Total number of O Gauge enthusiasts ?

100,000

This thread begs the question: How enthused must the person be to be classified an "enthusiast"?

 

Must he merely need to own an O-gauge train?

Must he have a collection of O-gauge trains that would include much more than just a train set?

Must he subscribe to an O-gauge monthly/bi-monthly publication?

 

What exactly is required? What is the minimum?

 

I have a couple show cars and spend quite a bit modifying my daily driver. Am I a car enthusiast? I have been body building for the last 45 years (not so successful at my age now). Am I a weightlifting enthusiast? I am building a layout which will come at a fairly high expense (as I am sure you all know only too well). I have 5 different G-gauge locomotives with NMH batteries and Locolinc. I have a few O-gauge locomotives, subscribe to O-Gauge Railroading magazine. I am fairly active on this forum. Am I a model railroading enthusiast? How about an O-gauge railroading enthusiast? 

I think a good place to start would be with the number of people who attend York, or the total number of TCA members, then using that number, try to figure out what percent of the gauge this is. We could actually do that based on the members here, and then use the ratio of TCA vs. non TCA and up it by the number of people in the TCA.

 

I hope that makes sense, my brain is fried from planning math lessons all evening...

I for one have never, nor will I, probably ever go to York. I own Atlas O, MTH, and now Lionel engines. I'm running both MTH DCS, Legacy, and occasional conventional engines. I don't run engines in racetrack loops, but I love the sights, sounds, and smells of O gauge. After dabbling in n and HO scale for 30-some years, I found my true love in 3-Rail O gauge. Do I qualify?

If you mean 3- rail, take OGR subscriptions and multiply by 3.  Two rail is way more amorphous.

This website tells me that at a minimum it is at least 3,674.**  I suspect there are many more.  The subscription plus sales totals for OGR probably would give a better (and much larger) estimate.  Again, it depends on what "enthusiast" means, but I think if that includes only people who buy O gauge toy trains at times other than around Christmas, the number is probably about 50,000 to 100,000.

 

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** Someone posted something the other day in which they said it was their first post.  The website had assigned a participation score to them of number 3,674 -  there at least 3,763 people it thinks are "more enthusiastic" about O gauge than a guy who took the time to register on the site, and watch and read posts for a week or so before posting a question   

Model Railroader has guestimated that total participation in the hobby is around 400,000.  The rough percentage breakdown by scale has been 75% HO, 15% N, and O, S, and G the splitting the last 10% with O taking most of that, say 7%.  That would work out to around 30,000. This would include all three and two rail variants.

I've heard the breakdown was closer to 50% HO, 25% N, and 25% of O, G, and Z with O taking aa bit over half of that.  Of course, many people are two qauges (I still have some N, etc.).  Regardless, that is a lot of people, but not that many compared to what, 350 million people in the US?

I just had to share this if nothing but the humor of the last 5 words.

Enthusiasm originally meant or possession by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a god.  Johnson's Dictionary, the first comprehensive dictionary of the English language, defines enthusiasm as "a vain belief of private revelation; a vain confidence of divine favour or communication." In current English vernacular the word simply means intense enjoyment, interest, or approval.

 

Larry

Well if you go on just magazine subscriptions. OGR Has 30,000+; Classic Toy Trains another 30,000+ per bi monthly, all be it maybe some crossover readers, 28,000 TCA members. We need a census count! I have a feeling their are more 3 railers out there that are not involved in magazines, forums and organizations.

Do the strangers we run into on occassion in gatherings of some sort and after learning

we play with trains just has to tell you how large and fantastic his neighbr's layout is.

If you are nice to the guy, you will have lost 15 minutes of your time while trying to get away from the jerk count?

Al

 

You can be 100% certain of that!

 

To the best of my knowledge, there is no accurate count or estimate of the total number of O gauge participants.  It would be great if we knew for sure or had even reasonably accurate estimates, but that is not likely to happen because it would be a very difficult and/or costly undertaking.

 

We do know with reasonable certainty that HO is still the leading scale (market share and total participation), followed by N scale, and then O scale/gauge, and that the gap between the first two and the latter is a fairly significant one.  There are a number of perfectly reasonable reasons for this, and it's certainly nothing to be overly concerned about.

I have no interest in trains at all.

I guess you can't count me as an enthusiast. I'm an HO modeler who strayed into O gauge for some unknown reason, and will be heading back to the dark side soon.

Now I am totally confused . I have a layout in 3 rail O/O27 scale , with a N scale operating train in the park ,and my collection contains several HO locomotives and cars , an S scale train , and 2 G scale switcher locomotives . These items in the picture are on my computer hutch . Talk about indecisiveness.

I would imagine that MTH and Lionel have a good idea of what the numbers are. The question is whether they would share the information.

 

Alex

Actually, aside from their own respective sales figures, which really do not provide a solid basis for estimating total O gauge hobby participation, I imagine they are as in the dark about the total number as anyone else.

There was a post on the OGR Forum re survey results by MTH, but I do not remember the number of O-gauge train enthusiasts from the post.

Well, no idea what the total is.

I can however Verify there are many more who enjoy trains than are on forums, read magazines or such.

I have 2 brothers and a sister, they all put up a layout at Christmas if not other times.

None of them have a magazine or catalog or are on any forums about trains.

I am the point of contact if they want something train related.

DADA,

 

 

I reentered this hobby at the suggestion of my father. It was after a long illness that I had in 2004.I had been away from the hobby for 40 years. It was because of my father that I first had been introduced to the hobby at 10 years of age when I came down that Christmas of 1967. Then just as abruptly he did not want it to be damaged by my little brother and sister so he stowed it in the attic.

 

I was so disconnected from the hobby, I thought that it had died in the meanwhile! At least that's what I thought when I joined my local model train club... That had been involved in a model train show at a local nursing home. The club was filled with older gentlemen who weren't to enthusiastic about changing their ancient HO scale layout. It had at the time a minority of O gaugers. Then I subscribed to OGR magazine and I found all of you all around the country. I was simply amazed that this forum existed. There are so many ways to grow this hobby, one is by talking with all of you and realizing that it is not strange to want to miniturize your world so that you can control it more. Just to escape! It really is an indiscribable feeling.

 

The answer to your question can be found above the total number of subcriptions of OGR and Model Railroader. Plus or minus 10.

 

 

Mike