Pupolarity Of The Hobby

I think that is a good point - there are so many aspects to this hobby that, while some components may come and go (or rise and fall in popularity), as a whole it will not disappear.

From railfanning to operations, the Christmas layout to museum-quality pieces, historical aspects to geography, photography to model building, there are so many ways to approach this hobby.

Andrew
 
Model Railroading will be safe for many years to come..........in fact, nationwide the hobby has grown slow but steady and will continue to do so.

Now, If you have extra room and want the best of both worlds, Add a nice Sceniced 1/32 Digital Road racing layout to the mix and soon I'll be knocking on the door :D :D :D

Mikey , seems to me your G scale layout could handle 1/32 Loads..............How about a field of 16 Lemans GT cars on Flats headed for the Speedway :D :D :D
 
I think I've stated before that I have been in model ralroading most of my life. From my mother and dad's Lionel that they let me play with once in a while, to my fourth railroad that I'm running now. Even during the Korean War I was working the scenery on a huge layout at my airbase in northern Japan.

I wonder sometimes how many of the younger ones in the hobby actually remember when trains were a major influence on commerce here in the U.S.? Or actually have ridden on scheduled passenger runs? While working in NY, I was a director in a Boston business. My trips in a New Haven parlour car and those wonderful NH baked beans and the charming white-haired waiters in the dining car...those memories will be with me the reat of my life.

I for one think it's safe to say our hobby is ageless!
 
I wonder sometimes how many of the younger ones in the hobby actually remember when trains were a major influence on commerce here in the U.S.?
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Isn't that kind of a rigged question? Us younger modellers can't remember what happened before we were born.
 
N Gauger said:
13Mtrainer and Miles...

~~ What happens when you start dating and are not able to be home as much with the trains :)

~~ If you move - are you prepaired to change your layouts and/or rearrainge them to fit in a new location.. (Or change scales completly, like I did)???

~~ I admire your dedication, and I truly respct you both for the opinions you have submitted here and elsewhere on The Gauge.. I hope we can all see your dedication to The Hobby in the future... :) :)

~~ Just remember that you don't have to spend hours with the trains... I work on mine when I feel like it... sometimes it goes untouched for weeks and then I'll get a chance to do a bit of a little something :) :) Sometimes it takes one of our challenges to get me to work on it.. Like now :D[/quote

when i start to date i will spend less time with the trains but they will not be pushed out and if she doesn't like that then thats to bad

i am changing my layout to modular so that when i move out of my parents house i can still use my trains and i am ready to change scales if i must

thank you N gauger i plan to stay in the hobby

i know what your saying sometimes i only work once a week on my trains or maybe once every 2 weeks

13Mt
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Its all in the hobby folks.
My kids think I'm going into my 2nd childhood. Good! let them think that.
My wife of all people pushed me back to the best hobby in the world
because she kept saying I NEED A HOBBY!
Stress, worries, life in general can be a real mind melter.
The world is a place that can grind you up and spit you to the curb but,
when ever I get a few moments I am in the train room.
My sons friends think its cool what I'm doing so I don't worry about
the future. All I know is that after an 8, 10 or 14 hour day I can just
walk into that special room and its all gone for a while.
Yes, I have big elaborate plans for my layout but thats what takes my mind
off of real life for a while. I'm on the backside of 40 and my never see it
done but that's alright because, no matter how much time you spend with
this great part of our lives, it adds just a little more time to our sanity.
A man once told me while fisining " That moment of time just before you set the hook is just a split second but, at that moment time stands still, and if you set enough hooks, you might just gain a minute or two through life!"

I'm done
 
I think it varies with people and their other hobbies/activities. I was into MR'ing at the age of 12. I got into other things, cars, girls, marriage and then my job in avaition became a full time hobby as well as a career. All those years, model trains were in the back of my mind. I haunted train stores in Europe and South America while traveling on my job. Now I'm well beyond that average age of 50 and I have the time to be active in railroading again.
 
