Era Modeling by Age Group?

[EL3632]

Born in 1993, primarily modeling the Erie Lackawanna and Delaware & Hudson in 1975, and Conrail and D&H in 1979. With smatterings of predecessor & successor roads, neighbors, and the PRSL in 1952, 1962, 1995 and 2018.

I very recently decided on my main eras, prior I modeled generic 1950s, 70s, 90s, and modern for various eastern roads focused around PA/NJ. I still like the other eras and want to keep them around for fun.

Also have late 40s LMS (UK/Scotland) and 2014-16 JR East (Japan) thrown in because I find them interesting.

[Curtis Kyger]

'Born in 1956.  Modeling the GM&O in 1972.

[Wlal13again]

Born in 1964 in Pennsylvania   Model Conrail 1978-1985

[wazzou]

'Born in 1956.  Modeling the GM&O in 1972.

Man, you're old! 😁

[milw156]

Born 1957 in Chicago, Rode the 400 once, and the Zephyr, and the Hiawatha several times each to Minneapolis. Have some great memories of the Amtrak Empire Builder and Northcoast Hi's with at least 5 if not 7 different paint schemes in the same consist.
1975-76 Milw in northern Il. an southern Wi largely due to the Bicentennial paint schemes,FM's covered wagons SD40-2's and the SDP40-F's and rainbow era Amtrak. I can also field a Milwaukee train from mid-late 60's as well as early 80's, and on the same lines, WSOR before the WATCO takeover (2010?) I have a soft spot for the BN Cascade Green, and my son got me interested in Conrail. No steam, but if a Milwaukee Norther ever becomes available, that will change!

[Bobster]

OK I'll join in,

Born in 59,  Central Illinois.  Modeling what could be Central Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, or Missouri.
Model RI, ATSF  a little freight and passenger on each.  Both were close to home.
Wabash Cannon Ball, working on a Blue Bird.
CBQ One passenger train.
PRR Doodlebug.  May sell it and get a Santa Fe doodlebug.
NYC/Peoria and Eastern with a GP7 and a "visiting" Mikado - one passenger one freight.
Mainly early 50's but a I like the Dash 8CW's looks so I got an ATSF Warbonnet and a Conrail
Seem to be modeling/modifying more than running a tiny layout and finishing a 36 x 80 door layout.
All roads at one time served in or near the Peoria area.  But I'm not doing Peoria itself.
I even rebuilt an old Bachmann  U36B, CSX, because CSX operates on part of the old Rock Island.

Bobster out

[C855B]

By the Numbers

I'll take this break in the action (...wow!...) to post refreshed stats:

Responses: 68
No direct experience of modeling period: 62%
Transition (1945-1959): 37%
Decline (1960-1980): 34%
Influenced by childhood memories: 18%
Modern: 16%
Average/Median Age: 52/54
Average/Median Era: 1970/1965

Notes:

For the several of you expressing multiple eras, I took the middle weighted by your indicated strongest preference.

For the few who might not know the difference between "average" and "median", "average" is the total divided by the number of entries, kinda "just a number". Take two 80-year-olds and a 20-year-old as a group, you get an average age of 60, which means nothing, there are no 60-year-olds in the cohort. Median is the middle of the pack - half are above, half are below. That the median birth year and median era are both 1965 blows my mind.

Back to "conventional wisdom"... first, the reliving childhood theory is mostly bunk. <20% is not significant. And then there's modern, which is now down to just 1/6 of the sample. So, explain to me why so many manufacturers are pursuing this market.

The best observation so far came from my wife Robyn today, over lunch. Telling her about the survey, without prompting she said, "Well, duh, they're reliving their childhood experiences." At that point I laughed and said, "Not so fast!", explaining the responses didn't support this conclusion. After some back-and-forth, she offered, "OK, they are modeling periods when railroads were interesting, with lots of variety." Bingo.

[reinhardtjh]

I was born July 1960 in Western New York state.  I lived my first 18 years in the same house. I was 3 miles from the PRR Buffalo line and 4 miles from the Arcade & Attica railroad which, in 1962 began it's steam powered tourist train.  So I had steam in my life any day I could make the trip to Arcade.  Well, on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays when the tourist trains ran.

I target two different eras and two different locations.  My goal is the PRR Buffalo line in the transition time of around 1950. But also modern times with NS and WNY&P.  Another goal is the C&O Alleghany division in 1948-1950ish.  I love steam and the PRR and C&O had some outstanding locomotives.  But I also love ALCos and that makes the WNY&P perfect since they run on the former PRR Buffalo line.

