
Sheldon
Howard Zane I may add that I have seen a slight movment towards historical modeling by younger "steam challenged" modelers. In my three decades of co-promoting a rather huge mid-Atlantic train show, actually I have seen many younger modelers, be it purchasing or involved with modular groups displaying at the show. Some have chosen the Civil War ear, and many the transitional phase between steam and diesel. At many tourist railroads operating steam, I see the younger folks chasing the locomotive (actually my generation just can run fast enough anymore). To these newer millenials, sure a steam loco is a dinasour, but what kid on this planet does not like dinasours??? There still is hope!! HZ
I may add that I have seen a slight movment towards historical modeling by younger "steam challenged" modelers. In my three decades of co-promoting a rather huge mid-Atlantic train show, actually I have seen many younger modelers, be it purchasing or involved with modular groups displaying at the show. Some have chosen the Civil War ear, and many the transitional phase between steam and diesel. At many tourist railroads operating steam, I see the younger folks chasing the locomotive (actually my generation just can run fast enough anymore).
To these newer millenials, sure a steam loco is a dinasour, but what kid on this planet does not like dinasours???
There still is hope!!
HZ
I agree, I see lots of young people interested in steam around here. Of course we have a steam line that operates every day, most of the year, just 1 hour from where I sit:
http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/
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,More gloomy news. You may be actually facing a 17-18 hour ride to Toledo because the Capital is usually late.The Late (aka Lake) shore Limited is always late.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
BRAKIE Sheldon,More gloomy news. You may be actually facing a 17-18 hour ride to Toledo because the Capital is usually late.The Late (aka Lake) shore Limited is always late.
And taking the train to New York, and then taking the Lake Shore Limited, takes longer and costs more.........
Just an attempt to bring this discussion back to the OP´s topic ...
Train travel in the US is certainly not as convenient as it is in Europe. Longer distances, travel time, train stations not (always) in the heart of the cities (not to say the boondocks), freight trains having priority, slow average speeds, noise and maybe even dirt have made taking a train not really attractive. Trains in the US are more connecting with being held up at a grade crossing by a mile (and more) long train than a method of transport you take for business or leisure. No wonder that model railroading enjoys a lesser degree of spread and social acceptance!
Sir MadogNo wonder that model railroading enjoys a lesser degree of spread and social acceptance!
It goes far deeper then that and has nothing to do with real railroads but,we won't go there.
Sheldon--
For once we seem to agree, and it's on actually more than one issue, lol!
I agree on Mt. St. Helens, completely, but that is off topic a bit...
and
You did a very good job of explaining one of the transportation paradoxes here in the US:
Except in a few population dense areas like the NE Corridor and parts of California, we just do not have the population density to make passenger rail really work. Every good traffic engineer knows that. To make people ride the train (ie make train economically viable), in some areas of the U.S., you have to let highways reach nearly total gridlock, which nobody really wants, has the stomach, to do. So instead we keep building more lanes, but we can never build our way out of congestion--yet still the politicians try.
More "enlightened" urban planners in the U.S. (not myself, I'm just a design guy designing what I'm paid to design) are pushing for a return to the America we once had: dense urban neighborhoods without the suburban sprawl. PA Dept of Tranportation, for one, is actually embracing that model--but it will take many years to convince people to move back to population centers where they can walk to many things and passenger rail will then become a "more viable" option than it currently is in suburbia.
Since Europe in general has much greater population density than in America, the passenger rail works much better for them from a traffic engineering perspective (leaving all tax/funding discussions out of the argument completely).
John Mock
Sir MadogThis may be slightly , but each year we have a US Model Railroading Convention in Germany. The following video shows scenes from the layouts on display at last year´s convention:
I don't know the answer here. But it does make one wonder.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
Sir Madog Just an attempt to bring this discussion back to the OP´s topic ... Train travel in the US is certainly not as convenient as it is in Europe. Longer distances, travel time, train stations not (always) in the heart of the cities (not to say the boondocks), freight trains having priority, slow average speeds, noise and maybe even dirt have made taking a train not really attractive. Trains in the US are more connecting with being held up at a grade crossing by a mile (and more) long train than a method of transport you take for business or leisure. No wonder that model railroading enjoys a lesser degree of spread and social acceptance!
Actually, most train stations are in the cities, but most people do not live in the cities - they live in the suburbs.......
