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The Changing Hobby of Model Railroading

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Posted by John-NYBW on Saturday, December 11, 2021 9:09 AM

I'm joining this conversation late but I'll throw my two cent in anyway. Consumers vote with their dollars what they want. Manufacturers who want those dollars are going to strive to give them what they want. In the early days of the hobby, mostly what they had to give was scratch building materials. That gave way to kit building and kit bashing. Eventually RTR and pre-built structures became available and the quality of those are getting better and better. Better than anything I could scratch build. All of these trends have made it easier and less time consuming to build quality layouts and that is a good thing. I see nothing noble about doing things the hard way when easier ways of getting it done are available. If some still get satisfaction out a scratchbuilding, that option remains open to them but that is no longer necessary to build a quality layout. If I had the funds, I would pay someone to build my layout because the finished product is what gives me the satisfaction, not the journey to get there which I find to be tedious. Anything that makes the journey less tedious is a major enhancement to the hobby.

The same is true with online shopping vs. brick-and-mortar stores. It's a choice of convenience vs. service. I like having both options available. I still stop by the LHS because I like browsing. I often find bargains at the second hand merchandise section and that's cheaper than ebay because I don't have to pay shipping. I still buy most of my staples there. However, the LHS is almost an hour away and since the pandemic I have less reason to travel into Columbus, Oh so shopping there would require a special trip. I find I can buy much of what I want through Amazon and will get it in a day or two. Since I have a prime membership, the shipping costs are prepaid. Brick-and-mortar stores will stay in business if they give consumers something the online retailers can't. So far, my LHS seems to be holding up. I'm not privy to their books so I have no idea what impact the pandemic and the online sellers are having on their bottom line but I see no drop off in their selection of merchandise or the quality of their service. They must be doing something right.   

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Posted by NorthBrit on Saturday, December 11, 2021 6:59 AM

Model railroading is forever changing  be it the models,  technology  different supply methods etc.

When I was a boy a clockwork 0.4.0  locomotive was 'The Flying Scotsman'   rattling round an oval track.

Electric trains and rolling stock was crudely made,  but our imagination dispels such thoughts.

What wasn't available was hand made.   Maybe not HO/OO  scale, but good enough.  To buy items of model railroading it meant a trip to a model shop.   

There was always one somewhere.  When we were in Ostend way back in time, round the corner was a model shop.   Family knew where I was as I 'drooled' over the 1880s style four wheeled carriages  etc.    Oh! they would fit in so well now at Leeds Sovereign Street had I the money and known what I was to build.

 

Throughout time  the models have improved tremendously  as we know.  DCC  is the way these days (for those that wish the 'tecky stuff').   Personally I am not interested.  (Too old to bother and too many locomotives to alter. Big Smile)

 

Mail order was a help for items available if collection was difficult to do.   Then the internet  gave access to a worldwide  'store'.  The local model shop found it difficult to compete and many have closed.

What I have found now is that customers of internet suppliers are becoming disenchanted with the service provided.  (Just my opinion.)   Customers are wanting the personal service again.   The model shops that remain are finding sales are increasing.

Children and model railways.   Children will always like model railways.  Their imagination still knows no boundaries.  They can have more fun than we ever did;  if they are allowed.

Model Railway magazines have been mentioned.  (My opinion only)  I find that some magazines (here in the U.K.)  publish  their favourite articles only and do not look at other modellers' work.  Hence sales are falling.

The future.   Model railways will always be here in one form or another.  Even if model railway Companies only cater for the 'Collector'  (as it appears here)   the child in us will find a way.

We talk of our modelling heroes of the past.   I see many layouts being built now that will be remembered by the next generation (and beyond).

 

Whatever you are doing regarding model railways,  enjoy the journey.  Involve children if you can.  They have great imagination  like we had.  Have fun.   It is a hobby  that does last a lifetime.

 

David

To the world you are someone.    To someone you are the world

I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought

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Posted by Track fiddler on Saturday, December 11, 2021 5:25 AM

L. Zhou,  It's good to see you again!  I always enjoy what you have to say.  Hope you and your friends had some fun this last Summer.  

L. Zhou

I'm not too concerned about accuracy as much as I used to- I need to learn new things anyhow and at the end it's about enjoying the flow of things. 

Something I'm trying to learn.  I'm a slow modeler from the start and tend to get stuck nitpicking my work apart making things even slower.  I'm trying to learn, one can always fine-tune things when they're further along reaching that positive flow.

 

Don't be a strangerSmile, Wink & Grin

 

 

TF

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Posted by L. Zhou on Friday, December 10, 2021 7:28 PM

I'm consider myself fortunate to be born in such a exciting time of change and innovation, both outside and in the hobby, and it has opened the door to completely new frontiers. 

