I recently watched a DVD about the closing down of Allan McClelland’s second V&O in 2008. A couple attendees at the final showing were interviewed and mentioned that it was “an end of an era”. One such person was a former NMRA president whose name escapes me presently. He mentioned two other eras, one of which was the “John Allen era”.
If these statements are true and widely accepted, what era are we now entering? Indeed, it was an end for the V&O, but not necessarily an end of linear layout design and prototypical operation and replication. As far as I can tell, this is still considered the current benchmark for success in model railroad acheivement.
Unless I am taking thier quotations literally, the current era doesn’t seem to be going out of fashion soon. What could be next that would revolutionize the way we create and run our trains?
Technological age. We are in the infancy. MRR is a decade behind real world applications and there is a lot of room for growth. All of it will impact how we do things and what that means as to how we design our layouts to take advantage of them.
Like say computerized hump yards with working retarders. Computerized container yards. Dispatching software and with real time loco tracking.
This is not to mention decoders that allow engines to run out of fuel, need service, minor and major, etc.
I think that the “era” that is ending is that the larger freelance layouts of the 1970’s that spurred the drive towards more prototypical operation is ending. The owners of many of those layouts have moved away from the freelance roads towards more prototypically based layouts.
I don’t know that we are entering a new era because that one is ending. I see it as the eras overlapping, I think that we are still in the DCC era, that technology hasn’t been fully exploited. We are also in an era were the need or requirement to be a “craftsman”, a scratchbuilder is or has come to a close. But as a counterpoint to that the era of the small run model, through laser kits and resin castings is just taking off.
What era are we entering? I don’t think we will know for a couple decades.
We’re in the Electronics Era. DCC is growing as the control-system-of-choice, and the popularity of sound-equipped DCC engines is driving the prices down for us. Much of the wiring and control complexity is vanishing. Instead, we have a simple hand-held throttle that can deal with any loco, anywhere on the layout, and run them all independently. The hobby will never be the same.
We’re in the Boomer Retirement Era. All of us post-war babies have grown up and either traded our Lionels for smaller gauges or kept them and bought bigger houses. Now, the kids are out of the house, and the pitter-patter of little feet is reserved for grandchildren. As we slowly drop out of the workforce, we will have more time on our hands. With luck, we’ll have a few dollars left over to indulge our hobby. We don’t know if the hobby will go to its grave with us, or if our new-found liesure time will give it a big boost, but, the hobby will never be the same.
We’re in the Modern Era. The Steam Era and Transition Era are behind us, but we can always go back through the magic of modelling. Those SD45’s will grow old, though, and the new “green” engines as well. The one thing we can count on is constant change. The hobby will always be the same.
the era of walmart. (walthers) look at a bunch of layout photos and you will see the same structures, rolling stock etc. over and over. today, Milwaukee-tomorrow, DER VELDT !!!
Certainly at a crossroads aren’t we? I see alot of us getting out of the kit building and more RTR demands. Everything has to be perfect right out of the box. Kinda like that new Lexus. Let me kick the crap out of it for 3 years and bring it back because it’s now used. Less modeling and more “I want it right NOW”. But the technology is certainly better. DCC and sound installed for one price. Now I am new at the hobby, and learning more everyday. I’m also making a huge effort to go back to my childhood roots and building the wood kits, taking the engines apart, less RTR stuff. I’m learning by doing. Going backwards to go forward. AND I’M HAVING A BLAST!!!
I’m not so sure we are ‘going to a new era’ or anything. I think it’ll be a melange of different things, be it doing scratchbuilding,kitbuilding/bashing, modifying, or RTR.
OK—maybe a bit more splitting up but, as long as that’s still going well----now where did my dang cnc manual go?[:D]
New kits are almost unheard of (IIRC, even P2K has stopped making kits). People are buying more buy RTR cars and engines, but they turn and bash it because it isn’t 100% prototypical. Seems that lots of people also like running stuff out of the box without doing anything to it.
Reporters declare the end of an era every time something gets their attention:
Babe Ruth left baseball. The game is still being played.
Bela Karolyi stopped coaching the US gymnastics team. It has since covered itself with a blanket of Olympic medals.
Carburetors have gone the way of the dodo (except in NASCAR racing…) We can still buy gasoline engined cars.
Remember the hand-wringing as the Class 1s absorbed every short line in sight - only to re-sell them to people who could operate them economically? An era ended when N&W dropped its last fire - but vast tonnages of coal still move by rail, and quite a bit is carried in hoppers lettered for N&W successor NS.
As for the ‘new era’ in model railroading - I guess you can call it a new era when a modeler with a sizeable roster and grandiose ideas finally gets a layout space big enough to offer both free rein. Guilty as charged, Your Honor…
I think DCC as it is today will soon be a thing of the past. With current technology functions should not be called CV numbers. THey should simply show up as what they are with a menu of options. The capability is there, we’re just waiting for someone to take the leap. The ideal setup would be to take the leap and retain backward compatibility with the current CV setup.
I don’t think it’s and end of an ERA for the Steam or Transition at all, modern technology of course for the computer age is amazing, DCC is very new to a lot of people that I have met over just a couple years since I came back to the hobby. I do model 80’s to modern times, love to build Kits, (not to complex though-not enough patience or time) Freelance to a certain degree and like that the wiring is much simpler than it used to be.
I’m 40 and know of a few younger modelers in the mid 20’s that are getting to be Hardcore into The Steam Era and myself do enjoy the Steamers which maybe I’ll revert to the 40-50’s in time??? So, personally, for the moment, I believe the Steam & Transition Era will be here to stay for quite some time…
It does seem that larger layouts are going multi-floor doesn’t it. And I think there was one that I came across in a mid 70’s MR/MRC, I’ve got to dig the thing out-----
Forgot that Multi Level issue: mine of course was also a Multi Level but now in the process of moving (family expanding) and the next one will be a Multi Level around the Wall layout.
After reading all these “possible” answers, I feel completely lost.
My current layout was started in early 1980’s, yet has three levels with helix.
I am not linear, I use “old fashioned” bench work.
I model the Santa Fe in Oklahoma in 1989, yet I substituted a freelance railroad, the Oklahoma Northern, in the place of a Santa Fe branch in Oklahoma that was abandoned by ATSF in late 1980’s.
I use DCC and have used some form of command control since mid 1980’s when I first went with dynatrol and moved to NCE DCC in 1999.
I have a lot of cars on the railroad that I built, kitbashed, etc. but I am now mixing in RTR cars.
I have a heavy investment in DCC yet I only have a handful of diesels with sound out of a total roster of over 200 diesels, because I don’t really like sound when I am operating.
My main interest is operations, yet I do hold an MMR which means I have also built from scratch.
I even have a lot of code 100 mainline track because I am not about to rip it all up to use code 83 just because it looks a little better.
Gee, I don’t know what era I am already in, leave alone try to predict what the next era will be. And you know, I really don’t care, it is a hobby, not a vocation.
The best of the best stays that way during the ups and downs of “eras.” The best “operations” layout in the area was built in the late 70’s and everything is wrong about it–even though there has been an operations session every Weds night for 32 years.
It has brass track.
It has virtually no staging.
Some of the reaches exceed 7 feet.
Yet it was in the 2006 Model Railroad Planning.
It is awesome to operate. This guy has coal down pat.