Is China the next big market for model/toy trains?

An interesting idea.  I know toy trains were not traditionally a popular hobby in China in the past - I've had Chinese visitors to my home from time to time over the years and the concept of model trains was new to most of them - when I showed them the layout they weren't exactly mystified, but it was clear it was all new to them.  Many upper and middle class Chinese like to adopt European and American customs and habits, like wine and classical European music and golf, so maybe toy trains will be next.  

Then they too can complain about the quality of stuff made overseas . . . oh  . . . wait . . . no, they won't be able to!

I know wealthy Chinese are buying Western luxury goods like luxury cars and designer clothes. It might be worth a try for MTH or Lionel to try to advertise and sell domestically China.  It would be interesting to see if more Western train firms start to sell locomotive and freight/passenger cars based on Chinese prototypes  I wonder what the prices would be since the trains are already produced there and they would not have to ship it over an ocean?  

I am a member of the NMRA.  A few years ago the NMRA was discussing establishing an affiliation with a Chinese model railroad group.  I believe that the Chinese group had over 100,000 members.   I believe that this is more members that all the USA model railroad groups combined.  

I don't know where the affiliation process stands today.  The Chinese government is certainly investing in new rail transportation faster than any other nation.  More and more Chinese have are becoming wealthy enough to travel both internally and externally.  I think that model railroading will grow in China along with the economy.  

Joe  

I remember reading some years ago, I think in a Kalmbach publication, that there

was no Korean (South) culture of model railroading, although they, of course, were

producers of brass models at the time, and three rail later.  Model railroading, in its

various forms, seems to have a historical connection to the prototype, at least, that is what it means to me.  I may have the wrong image of China's history and radically modifying culture, but I can't see a culture once based on rice paddies, and later on smelting iron in ovens in the backyard, having much of connection to railroads.  Certainly a group that outnumbers the NMRA (but what percentage of the population?) sounds like I am full of it.   I know zip about Chinese railroads, so there might be a lot of them, of historical and current interest, that are in view and use of the general

public.

The Chinese are thirsty for more than trains, yes they will love them and buy them but the key is they are developing a middle class which is desiring consumerism period.

http://www.chinesemodeltrains.com

I just found this website about modeling Chinese trains. It seems like Bachman is the only mainstream maker of model trains based off of Chinese prototype.  I find it strange South Korea does not have any culture of model railroading.  I know Japan has a decent amount of model railroaders.  

Here's something to consider when pondering whether model trains will take off in China (or at least O Gauge versions of model trains).  It's an expensive hobby.  Most of the people in that country who could afford such a hobby are probably concentrated in urban areas, where the non-agrarian jobs and money are.  Trains are also a space-intensive hobby.  Living quarters in Chinese cities are a fraction of what we enjoy.  That might be a barrier for a lot of people to enter the hobby...again, on the O Gauge level.

On the other hand, with over a billion people in China, if only a small fractional percentage get into buying trains, they'll easily be as large as the U.S. market.  After all, how many people in the U.S. are into trains?  200,000?  300,000?  Wouldn't take much on a percentage basis to match that number.

- Mike

Would you think if this website was aimed a Chinese or Japanese modelers it would be in their language?      And not English.

My globetrotting son who has been everywhere but Australia assures me that most folks in the industrialized world speak English.

Don't forget the number of Chinese steam engines that are in this country right now.  Seems to me that I recall about 6 or 7 of them, including the engine, now restyled to look like a New Haven 2-8-2 running in Connecticut.  Couple of 10 coupled engines in Iowa and elsewhere. 

In order to attract any business for Chinese model train fans, wouldn't the manufacturers have to make Chinese prototypes?

Paul Fischer

I wouldn't be surprised if model trains became popular with the Chinese urban middle class. I would expect to see N scale models of Chinese high-speed trains. N scale because of space and cost constraints, and the Chinese high-speed trains because of national pride in China's modernization. Passenger trains are an area where China is considered a global leader (although an article in this month's Foreign Policy magazine casts some doubt on that, pointing out the problems with corruption, shoddy construction, and poor implementation of technology acquired, legally or otherwise, from overseas). 

NADA...never ever going to happen. After half of them get their teeth fixed, maybe they will see what an I-Pad can do, that they have been building for the past few years.. sorry

Really quite a nicely done website (created/owned by an Australian hobbyist).  I like the product review presentations (have only checked out a couple of them at this point).

I agree with Paul:  Chinese hobbyists would most likely be interested in models of Chinese trains, not those based on U.S. prototypes (just as most Europeans prefer models of their own nations' prototypes).  And I imagine that O gauge would be way down the list in popularity simply because of the space limitations in most middle class Chinese homes.  As in the rest of Asia, N scale and perhaps HO would most certainly dominate.

GM sells bazillions of Buicks in China. Maybe more than they sell here. China is becoming the world's biggest consumer market for everything, including fossil fuels.

One major toy train company has been smart enough to sell in European markets and diversify into the larger market HO scale, and one has stayed in the U.S. market and sells plastic G-gauge trains... You would think the leaders of at least one of these two toy train companies would be smart enough to realize what a burgeoning opportunity China's consumer market represents and begin selling there.

Bill Kimley from this forum lives in China. He's building a large three rail layout. It was covered by a China TV station and is visited by many school kids. They really like watching the trains. I think there will be a market and lots of interest soon. Don

I worked for Tridan Int. in Danville Il. for 23 years we built machines that make air conditioners. After the machines were completed I would go to China and install them. I made 8 different trips and even got to ride the trains in China,(some of the towns had no airports) It was a great experience the people great to work with. I think it would be a huge market. I have 2 good friends who own a Chinese restaurant. A few weeks ago they called, her brother, who is a doctor, was in town & could they bring them to see my train layout. They had a wonderful time & got lots of photographs to take home. Who knows they may be home building a train layout now.