In this day and age there has never been a better time to jump in and start going for it. We are located in the middle of both worlds, with improved technology, DCC sound, delicate and well done details, ready to go out of the box onto the layout, and on the other side of the spectrum are the old Tycos sitting in the bargain bins under the train table, ready for a new lease of life. Like a lot of my peers,  the bracket of older teenagers-young adults, life for has gotten in the way for the past few months which is why I vanished off the forums, but now that some things are settled I'm much more free to do something in the hobby and pick up old projects. 

I'm not too concerned about accuracy as much as I used to- I need to learn new things anyhow and at the end it's about enjoying the flow of things. 

 

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." -Lin Yutang

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Posted by xboxtravis7992 on Friday, December 10, 2021 5:56 PM

Track fiddler

To clarify, "Not as wide spread as it used to be" as I see I was quite vague, my point was the younger generation.  Most of us when we were kids were interested in the hobby.  Most kids these days are more interested in technology, phones, computers, video games, etc... than a hobby.

I might as well counter this as well, but I think the idea that there is not a high number of young people in model railroading has more to do with generational differences and how certain age groups congregate compared to others. I would agree, the cultural prevelance of model railroading has changed and the younger generation certainly falls into it as a niche/nerd hobby compared to something more mainstream that it seems to be in older generations.

But to grab some quick data:

There are over 3100+ members of the Railroads ONLINE! Discord server right now (a video game based on 19th century American narrow gauge railroading). The Model Railroading channel there has had roughly 40 replies to it today already.

The Unlucky Tug a YouTube channel dedicated in part to Thomas and Friends and The Railway Series has posted several videos detailing his model railroad kitbashing of "realistic" takes on Thomas characters, the first video of the series with over a half a million views (notable since I would say Thomas nostalgia is pretty strong amoung the 20-30 something year old age set right now): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2N8T1Qp46U&list=PLcqCi46_OzdaCOkaugWcfk0bmqAFAC78w

My own railfan circle runs with a private chat between several of my friends and I (about 9 people). I am one of the oldest at 27 nearing 28, youngest in the group abour 19 or so. None of us have a major basement layout per se or any huge projects, but we have several kitbashers, collectors, and current and former employees of local hobby shops; and one of us has a published article on kitbashing he wrote for RMC. All of us live within the same metropolitan area a short distance away from each other. Our scales are primarily HO, with me as the OO9 guy out. Speaking of OO9 I have another seperate chat with several British modelers to help me keep tabs on what is happening across the pond in that scale. 

Now I certainly think that older hobby members punch harder in a fiscal sense. Being established with a morgatge paid off, a basement to fill, and spare income means an older hobby set can purchase and buy more in one sitting than the under-30 crowd can. But that doesn't mean there isn't a lack of younger hobby members either.

I think the key thing to understand though is how the generational difference especially in technology and communication has changed how people communicate. I don't need a formal club and a charter to be able to communicate on a daily basis with my friends, since we can do it directly and instantly over the internet. If I have a direct question I can field it to my close friends first, look for tutorials on YouTube or forums secondly, then chase down books or magazine articles if none of those have a solution to my problem. But the result is it means in part the younger crowd flies in a completely seperate circle of association than the older hobby generation, and the two rarely interact outside of say a train show type setting. 

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Posted by Track fiddler on Friday, December 10, 2021 6:22 AM

Thanks for the responses Travis, Paul.  

To clarify, "Not as wide spread as it used to be" as I see I was quite vague, my point was the younger generation.  Most of us when we were kids were interested in the hobby.  Most kids these days are more interested in technology, phones, computers, video games, etc... than a hobby.

I think most model railroaders in today's world are typically older and further along with thier skill levels giving them an even greater interest the second time around.  Bigger bank to afford and appreciate how much better every thing in model railroading is today and willing to pay for it as well.

Makes complete sense to me both your points on suppliers marketing strategies and a large enough demand.  I'd have to completely agree with those points.  A different scenario but I remember the famous Disney animation movies when my kids were young only came out every 5 years as the same marketing strategy.  So I do get it.

I have noticed looking at an old 70 ton ore car from the 70's and looking at a currant one, that they are identical.  It doesn't appear Atlas has changed their molds in years.

Hopefully, one of these days they slap some rust paint and some DMIR decals on some after they come out of the moldsLaugh  I also wish Micro-Trains would get into the ore car game.  Then I wouldn't have to switch out the trucks.

 

P.S.  The Train club thing has had my interest for quite a few years Paul.  The Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum has a really huge impressive layout.  One time I was down there one of the guys told me I should join the club and come down and finish the large bridge that isn't done.  Quite tempting!  Sure wish this pandemic would break so I could feel better about doing that.

