Will model railroaders continue to further fragment?

[asciibaron]

......the big shift in the hobby IMO is the desire to buy one's way to a layout without ever once doing anything more challeneging than write out a check or putting a loco on the tracks.

-Steve

And what's wrong with that? At least it provides economies of scale for the manufacturers and allows a lot more people to enjoy the hobby. My schedule doesn't allow time for 'modelling' as such - you know, kids, wife, work, voluntary work et al. I have enough challenges without adding more to the list.

the point being that those that simply buy what is available have to understand that a specific car to a single railroad is not likely to be manufactured.  i worked in the industry making locomotives - to get maximum return on the investment, the model has to sell in large numbers - niche markets are not known for having a good return.  limited runs of special paint schemes applied to standard models are an easy investment - the tooling for the model already exists, new pad printing die are cut, which are much cheaper than tooling for plastic models.  even then, limited runs are usually paid for by other "investors" who are taking the risk - i'm sure Jerry can speak to this with the Berwind hoppers he had made.

the bottom line is this; if you want to run trains, that's fine, but don't expect fine scale models of unique or oddball prototypes as the normal.  who makes a Krauss-Maffei in SP paint in N scale?  i doubt Atlas will be making that anytime soon.

there is an under current that i'm dancing around - there is no skill in writing a check.  the instant need for gratification is well represented in the hobby.  don't be fooled into thinking there is no money in being a manufacturer - model trains are a 100's of million dollar annually industry.  ask Kalmbach how much they make on the hobby.
-Steve

[rschaffter]

... It will be steam's last stand, Chinese style, circa 1980.

Steve,

Steam's Last Stand in China is now.  They plan to eliminate it entirely by next year's Olympics.

[SAH]

... It will be steam's last stand, Chinese style, circa 1980.

Steve,

Steam's Last Stand in China is now.  They plan to eliminate it entirely by next year's Olympics.

You're right of course.  That makes it fit even better into my 2050 timeframe.  Read an article the other day about how much money China is spending on rail infrastructure.  Incredible.  Another parallel between China today and the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century.

Steve

[FrankCampagna]

the big shift in the hobby IMO is the desire to buy one's way to a layout without ever once doing anything more challeneging than write out a check or putting a loco on the tracks.

I'm not sure all that many people do that. Ever seen what the custom layout makers charge? Not for your average Joe. Beside, custom layout builders have been around for at least a couple of decades now.  I have a condition that affects my motor skills. Makes for very slow going, and poor results. And I don't have a lot of time. Besides, my interest is more in realistic operations, than finely detailed parts. If I could afford to have someone do the benchwork and track work, I'd love it. I'm not that good at it myself. Just my point of view, however. We all model the way we feel is best. Frank

The most I planned on is perhaps putting distinctive horns and number boards on my locomotives. But now there is a shortage of detail parts. I do have to work with my passenger equipment (including assembling a heavyweight RPO kit). The results probably won't be anything to brag about. Frank

[Nato]

  Unique cars have made it as ready to run models in N. A perfect exampleis the Atlas Flat Car from the late 1960's early 70's it has a rack on it with what look like oversized or HO scale aluminum Milk Cans. My first one is in SP freightcar color, 2nd one in B&O blue. For years myself and others in the Utah N Rail Modelers (now the Wasatch N Scalers) use to joke about these cars and referr to them as  hazardious waste cars. Then I purchased the book "Southern Pacific Freight Cars Volume 3" from Signature Press which covers Automobile and Flat cars. There it was in the flat car section SP built 2 (just 2 cars) for transporting Calcium Carbonate . The Atlas model is dead on execpt for clearence at the ends to clear the Rapido couplers then in use. The car number and data is accurate. They must have selected this car for it's interesting load,then also offered it as B&O to increase sales value. Another example, although there were more of these cars would be the Helium Tank Cars (Flat Cars) that the U.S. Navy operated . this car is one that is again definately not mainstream ,but N ready to run non brass models exist and were rerun a few years back. So you can't always say that a one or two off strange car will not be made because history sometimes proves us wrong.                                                                                  Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah."Love that Mane Casket Company car!"