Wall Street Journal - End of the Line for Model Trains? Aging Hobbyists Trundle On

Interesting ,and realistic view of the hobby.

The article states that 60% of Lionels business is product for " serious modelers". That surprised me as I have been led to believe that the scale trains many of us buy are a small portion of Lionel's product line. That leads me to think Lionel will continue with offering great scale products because that is the majority of their sales.

I also saw the article as another sign that we are in the real golden age of toy trains by virtue of the product available, compared to the future of the hobby, which is bleak at best.

Decent article.....and contraction of this hobby is inevitable, we know that......we just have to do the best we can to be ambassadors of the hobby......I suspect local clubs with local layouts will be more important in the future...

However, given the enthusiam for the hobby in the O gauge hobbyists that I know......"the early report of our death is greatly exaggerated!" 

Thanks for posting, I missed it....

Peter

not even a mention of OGRR makes the writers opinions suspect.

Plastic models have been doomed for 25 years......we have more and better choices today than ever......which is about the same for model trains......can't worry about it.....

Can someone either post the article or perhaps email me the article. I do not want to "Subscribe or Register" to see the content. Thanks very much.

Paul

Railrunnin@gmail.com

Cannot read anything more than the introduction to the article.
Did they blame the TCA?

Paul (and others):

I didn't need to subscribe, I just clicked the link and went right in.  If you've viewed your quota of WSJ articles for the month, perhaps they've shut you down until next month.

If that's the case, open a Chrome browser and press Ctrl + Shift + N.  This will launch a "Private" session (you'll know because of the icon of a Private Eye in the upper left corner).  A Private session contains none of your viewing history of anything.  Many times on websites which have a limited number of views (e.g.,the NY Times does this also), this will do the trick because, to the website provider, your Private session looks to them like it's the first time you've ever visited the site.

Give it a try.

SJS

crl+ shift+ N didn't work for me . Still no content.

Also its not due to exceeding article limit for month as it blocks even if you, like me, never go there.

C W Burfle posted:

Cannot read anything more than the introduction to the article.
Did they blame the TCA?

Not having read the article, I would guess that the TCA was probably not mentioned, and the author had never heard of the TCA.

Keep in mind that toy trains are your generation's "video games" to your grandparents. I'm sure many of them groused about how toy trains would rot your little brains, such a waste of time and money.

Everything has its beginning and its end. Kids don't play with hoops and sticks anymore, and the settler's grandparents complained about that.

Some day people won't play video games anymore, and those who grew up on them will grouse about what the kids are doing, and why can't they do something worthwhile like play video games?

I read it yesterday and thought it was interesting BUT I always suspect those kind of stories.  There will be enough around for me.

Steve, I changed my browser to Chrome and got right in  - funny how that works with different browsers. Thanks for the tip.

Paul

An interesting article indeed. I know the feeling all too well of not fitting in with your generation. I'm 31 and many of my good friends in this hobby are late 50's into their 60's and beyond. There is a group of us who are younger who will take up the torch.

The hobby might not be as large or as vibrant 15 or 20 years from now, but there has been enough product produced in the last seventy plus years to satisfy the market for a long time, plus there is more being produced every day. So, I'll just keep doing my thing and not spend so much time worrying about what the future is going to look like. 

Probably a lot of the older guys in the hobby today weren't all that active when they were in their 30s and 40s either. I wasn't-we had a nice Marklin HO Xmas layout.  Model railroading  really  centers on young kids and old geezers with some $$ to spend and time.  Many moons ago I was having a beer with a friend after our HO club meting. We were talking about a very enthusiastic young club member and my friend said "Why isn't he out chasing girls instead of hanging around the club?"  Good question.

Just updated and the article does work on Goggle Chrome. The Wall Street Journal portrays the model retail hobbyist as old and living in the past. The author should of attended the recent Amherst model railroad show where I had to wait in line with my HO buddies to buy $250 digital controlled sound equipped engines, tons of families and kids buying trains .  I remember going to my local hobby shop in the 1970's and the quality of plastic ready to run N,HO stunk and the pickings where slim. I think model trains in 2016 are in a revival. What's the average age of a reader of the Wall Street Journal? Aren't Newspapers Dinosaurs too?

Not having read the article, I would guess that the TCA was probably not mentioned, and the author had never heard of the TCA

My comment was a feeble attempt at humor.

Thanks Jim, that was wonderful. 

 Mike CT

The guy being interviewed had a nice 2 rail layout beside him but I couldn't tell if it was O or HO.  Why I always read these things with caution. Didn't mention much that I read but this guy's opinions.  Several mfrs are gone, a lot fewer hobby shops but that is true of a lot of things, not just the RR hobby.  I think model railroading is here to stay.

WSJ = profits, not prophets.

Pete

Thanks for posting. Always nice to see the hobby get some coverage -- good, bad or indifferent --  in the media.

 

Cannot read anything more than the introduction to the article.
Did they blame the TCA?

