As seen by the newish factory applied road-specific details to engines, the discontinuation of Athearn’s Blue Box kits, and so on, are we seeing a transition era of our own. Not int he sense of steam to diesel, but perhaps the era of mergers and fall-offs that the big boys went through back in the 1960’s and 1970’s (C&O, B&O, WA merging to form Chessie, which merged with the seaboard to form CSX (Seaboard having Seaboard Air Line, L&N, etc.), or the NW and Southern making Norfolk southern, or the collasal mergers to create the BNSF). What do you folks think: are we entering an era of less manufacturers catering to a smaller market?
Another thing I’d add to the comparison in the MASSIVELY COLOSSAL Conrail merger.
Forgot about that one. Of course, that was a government merger to save Penn Central and all the other failing new england lines (New haven comes to mind). But still a huge merger.
I’ll go ahead and add my answer to my original psot:
I think we are. This is the kill-off from a smaller market and a rough economy. Once all the dust settles, we’ll have the market staked out by the remaining companies with the remaining kits or RTR
What we are seeing is that when cheap labor gets the price down far enough a lot of folks will buy RTR over kits. This lets them focus on the layout right away. Also, I think we’re entering an era culturally where we have so many entertainment choices that most people don’t spend as much time on just one as they used to. RTR is here to stay. But there are still kits being made. And of course scratch building is still just as possible as it always was. So if you like to build, you can.
Manufacturer’s come and go. Several are gone from when I started, but others have arisen.
While I think the market has changed, I don’t see evidence that it has shrunk. Retail is changing in this country and model railroading reflects that change. Less small stores and more online retail.
Enjoy
Paul
We just went through this with End of an era discussion. Let it go guys. Useless discussion. Lets get back to our model railroading. You are not going to change anything. We geezers just cannot seem to let go at times. I bet the kids really chuckle about us.
Rich
I really don’t think so, it’s just something that happens in the hobby. How many companies have come and gone over the years, I’m sure some of our senior statesmen here can name more then one or two. One that comes to mind for me was Ambroid. When I was a kid the shelves were full of their kits at the LHS but the only place you see them no is unfortunately on eBay or an occasional train show. If Athearn were still making money on the blue box cars you can bet they would still be pumping them out. There are still kits available form other manufactures jst not as popular or as inexpensive as the Athearn Blue Box.
Even though as one mentioned the cost of RTR rolling stock has become more affordable and the quality is becoming better and better there are still plenty of guys who enjoy building more then just unpacking a box. If this were a trend showing the direction the hobby is headed then why haven’t they started phasing out kit structures to be relaced by built ups.
I’m going to go ahead and be “that guy…” You know, the know-it-all that no one likes because he corrects people on minor points… But, I couldn’t let this one slip by being as it’s so near and dear to my heart! The New Haven was the only truly “New England” line absorbed into Conrail, but only by way of Penn Central.
Penn Central was formed in 1968 by the merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central. As a condition to the ICC approval of the merger, the Penn Central absorbed the New York, New Haven, & Hartford Railroad in 1969.
Conrail was formed in 1976 by merging Penn Central, the Erie Lackawanna, the Central RR of New Jersey, the Lehigh Valley, the Lehigh & Hudson River, and the Reading RR. The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines were absorbed into Conrail by way of the Penn Central and Reading.
Conrail stretched from Boston to Buffalo to Chicago to St Louis and from Michigan to West Virginia. It was as present in Ohio and Illinois as it was in New York and Pennsylvania. It was as much or more a Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern railroad as it was New England. R.I.P. Big Blue… We didn’t appreciate it until it was gone.
Then why has it that half the shelf space at my LHS devoted to structures is occupied by built-up models? … Wonderful! Now our layouts can all look the same.
Fortunately, structure kits can be manufactured by a company consisting of only one or two persons. It is reassuring there are new structure kit manufactures coming forth frequently. Recent examples include ALW and Sidetrack Laser.
Mark
There were quite a few Conrails that I got photos of way back then going through St. Thomas ON via some line there----now, if only I remembered what the dang line belonged to—[:-^] and where those pix are----[banghead]
Dave,
Well, if you’re going to be “that guy…”, then I’m going to be “that other guy…” and correct the correction! [:D]
The Boston & Albany Railroad was just as much a New England institution as any other railroad. It could trace it’s roots to 1831 as the Boston & Worcester RR. The Western Railroad was completed in 1841 to Albany from Worcester, and could probably be called the New World’s first mountain railroad. Merged by 1870, the Boston & Albany was leased to the eventual NYC in 1900. Feelings were strong about letting New Yorkers own a railroad into Boston, so NYC continued to letter all equipment for B&A right up until the 1930’s with the HH diesel units to appease the locals. [;)]
Of course, the B&A became part of the PC, and then Conrail. So there were really two New England lines into the CR merger.
