Model Trains Make a Pandemic Comeback - With Electronic Enhancements and Engineer Software (nytimes.com) 38
The New York Times reports:
Along with baking and jigsaw puzzles earlier in the pandemic, model trains are among the passions being rediscovered while people are cooped up indoors. Several companies that make trains are reporting jumps in sales. For many people, the chance to create a separate, better world in the living room — with stunning mountains, tiny chugging locomotives and communities of inch-high people where no one needs a mask — is hard to resist.
"Outside, there is total chaos, but inside, around my little train set, it is quiet, it is picturesque," said Magnus Hellstrom, 48, a high school teacher in Sweden, who has indulged in his hobby while working from home during lockdowns.
"It's a little piece of a perfect world," he said.
The Times visits Märklin, the 162-year-old German maker of model trains, whose engines now include "tiny speakers that reproduce scores of digital chugging noises and whistles (recorded, if possible, from the original), and interior and exterior lights that can be controlled separately... Real steam coming out of the steam locomotives has been a feature for years." The company's owner tells the newspaper "What's really changed during the last 20 years is the focus on truly replicating the original." The trains can be controlled by computer console or by a phone app, with different trains on the same track going different speeds or traveling different circuits. Märklin even added the option of controlling the trains via train engineer simulator software, allowing devotees to control their little model train as though they were sitting in the engineer's chair.
"It is a traditional toy that through digital functions, like sound and light, has become more and more like a real train," said Uwe Müller, who was a product manager at Märklin for 15 years and now runs the Märklineum, the company's museum.
Just 12 years ago the company had declared bankruptcy. But now one 64-year-old employee (who's assembled models trains for the company for over 38 years) tells the Times "We're booming so much it's hard to keep up."
"Outside, there is total chaos, but inside, around my little train set, it is quiet, it is picturesque," said Magnus Hellstrom, 48, a high school teacher in Sweden, who has indulged in his hobby while working from home during lockdowns.
"It's a little piece of a perfect world," he said.
The Times visits Märklin, the 162-year-old German maker of model trains, whose engines now include "tiny speakers that reproduce scores of digital chugging noises and whistles (recorded, if possible, from the original), and interior and exterior lights that can be controlled separately... Real steam coming out of the steam locomotives has been a feature for years." The company's owner tells the newspaper "What's really changed during the last 20 years is the focus on truly replicating the original." The trains can be controlled by computer console or by a phone app, with different trains on the same track going different speeds or traveling different circuits. Märklin even added the option of controlling the trains via train engineer simulator software, allowing devotees to control their little model train as though they were sitting in the engineer's chair.
"It is a traditional toy that through digital functions, like sound and light, has become more and more like a real train," said Uwe Müller, who was a product manager at Märklin for 15 years and now runs the Märklineum, the company's museum.
Just 12 years ago the company had declared bankruptcy. But now one 64-year-old employee (who's assembled models trains for the company for over 38 years) tells the Times "We're booming so much it's hard to keep up."
Hopefully this is going to last (Score:2)
For such as this is a very good thing.
But... the nature of the world today gives cause for concern.
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But you know it is only a matter of time before some group claims that the interest in the trains of the past is a way to express nostalgia for a time when [insert group here] were oppressed, and insist that interest in model trains is a racist activity.
Social media sites that discuss them will be shamed and harassed mercilessly.Political candidates that expressed an interest in them as children or adults will be forced to withdraw from public life.
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But you know it is only a matter of time before some group ...
And when that time comes would be a good time to complain about it.
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What is it with people shitting identity politics over ever fucking thread right now?
Come on this is about model trains, the archetypal nerdy topic to end all nerdy topics. To describe this as on topic for slashdot is something of an understatement. I'm not a model train person, but I can appreciate a good setup and would like to listen to fellow nerds nerding out about control systems or debating the relative merits of 00 vs H0, rather than whatever hate you are desperate to stir up.
Please go to Twitter. Y
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Actually I'm kinda with Jeff on this one. Nostalgia was wrecked the UK.
Japanese rail fans are an example. They have fans who like the older stuff, even though some of it is tied up with bad times in Japan's history. But mostly it's newer, post-war stuff.
Of course they have great post-war railways, where as Britain's glory days were basically over by the 60s.
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Nah. But they will complain that my locomotive is a model of a coal powered engine.
