RTR Is Killing The Hobby thread?
The Hobby Is Dying thread?
Real Model Railroaders thread?
The Made In China thread?
The Batch Production Is Evil thread?
And my favorite, “Things Were So Much Better In The Past” thread? Naturally, this thread will be restricted to non-price discussions. Mention of prices will be punished by summary execution.
Andre
Andre,
Ultimately, those tend to all resolve to price when people are pressed to actually express reasons, so I think one thread has got most of that covered[;)]
I don’t think we need different threads for these topics. My position all along has been that a new forum, called the Complaint and Whine forum, be created to replace the departed “where’s the boxcar” forum.
Andre: I’m secure in my modeling, though I often wonder how–or if–we’re getting kids into the hobby anymore. When I had my HO model RR shop, as an adjunct to my used paperback book store (if book lovers had a forum, I’m sure they’d have an “e-books are ruining our world” thread!), I had quite a few young customers, and every once in a while someone would come in and ask about getting a train set for a youngster. Athearn F7s went from $12.50 to $22.50 in a matter of a couple of years, but I could usually set up a modest, and quality, “set” for under $90. I doubt if you could do it now for less than three to four hundred, but that being said, a loaf of bread was less than 50 cents and hamburger was certainly a lot less than five bucks a pound back then.
I also used to worry about the RTR stuff: “Is anybody actually building anything anymore?” but this forum has shown me that we’re still building from scratch and, parts, kitbashing, and painting and decaling. Twenty-odd years ago, I went back to O scale because of my eyesight and I laid in enough basic supplies to build 40+ old-time freight cars and about a dozen steam locos, but we O-scalers are losing manufacturers, one by one. As I said to a friend the other night, "Tempus do fugit!" “What can’t be cured must be endured” is another apropropriate quotation.
I’m quite glad to find myself among such a good group of fellow model-builders!
Deano
I don’t see why we need any “designated” threads, let alone Sticky threads.
So what if the thread is repetitive, or whiny, or complaining?
Where’s the harm?
If the forum adminstrators don’t like these types of threads, then revise the forum rules to ban them instead of deleting them and creating Sticky designated threads in their place.
Rich
It’s up to our hosts what they allow, but I think the goal is to minimize as much as possible, topics which devolve into negative, demoralizing discussion, which complaint topics are typically known for.
Why should it matter really? It isn’t like buying and running RTR products is morally wrong or bad. I’d argue prior to the RTR explosion, people built kits out of necessity in many cases, not because they enjoyed it. I got started in the 1970’s, long long before HQ RTR trains, so I am well aquainted with building kits, and still build them, but mainly because it is a means to an end, a realistic train.
Honestly, I am happy for you. The real goal of the hobby is to enjoy trains and be happy, but thankfully there is a lot of room to do that in many ways. A good group of hobbiests can also include those who don’t necessarily fit into your definition of a “good group”.
They do have a Forum. I didn’t check to see if they if they have an “e-books are ruining our world” thread
RTR has been killing the hobby since the 40’s. It ain’t dead yet.
The hobby has been dying at least since slot cars first appeared. It ain’t dead yet.
Real Model Railroaders do whatever they want, it’s everyone else who is not a Real Model Railroader
This might have traction, especially with the Kader/Bachmann/Sanda Kan thing making a shambles for many other well known brands who have their product made in China.
Possibly controversial, but economic realities say we can’t really please #3 without #5.
Has been a topic since at least the 50’s. As more and more older modelers who were there pass on, there are fewer and fewer people left to debunk this myth.
–Randy
Very true…I can’t remember when there wasn’t RTR models available.Athearn Varney,Mantua,Penn-Line Tenshado and others offered RTR over 50 years ago.
Don’t forget “Plastic freight and passenger car kits will doom the hobby”.
And “There’s no young people entering the hobby” has been a cry for as long as I can remember.
And the cry of the 80s" Dungeons & Dragons and video games will kill the hobby".
From slot cars to computers to gaming systems was the dooms day cry for the hobby.
Also - Online booksellers are ruin… [Ama**n]
Another answer to that are clubs like Greal Fall Model RR Club in Maine. They have a great outreach program that includes modeling clinics. Go to their fall train show, and look at all the young people from their group running trains on their modular layouts, both HO and N scale.
I am sure Great Falls is not the only one to do this.
There was a thread labeled 17 problems only book lovers would understand.
I found that a lot of those threads are mild when you compare them to a music forum’s I am on…
We have a list of them…
All DAWs sound the same…no they don’t!! They do!!!..and etc
Omnispere is too costly…
Pro-Tools is a nasty greedy company…
Reason threads are “unreasonable”
My software is better than your software…
Camel Audio got sold to teh EVILZZZ corporation…Apple.
Any Cubase thread goes into the …
Analogue vs Digital…
and many many others…lol!!!
Randy,
Actually, many of them are still here, they just (in some cases for the rest of us, blessedly) can’t remember that far back anymore…[(-D]
I’m probably getting into that category myself…but from what I remember, it wasn’t better, just different.
When the RTR & “hobby is dying” threads get to me, I go back and re-read the Rev. Edward Beale’s “West Midland” book from the 1930s. In it, he talks about cutting out locomotive frames with a fretsaw, and pinstriping locomotives using a drafting pen.
If that fails, I look at MRs from the early '50s, for the letters saying plastic cars and engines are killing the hobby.
insert incoherent grumbling about something or another pertaining to the hobby I like this thread Andre, win!
I’m sorry I like building models. I’ve built a lot of 1:25 and 1:48 scale cars and trucks. I’ve built tanks and ships, airplanes and spaceships. I’ve even built famous movie monsters. I build models because I enjoy building models. Now I mostly build 1:87 scale models so they can go on my layout. Maybe model railroaders don’t like building models but model builders do. I am both.
Jim,Here’s the rub…There’s always been RTR cars and locomotives available from Atlas and there were other companies that used RTR Athearn cars and locomotives.
Wow…just wow. Why do you insist on trashing those of us that don’t like where the prices in this hobby are heading? I would certainly respect your opinions, but I have a really hard time doing so because of the way you present yourself as being better than everyone that disagrees with you.
I am not a whiner or a complainer. Why am I labeled that because I disagree with something? I’m thinking that it may be time for me to move on. Life is too short to keep defending myself over a hobby.
RTR Is Killing The Hobby thread?
The Hobby Is Dying thread?
Real Model Railroaders thread?
The Made In China thread?
The Batch Production Is Evil thread?
And my favorite, “Things Were So Much Better In The Past” thread? Naturally, this thread will be restricted to non-price discussions. Mention of prices will be punished by summary execution.
Andre
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Just a reminder…no priice is too high commentary.
Leave it for the OTHER thread[:-^]