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The Changing Hobby of Model Railroading

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Posted by rrebell on Friday, December 3, 2021 8:51 AM

Sound is what draged me into DCC and the fact that DCC engines seem to not need as clean track proubly because of the higher voltage.

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Posted by FRRYKid on Friday, December 3, 2021 2:37 AM

Of course, even with some of the advancements out there, there are some of us who stick with the older tech.

I have no intent to ever take my layout to DCC. Given I have 20+ engines that would get a bit expensive and a few AHM U25Cs (older than I am) that I don't even know if could be converted.

I have a few RTR cars but I have many more that I have painted and decaled myself. Protolancing accounts for a chunk but I have done a lot of prototype cars as well. There are even a few "RTR" cars that I've had to "fix" the lettering as the stock lettering was wrong verified by prototype pictures.

On the positive side of advancement, when I first started seriously railroading, I ordered out of catalogs without knowing half the time what the item actually looked like. Now for the most part I can actually see what I'm buying.

"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 SeeYou190 on Thursday, December 2, 2021 9:26 PM

rrebell
Model railroading has always been a hobby in flux with the first nothing but scratch builders to todays mostly RTR.

Today, with little doubt, having a completed an enjoyable layout is much more of a real possibilty.

DCC and autoreversers have made wiring and control more simplified, and there is no reason to spend a lot of time on kits if your main interest is running trains.

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.

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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Posted by rrebell on Thursday, December 2, 2021 6:08 PM

No one yelling or complaing, just discusing.

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Posted by cuyama on Thursday, December 2, 2021 12:40 PM

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 10:00 PM

Water Level Route
Searching for something specific through shapeways can be an adventure of its own.

Now that there is so much product on Shapeway's site, they really need some sort of good categorization to help us find what we need.

JR Santa Fe
Who among us remembers "Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery"?

That was the worst. Thank goodness for package tracking!

-Kevin

Living the dream.

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Posted by rrebell on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 3:28 PM

On another note, look how train mags have changed, used to be lots of them. Also the few remaining have really changed. MRH used to have a format that looked good on a small computer but they changed it to be more phone compatable, only it made the computer version worse. Also it veired to their TOMA ideas and advanced computer interfaces plus split it into free and plus which is a paid subscripion. MR is pushing their new web site but I find finding my way around things to very difficult and they send me updates but I can't just click on them to veiw, I have to relog in or go to my bookmark. Don't know if either will survive long term as neither has a viable long term plan and both are having issues with getting viable content (content that people will pay for)as some of the best modelers out there are free on u-tube and other sites, especially since to get a grab in the modern world, you need new content all the time, it is not like reg magazines where it was new content monthly.

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Posted by csxns on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 3:20 PM

JR Santa Fe
"Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery"

Back then mail went by Rail took longer' now Trucks haul it get it faster.

Russell

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Posted by NittanyLion on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 2:58 PM

JR Santa Fe

Speaking of mail order, who among us remembers "Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery"?  Maybe it was really 3-4 weeks, but it typically took weeks.  We kids had to be really patient in the 60's and 70's!

I was born in 1982 and still remember "6 to 8 weeks, 8 to 10 west of the Mississippi."

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Posted by rrebell on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 2:51 PM

Me, I always wanted high detail items, the new RTR cars fit that bill. I have the skills to build wood cars and plastic kits well and even the paint part but never mastered decals and really just prefer RTR. I don't mind building what I can't find RTR like decent wood structures.

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Posted by Doughless on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 2:38 PM

If you build a layout, RTR products are simply a component of the model railroad that you assemble in your basement.

If you build models; the ends, underframe, details and paint are the components that you assemble when you build the model on your workbench.

Since age 14, I've always been interested in building layouts, not models.

My interest in the hobby has not changed, and over the past ten years, the explosion of RTR model railroad components has changed the hobby for the better for me.

Long live the hobby. 

- Douglas

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Posted by ctyclsscs on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 1:03 PM

JR Santa Fe
typically took weeks.  We kids had to be really patient in the 60's and 70's!

And you never knew if they would have the products in stock. Back when I was young we'd order slot car parts from Auto World, and not only did you wait weeks and weeks, but half of the items would be out of stock. I know they weren't trains, but I'm sure it was that way with a lot of the model RR mail-order houses too.

Jim

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Posted by JR Santa Fe on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 12:57 PM

Speaking of mail order, who among us remembers "Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery"?  Maybe it was really 3-4 weeks, but it typically took weeks.  We kids had to be really patient in the 60's and 70's!

This past Sunday I placed an order with Tichy, and I received an email on Monday saying that it had already shipped.  And that's typical of a lot of suppliers who have same day shipping.  A big improvement from the past. Smile

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Posted by cv_acr on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 12:35 PM

rrebell

For mass producing 3d printing dose not have the detail or is it cost effective for larger amounts of product.  Emulsion printing, now called resin printing I believe, fixes the detail but still can't be used economicly for larger amounts of product. 

It has much higher detail and resolution than "filament" printing (which is frankly unusable for this application) but there are still some limitations with curves and angled parts that can show layer lines, and it's slow, taking a few hours to print an item, and then all the supports (and designing them in the right places can almost be an art in itself) have to be cut away and cleaned up.

However it is a way to get unique stuff made that will never get mass-produced, and in some cases, can be used to produce the masters for resin casting kits (once layer lines or other artifacts from support attachments etc. are cleaned up)

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Posted by snjroy on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 12:11 PM

I like the way how are trains are interacting more with other IT components. I now "drive" my trains using my cellphone. It's a bit intimidating, but one day I will get into connecting my DCC system to my computer. 

My ongoing pet peeve is decalling. I'm still looking for an easy printing system that I could do from a lazer printer at home. The Testors print sheets don't seem to be available anymore...

Simon 

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Posted by Water Level Route on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 11:32 AM

While it is more expensive, I see 3D printing/resin printing as the way a lot of things will be headed in the hobby.  The problem is going to be finding what you want as everybody and their brother start to offer things for sale.  Searching for something specific through shapeways can be an adventure of its own.

Mike

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Posted by rrebell on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 11:25 AM

The way we buy things is changing too. We used to go to hobby shops and then came mail order. Then with the advances in computers and the internet, shopping online became a reality and even here things are not static, e-bay is no longer a viable sourse for a lot of hobby stuff due to shipping and the changes the company made. One problem with teck is they keep breaking the cardinal rule "if it aint broke, don't fix it", they do this all the time and they tend to eventually get it to work but sometines it can take awhile.

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Posted by rrebell on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 11:17 AM

For mass producing 3d printing dose not have the detail or is it cost effective for larger amounts of product.  Emulsion printing, now called resin printing I believe, fixes the detail but still can't be used economicly for larger amounts of product. 

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Posted by davidmurray on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 10:49 AM

Some of the small manufacturers were in fact mom and pop operations, perhaps starting part time.  As they get older, replacing worn out equipment, or commissioning new mold becomes less viable.

Positive change:  The number of people doing 3D printing.

 

David Murray from Oshawa, Ontario Canada
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The Changing Hobby of Model Railroading
Posted by rrebell on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 10:44 AM

Model railroading has always been a hobby in flux with the first nothing but scratch builders to todays mostly RTR. This is not a, "the hobby is dying thread" (which it isn't), but to discuss the changes and as the world changes faster and faster, so will this hobby.    There were no fixed scales in the begining but this changed with mass merchandising. The small manufactures which are still out there are getting fewer and the bigger ones keep on expanding, gobbling up the little guys which didn't used to happen as often as in the non hobby world but with todays modern tecnologys and changes in manufacturing methods, this is happening all the time.

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