After some threads about most popular scale or era, or control system, and being really bored at work at 3 in the morning, I decided to survey some of my MRs and compile the statistics. Follow follow data was compiled from 127 layouts published in MR between 2004 and 2007, and Great Model Railroads 2005 to 2008. Numbers are rounded to the nearest percent, so they may not add up to exactly 100.
With all the usual caveats and nauze about the reliability of your stats, Nick, what surprises me most is the huge disparity in the percentage of HO modellers over all the others. Wow!
Or, maybe not. [:o)]
My statement is accurate to plus or minus 0.10 19 times out of 20. Take five minutes from now, for example; I will probably have changed my mind.
They can be completely unreliable depending on the source.
Just because 61 per cent of the published layouts, many of which are club layouts, use DCC doesn’t mean a thing.
Reliable statistics are based on polling of ALL users, not a survey biased by a particular group of users, i.e.,those who have had their layouts published.
The same could probably be true for members of this forum, who just might be more informed than non members and non readers of ANY Model railroading publication.
Because DCC is a relatively new advancement, I find it hard to beleive that as many as 61 percent all model railorads, in all scales have already converted to DCC.
I guess I’m definitely in the minority in that I model narrow gauge in Large Scale, Gn15, Fn3, and also dabble in On30! Model Railroader, although useful for all modelers in that many articles can be applied to any scale or gauge, is more of a general mainstream magazine and basically caters to the most popular products and audiences. In addition to MR, many of us into minority scales and gauges usually subscribe to special interest publications or rely on the internet for products and information that isn’t covered in mainstream publications. Granted, we’re probably few in number but we aren’t usually counted in most polls. I have no information about the statistics and this is only my unscientific opinion.
Very interesting data…data that warrants a hobby [:D]
But like a prior poster stated, just because MR publishes a certain scale more that another, doesn’t really show the “majority rule”. I would think that out of any of the data, the time period looks about the closest…the DCC data is biased if you ask MHO…
Now we need 15-20 more such surveys by other folks so’s we can get some more numbers to even out the mess. I bet Brodar ain’t far off though.Interesting look there Brodar,never ceases to amaze me how folks enjoy this hobby.
I will admit my methodology is not terrible scientific, but I used the published data at hand. The numbers are definitely skewed toward HO and DCC, but MR allegedly publishes what readers submit. I figured 4 years of published layouts would be a reasonable sample.
Using my modeling buddies as a sample, numbers are very different.
Interesting though not entirely accurate (IMO) stats. But then is any statistic ever?
On the scales, I honestly thought there would be more N and G scalers. I’m a converted N scaler and know of many others who have switched over the past few years. Obviously HO would be the majority, but I still think 76% is too high.
As for era, it looks like no one has updated that stat…Very few of the layouts I’ve seen in real life are transition-era. Most are 1970s to today.
And is DCC the true majority now? Not making a push for DC, I REALLY want to go DCC but haven’t had the money or time lately.
If your only using MR as a source for your data then these figures can’t possibly represent the whole hobby. MR is mostly a HO and N publication. That’s why Kalbach publishes Garden Trains and Toy Trains for all the folks that don’t give a hoot about our little scales.[:D]
As a statistician (retired), I’ll go with, “Meaningless.”
Tabulating layouts in KalPubCo publications? Sort of like trying to determine the ethnicity and hair color of American women using Playmates as a statistical sample - the only thing you’d prove is that Hugh Hefner prefers blondes.
Each modeling entity (club or individual) has its own choice of scale, gauge and control system. That statistic is accurate. To that entity, all else is meaningless in that it does NOT affect that entity’s modeling decisions.
To use me as a sample, I really don’t care that 100% plus or minus 2% of the rest of North American modelers DON’T model in HOj and DON’T use my variant of MZL control. I do. All else is meaningless - TO ME. But then, not being a lemming, I don’t care how many people are or aren’t just like me. I prefer to be unique.
Chuck (probably the only individual in North America modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in HOj, analog DC, MZL control)
Remember folks, the stats in the OP are for what Model Railroader and Great Model Railroads have published in the last four years. Nothing more, nothing less. It can be pointed out with some justification that these stats show only what MR and GMR thinks will sell the most magazines. Namely that transition era HO layouts controlled by DCC are what Kalmbach thinks people want to read about.
Are they correct? (shrug) They must be doing something right as they still have the highest circulation of any model railroading hobby magazine in the USA.
Ditto! I prefer to be unique also. Although those statistics are biased toward readers of MR and Kalmbach publications, HO probably is the dominant scale. Due to this fact, HO supplies are pleniful, cheap, and of high quality. This is a big asset for me in that I utilize alot of HO components in my chosen minority scales and gauges of On30 and Gn15, O scale on 16.5mm track and Large Scale on 16.5mm track respectively, that both use the time-proven HO track and wheel standards.
One thing to remember about layout articles is that all the scales have one or more specialty magazines except HO. There’s Ztrack, N scale magazine, S Gaugian, 48/ft, O Gauge Railroading, Classic Toy Trains, Garden Railways, and probably some others. So layout articles that night otherwise end up in MR, go into one of the specialty magazines; and thus their numbers are under represented in MR.
Ahhh…wasn’t there one where a guy was using a seperate Dc loop for a second line?
Better question should be, how many purely prototype replicas versus freelanced and imaginary lines? Or like myself, an imaginary locale with several major rail lines sharing the trackage?
