Ruffle Thy Feathers - "The Hobby is Dying"

[mcgrath618]

As a member of not one but two clubs near my house, and as a member of Gen Z, there are plenty of young modelers around. They’re just in different forms. The biggest hurdle for most is cost, but those who can will usually buy rolling stock and take it to the club to run it there.

[mp15ac]

I don't think that the hobby is dying. But I do feel that these forums are dying. I've been part of these forums for years. There seems t be less and less new content in the various topics in the Railroad.net forums.

Stuart

[Roger Hensley]

That may be caused by Facebook and the like. As they increase, these channels decrease.

[johnthefireman]

There was an article in the June 2019 Railway Modeller magazine in the UK (pp 470-471) about a model railway club which has partnered with a local school. Students have built layouts under the tutelage of experienced modellers from the club, supervised by teachers (mainly for safeguarding compliance). Those who have taken an interest include female students and a female teacher. A good way of passing on the baton of railroad modelling.

[CarterB]

Us "old geezers" remember when model trains and layouts were a "must". Nowadays, that room area is used for exercise equipment, entertainment centers, or other hobbies. I notice youngsters are more interested in cell phones and video games and have little or no interest in trains of any kind.

[NaugyRR]

While I think that's true to a good extent, it's not entirely without reason. Rents and mortgages are expensive, so smaller dwellings are becoming more and more common. I have a ton of HO trains and a small collection of O that I won't be able to do more than display until my girlfriend and I get married and buy a house. Once in awhile I'll set up an oval on the dining room table in my apartment to test a train out, but nothing I can really do anything with.

The other reason is pricing, especially if you're interested in smaller, less popular roads and oddball equipment. A set of Rapido Shoreliners and an FL9 is the equivalent of around three months car payments for me, and a good chunk of one month's rent. I think that's why screen time, and in particular digital railroading and simulation has become such a popular industry. Rail Simulator and TSW DLC is a fraction of the price of a new HO model.

I was in middle school when MSTS came out, and I think that's where my interest in trains really started developing. I'd always had an interest in trains, my old man said I "emerged from the womb with it", but it wasn't until I was able to learn how the equipment operated and about all the different equipment from past to present, from not just the US but other countries as well, that my interest blossomed into a passion and desire to learn and understand more and more. Picture Johnny 5 from the Short Circuit movies, 'NEED MORE INPUT'.

I've found a balance of model and digital railroading in my life now that I'm older. I still lean towards digital because of the room and pricing issue (I just bought the TSW Amtrak SW1000 and Cab Car pack for $20, the HO models would easily be ten times that amount). As I get older and buy a home and have a larger surplus to my budget I will absolutely start modeling, but until then I can totally understand and appreciate why younger people just aren't interested.

Obviously I don't speak for all Millennials, especially the younger ones that even I've started saying "damn kids" about, but for the ones in their mid/late twenties like myself, that's my two cents of friendly input.

[Gilbert B Norman]

I was in middle school when MSTS came out, and I think that's where my interest in trains really started developing.

Microsoft Train Simulator's Orient Express run Innsbruck-St. Anton set circa 1925 is quite accurate. The real life route parallels the Inn River Innsbruck to Imst through a level valley. Never mind the present day Rail Jet moves along at 125mph, while the max the steam powered "Orient Express" can make is 60. Ascending to St. Anton along the Inn, first to Landeck, then Eastward to St. Anton along the Sanna, the real life Rail Jet maintains a steady 40mph, but at times the Sim's "Orient Express" drops to 4mph providing the player with "think I can..." moments.

Major landmarks, such as several monasteries and the Castle Wiesberg, on the Sim are there in real life. Many of the stations still have structures as depicted by the Sim, albeit with some platform upgrading.

Now the only place there are major differences is approaching St. Anton. The Sim depicts the train struggling up the final grade to an imposing St. Anton "hauptbahnhof"; in real life, there is a tunnel and in a short space of daylight is a nondescript St. Anton station. The West portal of the Arlberg Tunnel (I didn't ride through it) now begins right at the station, the Sim has it some half mile to the East. I have learned from historical photos, that the station depicted in the Sim was "more or less" authentic with that existing there during 1925. It is still there, but is an "annex" to a hotel.

Here's a photo of the former St. Anton "bahnhof" and as it is today.

[NaugyRR]

I have very fond memories of playing MSTS, it was a simpler time and the experiences were totally different. I still have the CD in a jewel case along with all of the addons I purchased from the UK.

Of the Orient Express in particular, I preferred riding than driving. MSTS had "Introductory Train Rides" that would demonstrate a full run of each route. I loved riding in the Orient Express lounge car in the snow, listening to the lounge piano playing softly in the background. It was a relaxing way to kill some time after school.

[Petz]

Now the only place there are major differences is approaching St. Anton.

St. Anton´s railway station had been abadoned and transferred in 2001 necessary for the alpine skiing championships so it´s clear that Trainsim´s location look different...

[eolesen]

Route-building is still one of my hobbies... They put some effort into station structures for those original six routes, but the grades and track profiles used are horribly inaccurate. With the availability of digital elevation mapping data, many of the original routes have been redone with more accurate grades and track alignments.

I've built almost 2000 trackside structures and buildings in the past ten years (it's an off & on thing due to work), with many of them being built specifically for the location they occupy. Stations are important, buildings 100 ft off the track are less important, and anything over 100M away isn't important enough unless it's a skyscraper or other landmark object you'll see from miles away...