How many people would consider themselves active in the hobby? How would that break down by scale?
Well, with a layout under construction mostly every other weekend, I would say that I am active in the hobby. I model HO.
Reed
I would say since I have had several layouts since I was about 7, which was a long time ago I am active in model railroading. I model HO scale. Tried N briefly as I thought it would give alot more room to have more but it was just to small. I have enough trouble getting the HO cars on the track. Maybe I should move up to Lionel 
I have had only 4 layouts. All in HO Scale.
I’m a new modeler and current building a small HO table top layout with big ambitions for later.
I’m sorry. I meant how many people in the US and/or world are active in the hobby. I’m guessing 50,000-75,000.
I’m an active modeler. What’s the current circulation of Model Railroader? That might give you something of a rough indication of those very interested in the hobby.
Interesting question.
World wide, I’m guessing too, maybe 500,000. The US and Canada would make up the bulk of that number with about 300,000. Europe, about 150,000 (not too many in the former eastern block) and the remainder mostly in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
Keep in mind that the world’s population is near 6,000,000,000. I look at it this way, you won’t find many model railroaders in developing countries, nor will you find them in places that don’t have railroads. Hobbies are a luxury not easily afforded in most parts of the world. Enjoy!![:)]
Europeans are big into the hobby. In Germany its almost a status symbol to have a layout, they’re way ahead of North America in terms of technique; DCC flourished there before here - Marklin was into long before anything here - and animation is much more prevelant there. It is they who came out with “starter” sets with DCC in them. It is us who have to catch up to them. I think if we had accurate numbers, you’d be surprised at the count in Europe versus North America.
My guess that you would easily find near 1 million model railroaders world wide. Compared to 6,000,000,000, that still is a small percentage.
It’s late and all but that should = 6%, not?
working on my 3rd layout, have 3 modules in a local club and work at least a few minutes every day. I model HO
No, it’s later than you think. Throw away the zeros, and it comes down to 1/6000 which equals about 0.0167%.
So, line up 6000 people, and one will be a model railroader, on averege.[:0][B)][;)]
As well, I have no hard figures at hand; but I’d guess that there are at least as many, and probably many more, model railroaders in Japan as there are in the USA. Some of the hobby shops here put any I’ve seen in the States (which, I’ll admit, isn’t very many) to shame. Walls and walls of nothing but trains (HO, N, and G, mostly) and row upon row of accessories, building supplies, and scenery material. This is, after all, the land of KATO, Tomix, MicroAce, Tenshodo, Greenmax, and many other minor brands. There is probably more train track laid per square mile (or kilometer) here than anywhere on Earth. Railroading is still part of the popular culture here, like it was in the glory days of Amerian railroads.
I sincerely hope I haven’t hurt anyone’s feelings. I’m an American and proud of it. I’m retired Navy and am still working for the Navy as a civilian, and I’ve been here in Japan about 27 years. Just trying to open some eyes.
To address Thom’s second post, more or less asking for a ‘guesstimate’ of the number of persons in the hobby, from experience I’d think the following to be reasonably valid figures.
If one considers all those who have some sort of interest in model trains, teen through adult, I believe something like 300,000 would be near the figure for the United States, based on magazine circulation, hobby sales, etc. However, I’d say more than half of these would need to be considered model train ‘enthusiasts’ - those with an armchair interest only or who never get beyond the simplest track on plywood stage.
Considering the number of reasonably ‘finished’ layouts (at a stage worthy of showing to your friends) that I’ve seen over the years, definitely less than a quarter of the remaining 150,000 hobbyists have actual semi-finished and operating layouts, ranging from small and fairly simple to large and complex. Perhaps something like another 40% are in some stage between running trains on little more than roughed-in layouts to rather more semi-finished ones. Then there would be a final group (amounting to 30% to 40% or so) that are between layouts or in the serious layout planning stage (not just dreamers).
If one were to venture a guess at the number of magazine-quality layouts out there, I think most posters would be shocked at the dwindlingly small number - perhaps a few thousand in all of America. Little wonder that we often see a well known layout repeatedly featured in MR.
CNJ831
I am not active in the hobby- haven’t turned a wheel in 2 years. Well I did try but didn’t have time to clear the aisles to get to the layout.
But I surf the rail web several hours a week. I guess you could say I am an armchair railroader. (Someday, I plan to model an armchair distributor for my layout. Alas, someday.)
The question asked about being “broken down by scale.” No, I am not broken down, although I don’t get bent out of shape if something is a scale inch or two off. I just take off my glasses and hold the model up six inches in front of my nose. The optometrist says my uncorrected vision at six inches is equal to normal eyesight with 5 diopter closeup lens. Oh, and I model in N scale.
About 15 years ago Model Railroader shared some of the results of a survey they commissioned (no doubt for their own planning purposes, and nothing wrong with that). Don’t remember the exact issue, but they estimated at that time about 200,000 “active” U.S. modellers - people who had a layout, worked on a club layout, or were actively assembling models. I concur with Rick Nicholson: Germany / Switzerland / Austria undoubtedly has the highest number of active model railroaders per capita. I believe that the UK (where I lived for seven years) also has more active model railroaders per capita than the U.S., though not as high as Germanic region. My impression, though, is that the hobby is rarely practiced in the rest of Europe. Japan is hard to gauge: model railroad models are popular, I think owning them is more common than in the U.S., but active modelling? Its my impression that the Japanese are much more likely to stick to pre-assembled and ready-to-run, and use Kato track for temporary set-ups. In any event, add a few more Commonwealth countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand) to the list and I bet you cover 99.9% of all model railroaders.
In Colombia we’re a small breed. I’m sure of at least 10 guys that model mainly HO and N. One guy models live steam Os. I’m sure there isn’t more than 30 active MRers in the whole country!!. Almost all are from eather Bogota, Medelling (which they had a club several years ago, I’m not sure if still works) and Cali, there’s a preaty cool and large layout of the Pennsy RR in the 40-50´s era in the Museum of National Transportation, which I’m a member. You can give it a look through this link:
http://www.museodetransporte.org/maqueta.htm
Maybe some day the guys at the MRer magazine will do an article on this beautiful layout, the guys from Cali have done a really nice job here. I’ve seen artciles about layouts in Germany, England, Australia, and even in Brazil. They should do one about a layout in Colombia.
The only guy that’s into MRing, that I’m aware of, in Barranquilla (the city where I live) is me!!! I’m so lonely…[:(]