There was an entire paragraph blaming the no stroller rule at York for the lack of youth in the hobby :-)

Seriously, we ought to embrace who we are and stop the anguish. Just enjoy our trains and forget about it. Our time is not the grandkid's time. The kids have their own time and their own ways as we had ours. Lionel, according to the article, is going to introduce a non train looking remote controlled roller coaster of sort. This is to help appeal to today's kids. See - nothing to worry about. The manufacturers have the future under control. With strokes of genius like this, why should we worry?

Can't open it....but if it is written by some reporter outside the hobby?.....although it sounds like the death knell tolled even by some insiders...I will continue "to trundle on".  Like a lot of other things, if you are not involved, you miss out, and that is too bad for you, for not taking a look....(I do need to rethink my complaints about tripping over strollers....FOR, I see a heck of a lot of young couples, and women alone, pushing strollers through the nationally advertised train shows...not everyone is oblivious to this hobby)  

Everything passes. In the meantime, we will just enjoy and not  worry, later.

Well I for one was happy to read that many retirement homes have trainrooms.  Only 15 or so more years to go to finally get my trains off the carpet! 

Tomlinson Run RR

I just read the entire article without registering.

I have no interest in a very large layout. Maybe if I grew up in a different era, I would?

It's the electronics that has brought me into the hobby .... albeit in a relatively small way.

My very young kids LOVE building and playing with the extensive wooden trains I have. I have a lot of track and accessories .... it really engages their minds, and they play together. Including my little girl, Amie.

They will always have trains, and I will, also .... but it will never be a huge part of their lives. They're also just as enthusiastic shooting the bb-gun, skating on the lake, etc .... on these winter days.

jim pastorius posted:

The guy being interviewed had a nice 2 rail layout beside him but I couldn't tell if it was O or HO.  Why I always read these things with caution. Didn't mention much that I read but this guy's opinions.  Several mfrs are gone, a lot fewer hobby shops but that is true of a lot of things, not just the RR hobby.  I think model railroading is here to stay.

Did you not hear him say right there on camera that it was 3.5mm to the foot or HO scale?

Yes, that is what I thought but it was almost midnight so didn't spend too much time thinking it out. I don't use metrics in model railroading.

jim pastorius posted:

Yes, that is what I thought but it was almost midnight so didn't spend too much time thinking it out. I don't use metrics in model railroading.

Jim, he said "HO scale", but, as you say...

I watched the video and it tells us nothing new. As stated kids today are not very hands on. In most cases if they had to fix a leak in a pipe or roof they would probably do more damage then good, if not hurt themselves in the process. Oh wait that sounds like me at age sixteen!

In any case who cares what the outsiders say, the important question is are you having fun? If not, then get a thumb flipper device, if you are then that's what a hobby is all about.

As for the future of toy trains, I'm sixty- seven and I can remember reading in the paper back in 1965 or so that Lionel is all but dead and the hobby is doomed to the archive of forgotten toys. The future was space and air travel. Those predictions did not turn out to be all that accurate. Did they?

As for production numbers of starter products I don't know where this writer got his states but he is so far off base it's laughable. But, what can we expect from a news industry that dose as much research as is required to full a five minute video. Just look at the reporting we get on world news and politics. Do you remember when the Polar Express first came out? The original production number was only about a thousand or so sets for the one year the picture came out. Well guess what Lionel was selling that and more every year since and other then the scale sets they all mostly went to families with young children. Do you really think Lionel would spend so much money on producing remote control products if they where not selling a lot of them? None of said product is geared to the TMCC, or Legacy market. 

OK, maybe Lionel is off their collective rockers, but that means so is MTH and all the other manufactures. I don't think so! If you disagree with me check out places like the Choo-Choo Barn and the worlds greatest toy train layout in the world in Germany. The visitors are not all in wheelchairs are they? But yet they have plenty of visitors to keep the doors open.

Bottom line folks is don't worry what the news media says, it really makes no difference to our hobby lives at all. The only question we need to ask is; are we having fun?  The future will take care of it's self.

Couple of points. First, the layout featured is Howard Zane's who has written a few articles in RMC in the past. It is a massive HO layout. He is active on the Model Railroader forums under his real name.

Second, every model train show I have been to in the last decade has been packed with people of all ages. My own kids are very much into trains. Then again, they are home schooled and don't spend countless hours in front of the television. My son who is 8, helps me lay track, solder, paint, and plenty more. He is always asking what more he can help with.

I don't buy for a second that the hobby is dying. We have more product available now than ever before in almost every scale. At age 40, I'm never the youngest at any local operating session I go to. There are plenty of youngsters. And while HO scale will always rue the day, MTH, Lionel and Atlas are coming out with outstanding models with ever advancing technology on a regular basis.

The main problem I see is accessibility. How many kids these days know anything about railroads or their history? How many have even seen a model railroad? I think it's up to us - the current generation of modelers - to open our homes on occasion to neighbors and friends and show off our achievements. Local hobby shops are gone. The crap Bachmann sells at Hobby Lobby is just that - crap. Youngsters love to make and build things - look at how many Lego sets there are! My kids build those things constantly. Trains can be part of that, but people have to know they are out there.

