You read about people fearing the hobby is dying out, but I’m not sure. I look at the rising prices on ebay and attribute it to high demand. I attended the all scale train show yesterday with Ron Teten in Council Bluffs , Iowa(next to Omaha) and was amazed at the attendance. We had to stand in a long line to get into the huge center they had the show at.
There were different scale displays and lots of vendors who seemed packed with buyers, you could hardly walk around. Kidman’s was the main G scale vendor and seemed busy, Renee did not come, due to a bad ankle. He was selling starter kits up to big locomotives. There was some G scale at good prices at a couple of other booths.
Lots of kids with parents were very excited to see the trains. One couple in line with us, their little guy was jumping up and down to see the trains. He already had a Lionel Polar express, a Lego locomotive and a Thomas the train set.
Things have changed in the hobby with closing hobby shops, but that is the way the world is going. Most of us have no choice but to buy online. It was a 3 hour drive down and back yesterday, I’m glad Ron did all the driving.
Thankfully, we have forums like this to help us determine what to buy, sight unseen, on-line. The product reviews and general kibitzing about stuff we have and have just bought are great tools.
Jerry, I hear the same “doom and gloom”, and I have heard it for many years now. At the train shows, there are sometimes no visitors at our set up, and sometimes they are 2 and 3 deep. It depends a bit on the time of year the show is, and what else is going on.
Many folks I see getting back into the hobby are 40 and 50 somethings. They have raised their children, and they now have the time, money and space to pursue the hobby. I also see parents with young children who are looking to set up a layout for their child/children.
I think the model railroading hobby, like many hobbies, tends to ebb and flow. Years ago I could go to the RC airport any time I wanted, and see RC aircraft flying, weather permitting of course. The last time I tried to go, the gate was closed across the road leading to it, and it was padlocked.
So, is the hobby of model railroading dying, or just evolving? I guess only time will tell.
Jerry at the last Anaheim GTS a couple weeks ago, we were quite literally assaulted by the shear number of attendance! I didn’t get a single break that day it was constant crowds questions and kids …lots and lots of kids. By far the busiest shows I’ve been in. Granted it was a rainy day but there was a lot less stuff on the vendors tables come Sunday, which was more typical traffic wise.
It does bode well for model railroading as a hobby, but what impact on LS I cannot say. The only LS vendor there was Gold Coast and I never got a chance to ask Hans how well they did, I did buy two more Lil Haulers from him though.
Jerry
IMHO. the hobby is not going under.
From my viewpoint, the big $ items are not selling as well as the sellers would like, so you hear the cries of “the hobby is dying!”
Us po’folk are snatching up everything we can afford, mostly used, in all the scales & gauges.
In the Marx chat group I belong to, I hear talk about having a large scale train or wanting to get into them. I tell them to watch the GW auction site, large scale trains sell relatively cheap there. Most of the “collector’s” & re-seller’s are buying the Lionel & American Flyers, ignoring the large scale trains.
Dave
Dave, how does that GW auction site work. Could not seem to find any trains for sale.
Vic, John from Upland Trains was there along with Bridgemasters. John told me that they did better than expected. I too was impressed with the turnout, even though it catered to the more affordable and space saving smaller scales. (tried to make that PC for Greg)
Jerry, we need to keep the younger folks coming into the hobby.
I have been frequenting the Dash/Trainz.com auction site. I have to quit watching that site. I now have a pile of stuff that either needs put in service, repainted or kit-bashed. I nabbed a USA wood-side reefer for $22, a pair of boxcars for $44, and a USA F3 for just over $100, among other things.
So, for those who do want to get into large scale, there are less expensive ways of doing it. The manufacturers won’t see the sales, and so they won’t count them as growth of the hobby, so they may think he hobby is declining.
Jerry Barnes said:
Dave, how does that GW auction site work. Could not seem to find any trains for sale.
Jerry, click on “collectables” - trains are at the bottom of the list.
You have to watch the site, last week there was a bunch of large scale stuff.
Today a lot of other scale, this week who knows what will show up. Last week
there were Aristo, B-mann, USAT & LGB.
Having access to college students, I have asked my classes if anyone at home likes trains. As expected, the Christmas tree example is given. So that’s the only exposure for many – Christmas tree train at home.
Suggestion for PIKO:
Contact Macys - Nordstroms - Bloomingdales, etc. and at Christmas offer installation of both trees and encircling train with the caption of product description and the LOCAL train store location. The train store will service it if the on/off timer doesn’t work. Nearest customer service register has the shop number.
Do it while most people on the planet can still think of Christmas trees and encircling trains.
Any guesses on the walk-by mall exposure rate? I remember downtown LA Macy’s and the train displays in the windows – yes, and the wait to get close to the glass because of the mash of kids and adults. That’s windows – not just one window display. The following Christmas my dad and I got my big LIONEL set.