DigitalGriffinI hate to sound like a cynic, but if it were true, would there not be a European equivalent of Walthers?
Don´t think of Europe being one country. Despite the EU, Europe is not at all united, especially when it comes to model railroading
If I were to list the businesses you find in my country, it´ll take my quite a few hours. There must be well over 200 of them! The same goes for the UK!
Talking of figures - Marklin´s sales amounted to an average of $ 120 million in the past years, which is about 10% above the next largest, the Kader Holding, owner of Bachmann. Maybe that´s an indication. Marklin´s main brands Marklin, Trix and LGB are mainly sold in Germany . Roco/Fleischmann sales reach half of Marklin´s turnover.
I doubt that Walthers reaches that level.
Just a quick reply to Sheldon's earlier reply - I think you're correct in that a limited expansion of existing passenger trains isn't going to change anything...although in many long-distance trains, you now have only one train covering a route where 75 years ago you had several, giving you various times. Years back if the Empire Builder came through your hometown in North Dakota at 2 a.m., another train on the same route like the Western Star maybe came through at 1 p.m. - a much more convenient time.
However, I disagree that people wouldn't take say high-speed trains if they become available. It always works out for example that ridership of new light-rail lines is always more than anticipated - people who didn't think they'd ever ride the light rail end up using it. I think similarly, if you could get say from my home in the Twin Cities to Chicago in 4 hours instead 10 or 11 (remembering in the 1930's steam trains made the trip in 6-7 hours!) many people who currently drive or fly would take the train.
Also, the "car culture" may be a baby-boomer thing. Many people in their 20's don't own cars now. Often this is a conscious choice because they prefer the "green" alternatives of mass transit.
wjstixAlso, the "car culture" may be a baby-boomer thing. Many people in their 20's don't own cars now. Often this is a conscious choice because they prefer the "green" alternatives of mass transit.
Stix - that´s a development which is quite strong in Europe. Young folks don´t want to waste precious time stuck in a car on a congested motorway. They prefer to live a lot closer to their work place, if not within walking distance, then to be easily reached by public transport.
My son lives a 5 minute walk away from his office, has a streetcar halt within a2 minutes´ walk and a car rental station, where you can rent a car for an hour or so, right across the street. needless to say he does not own a car. Business trips are done by train or company pool car.
Stix--
Perhaps we're talking about two different things here:
I'm referring more to densely crowded commuter rail trains, than long distance, relatively high priced (as compared to airlines or driving one's own car) passenger rail.
I just drove my family from Harrisburg, PA to Port Canaveral, FL, for a Disney cruise. It cost me less than $120 in gasoline, round trip, more than 2000 miles in a Honda Civic, and we got there in about the same amount of time as if we had taken Amtrak, but were able to stop where and when we wanted to. You also cannot ride Amtrak, as a family of 4, from even just Philadelphia to Orlando, for anywhere near that $120 price one-way. With Amtrak, on the same route, you still need taxis and/or rental cars in Florida, to transfer from the train station to Disney's shuttle (we did do that train trip before, and it cost serious cash for just the wife and myself). This is on one of the heaviest tourist passenger traffic corridors in the U.S.
Yes--Americans would ride high speed rail--if it existed outside the NE corridor (which is relatively high speed now). However, from a purely engineering standpoint there are numerous issues primarily relating to funding, earth moving, right-of-way, and construction costs. Excepting a few high value corridors (my college buddy did the actual alignment study for high speed rail between LA and Las Vegas), the cost of building high speed rail is so prohibitive it would require a major shift in attitude for both the American people and the government.
You could never sell enough tickets, at any price, to the occasional American long distance tourist passengers to even begin to fund a new high speed rail line in most areas of the U.S. The government would have to get rid of any illusions/delusions of passenger trains covering their costs.
Now, between LA and Las Vegas, that one line and a few others might have merit due to the potential traffic volumes, but...
Sincere apology to Howard for hijacking topic.
I'm always amazed how topics change...no problem as modern train travel is interesting and still is the inspiration for many of us modelers. For those who forgot or wandered off message, I was trying to see if anyone had any knowledge of where model railroading is most popular.....here of off shore? And which country has the most model railroad actvity.
Howard, thanks for putting us back on track!
