For me, fantasy based is the train I am jumping on, for lack of a better pun. I have been fascinated with the miniature world since I was a kid. I am in my 40's now and nothing has changed. I have realized what I love the most is the scenery and imagining of my own place as opposed to operations so I would consider myself a diorama builder as opposed to a model railroader. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing prototype based model railroads. I am at a space in life where I have the room for a basement empire. I could come up with the money for a basement empire if I set my sights to it. But, I do not have the time.
I also have so many other interests, monsters being one of them, that I want to combine the two. I know it is an unpopular concept around here for the most part, but I want to design a moderate layout with a couple towns based on a spooky supernatural theme. Think Lovecraft, King, Halloween themes, etc. I dabble around with making HO structures and have 3x5 board I run some N scale stuff on. I enjoy the "real" train world but as I mentioned, I have too many hobbies and only so much time. I am really getting interested in On30 as I already am used to 1/48 scale WWII planes (another hobby) and I find that in a fantasy setting, many of the gaming minatures offer figures that fit scalewise (at least for me) that other scales do not.
So I will probaby continue to work on the 3x5 N scale table in some Applachian theme, and I will probably continue with HO scale buildings until I get a small HO shelf layout with a town and port (ports are my other big modeling love). But ultimately, I want a spooky dilapadated Halloween based On30 layout. And it could have operation, Pumpkin farm, Coffin factory, etc. My goal is to still have a high modeling standard, not just looking toyish, but a fantasy/dark theme. To each their own, and I know the cheese stands alone in this case, lol.
1954 There were still gas lights used as street lights in Baltimore. Anyone who was 32, probably served in WW2 or the defense industry.
1944 The was was on there was rationing, shortages.
1934 The Great Depression.
I don't remember my grandfather, born in 1888 died in 1953, but horses were a part of transportation and a common sight when he was young. There were no phones, refrigerators were ice boxes. He saw the Hindenberg fly over the city, with swastikas on the tail. Professional sports was baseball and maybe golf, but nothing like the multimillion dollar business it is today.
I don't think that most people who where over 60 in 1954 looked for recreation in things. It was the opposite of today's cell phone addicts, they interacted with people.
Of course Al Kalmbach was not most people and he and others were there in the '30s starting the hobby. But I think it took peace, prosperity and free time to really grow the hobby. By then, guys in their 60's not involved in the hobby, were no more likely to get involved than todays' guys in there 60's are going to take up video gaming.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
dknelsonThere is no real "point" to this posting other than to amuse and entertain. Dave Nelson (retired)
Dave Nelson (retired)
Which is true of many of the posts here.
BTW, maybe it's getting late and Im tired, but what does the title have to do with the body of the post? Feed me with a spoon please.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I love reading old issues of Model Railroader.
.
I recently read the entire 1966 year just for giggles and found all kinds of interesting gems in that year.
It is a shame that the hobby has become a haven for old men. I honestly believe that fantasy based model railroads will be the key to getting young people back on board.
Sometime when I say that I get a lot of responses like "if you want a fantasy railroad just go build one, no one is stopping you."
That is not my point. I don't want one. I want to model 1954. I think that is the key to getting the youth excited.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
While looking for something else I came across an interesting (to me) survey of model railroaders in the February 1956 issue of Model Railroader. As you'd expect things like average amount spent on the hobby per week ($2.88 or about $150 a year which MR said was half again as much as its 1950 survey) are amusing or sad depending on your mood and how willing you are to enter that into an inflation calculator and see what the "real" amount is in our terms. Average annual income excluding students was $6222 and that was a 45% increase over 1950.
The survey got into things like size of layout (er, "pike"), location, home ownership, education, marital status, hours spent on the hobby (6.8 hours per week, and remember in 1956 there were still plenty of folks who owned no television), scale and gauge, amount of equipment owned, and so on.
But the thing that really struck me, and the reason for this posting, was the discussion of age. Retired men accounted for just 0.7% of the hobby! Gulp. Average age: 32.7. One out of five was a teenager. Half the hobby was in the 25 to 38 age range. Average age of a beginner was 29.1. 23.8% were students. Average duration in the hobby was 6.2 years.
To say that aspect of the hobby has changed is to put it mildly, and of course age drives other factors such as income and home ownership, not to mention time horizon for major projects.
Lastly some points that might bring another smile. Of those in the hobby a year or less, 8% were scratchbuilding locomotives, 20% cars, and 40% structures (and there was a fair amount of ready to run locos in 1956, and lots of loco, car and structure kits). For those in the hobby 10 years or more, the scratchbuilders were 39.3% locomotives, 70.4% cars, and 68.6% structures. The articles in MR more or less tracked those ratios. "Locomotives" mostly meant steam, some diesel, but there seemed to be more interest in electric locomotives at that time as well. By the way the survey did not define "scratchbuilt" but I know the NMRA contest definitions were a bit more stringent then for what the term meant.
50.8% of modelers did NOT object to the use of plastic in models. Smile if you will but that was a big topic at the time and for several years to come. In reading the articles in that 1956 volume of MR I was again struck by how much use of Strathmore board there was in the hobby, and what nice and sophisticated work some of the modelers could do with that material, which in essence is a high grade cardboard.
Also in reading the issues, one thing that strikes me but is not mentioned in the survey, is that there was a thriving market for signal systems in the hobby.
There is no real "point" to this posting other than to amuse and entertain.
PS Amended post - my bad, the initial posting said it was a 1954 issue and survey. 1956 is the year