Vic,
I 5000 words or less tell me why you think the “Worlds Greatest Hobby on Tour” was started?? All opinions are welcome!!
How many opinions do you expect Vic to have? I know he is a man of many talents, but really… :lol:
Steve,
The all opinions welcome, means you can add yours 2…
Ahhhhhhhhhhh…errrrrr…well, I dunno?
…slowing sales? an ever aging and shrinking pool of model railroading practitioners? Indifference of young’uns to trains outside of the sphere of Thomas? Attempt to widen the audience of model trains to the general public? I guess all of them.
No offense but, why ask me? I really dont know what the true motives were behind Klambakes tour than the next guy. I didnt even know it existed at all till I got a flyer at a local shop a couple years ago. Even then I thought, whuh?
I mean I applaud the effort, the fact that they helped sponsered shows that are at least out here had become dam well extinct. After the GATS went belly up, they are the only trainshow left, this is for the the entire SoCal area mind you! The shows I have been to have all seem to have been well attended, but the actuall success of which I cannot say.
Maybe the question isnt why it was started, but whether its done any good ?
Well, in 5K or less, the World’s Greatest Hobby on Tour is a new kind of event that showcases the hobby of model railroading. Sponsored by the Model Railroad Industry Association and by the World’s Greatest Hobby Program, the show is intended to introduce the general public to model railroading in an entertaining, lively and family-friendly atmosphere. The show hopes to create new train enthusiasts by exposing the public to the very best model railroading has to offer. The hobby of model railroading has a unique ability to bring the family together in activities that teach many skills. Model Railroad skills span from carpentry to artistry, from electrical engineering to historical research.
Victor Smith said:
Ahhhhhhhhhhh..errrrrr...well, I dunno?…slowing sales? an ever aging and shrinking pool of model railroading practitioners? Indifference of young’uns to trains outside of the sphere of Thomas? Attempt to widen the audience of model trains to the general public? I guess all of them.
No offense but, why ask me? I really dont know what the true motives were behind Klambakes tour than the next guy. I didnt even know it existed at all till I got a flyer at a local shop a couple years ago. Even then I thought, whuh?
I mean I applaud the effort, the fact that they helped sponsered shows that are at least out here had become dam well extinct. After the GATS went belly up, they are the only trainshow left, this is for the the entire SoCal area mind you! The shows I have been to have all seem to have been well attended, but the actuall success of which I cannot say.
Maybe the question isnt why it was started, but whether its done any good ?
I thought you had the AKA Queen Mary AKA Ontario Show?
Vic,
I am not picking on you!! I thought you would say that the reason was because of “grumpy old men” who do not promote the hobby… We both have seen this type of model railroader, nose stuck in the air, if you “aint been there & done that” they do not want to talk to you… Bachmann was the first to stand them on there ear, followed by USA Trains… Also the reason I think is the strongest is we are dieing breed… In my large scale garden club there are 58 members & 32 are retired ( I mean tired ), of the 26 left about half are over 40…
My hope is that it is not “to little & to late”…
Bob Burton said:
Vic,I am not picking on you!! I thought you would say that the reason was because of “grumpy old men” who do not promote the hobby… We both have seen this type of model railroader, nose stuck in the air, if you “aint been there & done that” they do not want to talk to you… Bachmann was the first to stand them on there ear, followed by USA Trains… Also the reason I think is the strongest is we are dieing breed… In my large scale garden club there are 58 members & 32 are retired ( I mean tired ), of the 26 left about half are over 40…
My hope is that it is not “to little & to late”…
Bob,
I could have given you the “grumpy old men” answer, but I was too polite! 
Too little and too late? Perhaps the mag editors this side of the pond could/should got the thumb out of “the cavity”. Reading the Euro mags I’m amazed on how many articles there are about getting the children involved with the hobby; all with solid write-ups on what they accomplished. One Swiss mag has a section squarely aimed at the young crowd. Someone from Luxemburg inquired if it was OK for old geezers to read the Youth section … (no comment!).
Do you have any other questions? :lol:
Bob Burton said:
Vic,I am not picking on you!! I thought you would say that the reason was because of “grumpy old men” who do not promote the hobby… We both have seen this type of model railroader, nose stuck in the air, if you “aint been there & done that” they do not want to talk to you… Bachmann was the first to stand them on there ear, followed by USA Trains… Also the reason I think is the strongest is we are dieing breed… In my large scale garden club there are 58 members & 32 are retired ( I mean tired ), of the 26 left about half are over 40…
My hope is that it is not “to little & to late”…
Yup, grumpy old men is right and most of them act like 4 year olds. Has been a real turn off playing babysitter this year.