 

 

 

TF

 

 

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Posted by Paul3 on Friday, December 10, 2021 1:47 AM

Track fiddler,
I'm not surprised DMIR sells out in St. Paul.  The problem is that DMIR isn't selling in such great numbers elsewhere.  I'm in a large 65-member HO club in the Boston area and we register our equipment.  Out of the 2000 engines on our roster, not one DMIR engine is on the list.  There aren't any DWP locos, either, but there are 9 NP engines (an A-B-B-A set of F's, an RDC, an 0-8-0, and two ES44DC's from T55).

We're a very regional hobby.  Just because something sells out quickly and easily in the hundreds in St. Paul doesn't mean that a manufacturer can sell the thousands needed to make a profit.

The question I have is that if the St. Paul dealer knows he can sell tons of DMIR product, why didn't he order more to being with?  This is almost a made-to-order hobby these days; if a hobby shop orders 500 cars he should get his 500 cars.  The problem is that hobby shops are generally C.O.D. and many can't afford to buy that kind of inventory all at once.  Well, same goes for manufacturers.  They can't afford to stock that kind of inventory all at once, either.  Many take out loans to pay for design, pay for tooling, pay for production, pay for shipping, and pay for distribution before they earn a single cent.  No one wants to sit on unsold inventory, so they order enough to fill all the orders, plus a guesstimated percentage over that to take care of late/extra orders, plus some extras for warranty or replacement work.

The manufacturer's risk vs. reward is simple: make too few and risk annoying some customers who waited too long to order and potentially miss out on some sales, or make too many and risk losing a lot of money and going out of business.  If the job was paying for your mortage, which side would you err on?

I disagree on your "well known fact" that the hobby isn't "as widespread as it used t be", mainly because I'm not sure what you mean by that.  Big Smile  It certainly appears to be as busy as ever from the manufacturing side of things.

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Posted by xboxtravis7992 on Thursday, December 9, 2021 8:26 PM

Track fiddler

 

A well-known fact this hobby is not as widespread as it used to be.  I don't understand how major suppliers (interested in making money) choose not to meet higher demand with some of their products.

 

 

I think that argument is a bit counter-intuitive, but from what I understand there are some factors at play.

Yes the hobby is not as widely spread, but it has shifted towards higher quality products. The old TYCO stuff that was a cheap toy is certainly no longer in vogue, outside of simple starter sets. Blue Box type kits kept costs low by making the customer assemble them at home, but RTR is certainly more in vogue and customers are willing to pay the extra cost to have an RTR product (time is money they say and a RTR product now is not a workbench project still gathering dust years later). As such the models we have now not only are more expensive as a consumer, but are more expensive as a manufacturer. So more high quality molds, more tooling, more costs to the factory in China to pay for the assembly, more pad printing or waterslide decals to be applied in the factory, sturdier packing to assure the details don't break in shipping, etc. So in this market every product has to sell to hit that break even.

So model companies end up with two choices, since there is no magic cyrstal ball to tell them exactly what they will sell... they can either over-produce product and have it sitting around for years slowly selling things and losing money paying for product to sit on a shelf. Or they can under-produce it, be guranteed to sell out each run, and then wait a few years for demand to rise again before a second batch runs which is ALSO guranteed to sell out. So for profit margins alone, under-producing product can be a more appealing strategy than over-producing.

Since model railroading is already such a thin in the margins venture already, I do not think we should fault the manufacturers for taking that strategy of short highly hyped runs. The alternative is much worse, over-produce and you end up with dust collecting boxes in hobby shop shelves. This is further made worse that many hobby shops don't buy the product outright, but instead sell under a scheme were the manufacturer gives them product, but neither the store or manufacturer make a profit until the product sells. 40 boxes of unsold product on a shelf is a net zero profit for the manufacturer, and robs vital hobby store space from other products that would maybe sell better. Sure maybe a company with big warehouses like Walthers or MB Klein can do that and hold onto product for ages, but could your LHS do such and keep their overhead covered as well? Product not sold is profits not made. 

Again on the consumer's side, I get it. Artificial scarcity sucks, and it can be bad news to discover one model you want has not been made for several years, and won't be back on market for several more. But its a much better buisness model than the alternative, and since this hobby market is so small, short runs is the best way to keep the hype and interest in a product up. 

I know its "the other magazine" as far as this board is concerned, but please pick up some Railroad Model Craftsman copies lately and read the stuff Jason writes in the end. Its a great window into the manufacturing side that everyone should be familiar with as the hobby goes forward. 

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Posted by Track fiddler on Thursday, December 9, 2021 9:54 AM

Good morning

Interesting thread rrebell, I have enjoyed reading here.  I'll post my two cents as I think it indirectly relates to the subject.