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Re:Hopefully this is going to last (Score:4)
Well, it's not a cheap hobby. Aside from the money spent on models, you need the space to build a layout. It doesn't lend itself well to people scraping by in short-term rentals. It is also a massive time sink. In addition, the history of railroads is predominantly in Europe and North America - you'll find much less support for modelling African or Indian railroads for example. Most of the jobs on railroads were male-dominated.
When you add all that up it should come as no surprise that the average railroad modeller is more likely to be an old white man than any of the alternatives, as they are more likely to have built a nest egg and have the time to enjoy it. I'm sure that some of them are racist, just as I am sure that some have a hard time with women in authority. To go from there to the idea that railroad modelling is somehow supportive of racism though would be a ludicrous leap, just as the idea that railroad modelling is somehow supportive of sexism would be. That would be a classic example of mistaking correlation for cause.
It should be noted that many enthusiasts model modern-day scenarios. There's no nostalgia to be had there, and I suspect nostalgia is less important to modellers now than it perhaps once was. Nostalgia is derived from ancient Greek, and most literally means "Homecoming ache". Modern definitions include concepts such as "wistful longing for the past". Regardless, it should be of no surprise to anybody that everyone suffers from it to some degree. It is human nature to hold on to things that were dear to our hearts, just as we try to forget the pains. For many people, railroads embodied hope and escape - the idea of escaping the big city to travel hundreds of miles to a sunny beach, or the backwater mining town to the big city, in an age before air travel and the ubiquitous automobile obsoleted most passenger train travel. The nostalgia doesn't generally extend to the long walk to the station, nor to the dirt and grime that steam engines would envelope their passengers with. To me, trains represented the chance to travel with my friends around Europe, seeing a lot of history and culture, and partying along the way. I retain no fondness for the two mile mostly uphill walk to a Florence campsite carrying a 60lb backpack on a 95F day. It sucked. Anyway, I digress. The point is, I model early 20th Century GWR on a branch line that was closed before my birth. The only nostalgia I have for the branch line in question is that my friends and I could have found it incredibly useful if Dr. Beeching hadn't previously killed it. Why early 20th century? I prefer the look of the old steam trains to the boring modern DMUs, and modeling that era gives me the artistic license to completely ignore the modern-day over-population and traffic jams of what was then a beautiful country area.
So now, I'm wondering why anyone would suggest that link between racism and railroad modelling nostalgia. It feels a like a preemptive strike of some kind. Yelling "Cancel Culture!", before anyone else has even mentioned culture, let alone canceling it.
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I'm sure that some of them are racist, just as I am sure that some have a hard time with women in authority. To go from there to the idea that railroad modelling is somehow supportive of racism though would be a ludicrous leap, just as the idea that railroad modelling is somehow supportive of sexism would be. That would be a classic example of mistaking correlation for cause.
Gamergate would like a word with you... Also, have you noticed the utter shitshow that has enveloped the comic book industry in the past two years?
And no, accusing gamers of things has not stopped. The original causus belli has been forgotten, obscured under a mountain of disinformation, but castigating white male nerds for liking white male nerd hobbies continues. You'd better hope you aren't noticed over there, clutching your steam engines.
The original post was not a troll. We have seen this horseshit
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You do know it's been 7 years and even the most cynical gamer knows now what Gamergate is, right?
Do they though? I doubt it. Like I said, a mountain of disinformation. And frankly I don't care.
Ah Gamergate, the conspiracy theory that a cyborg was controlling game journalists through her vagina.
Something something rabble rabble.
No, Gamergate, the coordinated release of a whole bunch of articles in the gaming press by "journalists" who had decided to create a narrative using their publications that white male nerds are being evil and keeping everybody else out of a hobby nobody else gave a rat's ass about. The one where Intel pulled advertising, they were so toxic. That Gamergate.
Luckily for the OP,
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To go from there to the idea that railroad modelling is somehow supportive of racism though would be a ludicrous leap, just as the idea that railroad modelling is somehow supportive of sexism would be. That would be a classic example of mistaking correlation for cause.
Just because it's ludicrous doesn't mean it can't happen. There is no limit to the absurdity and craziness of extreme left thought (though, to be fair, the same is true with the extreme right).
Heck, in Seattle mathematics is considered racist and needs to be studied via ethnic studies [k12.wa.us]. And this is not some local aberration. See neighboring Oregon where they're promoting courses on racism in mathematics [msn.com]. Now trains? The amount of mental gymnastics needed to make them sexist, racist or whatever is trivial com
The proliferation of smaller scales probably helps (Score:5, Interesting)
In the US HO (1:87) scale was for years the standard scale, but doing a more interesting setup than the oval you got for Christmas when you were a kid takes up a lot of space. Apparently the TT scale (1:120) was popular in Eastern Europe where people had smaller homes, but these days Americans comparatively huge homes are jammed full of stuff.