-Brian
Bob Burton said:
Vic,I am not picking on you!! I thought you would say that the reason was because of “grumpy old men” who do not promote the hobby… We both have seen this type of model railroader, nose stuck in the air, if you “aint been there & done that” they do not want to talk to you… Bachmann was the first to stand them on there ear, followed by USA Trains… Also the reason I think is the strongest is we are dieing breed… In my large scale garden club there are 58 members & 32 are retired ( I mean tired ), of the 26 left about half are over 40…
My hope is that it is not “to little & to late”…
I kinda did say that…politly
in referring to “aging and ever shrinking” model railroaders.
The “Grumpy Old Men” are fast finding HO and N too small and as they age and are going look to large scale, as they do we will likely get more threads like the Burt & Tony show thread about how much a turn off 1/29 is, really? I dont seam to recall a mass boycott of USA or Aristo products, guess thats why they are releasing new items each year 
I personally think the whole scale/guage cunnundrum is eventually either overcome and they dive in, or they take up golf. :lol:
Victor Smith said:Really? Your crystal ball show what the sales WOULD have been had the scale-to-gauge been correct? How many of those "grumps" from smaller scales would have partaken of the fruits of LS had it been so? This I gotta hear.
The "Grumpy Old Men" are fast finding HO and N too small and as they age and are going look to large scale, as they do we will likely get more threads like the Burt & Tony show thread about how much a turn off 1/29 is, really? I dont seam to recall a mass boycott of USA or Aristo products, guess thats why they are releasing new items each year :D
Hey Dave, I was just using Bobs phase, dont take it personal.
All I was trying to say that as older modelers from the smaller scales migrate to LS we will likely see more topics about the issue of why non-prototype scales like 1/29 scale exists, thats all.
I never said anything about what sales ‘would’ have been, you know darn well I have no crystal ball, again what I was trying to say is that the 1/29 scale manufactures have been doing very well over the last few years with there “non-prototypical” gauge model trains, signifying that any criticism of that inaccuracy, is only held by a relatively small minority of large scale modelers.
I personally dont think it would have made one fig of a difference if what Aristo produced was 1/29 or 1/32, the fact that there ‘wow’ scale worked so well says that maybe the average large scale modelers realized that holding to the holy grail of ‘accurate’ gauge was more than offset by the visual impact of a larger model. MTH has its own following but everything I have read online leads me to beleive that the ‘clamoring’ for accurate 1/32 scale models is again, from a relativly small minority, and manufacturers are going to follow where sales are, even Accucraft has realized this by offering 1/29 models.
Sheesh, I thought this was supposed to be a fun hobby, think I’ll stick to bashing my NKP-non-scale-built-by-eye-scales-are-only-good-for-a-cutting-surface-Macks from now on.
Hey, if you’d ever hauled your carcass up here for an ops session, you would know everyone get’s their turn in “The Barrel”.
If I can’t flip you (expletive deleted) on the forums once in a while, I’ll call you!
Rig for silent running.
Make all tubes ready for firing.
Curmudgeon said:
Hey, if you’d ever hauled your carcass up here for an ops session, you would know everyone get’s their turn in “The Barrel”. If I can’t flip you (expletive deleted) on the forums once in a while, I’ll call you!
(http://steynian.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/spanking.jpg)
So should I be saying "Thank you Sir, may I please have another’? :lol:
That is the accepted response.
Ric Golding said:Victor Smith said:
Ahhhhhhhhhhh..errrrrr...well, I dunno?…slowing sales? an ever aging and shrinking pool of model railroading practitioners? Indifference of young’uns to trains outside of the sphere of Thomas? Attempt to widen the audience of model trains to the general public? I guess all of them.
No offense but, why ask me? I really dont know what the true motives were behind Klambakes tour than the next guy. I didnt even know it existed at all till I got a flyer at a local shop a couple years ago. Even then I thought, whuh?
I mean I applaud the effort, the fact that they helped sponsered shows that are at least out here had become dam well extinct. After the GATS went belly up, they are the only trainshow left, this is for the the entire SoCal area mind you! The shows I have been to have all seem to have been well attended, but the actuall success of which I cannot say.
Maybe the question isnt why it was started, but whether its done any good ?
I thought you had the AKA Queen Mary AKA Ontario Show?
Yes, but that is large scale exclusivly. The GATS and the WGH tours were all scales, it gave many local sellers a place to meet and sell things. The GATS were particularly nice as they were happening up to 3 or 4 times a year at various locations that were not a difficult drive to reach, with their demise its been an absolute desert locally here, the National Train Show was the only local train show that was remotely close by, the last 2 WGH shows before that were all the way down in Del Mar, near San Diego over 120 miles away from me, almost 3 hours with traffic, forget that!
There is NOTHING I am aware of scheduled for the rest of the year for the largest metropolitan area in the United States, no shows, not even local swap meets, nothing, just zippidy-do-dull 
I understand your crystal ball repair shop called.
Let me know how it works.
Dear Victor,
Do you know about the “coming events” section of trains.com?
http://www.trains.com/trc/community/events/events.asp?geo=5&c=241&s=5
Hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik