Comments on: Is Model Railroading A Dying Hobby?

By: Lloyd Bishop

Lloyd Bishop — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 18:01:34 +0000

I eBay Lionel and collectable trains, and have had nothing but rude and abusive eBay sellers and some buyers. I had an eBay seller tell me to go f myself because I asked him about his price. I believe that those who deal with trains don’t really care about them: They might as well be so many bricks to them. The hobby is definitely dying, and I am getting out of it as fast as I can dispose of my stock. It has no future with young people who look at all model railroading as an extension of the infantile “Thomas and Friends”, the worst thing to ever happed to the “mature side” of the hobby. Old men passing gas at clubs and old men eating nachos and showing you old junk with grubby hands at pathetic meets – It will never be aqs it ws in the 50’s.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:18:46 +0000

I own a full line hobby shop. I can tell you from years of experience dealing with the public on a daily basis that kids today don’t know what real fun is.
We have an elabotately landscaped multi scale train train layout that’s running every day. The young people that come in barely give it a second glance.
We offer railroading 101 classes for free as well as scenery techniques workshops and young people never come. All they want is Radio Control and it’s got to be big bad mean and fast.
In addition, we set up a digital slot car set that they could race on for free. When our backs are turned on them they most always enjoy smashing their cars in to each other and seem to take pleasure in destroying our investment.
They NEVER buy train or slot car sets but will spend buckets of green on R/C.

By: John Barlow

John Barlow — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:39:25 +0000

Times and shops of all sizes come and go…anywhere and everywhere. Back in the late mid-1960’s I did holiday work at a place called “Tom Thumb Hobbies” in Philadelphia, Pa. All sorts of folks came in daily; some not so frequently…the famous to many and some not so but known more so only to us. All were welcomed.
In the early mid-1970’s the shop was gone, its owner retired. By then, I had served in a Southeast Asian war and had fallen in love with Denver, Co., and was and still frequent a place known widely as “Caboose Hobbies”, at which I did some weekend duties as a clerk/”sales associate”. In both places, I found the customers interesting in their needs and wants.

Prototypical railroads have come and gone, but their history and artistic representations are captured in miniature, my reasons for enjoying the hobby.
What I enjoy may not exist in several decades…but neither will I. A modeler of that future time will capture in miniatures what we built and are today or a world we may today only fantasize about in drawings. We see in museums the models of ancient peoples who captured their world and time in miniature…and we see those models built millenia ago in glass cases today. Shall such legacies of today that survive the centuries to come have come off a hobby shop shelf last Saturday afternoon?

By: Will

Will — Mon, 24 May 2010 22:03:14 +0000

Well, I do agree and disagree with this conspiracy of the hobby, so to say, “vanishing”. I am actually 12 years old and LOVE the hobby. I’ll put maybe 60 hours into it a week and go fishing on the weekends or to the hobby shops. I really and truly belive that most people now are LAZY or think it’s not ”cool” to do. Videogames also play a big role. I don’t own a source of entertainment like that, thank god, but if i did, i would be all over it. Somedays you can see kids with big, black bags under their eyes, or maybe they’re complaining about a head ache. You know what they did all weekend. Influence is another thing. If parents don’t introduce things to you at a younger age, like taking you to a hobby show, or to a basketball game, then most likely, thats not going to be their passion when they’re older. my dad pushes me to do stuff, but in this case i pushed my dad. If you had’nt noticed its more grown men who are at hobby shows, instead of 4 year olds. the thing i hate most though is seeing some kid screaming at his dad to buy him something, or getting something and then saying i don’t want it. Actually, at my last hobby show with the club im in, a kid wanted to come inside and control so bad, but his dad said he could’nt or every other little kid would want in, so he crawls OVER the table, ruining the switching yard Which was MY pride and glory at the club, so the dad bought him anything he wanted after that, with me running my mouth at this guy with tattoes all down his arm. So, what im getting at is, buy you kids thomas the tank engine, and say lets go for a drive, and take him to the switching yard or something, then at 10 or 11 buy him a train set.
Have a nice day,
Will

By: josh

josh — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 16:56:19 +0000

dying? not at all!
im 24 years old, a punk from baltimore city, and i hav a train set i mess with everyday!
its not dying, its evolving. i have friends who do this too.

price isnt everything, 75% of my train set was free, from dumpstered to hand me downs, to my friends looking out for me.

By: Donut

Donut — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 06:41:47 +0000

“It’s just a dying hobby,” said Allen Drucker, 58. “I always told myself I didn’t want to be the old man running the train store.”Why would a young man model,when he can do the same with electronic arts,even w/trains?

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 01:38:12 +0000

Not dying, but certainly declining. This is due to a number of factors, some of which have always been with us:

1. Exposure to trains
How many children actually see trains on a daily basis? Kids are not going to be interested in something that they cannot connect to and consequently does not fire their imagination. Connecting with the real thing is where we all get bitten.

2. Constraints on modeling.
There are three primary constraints on modeling for all of us:
2.1 Space
Even though houses are getting bigger than decades ago, unfinshed basements (or their equivalent) are rarely available. Workout rooms and theatre rooms, yes, but available space to set up trains – not usually.
2.2 Time
Parents today often overschedule their children with all kinds of extra-curricular activities leading to the “soccer Mom” syndrome. Kids who aren’t oversheduled have plenty of hobby time.
2.3 Money
While most manufacturers are trying to promote two lines – budget conscious and high-end, the high-end stuff is way out of reach of allowances (not many will plunk down >$300 for a highly-detailed, lights and sound steamer as a middle-schooler’s present) and the budget conscious stuff is not very exciting.

3. The ubiquitous competition for children’s interest.
Video/computer games are tough competition. They get the blame for children not going out to play ball let alone play trains. The appeal of a train chasing it’s caboose around an oval pales compared with something like Halo 2 on XBox 360.

Having said this, the hobby has a future. Thanks to Thomas and Friends there are a lot of very young train enthusiasts. The challenge is to span the K-12 years with an abiding interest in model trains. Access to the real thing, operationally or in preservation is the key.

By: Phil

Phil — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 00:45:38 +0000

I definitely don’t think it’s a dying hobby…I’m 26 and I’d love to build one…the problem is money…if a kid wants to get into this hobby…it’s not just buy something and get started…most kids and most everyone needs instant gratification and hand building and appreciating the hard work they’ve put into something is far from their minds.

So the few of us who really want to create one have to wait until we’re older when we have “spare” money…but since myself and everyone I know are so self destructive with smoking and what not…most of us aren’t going to live past the time we’re actually going to be able to afford to build one…

It’s not that Model Railroading is a dying hobby…it’s hardwork for most and pure life span for the rest.

By: David Bolt

David Bolt — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 19:24:31 +0000

If the model railroad hobby is a dying hobby, it is because of people like Allen Drucker. I don’t think he cared about model railroaders. He cared about tourists who came in, took pictures, spent some money and left never to come back. If you loved to shop to the sound of screaming little kids then Allied was your kind of store. I shopped there only because I knew someone who worked in the store. When he quit I stopped going there and started going to other “real”model train stores.