Hey Guys
I walked into the Mark Twain hobby shop Sunday with a fathers day gift card in my hand an was stunned to not see a single HO steam loco. Plenty diesel, RC cars and aircraft, but no steam. When asked, the clerk said nothing is coming out. [%-)]
Maybe steam doesn’t sell well? It does seem that the big thing now is fast RC cars and dune buggies.
Anyone else have this problem?
Steam rules everything else is just a box with wheels. [:-^]
Have a good Holiday.
Lee
Lee,The hobby is changing and I fear steam may not be in the equation…I have notice the demise of steam modeling over the years and how longer it remains in stock when compared to diesels.
MR seems to have a review of a new steamer pretty much every month, so I don’t think the claim that “nothing is coming out” holds water.
If the clerk is saying that RC cars are the hot item vs. trains, well, that I can believe. Aerosmith outsells Beethoven, too, but it doesn’t mean one is better than the other.
There’s plenty of steam at my LHS. Plenty of diesels, too, but not a single RC car. No Aerosmith, either.
The hobby shop will stock what makes them money. That particular shop is doint it with RC at the moment. The closest shop to me sells mostly RC cars and planes.
My local hobby shop only stocks a few HO and N engines, but anything that Walther’s sells he can have for me with about a one week notice. He does stock lots of lower ticket HO and N items like cars, buildings, building kits, and scenery supplies.
I don’t think very many people buy engines at the local hobby shop. They can save a lot of money buying on line where overhead is so much lower.
While steam modeling may be in its “demise”, the production of steam models is at an all time high. There have been more new HO steam models offered in the last ten years or so than in all of the previous 20 or 30 years. Everything from 4-4-0’s to 2-8-8-8-2’s.
Just like in real 1:1 life, steam is MAYBE diasappearing from modeling, slightly little to notice at first, but it could be happening… Just like one cannot get good early-mid 1800s stuff.
Steam locos in MRR, I fear will eventually go the way of real steam…that is be static or become tourists lines.
DOn’t forget the new fangle thing of the future is the bullet-fast trains and the maglevs…not much room on a layout for pre-1959 steam, and diesels, and modern TVG’s or futuristic maglevs.
However, I think there are enough steam-o-philes to keep it going for awhile…it is after all, our heritage.
Lee, I know that crossing the river is the travel equivalent of going to Outer Mongolia for most St. Louisans, but head over to K-10 Model Trains in Maryville, Il and see plenty of HO scale steam in stock.
Quite right, Dave. Even the mere suggestion that the interest in steam among model railroaders is in decline is totally naive. The selection of quality steam was all but nil in the mid 1990’s and hadn’t been much better in the preceding ten years. Now, while all may not be continuously available, the number of quality steam locomotives and their diversity in wheel arrangement that have been produced since 2000 has out stripped that of any other period in the hobby’s history by at least a factor of two, or three. Rather than the end of steam, today is steam’s great revival amongst hobbyists…of every scale!
CNJ831
galaxy,
Has there ever been a time when there was a good selection of “early-mid 1800s stuff”? Other than Bachmann and their version of the John Bull, I can’t really think of much.
True. But…which of the above examples has the most visual appeal? Hands down - the steamer.
galaxy, I agree with you that “steam-o-philiacs” will help perpetrate the love of steam. However, just as vintage cars continue to be bought and sold and show up at car shows, I don’t see steam ever completely disappearing from MRRing.
As you stated, it’s just too much part of the heritage. Little guys and gals still become enamored at the site of steamers - albeit 1:1, 87.1:1, or 160:1 - even though they were “only a twinkle in their grandfather’s eye” when those beasts were more an integral part of our society.
My [2c]…
Tom
I think the meta in the response our originator got from his LHS owner is, “I can’t sell many steam engines because nothing seems to appeal to my customers.” If he was literal in his response, he is seriously out of touch or is just a victim of a locale where steam engines aren’t popular. I have five diesels, two SD-75’s in warbonnet, a FM H24-66, an F2 A/B set, and a SW8. My other 13 engines are all stream, no two alike, and all acquired in the past five years. I have purchased two brand spanking…never-before-done engines from BLI just in the past year…the Q2 and the UP 2-10-2. Not only that, they are brass hybrids. So, wrongo, there is plenty of steam and in plenty of variety. BLI is apparently going to produce their own version of the UP 4-12-2 in about five months, and MTH has had their version out for just over a year.