This is important because the B&A ownership allowed PC and then CR to kill as much of the NH’s freight traffic as possible and put it on the B&A. Yet another example of why the PC merger should never have happened. They should have merged the NH with the PRR and N&W, then merged NYC with C&O/B&O. Oddly enough, that’s about what there is today. Too bad it took them 25+ years to figure it out. [:)]
Paul A Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
Indeed we do!
Oh great. The kitbasher builder is going to be having issues here too now----[xx(][|(][soapbox]
The kitbuilder as “Radical Other” ------ sheeesh[|(]
Yes,This is the 3rd era change I seen in the 58 years I been in the hobby…
Starting to think about some sort of a Consumers Protection Agency----or—at the very least, A sort of Phil Edmunston’s Lemon-Aid Guide To All Things MRR[|(]
Maybe the new era should be called the Era of the Disgruntled Consumer[:-,][|(][:-^]
There certainly has been a lot of consolidation. Look at how many company lines are now owned by Walthers for example, or MDC being taken over by Athearn. In a way it might be a good sign, fewer “mom and pop” companies might mean that the market has gotten bigger than the old small manufacturers could deal with??
As for products, the move from “building” a model railroad to “buying” a model railroad was predicted 20-some years back in MR and other sources. When I started in the hobby (back when we rode our dinosaurs to the LHS) “real” modellers built craftsman’s kits and ran brass steam engines - period. Plastic were for beginners and kids, something you grew out of. In time we saw the development of really highly detailed plastic kits that yielded excellent cars and buildings, and saw the acceptance of plastic diesels and (gasp!) even plastic-bodied steam engines. Now the “ready to run / ready to use” market is huge compared to what it was just 10 years ago. Now Athearn and MDC kits aren’t going to even be available, it will all just be pre-built.
Model railroading is no different than any other part of our lives. It is constantly evolving and it is for the better. Take something as simple as watching television. I can remember growing up in Omaha when we had only two channels to watch on our black and white Admiral TV that was the size of a filing cabinet and the screen was not much bigger than a toaster. To change the channel you had to get our of your chair. To get a decent picture, you had to fiddle with the rabbit ears antenna and you eventually figured out that you got the best reception when you stood halfway between your chair and the TV. I wonder how many people even know what the vertical hold knob was for.
How about making a phone call. It used to be you called a number on a rotary dial that was on a phone that was wired to the wall. It was a status symbol to have a second phone connected to the same line and you were really doing well if you could afford a second line. Only really rich people had car phones. Go back a little and there were party lines where several households would share a connection to the same phone line. Or further still, you had to dial the operator to connect you with the person you wanted to call.
Everything changes and it is done to make our lives easier and for the most part that is the case. In the early days of the hobby, the emphasis was on scratchbuilding and only the really skilled modelers could make decent looking layouts (by today’s standards). Eventually kit building and kitbashing became the building blocks of layouts. Now we have so much RTR equipment and ready built structures to allow us to build great looking and operating layouts in a fraction of the time. For the most part, this stuff looks much better than what we used to build for ourselves. There will still be those who prefer to do things the old fashioned way for a variety of reasons and as long as there are enough of them, manufacturers will cater to their needs as well. As for me,
That is where a lot of this hangs. The journey is no longer seen as part of the overall aspect. The only thing that matters is the destination. How you get there plays no part.
To me, the satisfaction comes from the journey. That’s why I haven’t hired a custom builder to construct my layout, build kits for me, etc. I do “contract out” (as in RTR) when I lack the skills and resources to do something myself (such as constructing a locomotive out of brass sheet and bar). Still, my imperfectly-built kits give me a sense of satisfaction I can’t obtain if bought already built.
Mark
Hey, I started this thread, I think I’m the second or third-youngest kid on here. Just thought it’d be a fun discussion, sorta comparing our hobby to the big boys and what happened to them.
I’ll make another point. I love RTR as much as the next guy, but what I really love are Pikestuff’s kits. the pieces are interchangeable and one can buy several kits to get enough pieces to kitbash about anything you can dream of.
Also, I’m of the crowd who loves both the journey and the finished product. Right now I’m both ballasting and wiring, which no company, as far as I’ve seen, has come up with solutions to doing this easier/quicker that are pre-built. So there will always be that. Although there are the woodland scenics prebuilt trees available, for example.