Judging by the number of model train shows - if that is an indicator - my best bet is UK.
Judging by the amount of model railroading clubs and people being a member in a club, my vote goes to Germany.
Judging by the craftsmanship - my vote goes to The Netherlands, followed by UK, France, Switzerland (!) and the US/Canada. Germany is too much of an RTR market for that criteria.
Sir Madog wjstix Also, the "car culture" may be a baby-boomer thing. Many people in their 20's don't own cars now. Often this is a conscious choice because they prefer the "green" alternatives of mass transit. Stix - that´s a development which is quite strong in Europe. Young folks don´t want to waste precious time stuck in a car on a congested motorway. They prefer to live a lot closer to their work place, if not within walking distance, then to be easily reached by public transport. My son lives a 5 minute walk away from his office, has a streetcar halt within a2 minutes´ walk and a car rental station, where you can rent a car for an hour or so, right across the street. needless to say he does not own a car. Business trips are done by train or company pool car.
wjstix Also, the "car culture" may be a baby-boomer thing. Many people in their 20's don't own cars now. Often this is a conscious choice because they prefer the "green" alternatives of mass transit.
So I have to ask, your son lives in some sort of townhouse, apartment building or other multi family structure? That is great for many people, even here in the US, but personally I would rather not.
I could not imagine building a model railroad living in an apartment.
I like the idea of living close to work - my office is in my home and sometimes I don't have to drive anywhere.
But not being able to just get in my car and go, especially in an emergency, is a level of independence I am not willing to give up.
We travel distances of 10, 20 or 30 miles just to shop, eat out, go to movie, or run basic errands - we have no choice, that is how spread out things are here.
Model railroading seems pretty popular in this region of the US, and I do tnink it varies a lot in different parts of the US. As I have talked about before, basement filling layouts ae fairly common in this region.
But agreed, trains are no longer important to most Americans.
As I type this, I am sitting in my truck, in Havre de Grace, MD, under a bridge carring the Northeast Corridor tracks, watching the AMTRAK trains go by as I wait to pickup my grand daughter after school.
Take care,
I know I'm a trouble maker, but I must make one more comment.
Sir MadogYoung folks don´t want to waste precious time stuck in a car on a congested motorway.
This comment maybe true where you live, it is surely true in some major American ubran areas.
But generally speaking we get in the car and drive around the 30 mile radius from our home that is our normal activity area without hardly ever "sitting in a traffic jam".
Sure, at "rush hour" roads can be a little busy, but not jammed up by any means. Major roads have speed limits of 40-50 MPH and you can travel at 40-50 MPH - or faster........., most of the time.
So again, the "problems" that may cause others to make different choices do not effect us.
Oh, and one post above said Americans won't wait in line at a train store anymore?
I still do, at the store where I grew up since they first saw me when I was 5.
On Saturday mornings, the regular crowd still shuffles in and many of them know each other quite well...
However, I have little knowledge of model trains in other countries as I have only visited a few of the warmer, tropical ones and Ireland.
Howard Zane I'm always amazed how topics change...no problem as modern train travel is interesting and still is the inspiration for many of us modelers. For those who forgot or wandered off message, I was trying to see if anyone had any knowledge of where model railroading is most popular.....here of off shore? And which country has the most model railroad actvity. HZ
You will need hard figures that is used by the industry and we will never see those as outsiders.
All evidence points at a steady hobby since we have seen new companies in the past 10 years plus the latest-Scale Trains. The number of monthly releases is staggering if one cares to study the monthly data.
While local model train shops has decline there is still hobby shops that is willing to order model trains,the latest slot car or military model.
But,the sales tend to be on line since the discount is better which is important to the budget minded modeler and its convenient-shop from your home instead of driving to the nearest LHS which may not have the item in stock or has dusty full price stock dating back to the 90s.
Hi Larry--
Yes, that can all be true.
However, I think I still get the best overall "experience" or "value" from buying in person when I can. The local train stores I patronize know that I buy a few items mail order, yet at the same time, they know that if I can I will often buy from them. Mail order does not offer the sense of comaradarie of hanging out on a Saturday with a group of the "usual suspects" as the local train store does.
This year I have purchased two new steamers from the local train store, and only one from M.B. Klein. It is also true that the one purchase from MBK saved me $100 cash, but being able to inspect a new steamer in person before buying can sometimes be worth the extra $100, so I figure the savings "balance out" if I do both.