If he is having trouble with steam, it could be that the prices of the more recent ones are a bit steep. Yet, Bachmann still has plenty of stock, and bargains can be had from at least three places I know: trainworld, M.B. Klein (called modeltrainstuff on the web), and Micro Mark.
Our asking gentleman will probably save quite a few dollars in steam purchases at these places, and they have the product.
-Crandell
Simon
I have enjoyed K10 several times but it is a 70 mile round trip and my gift card was for Mark Twain. Thanks to my son who lives near mark Twain I can make a trip there serve a dual purpose.
M.T. is probably the largest and has the most stock of the six are so LHSs’ around here. I was just very surprised they had nothing in steam.
Have fun
Lee
Also his prices seem a little high(must have a kid in college [:-^])
At the LHS I go to the only steamers in sight are those that are in sets, Bachmann for the most part, Niagara’s, USRA 0-6-0’s, and Thomas. The other steamers are O Scale and I think they one or two G Scale.
WEll, TOm count me amongst the ones for steam. Nothing like the 1:1 smell of coal burning in the morning! {even though it can be bothersome to those like myself who are asthmatic}.
I hope there are enough tourists lines that operate for my lifetime so I may go and see, smell, taste, perhaps touch and ride behind a steamer.
I also hope they last my lifetime in models, but one cannot see the future.
But I have noticed certain MRR manufacturers only seem to build diesels, or on
Even S scale has had new steam locomotives in the last few years, both in scale and hi rail.
Enjoy
Paul
? PLENTY of new steam locos in HO in the past few months. I guess they just don’t feel liek they sell and so don;t caryr any - although many are made on a reservation basis so there usually AREN’T any extras to stock. This is where the Grubba brothers’ antics really hurt - excess production BLI goes to Factory Direct Trains for selling off at fire sale prices - what hobby shop is going to order 4 or 5 extras above customer orders for stock, when in a few months, FDT will be selling them for less than his cost?
–Randy
I often wonder how much of the “they don’t sell” issue is due to the pre order production mode many companies are in? You can’t sell what isn’t in stock and I would venture that most casual modelers aren’t going to wait a year or two – their interests will have changed. The one time I preordered, after all that wait, I still didn’t get anything–they didn’t even fill all their pre orders!
I’ll agree that there are a lot of new models being announced, but what’s missing are economical, genaric locomotives that many modelers can use/modify to meet their needs. It’s a lot easier to cut into a mass production shell than a one of a kind, can’t be replaced for years one.
I’ve been laying track on Phase 2 of my layout for the last couple of months. I have a dual-era layout, 1930s and 1960s, so I run both steam and diesels. Right now, I’ve got most of my engines of both types on the tracks so I can test the new trackwork for problems with every one of them.
Most of my engines are also sound equipped. Sound, to me, is one of the reasons that steam is making a big comeback. Besides the nostalgia and visual appeal of both large and small steamers, the sounds which accompany them really reach out and grab the viewer. Of my diesels, only the clanking Alcos come even close to the “ear appeal” of a chuffing steam locomotive.
Absolutely correct on both counts! This is a steadily growing problem in today’s hobby. Many products are no longer reaching regular hobby shops, or the sight of the casual hobbyist, prior to essentially selling out, or the remaining limited number of units not pre-sold quickly going to special outlets for discount sales. And, like jmbjmb, I have come up short twice with pre-orders of steam locomotives in recent years, where the numbers produced obviously didn’t even cover the number of pre-orders!
Except for the possibility of Bachmann doing so, I really don’t see any of the manufacturers ever running much in the way of ecomonical, generic, steam locomotives any time in the future. “Stock” has become a dirty word in our hobby. The manufacturers’ concept of the business is increasingly of selling in the image of the brass market: high quality, ever higher prices and increasingly limited custom batches.
CNJ831
Maybe what is really being said is that there are more diesel models of prototypes that appeal to St Louis area modelers, but fewer steam locomotives for those roads. Dealers prefer trains that won’t sit on the shelf for long.
Dave Nelson