Thought I would put in my two cents. I'm 25 with a family. Wife, two girls and my best friend the dog:) My dad got me started very young. I was into the hobby unitl about 15 years old. Life gets in the way. Not so much that your friends influence of you tinkering with trains. From 16 forward had to go out and get a job. After high school went into the military. Now that I will be finishing off the military here pretty soon I will be going to college. Need that time to pay attention to school unfortunately. So with full time school and family i barely have time or space for my trains. But don't worry i am a passive collector. Once in a while i go to flee markets and antique stores to collect trains. I even check out ebay to see if there is anything i want. True though when i go to the trains shows most people there have white hair or going bald and they look at me as if i went to the wrong convention. But i will tell all of you this, it's a passion for me to be in this hobby and when i do hit 50 i will still be into this hobby, hoping one day to start without any interuptions. Oh and just in case you wandered my oldest daughter she really isn't into it but my younger one loves them.
 
I feel the hobby is growing, because the manufactures made easy for the modelers that are just starting. The products are also looking more realistc. I started young, and stopped for a while, got back into it after college. But, I've heard some guy talking they want to get started, and join a group. Some of the group people treat the new guys like crap, and those people will kill the hobby. I've ran into the same problems, but I've also found real helpful modelers. My wife thinks is cool and helps. I got my father-in-law into the hobby somewhat, he just have to wait for the other daughter to get married and he will have his basement back.
 
I feel the hobby is growing, because the mfg's made easy for the modelers that are just starting, with the ready-to-run stuff. The products are also looking more realistc. I started young, and stopped for a while, got back into it after college. But, I've heard some guy talking they want to get started, and join a group. Some of the group people treat the new guys like crap, and those people will kill the hobby. I've ran into the same problems, but I've also found real helpful modelers. My wife thinks is cool and helps. I got my father-in-law into the hobby somewhat, he just have to wait for the other daughter to get married and he will have his basement back.
 
I myself consider myself to be living evidence that there is a younger generation in the hobby. I am 16 and have a 4 by 12 foot layout in my basement. I have had HO trains since age six but only got started on a layout recently. I intend to stay in it, so yes, there are people who are in this hobby. Not everybody I know knows that I am a model railroader, and I am sure there are some who would think I am weird for still "playing with trains" when I should probably be out messing with cars, girls, and other things teenage boys do, but I like trains. I have at least told most of my friends and they have been supportive.
 
Welcome to The Gauge, Austinio:thumb: Got yer blog bookmarked, too:thumb:

I've been involved in one form or another since I was in grade school. My interest really took off when a shop teacher started a club when I was in 9th grade. Been doing it pretty much ever since save for a 4 year layoff back in the late 80s. There are very few in my area that practice it the way I do, most are RTR gatherers and kit assemblers. In my circles I'm kinda the "mad scientist" who brings back junk from the Isle of Unwanted Trains and makes them desirable again. My Webpage has been greatly updated recently by my beloved with more to come if you want to see what doesn't make the forums here. >>>> www.freewebs.com/shaygetz
 
Austinio said:
I myself consider myself to be living evidence that there is a younger generation in the hobby. I am 16 and have a 4 by 12 foot layout in my basement. I have had HO trains since age six but only got started on a layout recently. I intend to stay in it, so yes, there are people who are in this hobby. Not everybody I know knows that I am a model railroader, and I am sure there are some who would think I am weird for still "playing with trains" when I should probably be out messing with cars, girls, and other things teenage boys do, but I like trains. I have at least told most of my friends and they have been supportive.
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Yeah, there are alot of us younger modelers on this site. I started off the same way, with a Lionel 4-4-2 back when i was 6, and about this time 3 years ago i started buy HO scale track and trains for my layout. Now i have a 4x8.