I know I am fortunate to be able to shop at a real, living local train store (actually 2 of them) and that others may not have one within a few hundred miles. Also, as my son is getting pitching lessons from a former pro pitcher, that conveniently is getting me to a store in Montoursville, PA, just about every other Saturday...
PRR8259Mail order does not offer the sense of comaradarie of hanging out on a Saturday with a group of the "usual suspects" as the local train store does.
Hi John.
I fully agree and if I had a good shop I would spend the majority of my monthly hobby budget there since I'm not overly fond of buying on line but,nearest shop is a 52 mile round trip with dusty stock at full price and no Saturday morning gatherings..
I'm also getting to the point where I need less and less but,still like would like to eyeball the newest rolling stock and maybe buy it if it catches my fanacy. A Aberdeen & Rockfish 50' waffle side boxcar would be such a car..There are several others on my wish list as well.
Sheldon, quoting your reply would take too much space, I'm on an iPhone and have fat fingers.
High speed rail service isn't designed to serve "everybody", but to make travel between large urban areas fast and efficient. At distances of about 500 miles, high speed rail is competitive with air travel and much faster than car between city centers.
As far as being able to beat or at least match air travel with a car at distances of 800 - 1000 miles, no. From our house in Monterey to downtown Los Angeles is 320 miles and projected driving time is just under 5 hours. Given airport constraints, this is right about the ragged edge of competitive point to point timing (using Monterey Airport). Any longer distance and the plane wins unless planes have to be changed.
Just as an aside, when we drove from Bilbao to Segovia, we parallelled rail lines in several locations and I was hoping to see at least one train. Well, just north of Burgos, we finally did see one. My granddaughter said the train looked like it hauled garbage and I had to agree with her. Oh well, better to haul garbage than be hauled away AS garbage.
Andre,I seen garbage hauled in two and three bay covered hoppers-word of advice..Don't stand downwind when these trains pass. Phew!
andrechapelon Sheldon, quoting your reply would take too much space, I'm on an iPhone and have fat fingers. High speed rail service isn't designed to serve "everybody", but to make travel between large urban areas fast and efficient. At distances of about 500 miles, high speed rail is competitive with air travel and much faster than car between city centers. As far as being able to beat or at least match air travel with a car at distances of 800 - 1000 miles, no. From our house in Monterey to downtown Los Angeles is 320 miles and projected driving time is just under 5 hours. Given airport constraints, this is right about the ragged edge of competitive point to point timing (using Monterey Airport). Any longer distance and the plane wins unless planes have to be changed. Just as an aside, when we drove from Bilbao to Segovia, we parallelled rail lines in several locations and I was hoping to see at least one train. Well, just north of Burgos, we finally did see one. My granddaughter said the train looked like it hauled garbage and I had to agree with her. Oh well, better to haul garbage than be hauled away AS garbage. Andre
Andre,
Here in the east nobody lives in the "city center" anymore - so getting to and from airports and train stations is typically a 45 minute trip in itself.
The city center is office space, government buildings, tourist destinations, sports and entertainment arenas, historic structures and boarded up row houses.
Sure, there is a "niche" of yupy residents that live among all that - good for them.
Point is the costs for more mass transit just don't ad up - not with my tax dollars - and the current Governor here in Maryland agrees...........
Car vs plane - maybe not well worded originally, but for me, 800 miles is when I would start thinking about a plane - if I was in a hurry. 300 miles, 550 miles like to Detriot - I'm driving. We are 45 minutes from the nearest airport - on a good day.
Once we did Disney Work to Forest Hill, MD in 14 hours.......
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. Like Europe, trains are very much a part of everyday life, so a lot of people are interested in them. Kato has a lot of neat models for that market. Interestingly, Korea barely has a market at all for these things, despite the large amount of rail traffic there. Even though there are several Korean brass train companies, none of them make Korean prototype models. Most moodelers there have to deal with foreign models, so you see a good mix of american, Japanese, and European models there. I was lucky to find a reasonably priced korean model, which was leftover stock from a company that closed down a while back. Koreans have about the same amount of space that Japanese have, so space must not be an issue. So it leaves me stumped.
-Peter. Mantua collector, 3D printing enthusiast, Korail modeler.
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.