I was chatting with my buddy that owns a hobby shop in St Paul a while back.  Even though I pay more for some things that I need, it's worth it for the atmosphere and the good conversation on any given visit.

Bruce was telling me how he can't even keep up with the demand for DMIR stuff in N scale.  He managed to find a very large quantity of the rust colored DMIR 70 ton ore cars with different reporting numbers.  I'm pretty sure it was a run of brand new old stock.  He told me they don't even stay on the shelf and sold like hotcakes in a little over a week.  "I wish I could get more" he said.

I find the same to be true on the internet.  Any DMIR, DWP and also Northern Pacific Lowry paint scheme just to name a few seem to be sold almost immediately when listed, even if a bit overpriced.

It would seem to me, if a hobby shop owner and just a regular Joe Schmoe such as myself can see this kind of high demand.  Makes me wonder why the larger retailers in this hobby can't see it and manufacture these models that sell quickly.

A well-known fact this hobby is not as widespread as it used to be.  I don't understand how major suppliers (interested in making money) choose not to meet higher demand with some of their products.

 

 

 

TF

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Posted by n012944 on Sunday, December 5, 2021 10:26 AM

NorthsideChi

 

Personally, I believe the hobby has improved greatly. 

 

I agree with you.  

An "expensive model collector"

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Posted by FRRYKid on Sunday, December 5, 2021 2:59 AM

selector
 

Most people know very little about trains.  Unless someone in their lineage has trains of a kind, and has exposed the younger ones to them, there will be no particular interest in trains for the huge majority of people under 50 now.

Don't forget about those kids who have grown up around Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. I imagine some of them weren't exposed to trains before that.

selector

And that will tend to leave the current practitioners, those aging well into their 60's and beyond, as representatives of current practitioners, and from there you get the rising mean age...or median if that's what you're interested in.

As well, though, is the ubiquitous smart...well.....anything, really. Our attention is being monopolized more and more, despite what this aged gentleman in the previous posts might have represented, by technology, and the interface between online shopping, online news, chats, texts, tweets, etc and model trains is only peripheral at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if most of us reading my post are well into our 50's and quite a bit beyond.  Some of us spend time on line, maybe more than we should  [..AHEM!..], but a lot of us only come to our technology for defined and short-lived purposes...like playing along here.

As we age, we become more inflexible and intolerant to the exigencies and demands of new....stuff.  It is harder for us to deal with them, and so we become more predictable in our routines.  I'm sure you won't find many arduino users in the heavy majority of us who post here regularly, or who are still in DC in the hobby.  We have managed to deal with the demands of DCC and can still tolerate all it takes to keep our decoders usable.  Meanwhile, those under 40 are off doing their own things, mostly, with a few enjoying grandpa's train set.  A very few,

I'm not to the 50 point yet. I'm also in that category of people who are still running straight DC. (I do have a few engines that I think are DCC equipped only because I had an older gentleman give them to me about two years ago as he could no longer model. While he modeled a different era than I do, they still fit with a bit of minor relettering for a successor railroad.) As to the online grumble, there are places in the world that don't have a close LHS or other people that model railroad so that is the only way that they can interact with their fellow rallroaders even if we've never met in person. And I don't tweet either.

"The only stupid question is the unasked question."
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Posted by rrebell on Saturday, December 4, 2021 2:19 PM

 

I got back into the hobby at 29 as having just retied had way too much time on my hands, and then the kids came which ment I was mostly an arm chair railroader for awhile.

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Posted by rrebell on Saturday, December 4, 2021 2:13 PM

selector

 

 
rrebell

 

 
dknelson

When I started in HO the average age of a model railroader was early adulthood to the mid 30s and since there were plenty of senior citizens in the hobby back then that meant there was a really large supply of young modelers, meaning beginners, to put the average where it was.  It would be interesting to know what the mean age was back then but nobody was doing statistical gathering like that.  My hunch is that there were actually relatively few model railroaders of the so-called average age of 25 to 35.  

Result: lots of model railroad goods aimed at beginners, which in turn had an impact on pricing and availability, and frankly, on prototype accuracy as well.  Everybody complained that it seemed like the only road names available were the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and Pennsylvania Railroad.  The guys who modeled those three railroads seemed like kings of the hill.  Fewer noticed or mentioned that those models were rarely accurate for Santa Fe, UP, or Pennsy.    

Now the average age is post-retirement and getting older, not because more seniors are in the hobby but because there are fewer on the other end of the age spectrum to drag down the average.  We often already have all the track and control systems we'll ever want, we're up to our armpits in locomotives and rolling stock, and now our interests are more granular like scenery, more specialized in era and locale, better informed about prototype, and quite possibly not shared enough with other local modelers to support a money making train store.