Meanwhile, nothing at HOME DEPOT or LOWES at Christmas. Zero! No outdoor garden train photos in the plant nursery - no displays running or static. Our local HOME DEPOT nursery manager said “great, put up a display just so its not complicated – besides, we have train nuts who work here!”
The McDonalds still has the overhead trains with a member of the Orange County Garden Society managing the operation. Clerks still get requests for data.
No brainer. No yelping. No confusion. Just do it – like before.
Wendell, there you go, making sense again. 
One of the large office buildings in downtown Pittsburgh had an LGB set up in their entry plaza. I thought it was cool, even though it was just a loop, an LGB Porter and 2 cars. If some hobby shop (what few are left) had had their information posted there, they might have sold a few.
Wendel, and you have touched on something that has been mentioned in other forums. Kids don’t see trains as much as we did when we were young. I remember seeing the TV commercials for the Tyco Chattanooga Choo-Choo, and store set ups as well as Christmas set ups at the local fire hall. I saw the Penn Hills S gauge set up in the basement of the police station/municipal building, on its side, leaning against a wall. It appeared that it was in need of a lot of attention to get it back in well working condition.
The real railroads aren’t nearly as visible as they once were neither. The line that runs behind where I used to live, had trains running several times a day on it. Now, nearly all the trains, run on that line at night.
Same here Dave. The Trenton cutoff runs along the side of a ridge about a mile from me. I hardly ever here a daytime freight running. But when I’m in bed, I can hear them throughout the night. No, they don’t wake me. I just don’t sleep as soundly as I would like to these days.
The demise of the Model Railroad hobby has been predicted as far back as I can remember (1950s). It seems to run in cycles. But it never dwindles too low before there is a resurgence. It seems to follow the general health of the economy. The more available expendable income, the more hobby purchases, the more people are exposed to the joys of whatever hobby they choose. There are more outlets for interests in general now with the internet than in years past.
If your freight lines have day time commuters, freights have been bumped to night time. I live with in ear shot of the UP main through S Az. I hear them day and night. The rumbles are calming and the horns few.
They are loud in the evening in Tucson, AZ, and I can hear the trains on the coast from my back yard, of course that is 5k feet away.
I like it…
Greg
In the UK the group that predominantly represents those into live steam and battery powered, both 32 mm & 45 mm (though not to the exclusion of DC/DCC) is steadily growing. At its annual show, reckoned to be one of the largest and best attended, there are a plethora of suppliers. Both bricks and mortar and web based. Looking around it appears that sales and the garden rail hobby is mainly driven by those of or nearing pensionable age with good sized pension pots.
Talking to the traders it seems there has been no trouble in selling the high end stuff in this hobby, subsequent to the current recession’s start, just the bread and butter stuff - possibly resulting in LGB’s and Aristocraft’s demise/reformatting. The trend seems to be to the need for a fully functional retailing web presence at least with some form of “showroom” as an optional extra. That may not be the conventional high street location. That seems to be the way retailing is going over here with one of our largest department store groups roughly going down that route.
The problems will start when those middle to high income earners, that are the traditional seedbed for this hobby, find their disposable incomes diminish due to the need for higher taxation levels and their occupational pensions being squeezed to bolster profits and reduce government budgets. Not to mention the current trend for hollowing out of incomes and jobs opportunities that is occurring in the middle ground (politics bit over). We have still got few “golden years” left in this hobby. Max.
Having patronised quite a few hobby shops in my time and come up against the total indifference of some of the owners, I am not surprised they eventually shutdown…and a lot that kept going turned their stock over to racing cars and helicopters etc., they were the “in” thing…they never went back to stocking railway items.
There is no doubt…trains in windows attract (and not just at Christmas time either)…
It’s about like any hobby. It has it’s ups and downs. When no new products exist the hobby seems to slow. Price is not helping tho. Later RJD
Ross and Max - sadly, it sems that in spite of your positive comments, there won’t be a Llanfair show this year, maybe ever again. Response from the ‘trade’ after the sudden death of my old pal Steve Warrington [back2bay6], who organised that show and the popular Telford shows [maybe more], is zero.
I was talking to Tag Gorton about it a couple of days ago, and although it’s a ‘pick up and run’ affair, it seems that nobody in the trade - a bunch who derive a fair amount of profit from the sales of LS stuff - is brave enough to do it.
For shame.
tac
Ottawa Valley GRS
OML Co.
POCRR Co. Inc
That, Tac, is typical. Obviously belong to that bunch that always vanish when volunteers are asked for but ready to take advantage at what is being done by others.
Thank goodness we still have a few well known shows.