Model Railroading Items That are Slowley Going Extinct

As an add-on to my last post about attracting young people to the hobby, I think it's important to not the hobby is not dying. In fact, a podcast provided by a reader of this blog (Hi Joe!) provided some real insight into the state of the hobby. However, as model railroading evolves some elements of the hobby are dying. So here's a list of things I see as slowly going extinct. Again, I don;t have any stats to back this up, merely my own observations.

1. Brick and Mortar Hobby Shops:

Let's start with the obvious. Hobby shops are dying a long, slow death. The rise of mail-order firms in the 1990s and then online shopping in the 2000s have done them in. Model manufactures going to the "we'll make the model when we get enough preorders" business model hasn't helped either.

2. Rapido and Horn Hook Couplers:

It seems to me, at least in n scale that most new models come with some form of knuckle coupler. Most of the Rapido-equiped cars I've had to convert in the last few years have been train show or ebay purchases.

3. Brass Locomotives:

Model manufacturers seems to be introducing more and more road-specific power, eliminating the need for brass. The quality and detail level of plastic models has also improved considerably over the years.

4. Locomotives that don't support DCC:

More and more it seems manufacturers are coming out with decoder-equipped locomotives. DCC is becoming ever more popular. I believe in the next few years all locomotives will have either a dual-mode decoder or at least be DCC-ready. I believe we will also see an increasing number of Bluetooth locomotives in the more distant future.

5. O-Gauge Tubular Track:

Yes, it's horribly unrealistic, but nothing conjures up images of Christmas moring like this track. Lionel discontinued it in 2016. However, Williams by Bachmann and Menards are still making it. But with most hobbyists in 3-rail O-Gauge opting for either Gargrave or Atlas, I don;t see much of a future for the old track.

Attracting Fresh Blood

My son enjoying his Brio trains. Hopefully his interest continues and Brio can give way to Lionel.

A topic of many forum flame war is attracting young people to the hobby. Threads on this topic always get to be something of a broken record with such played-out hits as: "young people want everything ready made and don't want kits!" "The hobby is too expensive," "Kids can't put down their electronics," and so on. Then the young people on the forum more often than not start pushing back, things get ugly, the thread gets locked and nothing is accomplished. As a young-ish person (I'm 33), let me address some of the above points and offer my own two cents worth.

The first criticism that often gets heaped on younger modelers is we're impatient and we want things ready to run. We don't want to assemble kits or scratch-build. Baloney! I say! I love putting structure kits together and taking the time to paint them and make them look appropriate for the era and locale. I would love to scratch build more but my skills are sadly lacking. That brings me to another point, not everybody is good at scratch-building and having the ready-to-run stuff makes the hobby more accessible.

Then there's "the hobby costs too much." I know, model manufacturers aren't exactly giving the stuff away. But there are still affordable trains out there. When I was a kid in early 1990s, most toy stores still carried trains. A new HO freight car set you back $3. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $5.32 today. No the cars weren't super detailed or road specific and they had the old horn hook couplers. But you could buy them on a week's allowance.

As for the fact that kids can't put down their electronics, this might be a valid point. It's not so much electronics as it is other toys in general. Lionel found themselves losing the interests of children back in the 1960s. Railroads for a lot of the country aren't visible and children aren't aware of the role they play in everyday life. On top of that many local hobby shops have long since gone out of business.

We know what the problem is, now how do we fix it? My son loves Thomas the Tank Engine and Chuggington. When we get stuck at a grade crossing we couldn't be happier. My wife and I bought him Brio set and loves playing with it. If he continues to show interest, I'll encourage him .Same goes for my daughter.

Encouraging that early interest may very well be the key to getting more kids involved in the hobby. Shows like Thomas and Chuggington may create that initial interest but all too often, I believe parents think it's something their child will outgrow and they don't encourage them. So how do we reach out to these parents? I really don't know. I do know model railroading has a lot more offer than video games. It's great teacher. It taught me woodworking, electricity, how use tools and fostered and interest history.

I do believe things aren't as dire as a lot of the old timers make them out to be. When I volunteered at the Hub City Railroad Museum, I was the oldest among the sizable group of young people there. Some of them will hopefully become part of my operating group. Many parents brought young children through and they were enthralled by the museum and the chance to see real Norfolk Southern freight trains roll by too. I try my best to mentor fellow modelers and help them out anyway that I can. And there's still a lot I have to learn.