Is the hobby dying (2024)?

[Piyer]

Point 5 - Model electric trains, even Thomas & Friends, carry age 14+ recommendations.

This is a direct result of law suits brought in years gone past when young kids hurt themsselves, or others, through misuse of the product.

Len

Tide pods. Spoonful of cinnamon, dry. Drinking and driving. All proof that age is not a guarantee of maturity. 

[Ralph S]

Now that's what I call "hitting the nail on the head".    From manufacturer requirements, lawsuits run amok from product misuse by consumers, chauvinistics in the hobby, and the public view that it's an older generation keeping the hobby alive.

That's the kind of degrading information that has and still is killing Nuclear Power.  That is, manufacturer requirements (high cost of material and labor), lawsuits from the anti-nuclear consumers, limited desire/appeal from both sexes toward nuclear power, and the public pressing the government to not keep this power source alive and the older generation losing its influence to keep it alive.

If that isn't synonymous with model train hobby then I don't know what is.

I'm doing my part to keep the hobby alive, but I'm also consider as one of the older generations.

[jward]

I will say this. Bachmann has upgraded its rolling stock and locomotives to be as good as or better than the old Athearn and Roundhouse locomotives and cars from the old days. So have most others. If you buy new, it's hard to get a bad running train set in HO. That couldn't be said as recently as the late 1990s.

[RedMt Dave]

Same here. I was probably 11 or 12 when I was using old 110VAC Christmas lights to put under the snap together plastic buildings that we had for our American Flyer train set.

[trainman203]

 All you have to do to get a bad running train set is to buy a used one at an online auction!  as seen here on this very forum! Again, and again, and again, and again!

Broken record...... broken record... broken record....... Zip!  Zip! Zip!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_in_a_poke

[jward]

All you have to do to get a bad running train set is to buy a used one at an online auction!  as seen here on this very forum! Again, and again, and again, and again!

Broken record...... broken record... broken record....... Zip!  Zip! Zip!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_in_a_poke

That's not necessarily true. There are indications that a train set is poor quality if you know what to look for. Truck mounted couplers on cars and locomotive, especially the older horn hook type that looks nothing like a real coupler. Traction tires on the locomotive. Track with brass or steel rail. When I buy online these are the things I am looking for, and if I see them then I don't buy. It applies just as well to individual pieces as well as sets. The ironic thing is that in many cases a good locomotive will cost about the same as a poor one.

[trainman203]

All that is true, Jeffrey, IF you are an experienced hobbyist.  I suspect that the great majority of posters on this forum are not. 

Train sets are an entry point, few that buy train sets know much if anything , and many are looking for deals.  Deals are found in yard sales and online auctions, favorite dumping grounds of all kinds of junk.  All you have to do is look at entry-level stuff online to see what kind of abuse that used stuff suffers ..... but you and I are able to see it only because we are experienced. 

[Ralph S]

There you have it!  We're all either experienced or have a pretty good idea about the hobby.  In order to keep anything alive, such as this model hobby, you have to have newcomers (Religions of any kinds base their longevity (business model) to newcomers).   These new hobbyists are the ones keeping that statement and this quote alive

"...The ironic thing is that in many cases a good locomotive will cost about the same as a poor one."

Why, because that new hobbyist doesn't know the difference.    Yes, the manufacturers have gotten better quality trains and train sets.  It all then comes back to the newcomers.  Can they afford it, will their kids want them. 
What I am experiencing is watching my grown kids.  When they come over, their interest hasn't changed.  They see me building my layout and model train setup but are not truly engaged.  As my oldest son tells me, " I could build an entire train set/empire on the computer and it's also on Xbox and Playstation."   I tell him that it doesn't feel real, it's only on the computer screen.  How do you touch and move scenery?  He tells me that changes to the scenery are just a point and click away. 

I could go on and on, but my "ace in the hole" is praying that I will have, someday, grandkids who I can mold with my train set, like I can with some friends and relatives' kids.
I want this hobby to continue...but it will need newcomers.

[trainman203]

And as Jeffrey ward has pointed out, entering into this hobby can be expensive and/or fraught with pitfalls. I always advise some rank newcomer to not buy any used equipment of any kind, but rather to start with a new train set that's known to be trouble free and has a warranty.  Jeffery has pointed out many of the pitfalls that may surface when buying equipment whose history is not known.  There's just too many failure points for someone who doesn't know them that could run them out of Model Railroading without ever giving it a chance.  it happened to a friend of mine, and was partly my fault because I gave him too deep of a pool to dive into in the beginning.

[emde5]

Just got back from the Mad City Train Show.  Was crowded as usual, lots of young 20-30 people buying lots of stuff.  Was interesting to watch and listen. One layout had an Silver Streak train set including the E5 on the front. First one I've seen in the wild. Stopped and took some pictures from lots of angles. Had several younger people stop and ask questions and discuss the SS and engine, then got a discussion going with one of the people that was running the layout. Everything from track laying to the newest DCC stuff.  Was fun to listen to. Lots of ideas and good stuff. 

[trainman203]

That's up north.  Model Railroading appears to be mostly a pastime geared towards Long, cold northern winters, for people with basements available for layout space.

Down south, even though we have a few cold days, you can do stuff outdoors like golf or fishing year-round. There just isn't the months-long locked-inside entrapment down here that leads to indoor stuff like Model Railroading.  Ergo, only a few train shows and low Model Railroading per-capita density.

[jward]

Basements aren't always the best place for a model railroad, especially in N scale. Even though they are usually the largest room in the house, they can be a cold damp place to work in the winter, as the surrounding ground keeps them at a relatively constant temperature year round. That makes them a nice place to be in the summer, but in the winter they often need space heaters to be habitable. If you are willing to spend the time and money to seal the walls and put a proper heating system in they can be a great place to be year round.

But having been around them all my life I can tell you that in most older homes here they are unfinished. Some even have dirt floors. The last house I lived in we had running water coming through the walls when we got a heavy rain until I sealed the outside along the sidewalk. Lack of proper ventilation kept me from sealing the inside. Even then, the humidity level was so high commonly used model railroad material like Homasote would swell and warp from the moisture. The used of stained and sealed white pine solved the warping problem on the layout, but the water under the footer led to holes in the concrete floor that had to be patched and maintained.

Honestly, working conditions in the apartment I now live in are far better even though space is at a premium. If you look at alot of the basement layouts in the magazines, thousands of dollars have been spent on room prep before the layout construction could begin.


I think alot of the attraction of trains in the north has more to do with the number of trains here. We have lines that run more trains in a day than the southern mainlines run in a week. On a recent warm weekend day at one of my favourite spots there were over a dozen people out watching trains. They ranged in age from late 70s down to pre-teens, with over half of them under the age of 20. Those people are the future of model railroading, as there is alot of overlap between the model and railfan communities.


 

[trainman203]

Same thing with attics here.  A large space but usually unfinished, uninsulated and full of air ducts.  Plus, the access at best is some pull down stair.

when I was a kid in Louisiana, I had a friend with a layout in one of those attics.  We were 14 so of course we never felt a thing, even though it was at least 115° up there,  and we had the time of our lives running our RTR trains around the 4x8.