Kind of rambling, but you get the point,

Scott

I really think Thomas the Train and Polar Express have brought more kids(and adults) in to the hobby lately more than anything else.

I have had over 60 some years with model trains. 2 sons, 2 daughters . Both sons were active.  Now there are 9 grandsons ( a couple have discovered girls)  two in there teens are still interested. But the 2 youngest are avid . To see 3 yr. olds run lion chief and Dcs  is amazing. When my end comes I hope one of them continues. But of they don't I won't worry. I have had a fantastic run for many years and I know that there are a lot of me still around. There will always be some one.

thanks Tstark

Greetings All,

Yes, it is 2 rail and yes, it is HO Scale 1/87. The man is Howard Zane and he used to be somewhat of a HO Scale legend back in the day.  IIRC he wrote many articles for either Railroad Model Craftsman (RMC) or Model Railroader magazine both of which catered to the HO and N Scale crowd (ask me how I know).  Dave Frary (a well known scenery guru) and George Sellios (creator of Fine Scale Miniatures) are renowned and once very prominent in the HO Scale annals as well.  Fine Scale Miniatures produced, in limited production runs, some of the most beautiful, and expensive, "Craftsman" building kits available at that time.  They were for the "experienced" modeler and assembled into a complete diorama to be placed on a layout or for static display.  Those were the days indeed!

Chief Bob (Retired)

Still can't read the article, after trying control/shift/N I get the page is no longer available.

Tom

I thought one of the comments made by folks just below the article was interesting.....

"You know, Vinyl records are making a comeback.  Who would have thought.  I bet, there are a lot of young folks (now immersed in phones and tablets) who will discover this hobby and go crazy for it in the future.  I strongly recommend that the old Dodgers not get rid of their stuff.  It is going to be worth a lot in the future.   Buy low sell high.  Yeah, I used to have a Lionel set.  Wish I still had it.  A smart man would create a business with enhanced computerized train sets.  Kids love to play with mechanical things.  (Evidence robots).  The train thing is not dead, just in transition.  I can hardly wait!"

Guys...while the hobby has certainly matured, it is NOT dead and in my estimation will never be "dead".  The effort by the industry to make our hobby more "interactive" is a good thing and will bring in more interest from the younger crowd.  Being able to control a world (layout) that you have created with your smartphone will stimulate the hobby.  Will it ever be as big as it was in the past....perhaps not but it is far from going away...

Alan

This is why I just joined this forum.  I'm not sure which I enjoyed more the article or responses here on the forum.  Not!  I definitely w/o question enjoyed reading the forum responses.  U guys are awesome!  Goerge, whom I don't know personally want to thank you for making me laugh on ur ending comment about the article.  Too funny.  I loved it.

ScottyB posted:

=snip=

The main problem I see is accessibility. How many kids these days know anything about railroads or their history? How many have even seen a model railroad? I think it's up to us - the current generation of modelers - to open our homes on occasion to neighbors and friends and show off our achievements.

=snip=

Scott

>> Something in your post resonated with me.  It reminded me of why I have a love-hate relationsip with railtrials. If you just put down some hardtop and let bikers ride about, you've missed an opportunity to teach about train history and how that path came to be, and so much more like economics and geography.  For examine make a bike rack or stretching station out of some rail before you scrap it. So, I think a big part of it is "accessibility" to the real thing and someone who can explain it.  One hope I have is that if any of proposed gee-wiz trains get off the ground, that kids will be inspired by the science and that might get them into modeling as a result.

Just my own ramble.

 Sorry, I can't get the new interface to let me add comments in the space BELOW a quote ...iPad woes.

Tomlinson Run RR

Silly article the more I think about it.. Does anyone still read Newspapers would have been a better byline?

What is the average age and demographic of the average Wall Street Journal reader? He is likely an average white male, 55 years old, who commutes on Metro North everyday!

The Wall St Journal is a DINOSAUR! Right? A Newspaper...? It like the kettle calling the Pot Black etc.. Har Har , laugh out loud 

Yep just say Digital it's everywhere, from OGR online forum to the insides of my digital controlled trains!

This is probally the biggest reaction the 100 year Journal has received to this Model Train article buried in the tiny lifestyles section! LOL

Gentlemen,

    Wall Street has been trying to influence manufacturing businesses for many years now, don't believe everything they put out.  While the modern generations are not as hand on as we were in our generation they are very much into remote control and WIFI operation of just about every operational toy that moves.  I would not write our hobby off just yet.

PCRR/Dave

Jim Hartley says the article was from "today's Wall Street Journal" and his post is from Feb 10.  I've looked through my paper copy of the WSJ and couldn't find it on the 9th or 10th (I've already thrown out older papers).

Does anybody know which day and which page is the article from?

Thanks.