 

Dave Nelson    

 

 

 

Accually wrong reason for the older age statistic, the reason is we are living longer and in better health. I remember when I was a kid, lots of people  65 and older were humped over and had bad lungs and were in generaly terrible shape, not as many of those percentage wise now. Average life expectancy was around 65, now it is 77 and a vast majority are in much better shape.

 

 

 

 

In fact, it's a tad more complicated.  Time's passage alters many things, including those each of you have mentioned.  But technology also has an influence.  So does the general appeal of the hobby as a whole.

Most people know very little about trains.  Unless someone in their lineage has trains of a kind, and has exposed the younger ones to them, there will be no particular interest in trains for the huge majority of people under 50 now.  This tends to apply a downward pressure in terms of absolute numbers participating in the hobby.  And that will tend to leave the current practitioners, those aging well into their 60's and beyond, as representatives of current practitioners, and from there you get the rising mean age...or median if that's what you're interested in.

As well, though, is the ubiquitous smart...well.....anything, really. Our attention is being monopolized more and more, despite what this aged gentleman in the previous posts might have represented, by technology, and the interface between online shopping, online news, chats, texts, tweets, etc and model trains is only peripheral at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if most of us reading my post are well into our 50's and quite a bit beyond.  Some of us spend time on line, maybe more than we should  [..AHEM!..], but a lot of us only come to our technology for defined and short-lived purposes...like playing along here.

As we age, we become more inflexible and intolerant to the exigencies and demands of new....stuff.  It is harder for us to deal with them, and so we become more predictable in our routines.  I'm sure you won't find many arduino users in the heavy majority of us who post here regularly, or who are still in DC in the hobby.  We have managed to deal with the demands of DCC and can still tolerate all it takes to keep our decoders usable.  Meanwhile, those under 40 are off doing their own things, mostly, with a few enjoying grandpa's train set.  A very few,

 

Speak for yourself, the thing that really changes as we age is we don't change because others do. I only went into DCC because of sound. My taste in music ranges from the 60's to today. I have a currant phone but not an I-phone as I don't use many of the gagets and don't want to be locked into the Apple world or anyone else which companys are always trying to do, the most annoying being HP and Microsoft, it is a real pain to delete their Edge.

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Posted by NorthsideChi on Saturday, December 4, 2021 12:55 PM

I think time and money and space are what put the hobby at risk for younger people.  Myself and my friends in our 30's, we don't own houses with extra space.  This is important because my generation at this moment is less likelier to own a house, not just because of cost, but location in a big city.  I do live in a condo and therefore have a dedicated 12' x 12' room in the basement, but I use that for operating power tools.  My layout is built out in the open common area which would normally be forbidden it weren't for the fact that I'm the only person on the HOA board out of 10 units and my neighbors simply tolerate the fact that there's model trains in the basement.  My friends not in the hobby, compliment that it's modular and can be put away as they can't fathom a permanent bench setup.  It's always "well when I get old and have a forever house maybe I'd pick up the hobby". but a younger generation today is far more transient, moving more often between cities, so nothing can be built permanently.  

Then there's the families, my friends with kids are heavily invested in sports and video games.  They've bought them model train starter kits which they enjoy, but the time it would take to grow and expand that to a table layout just isn't available, not for the parents or the kids.  

Personally, I believe the hobby has improved greatly.  I stopped building my layout when I entered high school in 1998, and then for no reason picked back up in 2016 

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Posted by Engi1487 on Saturday, December 4, 2021 12:41 PM

kasskaboose

 

Dave's correct that most of the folks in this hobby are older.  Nothing wrong with that.  What is wrong is when people are unwilling to help encourage newer folks from getting into the hobby.  Overwhelming them with reminders about the many books to read, money to spend, etc. seems less engaging then remembering that we all started at square one.
 



True, how I ask how can we not overwhelm ourselves and others with reminders that come with the hobby? I am 27 at the moment, younger then alot of the older persons here, and I was and still am overwhelmed with many things such as reasurch, making sure certain details are correct etc, and I wont want to discourage myself or other when I tell them about it.

As for costs and money to spend being the first mention that turns heads away, how do I encourage others when telling them about model trains. I do believe and feel that it is worth to spend the extra for a well detailed locomotive (ex being scaletrains, rapido) if you want as superdetailing a basic locomotive as a beginner can become costly timewise as well and could lead to frustraition, as when I bought my first DCC/Sound loco being a Walthers Mainline citirail ES44AC back in 2018, I sold it as I was not happy with the basic detail and as a beginner, I realize detailing it could lead to frustration and more time pent then I wanted too.

