Which country has most model railroad activity?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
61

Hi all

Well with absalutely no caroberating evidence what so ever to base anything on.

I would think the highest % per head of population model railway figures.

Would come from the cradle of railways it’s self the UK, followed very closely by Germany.

A coment has been made on hiding railway’s in the urban enviroment I don’t think this is only happening in the USA, us modern humans want an urban enviroment pleasing to the eye clean, green and quiet which is what the railway hiding is all about.

In Europe the UK and to a certain extent in Austrailia this railway hiding is also going on.

But it’s not denting the usage of trains or interest in trains in general.

I think there are still enough people in these countries that remember the almost Astronaut status given to the steam express drivers

In the USA that got taken over by the real deal I would think.

regards John

62

[quote user=“MalcyMalc”]

Da Stumer

A bit late here, but I can put in a few words about places not mentioned yet. Japan has a pretty huge model railroad industry, from what I understand. Mostly n scale, with a bit of ho.

Koreans have about the same amount of space that Japanese have, so space must not be an issue. So it leaves me stumped.

Actually, I’d suggest space is an issue for most Japanese (which is probably why N is more popular than HO) - so I’m not sure where they fit all their layouts. Here in the UK space is an issue for most home builders - small spare bedroom or loft space is the most we can hope for. I live in the suburbs of london and our little flat is 645 sq ft - the only place I could put up a permanent layout would be in the loft, once I’d insulated it properly.

Which is why so many British modelers tend to build small shelf layouts.

As for European railways - I have relatives in Scotland (420 miles as the crow flies) and I wouldn’t dream of taking the train - way too expensive v flying - and I don’t own a car as I have no need of one living in London (5 minute walk to the Tube station then 40 minutes to Central London). I used to use Eurostar for work once a month or so (London - Paris then Paris to Reims by TGV) and that was fine. I very much like the Spanish railways though - very cheap, good quality fast trains.

British railways are rather a victim of their own success - because they are so busy they are very un

63

Indeed they favor N Scale and Kato Unitrack. There’s several interesting Japanse layouts on you tube.

64

IMHO, the Japanese are the world´s champions when it comes to making best use of very little space.

One of the ways is to build mini-modular layouts, which are simple to construct, yet very efficient.

If you are interest, take a glimpse here

65

I think there are a lot of stealth modelers in this country. I base that on the number of folks who used to come into my hobby shop for supplies, information, etc., but had no interest in clubs, NMRA, or social activities. Many had layouts, but were not willing to show them or share them.

I would agree that there are more modelers per capita in Germany or England, but there are lots and lots of folks in the USA who are in the closet, so to speak.

66

That’s what you get when a viable transportation system gets abandoned in favor of something that only seems to be better.

From the standpoint of commuter transport, SoCal used to have the biggest interurban system in the U.S. and it was gone by about 1960 or so. As a result, passenger rail transport (light and heavy) has had to be rebuilt from scratch at great cost.

With respect to viable high speed inter city corridors outside of the NEC and California, there are more than most people think:

Portland, OR to Vancouver, BC (with Canadian involvement)

DFW to Galveston via Houston, Houston to San Antonio and east to NOLA.

Chicago to MSP via Milwaukee. Chicago to Omaha via Quad Cities and Des Moines. Chicago to OKC via St Louis, Joplin and Tulsa. Chicago to NYC via Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, … you get the picture. Obviously built in stages.

There are more, but I’m a fumble finger on an iPhone. BTW, I don’t cost out car trips based solely on gas, but on the IRS business allowance for car operations, which allows for acquisition , maintenance, fuel, depreciation, and insurance costs. Any other way

67

[quote user=“andrechapelon”]

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

So I looked up the cost and schedule to take the train from Baltimore to Detroit.

Worse than flying, you cannot get there from here, you have to go somewhere else first.

Leave my house drive 25 minutes to nearest Northeast Corridor station - Aberdeen, MD.

Ride the Northeast regional for 1.5 hours to Union Station in DC, get on the Capital Limited and ride 13 hours to Toledo, OH, then take an Amtrak bus ride or rent a car to Detroit - twice as long as the car ride - cost, 2 adults, $286 coach. Even at $4 a gallon, the Flex gets over 20 MPG on the highway, no more than $100 in gas. At current prices - $67

16 hours on a train - my wife would go nuts…

Sheldon

That’s what you get when a viable transportation system gets abandoned in favor of something that only seems to be better.

From the standpoint of commuter transport, SoCal used to have the biggest interurban system in the U.S. and it was gone by about 1960 or so. As a result, passenger rail transport (light and heavy) has had to be rebuilt from scratch at great cost.

With respect to viable high speed inter city corridors outside of the NEC and California, there are more than most people think:

Portland, OR to Vancouver, BC (with Canadian involvement)

DFW to Galveston via Houston, Houston to San Antonio and east to NOLA.

Chicago to MSP via Milwaukee. Chicago to Omaha via Quad Cities and Des Moines. Chicago to OKC via St Louis, Joplin and Tulsa. Chicago to NYC via Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, … you get the picture. Obviously built in stages.

There are more, but I’m a fumb

68

If you check the Bachmann China website, you’ll find a lot of Chinese prototype models which are not intended for export but for the Chinese market. Most of them are as accurate as the best USA or European models. This doesn’t mean that a lot of the population are modellers, but there is a big enough market to justify production.

Railways seem to be a relatively popular hobby in Hong Kong, although I don’t know how seriously model railways are taken up. Many of the people from Hong Kong I meet here in Australia are railfans, at least four of them driving trains as a career.

So China may never have a big proportion of railfans and modellers but there will always be a big number there because of the huge population and the size of the country.

M636C

69

A better measure would be the number and variety of models available compared to the population. The UK has a population of around 63 million and there are an astounding number and variety

70

Andre - here is an excerpt of what is available on the German market

  • Eisenbahnmagazin
  • Miniaturbahnen (Miba)
  • Modelleisenbahner
  • N-Bahnmagazin
  • Eisenbahnkurier
  • Eisenbahnjournal
  • Marklin Magazin
  • Modellbahn-Illustrierte

Not all, but most of them are available at the newspaper stand at your gas station!

Those are just the leading ones, there are smaller mags catering for specific interests, like LGB-Depesche, Bemo Post et. al.

Difficult to say in which country you can encounter more MR activity, but I am quite positive that either UK or Germany are top ranking countries.

71

Except for N-Bahnmagazin, I seem to recall all those magazines from the 1980’s. Somewhere in my collection, I have a booklet (published by MIBA, if I remember correctly) by Rolf Ertmer describing his layout based on Altenbeken. Oh yeah, “Damals In Altenbeken”. It’s all coming back.

One of my brothers lived in Germany for 10 years in Gauting. He married a German woman and came back to the States in the early 90’s with his wife and two sons. We visited them right after the Berlin Wall came down. I remember having to dodge Trabants and Wartburgs on the Autobahn since they topped out at about 100 km/hr. There was some incredible hoar frost on the ground and in the trees. It was beautiful. Cold as all get out, but beautiful.

Andre