Jim, I'm going to have to disagree with you quite a bit here. First
off the typical train sets that were presented in the typical mail order
Christmas catalog were under the toy section. If you look at the
Gilbert or Lionel product catalogs you would see kids presented in many
of the shots. At the most you might introduce other members of the
family, although I remember a shot in some ad of a father-like adult
figure with pipe in mouth holding up a couple of engines (can't recall
who sponsored the ad however). Now indeed it typically was Dad who set
up the set around the tree and perhaps on the 4 x 8 in the basement
later, but the larger scale sets were marketed to the kids. I remember
Gilbert sponsoring the Mr. Ed show and some cartoon show--pretty much
kids' shows. Those kids were us!
In my home town, there were about 4 of us who were into model trains
(mid 50's to 60's)--three in Lionel and myself in S. No adults for the
most part. My father was killed in a hunting accident when I was a baby
so I had to pretty much do everything myself so that might be skewing my
situation, but I still think it's pretty accurate. The dads didn't come
into play until sports, hunting and later cars. Because trains were
pretty much on the high end of the cost schedule only the rich kids got
the sets or kids like myself who had a hardware store owning uncle... (I
still got a cheepie Atlantic set but I was in heaven). I bet there were
many thousands of sets sold and a small % stuck with modeling and
another % picked it up later (the huge success of MTH and Lionel almost
after dying). Those big kids in both % groups are us!
Of course what has evolved was the fairly rapid success of the HO scale
market of kits that offered a fairly cheap way of getting into the hobby
for the big kids which pretty much ignored the upcoming generations.
I've heard stories of wooden kits in the $1 range, some plastic in the
$1 range (whoever ran those six page ads in the front of MR for years)
and $3-5 for the Athearn/Roundhouse kits. Since most this group were
beyond the "kids" stage they are old like the groups who had the Lionel
sets. Thus old + old + old leaves little chance for replacements.
Now I'm not wring my hands over this because I'm not invested in AM,
SHS, Walthers or Lionel and there's little I can do about it overall.
I just hate to see it happen 'cause I'm having a ball doing railroading
my way. I started pouring a mountain stream over the weekend, working
on kit bashing a interlocking tower tonite, and yesterday I came closer
to finishing up a layout feature for MR that I've been working on for
months.
And Jim when it comes to muscle cars, I certainly regret leaving my 3rd
hand, 66 1/2 Dodge Charger in California especially when I traded for a
Vega! It only had a 318 but she was my first!
Bob Werre
BobWphoto.com
On 11/8/10 6:00 PM, Jim Kindraka wrote:
>
> I hate to be the iconoclast, but I think this whole notion of youth
> and S scale is misguided. Model railroading in S scale has never
> really been a "youth-oriented" hobby. Even in AC's day AF trains were
> not an inexpensive toy - the 1950 average weekly income for a white
> male with "some college" was $85.00! A train set at close to a weeks
> wages sure doesn't sound youth oriented to me. This could be dad's
> buying for son's but is more likely men buying for themselves!
>
> IMHO this is a hobby for middle aged or beyond. People who have
> degrees of disposable income. Yeah, you can't head to track side any
> more without some law enforcement risk, but then again good luck going
> to an airport to watch or photograph planes. But the aircraft
> hobbyists aren't exactly wringing their hands and old muscle car
> hobbyists are popular as ever... When was the last time you saw a 340
> 'Cuda or 350 Camaro SS on the street??
>
> I've been thinking about this for a while in terms of where do we
> promote the hobby for the future. Modeling in S scale is not
> inexpensive and it is challenging. It has great rewards, but
> portraying it as anything other than the challenge it is could turn
> off more future converts than it draws. The key might be more of a one
> on one "mentoring" to help people learn and develop an appreciation
> for the hobby. This forum might provide some of that, although most of
> the time we bury newcomers with so many of our own opinions, fetishes
> and rants... DCC anyone?? Why would anyone want to join our hobby...
> to listen to a bunch of angry old men???
>
> Kids will always love to see toy trains racing in circles. They love
> to see loud cars and war birds racing through the sky or jets in an
> air show, but only a minuscule number will develop as hobbyists.
> Forget about that (and computer games too!), when someone in their
> 40's shows an interest in the hobby consider becoming a mentor... That
> means you have to do something and not wring your hands while you wait
> for someone else to act... and for heaven's sake don't tell them this
> is an easy hobby!
>
> Just some late day rumblings, or maybe it was something I ate...!
>
> Jim
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
