I am looking for statistics about the hobby of model railroading. I need information such as the percentage model railroaders who are involved in a particular scale, weather they model after a particular railroad, how many people subscribe to a model railroading magazine, what percentage model steam locomotives vs. diesels etc.
Try the NMRA website, and go to the library. They were very helpful to me.
According to a recent survey by Kalmbach, HO still leads in popularity by a large margin, with about 73 percent of modelers saying HO is their primary scale, and another 6.4 percent saying it’s a scale they dabble in, even if their main modeling efforts are in something else.
N Scale is the second highest. A quarter of the modelers out there use N scale either as their primary or secondary modeling.
O is third with 13 percent of the modelers using it, followed by 10 percent in Gn3, 4 percent in S, 2 percent in Z and 1 percent in No. 1. (On Z scale, only .3 percent say it’s their primary scale, and .4 percent say it’s secondary.)
Those numbers may be changing, however, as the larger scale trains seem to be making a resurgence, both in basements and in gardens.
The favorite era remains the time of transition from steam to diesel, 1949 to 1960, attracting 44 percent of model railroaders. The present, from 1990 onward, captures 16 percent, and 1934-45 attracts 13 percent. Only two model the 19th century, though that time does seem to be attractive to the garden crowd.
Finally, nearly half of model railroaders base their layout on a prototype. The Northeast and Midwest of the U.S. are the most popular regions, each getting about 22-23 percent. Other regions are in single digits, including the Rocky Mountains at 9 percent.
Of course, times change, and so will those numbers when the next survey is done.
TC for t.c
Dear Tom,
thanks for the valuable info it will be a great help to me;however, I am doing this for a college research paper and if you could site exactly from where in Kalmbach Publishing you obtained this information i.e. magazine title, date, article title, author of the article etc. Plagarism is a crime you know, and my grade depends on this.
Sincerely,
Greg
Gregory,
e-mail me direct at tchmielewski@trains.com so I can transmit or fax the material directly to you. The company did a pretty extensive survey a couple years back in connection with all its train magazines, and the material is in a press packet that I can share.
Tom Chmielewski
There is some info out there if you Google.
David B
This thread started in 2001.
Wow! Someone’s been dumpster diving in the archives…
Mark Twain: There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
–Randy
In which category does Anonymous’ over a quarter million posts lie? Or his/her/its apparently multiple personalities? [:-^][(-D]
EDIT: Hah! I just noticed that Anonymous was also able to post more than two years before joining the Forum. How insensitive of us to not offer a welcome prior to his arrival. [:$]
Wayne
Let’s not forget that 78.4% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
Lou
I think it says the poster’s name is Anonymous because they no longer have an account. Anonymous post #2 is signed TC, post 3 says Thanks Tom and is signed Greg - so there are at least two different people. Account date probably refers to the last deleted account or something, in 2001 one of those people was someone named Tom and the other was someone named Greg, not Anonymous.
–Randy
Statistically-speaking, it would be unusual for Tom and Greg to have both joined at the same time and have the same unusually large post count - does Jeffrey know about this/these guy(s). [(-D]
You are correct about him/them no longer having an account here, though…pity that David went to the trouble to offer good advice when they’re not here to benefit from it. [swg]
Wayne
I find this all bewildering.
Why would someone, anyone, revive a 13-year old thread?
Rich
And, how did the op get that high posting stat number?
Is this a scam…
If anyone looks at that high post count and compares it to all the other anonymous posters, you will find that they all have the same high number.
Just my nutty observation. [8D]
Frank
Whoever this guy is, he´s got a face!
Ulrich, you have to stop taking selfies. [(-D]
Rich
It was a slow day on the forums…thought I’d give the old thread a chance… 
LOL
How did you manage to dig that one up?
Rich