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Old Brakeshoe wrote:

     Have you ever noticed, there are hardly any trains around Christmas time? I mean, not much merchandise for real railfans. It seems that most everyone I have talked to has never heard of a 'Modle Train'. It is always a toy train. Why is that?
     Railroads built America, without them, the west would not have developed, and I think that
it is about time that someone started to promote our hobby. Yes I am a part of MR's Greatest
Hobby on Earth, but that still just doesn't do our hobby justice. What do you think?
                                                                           Signed
                                                                     Old Brakeshoe

**********

Ummm, well that depends on who you're talking to. You should probably post your query as a separate thread on one of the MODEL RAILROADER sites. As a baby boomer, I certainly agree that toy (or to be more charitable, "entry-level") model RR kits are far harder to come by than in the pre-Hot Wheels 1950s and 60s.

-- You asked for opinions--which in my case can be a risky query! But please allow me to speak to what is probably not a misconception on your part so much as a gap in semantics that can be difficult for us all. The difference between "model train" and "toy train" is something like the difference between a "custom Corvette" and an "automobile." Unless you're counting pure non-powered frivolities like Thomas the Tank Engine, toy trains are ALSO model trains, just as a 'Vette is also an auto; though as you can tell by the way Kalmbach has organized its posts, people do observe a functional and financial distinction between one and the other. But the cheapie Wal-Mart $39.95 HO trainset of warbonnet diesel, three freight cars, caboose, round track and "power-pack" transformer I bought on a whim for my cousin's kids two years ago is the same gauge and scale as other, more realistic and expensive HO equipment. (The respective coupling systems aren't very compatible, but that's another matter.) The point is the kids love it, Dad was smart enough to mount in on a board, and it comes out at holiday time, not all the time. It stays clean and works fine. And I bought a red ATSF caboose to add to the set because the pre-existing UP yellow caboose was heresy to use with a Santa Fe engine, even for a permissive like me .

Which may lead to the larger problem: what we call the "model" trains tend toward the high-quality and don't lend themselves to mass vending, especially now that every American boy's dream is not an American Flyer under the tree but probably some computer games. Nonetheless, tradition has not died out entirely. I notice that our local Menard's stores (think Home Depot or Lowe's) every year for the past several years, and at Christmastime only, sells a basic Lionel .027 train kit in Wisconsin Central livery, complete with figure-eight track, steam engine and whistle. I think it costs $139.95: Nothin' wrong with that! So it is still possible for the enthusiast who gets seriously into model railroading to have first encountered his passion with just such a kit whether it's called a "toy train" or not; it's a recognizable phenomenon that still occurs.

As a hobby, though, what we call model railroading is not about convenience or kits, and if I'm overstating the case I hope folks on the Model Railroader site will correct me. Still, IMO the whole point of model railroading, to me, is precisely that it is not mass-produced in a one-format-only kit but instead lends itself to custom-made scenery and homemade or off-the-shelf individual buildings kits, high-quality rolling stock acquired over the years slowly but steadily by the piece, and so on. (In that sense it can easily be at least as painstaking as restoring a vintage 'Vette.) People can model realistic scenes at various points in history, or operate their own little vanity mini-RR, and so on, and of course that's exactly what can't be bought out of a box. And it's your own creation, not some marketing executive's notion of what looks cute. TRAINS website has links to get you into model railroading, if you've not already been there, so I don't need to elaborate.

Perhaps the reason salespeople don't know what a "model" (as opposed to "toy") train is that (especially during the Christmas rush), at department stores and big-box houses like Target the help, at retail rates of pay, needs to be ambulatory, energetic and reasonably friendly and honest -- however, expertise is beside the point. (Sadly, since toy- if not model-railroading is not as universal as it was 40 years ago, thru bitter experience I myself don't expect the average sleep-deprived store employee to understand the difference in what s/he may have had no experience with or even if s/he had, to distinguish between toy- and model-trains with all their possibility for overlap I've been addressing at too much length above.)

IMO if you want knowledgeable service with scale-model trains, try a good hobby shop. TRAINS has links to find you just such a source. Lots of people today use E-Bay and the like, too, but as that's something I've never done I will count on the experts to weigh in.

If you have a Hobby Lobby store nearby, I've seen some decent stuff there. But, ironically, during Christmas buying season at my local branch it's precisely the choice individual pieces that go first, rather than the boxed toy kits that they carry some of pretty much year-round.

You are not alone; but as with any adult hobby your taste, enthusiasm, skill and pocketbook must proceed at your own pace. Although you acknowledge that MR is the "greatest hobby," and would like to see your hobby better publicized (naturally), your post comes across as a touch defensive. Well, who cares what the non-involved think: your hobby is what you make of it; other people create elaborate scrapbooks or bungee-jump, so what's the harm in being individual? AND skilled. AND creative. AND--as you

al-in-chgo wrote:
....
Which may lead to the larger problem: what we call the "model" trains tend toward the high-quality and don't lend themselves to mass vending, especially now that every American boy's dream is not an American Flyer under the tree but probably some computer games.

i resent that. Depending on who you ask, I'm still just a kid... and I DO want trains under the tree for christmas.

I've seen all kinds of trains around at christmastime (granted in hobby shops) but just this past christmas, Lionel had a set in Target stores. I think that they were also in Walmart as well... sure they might not have been the $2000+ brass precision-engineered-like-a-swiss-watch locomotives that "serious modelers" buy, but it is a good starting point - I can't tell you how many times I've heard the "Well, I was <age> when Santa brought me my first train for christmas..." story from the older people here (i envy you guys).

Now, I don't have much experience to speak from, but IMO people are wanting to "slow down" again. In seeing some of the current happenings around here, and hearing people talk, it seems that many people want to almost go back to the way (certain) things were in the '50s and '60s. It might not be much... but maybe the first steps for this "slowing down" are rooted in the activities that can/will bring families closer together again. I mean, I see some of my peers whose parents are... distant... from them, and you can kind of tell that they want something that will bring them closer to their parents...

edit:

I was rereading this, and it might be a little confising/misdirected (ah, the joys of caffeine and posting at all hours). What I mean overall is that, from some of my peers, they (soom to) wish they had a way to connect with their parents; and some of the adults I know (seem to) want to see things "slow down" so that there is actually time for family activities...

Trains at Christmas