Now there are scales that go all the way down to 1:480, making it possible to build a non-trivial layouts that fit in a suitcase or even a briefcase. A Z scale (1:220) layout can have 6x as much stuff in it as an HO layout of the same area. A T scale (1:45) layout can fit 25x as much stuff. If you look on YouTube there's plenty of videos of people who've built non-trivial small scale layouts into glass top coffee tables [youtube.com], bars [youtube.com], and miscellaneous stuff [youtube.com], which solves the problem of where to put it.
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It was always N scale in my house, which at 1:160 is a nice compromise... but of course it was harder to find stuff for N than for HO.
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Yup, it was N in our house too. My dad still has his set (there's even a room in his house called the "Train Room"). Funnily enough I started looking into model trains recently (mainly because something jogged my memory and I was trying to work out what shunting loco my dad had).
The technology in them is astounding, as a programmer and a micro-electronics enthusiast I know how it's done but I hadn't realised to what extent digital trains had progressed. Everything we had was analogue, and digital was only j
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It was always N scale in my house, which at 1:160 is a nice compromise... but of course it was harder to find stuff for N than for HO.
Same here. You can have an empire in the space an HONswitchyard might take.
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Z scale can be awesome for fitting awe-inspiring layouts in a limited space, but the biggest problem with in my experience is the limited selection of trains and accessories, which can make it hard or sometimes prohibitively expensive to build a layout of your dreams.
In North America, HO by far has the widest selection of product, but as you say, you can't fit very much of it in a given space. An excellent compromise IMO is N scale, which while not as tiny as Z scale, still gives you more than three as
Needs other improvements (Score:3)
I've considered bringing my trains out of mothballs, but I think if I do it again, I'm just going to ditch all my transformers and DCC gear and just fit my locos with the cheap li-po batteries and RC gear I already have for drones and planes. Delivering power through the rails and using blocks and all that is too much trouble, and too limiting.
p.s. I'm not rich enough, or Euro enough to have any Marklin stuff.
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Yeah, I'm pretty sure only the 5 richest Kings of Europe have Marklin trains.
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Gawddammit - The Marklin models are incredibly expensive.
Yea, Marklin is some of the most expensive mass market stuff. I went with MiniTrix, Fleischmann and Rico primarily as they offer a good price/value balance. If you get into the real serious stuff Marklin will look like a bargain.
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Gawddammit - The Marklin models are incredibly expensive.
The Marklin California High Speed Rail set is stunningly expensive, even though it's perpetually back-ordered and the tracks won't make a complete oval. But yeah, props for being amazing realistic.
"Real steam coming out of the steam engines?" (Score:2)
I imagine it's not *real* steam, which wouldn't look like much of anything at that scale. But back when I was a little kid (in the 70s), you could put a drop of something in the "smokestack" which produced smoke when warmed up by a heating element. Nothing particularly new or high-tech about it. But thanks for bringing back an old memory.
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Yes, smoke generators are the more common solution. But you can actually get live steam-driven engines down to at least HO scale.
Without the sound effects (Score:2)
The mechanical sounds of a model train are some of the most soothing noises I've ever found. If I ever get a layout up and running, I'll do without sound modules.
Slot Cars! (Score:2)
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The heck with choo-choos, bring back slot cars! My youth (mid-1960s) was built around slot cars and all of the wonderful magazines about building and racing them. Mostly Aurora HO scale cars with a lot of track, but I also had two 1/32-scale cars that I raced on hobby dealer tracks. Good times.
I have the same memories, HO at home and 1/24th at the local track. Car Model magazine every month. Now I have Carrera 1/32 at home.
Largest model railroad in the world (Score:3)
For those that haven't seen it there is a really cool video Miniatur Wunderland *** official video *** largest model railway / railroad of the world [youtube.com].
Not sure if they are still the largest since the video was from 2011 but I don't think anyone will be beating the 1300 m^2 area anytime soon.
If it kind of funny to see Germans having American's attitude of "Go big or go home". ;-)
Perfect little world? (Score:2)
Is this teacher the basis for Welcome to Marwen [imdb.com]?
Video games and RC (Score:3)
Not surprising (Score:2)
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Steven Levy, in his book Hackers considers the MIT model train club as one of the founding hacking groups
Supplies (Score:1)