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Posted by kasskaboose on Saturday, December 4, 2021 11:30 AM

dknelson

When I started in HO the average age of a model railroader was early adulthood to the mid 30s and since there were plenty of senior citizens in the hobby back then that meant there was a really large supply of young modelers, meaning beginners, to put the average where it was.  It would be interesting to know what the mean age was back then but nobody was doing statistical gathering like that.  My hunch is that there were actually relatively few model railroaders of the so-called average age of 25 to 35.  

Result: lots of model railroad goods aimed at beginners, which in turn had an impact on pricing and availability, and frankly, on prototype accuracy as well.  Everybody complained that it seemed like the only road names available were the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and Pennsylvania Railroad.  The guys who modeled those three railroads seemed like kings of the hill.  Fewer noticed or mentioned that those models were rarely accurate for Santa Fe, UP, or Pennsy.    

Now the average age is post-retirement and getting older, not because more seniors are in the hobby but because there are fewer on the other end of the age spectrum to drag down the average.  We often already have all the track and control systems we'll ever want, we're up to our armpits in locomotives and rolling stock, and now our interests are more granular like scenery, more specialized in era and locale, better informed about prototype, and quite possibly not shared enough with other local modelers to support a money making train store.

And yes I do recall the achingly lone wait for packages from America's Hobby Center.  But the joy when the box arrived is well remembered too even if the dreaded "credit slip" showed that something ordered was sold out.  I even liked the smell of the AHC packages.  Plus they used pages from the New York Herald Tribune, Sun, Mirror, or Journal-American to cushion the shipments.

Dave Nelson    

 

 
Dave's correct that most of the folks in this hobby are older.  Nothing wrong with that.  What is wrong is when people are unwilling to help encourage newer folks from getting into the hobby.  Overwhelming them with reminders about the many books to read, money to spend, etc. seems less engaging then remembering that we all started at square one.
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Posted by selector on Saturday, December 4, 2021 11:08 AM

rrebell

 

 
dknelson

When I started in HO the average age of a model railroader was early adulthood to the mid 30s and since there were plenty of senior citizens in the hobby back then that meant there was a really large supply of young modelers, meaning beginners, to put the average where it was.  It would be interesting to know what the mean age was back then but nobody was doing statistical gathering like that.  My hunch is that there were actually relatively few model railroaders of the so-called average age of 25 to 35.  

Result: lots of model railroad goods aimed at beginners, which in turn had an impact on pricing and availability, and frankly, on prototype accuracy as well.  Everybody complained that it seemed like the only road names available were the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and Pennsylvania Railroad.  The guys who modeled those three railroads seemed like kings of the hill.  Fewer noticed or mentioned that those models were rarely accurate for Santa Fe, UP, or Pennsy.    

Now the average age is post-retirement and getting older, not because more seniors are in the hobby but because there are fewer on the other end of the age spectrum to drag down the average.  We often already have all the track and control systems we'll ever want, we're up to our armpits in locomotives and rolling stock, and now our interests are more granular like scenery, more specialized in era and locale, better informed about prototype, and quite possibly not shared enough with other local modelers to support a money making train store.

 

Dave Nelson    

 

 

 

Accually wrong reason for the older age statistic, the reason is we are living longer and in better health. I remember when I was a kid, lots of people  65 and older were humped over and had bad lungs and were in generaly terrible shape, not as many of those percentage wise now. Average life expectancy was around 65, now it is 77 and a vast majority are in much better shape.

 

 

In fact, it's a tad more complicated.  Time's passage alters many things, including those each of you have mentioned.  But technology also has an influence.  So does the general appeal of the hobby as a whole.

Most people know very little about trains.  Unless someone in their lineage has trains of a kind, and has exposed the younger ones to them, there will be no particular interest in trains for the huge majority of people under 50 now.  This tends to apply a downward pressure in terms of absolute numbers participating in the hobby.  And that will tend to leave the current practitioners, those aging well into their 60's and beyond, as representatives of current practitioners, and from there you get the rising mean age...or median if that's what you're interested in.

As well, though, is the ubiquitous smart...well.....anything, really. Our attention is being monopolized more and more, despite what this aged gentleman in the previous posts might have represented, by technology, and the interface between online shopping, online news, chats, texts, tweets, etc and model trains is only peripheral at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if most of us reading my post are well into our 50's and quite a bit beyond.  Some of us spend time on line, maybe more than we should  [..AHEM!..], but a lot of us only come to our technology for defined and short-lived purposes...like playing along here.

