Any announcements for large scale from NMRA convention?

[Ted Yarbrough]

Hopefully a 'Flying Grande' Annie! Maybe some 1:20 scale D&RGW stuff too.

[Ted Yarbrough]

Saw the new brochure on line. Nothing, I repeat nothing, in G-scale. 

[petertoot]

Yeh ted a little bit disappointed in that,I know this has been said before,but some others out there don't do large steam,at the price like bachmann,if only I had a million or toto buy the old aristocraft, surely there s boxes of product ready to go, this is just my opinion, cheerspeter

[Kevin Strong]

Looks pretty soft across the board, really. Excluding the "previously announced" stuff, HO and N got one new loco each. That's not a whole lot, and HO and N are by far the dominant scales. If that's all we're getting "new" for the two dominant scales, I'm not remotely surprised to see nothing for large scale. Heck, even Williams gets to sit this year out. On30 got a work car.

Another year hitting the secondary market for new toys.

Later,

K

[A Trainman]

I hate to say it but we're a dying breed.
Very few kids, now a days, know anything about mechanical things. they live in a virtual world where they just tap on a screen and see the results on that same screen.

But it's not all doom and gloom, the ones that do know mechanics will save the rest.

Until then, I want to play with my trains!

Adam

[Loco Bill Canelos]

The large scale market does seem to be languishing for some time.  Bachmann is not the only manufacturer with no new product for us.   A growing number of large scale folks are getting out of Large scale due to tiring of all the maintenance required to keep up their layouts.  I recently visited a friend who had a nice layout in the back yard and who is selling out. I bought a few items and he is selling the rest on Ebay.  The track is still in place but so totally grown over that you can hardly see it.  Next year he plans to remove and sell the track.  Others in my club have also cut way back or are getting out of large scale some due to maintenance issues, others for health reasons.   Some large scale friends in other states are moving out of their large homes into condos or smaller homes with no room for a layout.   Many seem to have much more in the way of locomotives and rolling stock than they can ever use on their railroad( I am one of them, but still can't resist acquiring more).   As I look at what some of the few younger folks and what other mainstream g scale folks are buying I see a lot more diesels and modern items showing up on layouts as opposed to the many 1:22.5 and 1:20.3 items seen in the past.   Some say they they have gone modern out of boredom with their just steam interests of the past.  In my own case, I was all steam for about 15 years, but because I was a railfan  and took many photos in the days of GP-9's, F units and second generation diesels I have added the era from the change of steam to diesel up to 1960 in my new (easy to maintain)basement large scale layout.  With the track laid I am more into scenery building than anything else these days.  I am not skilled at scenery building, so it has been slow going. 

In my club and in the surrounding clubs I have visited there are few if any young members or even middle age members.  This does not seem to be changing much.   

Who knows where things will go.    It seems to me Large scale has gotten into a rut.  Manufacturers do not want to release new product because of the slow market, and many buyers are not buying because there is no new product.

What the future will bring is anybody's guess. 

So have fun, and keep what you have rolling!

Loco Bill

[armorsmith]

Bill, add to your commentary, mine located here http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,33756.0.html