So:
    1950 - PRR - Buffalo line in WNY and Western PA
    1948 - C&O - Alleghany Division
    Current - WNY&P and Norfolk Southern on the Buffalo Line in WNY and Western PA

[Jbub]

By the Numbers

I'll take this break in the action (...wow!...) to post refreshed stats:

Responses: 68
No direct experience of modeling period: 62%
Transition (1945-1959): 37%
Decline (1960-1980): 34%
Influenced by childhood memories: 18%
Modern: 16%
Average/Median Age: 52/54
Average/Median Era: 1970/1965

Notes:

For the several of you expressing multiple eras, I took the middle weighted by your indicated strongest preference.

For the few who might not know the difference between "average" and "median", "average" is the total divided by the number of entries, kinda "just a number". Take two 80-year-olds and a 20-year-old as a group, you get an average age of 60, which means nothing, there are no 60-year-olds in the cohort. Median is the middle of the pack - half are above, half are below. That the median birth year and median era are both 1965 blows my mind.

Back to "conventional wisdom"... first, the reliving childhood theory is mostly bunk. <20% is not significant. And then there's modern, which is now down to just 1/6 of the sample. So, explain to me why so many manufacturers are pursuing this market.

The best observation so far came from my wife Robyn today, over lunch. Telling her about the survey, without prompting she said, "Well, duh, they're reliving their childhood experiences." At that point I laughed and said, "Not so fast!", explaining the responses didn't support this conclusion. After some back-and-forth, she offered, "OK, they are modeling periods when railroads were interesting, with lots of variety." Bingo.

I find her second conclusion hits the nail on the head. A lot of people say modern is boring but for me it is very interesting, especially the UP. I can do regular freight, amtrak passenger, excursion passenger both steam and diesel old and new, even steam revenue. Stack trains to some are boring but when you start varying the cans both in height and livery (thank you JTC for uping the game on this) it makes for a visually interesting train. If you're into operations, you have to be careful on building trains do to long and short cars. Short hoppers have a hard time next to 89' autoracks and the length difference seems more prevalent today then in yesteryear's. Then you also have pool power and heritage livery paint schemes on loco's. One of my favorite things is having a Tuxedo (especially SD80's) in the mix of a consist. Interchanging and through frieghts of foreign railroads and not to mention the vast number of types of cars, heck, I can buy a car with a paint scheme meant for the late 60's and still run it on my railroad in 2019 albiet heavily weathered and with added conspicuancy stripes.
Transition era and early decline are fun for operations just because there was more to do imo but it the later doesn't hit the nostalgia for me. If I were to do steam I think I would go the HOn3 route. There is just something about mountain railroading that seems relaxing.

[Chris333]

When I grew up my Dad was a signalman for EL and Conrail. Right down the block was an abandoned concrete trestle.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1702387,-80.5545471,55a,35y,285.33h,45.04t/data=!3m1!1e3
It was many years later that I found out is was a trestle for a sinter plant for the nearby steel mill. Down the line a little further was the steel mill. At one time there were blast furnaces there.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1713076,-80.5558452,408a,35y,285.33h,44.88t/data=!3m1!1e3
And even further down was an old coaling tower and turntable pit:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1658115,-80.5827499,396a,35y,270h,44.89t/data=!3m1!1e3
Along with abandoned tracks.

My buddies Grandma had an old coal mine in the woods behind her house.

So for me I was more interested in what was no longer there. Later found out the the EL was first the Erie and where I lived it was the Mahoning Coal Road before that. The abandoned line was the NYC ex LS&MS line. Oh and there was an old trolley line roadbed. even rail still in the road:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1676926,-80.5676887,3a,90y,248.47h,54.49t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sR9cVxBfG127d_8YZmd1vcA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1677743,-80.5688803,3a,26.7y,95.85h,78.19t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUnYAClQfqkIxbaez7ZzoyA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It is a field now, but this ex. LS&MS yard was a huge scrap yard full of old trains. Later I found a lot of the PRR GG1's were scraped here:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.1772315,-80.5760629,1274a,35y,270h,39.08t/data=!3m1!1e3

When ever I was young in the back of the car looking around I was always looking out for the flat spot in the trees that looked like it used to be railroad tracks.

The stuff that was still there was so small compared to what was there.

[Lemosteam]

Born in 1964, Detroit suburb.

Began career at Ford Tractor in 1984.  For spun off Ford Tractor after they purchased New Holland in Lancaster PA and decided to move the new operation to Lancaster.  I opted at first to move with the new company and began searching for a place to live there with my fiance' at the time.  Fell in love with the area and explored the area a little more when I came across the Strasburg and experienced live steam engines for the first time (never correlating trips as a youngster to Greenfield Village and their steam to Strasburg).

Bought my first Micro-trains cars in 1988 and was so enamored by their printing capability, reading reporting marks with a loupe but not whith the naked eye- Whaaaaat????

Changed my mind and decided to stay with the parent Ford Motor Company within two weeks of moving to PA. Now with Ford for 35 years.