Al

Obviously posted by a fellow with limited world experiences.  

I think it will be a huge market. All these millions of people riding trains there and no models of them? Many workers are highly skilled and make good money. Money that could buy a son a train set just like he sees everyday, running in his own home. Don

I think it will be the next big market for a lot of things we are use to in our lives over here. A budding middle class will lead to them doing all the things we do now, vacations, hobbies, a nice big house outside of the city. I can see MTH testing the waters maybe in HO first with Chinese prototypes and then a tentative step in O gauge or maybe S if space is truly an issue.

Jerry

Hmmm...not sure what constitutes the "industrialized world", but I have been mistaken as German and wound up responding in my pittance of German at two

tourist locations there, with same language used several places to get a room.

Used slightly better Spanish to get on a flight and then a train in Peru, as travel agency spoke Spanish and Japanese, period.   Ran into "French Power" in Quebec in the 1970's, and then explained to French "gendarmes", with apparenly no English,  in rural France, that I was in an above ground cemetery only taking photographs, with my little French. Oh, yes...I fended off, in German, a panhandler in downtown Frankfurt who was working the crowd around Peruvian Inca flute players similar to those I had seen at Sacsayhuaman a few years before. (I WAS startled to see Peruvian natives on the street there, so people do get around)  However, my little Swedish was worthless when trying to ask directions of an older Norwegian farm woman when hiking high above the Geiranger fjord in search of a glacier.  I am pretty sure I have to have a lousy accent in all of these, but, knowing a little of whatever helped and

English did not.  I would expect to play a Mandarin tape in my car while driving for

some time if planning to attend a Chinese "York" .

It's a big mistake to think the Chinese people are backwards and small minded. They are moving faster than we ever have. Don

Toy trains are magic, just look at the kids faces in the video Bill posted above. As for China being a good market for model RR products, why would we think they would be any different then all of us big kids in the rest of the world.

On my last trip to China we visited a friend who took us to another friend's house when he heard I model Santa Fe trains.   In his friends house was one of the largest transition era Santa Fe layouts I've ever seen in a personal home.  It was all HO.

So to the question of "Is China the next big market?"   No it isn't the next big market.   It already happened.   It's been the big market for a while now.

WOW...

A simple trip to any city in China would open your eyes.

Most popular cars as far as I could tell on my trips there:   BMW, Mercedes, Audi and quite a few Ferraris and Lambos.  Pretty sure all of them had either an iPhone or a Galaxy.  The Apple stores there are every bit as crowded and insane as they are here, if not more so.

At a hotel I stayed at in Guangzhou I think I counted 14 Ferraris, 6 Lambos and more Austin Martins in the parking lot than I've ever seen in 1 place outside of a car show or supercar dealership.  

Anyway...... 

But, do they have any Starbuck's? 

Eight or so locations already open in China, with at least that number or more soon to open.

There are probably 2 classes of people in China: rich & poor, most of you had contact with the rich. Not really rich in the sense we know of, but most of the other people there are poor: if you could own a Ferrari/BMW/Benz, then model RR is a piece of cake. Actually our hobby may be considered a 'rich mans' hobby.

All true here, too?

I am with Allan - I may someday do a 17/64 QJ.

Based on the time that I have spent in China one of the biggest issues would be that the space in most apartments is so small there is not enough room for a model train layout. 

Very liked N will be a popular scale there, for that reason, and of course Bachmann has quite a presence in that scale.

They probably wouldn't buy any unless the box said "Made in USA".

China always had a rich-leadership/poor-rural-small industrial class but with their emergence as an industrial power there is a large and flourishing middle class with the same wants and desires as anyone with a bit of disposable income. Your image of China is at best dated, their position is similar to the USA late 40s early 50s when consumerism became a driving economic force in the US.

Jerry

China has more than a billion and a third people.  Take the upper income, upper educated, urban quarter of their population, and you have a group of people about equal to the entire population of the US, who are demographically roughly equal educated and professional and hard working (and literate): and want all the things we have, now!  The other billion of them?  They have no where to go but up, and are doing so pretty fast, pretty well, all things considering. 

I'm waiting for the big O scale QJ, SY, and JS classes to hit, along with their freight cars and Milwaukee looking, bay window cabeese.   Sign me up big for Sino-Chooch, ASAP !  I'll even jump for some of their Baldwin-like road switchers !

There is a HUGE middle class that is growing rapidly in most of the Asian countries. I happen to be in Asia right now and I see a lot of this class every where. I have been to Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taipei, Thailand and Tokyo. Please do not underestimate the Asian economic powers especially China. If China decides to stop exporting its goods to the west, There will be a wall street melt down.

I think some Asians with disposable income will get into model trains but I suspect that they would rather "show off" their wealth by purchasing more items that can be flashed to their friends and neighbors and in most cases that is not model trains but cars, watches, hand bags, jewelry, iPhone and so on...Nevertheless, their shear numbers can make an impact on the train model industry. Only time will tell.

I don't think they will buy trains. They know how crappy Chinese stuff has become.

I have a couple of Asian auto shops in Queens N.Y. Boy, to they hate the chinese parts.

Amazing.

A big currency crisis will hit china soon. Watch for the waves over here.

Made many trips to China for work, I would search out any hobby shops in the major cities in my spare time. Electric trains in these shops were next to nonexistant.

Yup, I'm in for an SY with Tiefa commuter passenger cab chatter !   Pass the soy sauce, por favor !