As we age, we become more inflexible and intolerant to the exigencies and demands of new....stuff.  It is harder for us to deal with them, and so we become more predictable in our routines.  I'm sure you won't find many arduino users in the heavy majority of us who post here regularly, or who are still in DC in the hobby.  We have managed to deal with the demands of DCC and can still tolerate all it takes to keep our decoders usable.  Meanwhile, those under 40 are off doing their own things, mostly, with a few enjoying grandpa's train set.  A very few,

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Saturday, December 4, 2021 10:44 AM

I'm pretty happy with the way things have developed in model railroading.  I'm 74 and I've been doing this for a long time, and I find today's offerings to totally improve my experience in the hobby.  I can generally build a layout however I want to.  If I want to scratch-build a structure, I can, or I can find either a wood or plastic kit, build that or I can open a box and plop the contents down.

Time, as much as we try to push it back, speed it up or build a world from the past, does not permit me to do everything I would like.  So, I can literally pick and choose which activities I enjoy most.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by nealknows on Saturday, December 4, 2021 5:24 AM

There's another part of all of this we're missing - that of the person who does not use a computer!! 

Yesterday I received a call from a person who saw the new product announcement in the 2021 December issue (Thank you MR!!) and he wanted to order one. I told him him he could order online. This person proceeded to tell me as follows: He's 71, has a flip phone, doesn't own a computer and will drive to his LHS somewhere in California. He asked if I could take his credit card over the phone and I told him it's best if he sends a check to us to place his order.

So you have to think how many people do not use the internet to buy things or find out how great the hobby is due to forums like this one! I kind of felt bad for the guy, and I wound up chatting with him for 15 minutes. Think he enjoyed it and we have a future customer. Just hope he doesn't decide to call at night to 'chat'...!

Neal

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Posted by FRRYKid on Saturday, December 4, 2021 2:52 AM

As a follow up on the age question, I have a post similar to this going on a private FB group I'm part of asking ages. As of early on December 4th, the age average is roughly at about 45. Most are between 20 and 70 but there are a few people on it younger than 20 with some also older than 70 so IMHO there seems to be a healthy span of modelers and/or people with an interest.

"The only stupid question is the unasked question."
Brain waves can power an electric train. RealFact #832 from Snapple.
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Posted by rrebell on Friday, December 3, 2021 8:46 PM

dknelson

When I started in HO the average age of a model railroader was early adulthood to the mid 30s and since there were plenty of senior citizens in the hobby back then that meant there was a really large supply of young modelers, meaning beginners, to put the average where it was.  It would be interesting to know what the mean age was back then but nobody was doing statistical gathering like that.  My hunch is that there were actually relatively few model railroaders of the so-called average age of 25 to 35.  

Result: lots of model railroad goods aimed at beginners, which in turn had an impact on pricing and availability, and frankly, on prototype accuracy as well.  Everybody complained that it seemed like the only road names available were the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and Pennsylvania Railroad.  The guys who modeled those three railroads seemed like kings of the hill.  Fewer noticed or mentioned that those models were rarely accurate for Santa Fe, UP, or Pennsy.    

Now the average age is post-retirement and getting older, not because more seniors are in the hobby but because there are fewer on the other end of the age spectrum to drag down the average.  We often already have all the track and control systems we'll ever want, we're up to our armpits in locomotives and rolling stock, and now our interests are more granular like scenery, more specialized in era and locale, better informed about prototype, and quite possibly not shared enough with other local modelers to support a money making train store.

 

Dave Nelson    

 

Accually wrong reason for the older age statistic, the reason is we are living longer and in better health. I remember when I was a kid, lots of people  65 and older were humped over and had bad lungs and were in generaly terrible shape, not as many of those percentage wise now. Average life expectancy was around 65, now it is 77 and a vast majority are in much better shape.

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Posted by Shock Control on Friday, December 3, 2021 7:17 PM

maxman
Shock Control
I wish someone would please 3D-print feelers for the Mantua Clearance Check Car.  I have three of these cars, but only one with feelers.  

 

Maybe you should put out some feelers.

Ha ha!  I was kind of doing that with my post!  Anyone want to send me a PM?

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Posted by maxman on Friday, December 3, 2021 1:09 PM

[quote user="cv_acr"]

 maxman

 

 
SeeYou190
Today it is all better. You can have your cake and eat it too, or just have cake, or just eat. You can really do whatever makes you happy.

 

No, today is not "all better".  You are obviously living in a dream world.  I became a very late in life diabetic.  Yes, I can have my cake, look at it, touch it, and smell it (covid allowing).  But I can't eat it.

And that does not make me happy.

 

 

 Way to kill the metaphor.