With me, i don't go out advertising my trains. I mean, i'll openly read a MR or a TRAINS magazine, and i won't run into any problems. When people do ask about trains, wording is key. You have to make it seem more like a skill, an art. Thats how you do it. I have never had anyone say i was "still playing with trains" in a derogatory way, because you show them that its more than having a choo choo going around an oval of track.

unless you are rich, model trains sap the money right out of you. Forget that Xbox 360, lol. The opposite happens when you get a girlfriend, because they suck the money out of the train fund, lol. Everything is to expensive these days.
 
I fully agree with Austinio, and G_E_C. At our age, I certianly agree wording is key, but if any of your friends ever get to see your layout.... jawdrop They're usually amazed! sure beats killing pixels on GTA 3! :D I turly think it's an art form, and shaygetz has given my modeling guidance (unknown to him until now...) I love to create new things from other things most modelers would discard, or give away. I take that forlorn passenger car, or poorly-built building and turn it into something wonderful, and the people are astounded when I said it was their junk just a couple of months prior. Also, shaping landmasses to your heart's content is 'loads' of fun too!!! :thumb: Remember, be proud of your hobby (said to be the world's greatest) because you spend time the way you want to, while others sit around, and do very little. :)
 
green_elite_cab said:
Yeah, there are alot of us younger modelers on this site. I started off the same way, with a Lionel 4-4-2 back when i was 6, and about this time 3 years ago i started buy HO scale track and trains for my layout. Now i have a 4x8.

With me, i don't go out advertising my trains. I mean, i'll openly read a MR or a TRAINS magazine, and i won't run into any problems. When people do ask about trains, wording is key. You have to make it seem more like a skill, an art. Thats how you do it. I have never had anyone say i was "still playing with trains" in a derogatory way, because you show them that its more than having a choo choo going around an oval of track.

unless you are rich, model trains sap the money right out of you.
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I also have a Lionel 4-4-2. I also read MR openly, but not TRAINS. Speaking of choo-choo I remember back when I was younger like in elementary school some of my friends would find out I liked "choo choos" and that always ticked me off. I NEVER refferred to trains as "choo choos" that was a sacrilege. I tend to disagree with the idea that model railroading saps it [money] out of you. That is only if you are buying brand new engines with DCC and then running them on a detailed layout with brand new structure kits from Walthers. You can do it cheaply, you just need to know where to look.
 
I think this is a scare tactic. Here's what I mean. I am also a Amateur (Ham) Radio Operator. They say the samething. They say the average age of a Ham is in their late 50's or early 60's. I know this isn't true. I have talked to Ham's of all ages, from preteens to their 90's!!! I think the American Radio Relay League and the radio manufactureres say this to scare the people who are in the hobby. To get new Ham's so these people can make more money. The only true source is the FCC data base which you can see how many people are entering the hobby.

Now think of what I just said. The world moves on the almighty dollar. Who is telling us that model railroaders are falling? Is it the MRC or manufacturers? These people wants to increase their profits. They'll say anything to get more money.

This is only a hobby. Our family and bills comes first. As the rise of gas and other bills. Alot of us would be slowing down in buying stuff for our hobbies. I was going to buy a new ham radio. Because of the rising cost of living, I haven't. I have also slowed work on my N scale layout. In the long run. This hobby, just like others, will survive.

Andy:wave:
 
Andy...Am also a Ham (N1CLZ), and maybe the average age is where they say it is, but what matter. I've been in model railroading all my life. A Ham for the last 30 years, but so what. I, like you spend on the house and family first. If there's any left over it probably will go for the hobbies...but only if I need something.

I dumped my low-band rig on Ebay and am only using VHF mobile. The low bands were getting like CB. I have an MFJ 17-meter code-only I have fun with.

I think we should spend more time having fun rather than worrying about numbers!
 
Austinio said:
I tend to disagree with the idea that model railroading saps it [money] out of you. That is only if you are buying brand new engines with DCC and then running them on a detailed layout with brand new structure kits from Walthers. You can do it cheaply, you just need to know where to look.
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hmm, you've called me out on my major flaw, lol.
 
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