Strasburg had an effect though and I decided to model (collect actually) the PRR transition era ~1950-1957.  I built a 4x8 layout to run and build trains in my yards using Magna-Matic to to take out on the "mainline".

Now, due to lack of MRR layout space I am confined to an imaginary service division of the LIRR, which was owned and governed by the PRR whose elevated and electrified Long Island mainline they serve, and the ex-PRR equipment they use is a bonus.

If I ever hit the lotto, I will have a layout of condensed vignettes that will take the viewer on a PRR 4 track journey from Chesapeake Bay to Philadelphia to Altoona to Horseshoe Curve to Pittsburgh then north on a two track ride to Erie  to Ashtabula for iron ore.

[unittrain]

Born 1970 model era is 1968 to 1980

[sundowner]

Born in 1970 and grew up in south Florida.
When I started in N in the late 90’s I was modeling  CSX because there mainline is about a mile from my house. I would have done modern FEC but there was not enough equipment to do it justice.
I switch to Modern era UP and sold all my CSX equipment after Kato did 844 and started to read about UP fascinating history plus it seems all manufactures get UP equipment correct more often than CSX.I don’t model a set place.

[davefoxx]

By the Numbers

I'll take this break in the action (...wow!...) to post refreshed stats:

Responses: 68
No direct experience of modeling period: 62%
Transition (1945-1959): 37%
Decline (1960-1980): 34%
Influenced by childhood memories: 18%
Modern: 16%
Average/Median Age: 52/54
Average/Median Era: 1970/1965

Notes:

For the several of you expressing multiple eras, I took the middle weighted by your indicated strongest preference.

For the few who might not know the difference between "average" and "median", "average" is the total divided by the number of entries, kinda "just a number". Take two 80-year-olds and a 20-year-old as a group, you get an average age of 60, which means nothing, there are no 60-year-olds in the cohort. Median is the middle of the pack - half are above, half are below. That the median birth year and median era are both 1965 blows my mind.

Back to "conventional wisdom"... first, the reliving childhood theory is mostly bunk. <20% is not significant. And then there's modern, which is now down to just 1/6 of the sample. So, explain to me why so many manufacturers are pursuing this market.

The best observation so far came from my wife Robyn today, over lunch. Telling her about the survey, without prompting she said, "Well, duh, they're reliving their childhood experiences." At that point I laughed and said, "Not so fast!", explaining the responses didn't support this conclusion. After some back-and-forth, she offered, "OK, they are modeling periods when railroads were interesting, with lots of variety." Bingo.

Thanks for crunching these numbers; the results are fascinating.  I have to say, though, I wonder if the sampling is too small or TRW is just not a reliable sampling for the model railroading market in general, since you found that the modern era doesn't sync with the manufacturers' pursuit of that market.

Also, I will admit that I fall into the "childhood memories" category, but I also chose this era, because of the variety, i.e., all of the CSX predecessors running rampant on the Seaboard System.  So, there you go. 

DFF

[wm3798]

Born in 1964, with several layers of modeling interest. 

First focus was on Conrail in the late 70s, which had my attention in... you guessed it, the late 70s.  So I guess for a while I was a contemporary era guy.

That lasted up to about 2000, when Conrail was absorbed by its mortal enemies, and wide cab diesels and double stacks made railroading less fun to watch.  Then Atlas released the SD35 in Western Maryland Circus.



... and the jig was up.  I had been a member of the WMRHS since 1983, mostly to get cool calendars and have a place to hang out with some of my Baltimore peeps when I was in college in Shepherdstown.  But I'd always had an interest in the WM, occasionally seeing a train waiting for a signal where the line parallels I-70 when we traveled to PGH and Cleveland during the summers of my larval stage.  By the early 80s, much of the WM was already abandoned, and as CSX took over from Chessie the knife, a few more lines started being shed.  Whatever there was to see was quickly disappearing.

Coinciding with the Atlas release in 2000, I had purchased our first home in 1998, and it had a spare room in the attic, so the doodling began.  I chose the era between 1967 and 72, the last "pure" years of the WM, which took in the arrival of second generation diesels, the introduction of the red, white and black paint scheme, still with an eclectic collection of RS-3s, GP9s, F units and switchers.  Like others here, nothing I ever witnessed first hand, except in passing, but rather an attempt to capture the flavor of an era just passed.

After the therapeutic spousectomy in 2012, I no longer have a permanent layout, but I still have the books, the rolling stock and the track that was salvaged, and there are dreams of returning once again to Black Fork Grade, MY Tower etc.

My current source of entertainment is a 3' x 5' table top loaded with code 80 track and vintage equipment as I relive my earliest exposure to N scale in the early 70s.  It's fun tuning up old steam locomotives (the old diesels suck) and re-gauging those finicky metal wheelsets, and running them at top speed around 9.75" radius loopty loops!