 /quote
 
I can eat all the metaphors I want.  They don't have any carbs.
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Posted by NorthsideChi on Friday, December 3, 2021 11:22 AM

I'm big on 3d printing.  With proper modeling techniques I can get a 2-3 story building measuring up to 7"X 8" in footprint printed in a day or two.  Printers these days are better at resolution and better at printing overhangs and "bridge" conditions where filament is deposited in air with nothing beneath it for support. I generally model everything in real world scale with no items less than a half inch.  Otherwise anything less than a half inch won't show up when at HO scale. I think 1/2" to 1" resolution at HO scale is pretty good for model representations so I don't see this as a shortcoming.  Yes it takes many hours to print, but you can just leave a printer running while you aren't home. Mishaps are extremely rare.  I've printed 7 miles of filament over 260 days and only came home once to a ball of string.  More updated printers will use AI to smooth out mistakes or use collision detection to work around issues before they get worse.  Owning a few printers one can mass produce models. The benefit is filaments are safe to use and produce low hazard fumes that can be vented without expensive exhaust systems.  

I hope 3D printing will benefit the hobby.  It takes less human time to build models. I realize the human element is what makes it enjoyable, but others I know into the hobby and I are in their 30's, don't have much time spent at home and want entire downtowns built in months, not years.  I can only squeeze in a couple hours each week to paint stuff so it's preferable to have a machine building my layout while I'm away. The benefit is once you have equipment, a fully built structure may only cost a couple dollars.  Often the paint costs more! 

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Posted by cv_acr on Friday, December 3, 2021 11:12 AM

maxman

 

 
SeeYou190
Today it is all better. You can have your cake and eat it too, or just have cake, or just eat. You can really do whatever makes you happy.

 

No, today is not "all better".  You are obviously living in a dream world.  I became a very late in life diabetic.  Yes, I can have my cake, look at it, touch it, and smell it (covid allowing).  But I can't eat it.

And that does not make me happy.

 

 

Way to kill the metaphor.

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    March 2002
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Posted by dknelson on Friday, December 3, 2021 11:11 AM

When I started in HO the average age of a model railroader was early adulthood to the mid 30s and since there were plenty of senior citizens in the hobby back then that meant there was a really large supply of young modelers, meaning beginners, to put the average where it was.  It would be interesting to know what the mean age was back then but nobody was doing statistical gathering like that.  My hunch is that there were actually relatively few model railroaders of the so-called average age of 25 to 35.  

Result: lots of model railroad goods aimed at beginners, which in turn had an impact on pricing and availability, and frankly, on prototype accuracy as well.  Everybody complained that it seemed like the only road names available were the Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and Pennsylvania Railroad.  The guys who modeled those three railroads seemed like kings of the hill.  Fewer noticed or mentioned that those models were rarely accurate for Santa Fe, UP, or Pennsy.    

Now the average age is post-retirement and getting older, not because more seniors are in the hobby but because there are fewer on the other end of the age spectrum to drag down the average.  We often already have all the track and control systems we'll ever want, we're up to our armpits in locomotives and rolling stock, and now our interests are more granular like scenery, more specialized in era and locale, better informed about prototype, and quite possibly not shared enough with other local modelers to support a money making train store.

And yes I do recall the achingly lone wait for packages from America's Hobby Center.  But the joy when the box arrived is well remembered too even if the dreaded "credit slip" showed that something ordered was sold out.  I even liked the smell of the AHC packages.  Plus they used pages from the New York Herald Tribune, Sun, Mirror, or Journal-American to cushion the shipments.

Dave Nelson    

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Posted by maxman on Friday, December 3, 2021 11:06 AM

Shock Control
I wish someone would please 3D-print feelers for the Mantua Clearance Check Car.  I have three of these cars, but only one with feelers.  

Maybe you should put out some feelers.

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    February 2008
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Posted by maxman on Friday, December 3, 2021 11:04 AM

SeeYou190
Today it is all better. You can have your cake and eat it too, or just have cake, or just eat. You can really do whatever makes you happy.

No, today is not "all better".  You are obviously living in a dream world.  I became a very late in life diabetic.  Yes, I can have my cake, look at it, touch it, and smell it (covid allowing).  But I can't eat it.

And that does not make me happy.

  • Member since
    February 2002
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Posted by wjstix on Friday, December 3, 2021 11:00 AM

I look at 3-D printing for the near future as filling several niches, perhaps eventually becoming the standard way of producing models. For example, I like the Great Northern. With maybe one exception (BLI Heavy Mikado), accurate HO GN steam models are only available as very expensive brass or (in one case) a fairly expensive hybrid model. But, except for their Belpaire fireboxes, many GN engines were fairly typical for their era. If you could buy say a Bachmann USRA 4-6-2 or 2-8-2 and then buy a new 3-D printed boiler that would fit on it but be correct for the GN, even if that boiler cost $100-200 the overall cost of everything would still be much less than a brass model of a GN engine.

Stix
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    December 2016
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Posted by Shock Control on Friday, December 3, 2021 10:49 AM

I wish someone would please 3D-print feelers for the Mantua Clearance Check Car.  I have three of these cars, but only one with feelers.  

Please let me know when these are available.  

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