Whats with the steryotype of us liking trains?

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I did at one place where a lot of co-workers seemed to be into them. Car fanaticism has stereotypically been more associated with the 1950s-60s era, though. There are still a lot of car clubs around.

That trend may soon end. Car shows/clubs have been declining overall in the past decade as the Baby Boomer generation gradually fades out. The majority of the car owners are those who grew up in that era and have a connection to their youth through them. Newer generations do not have that connection to peak their interest in those cars.

The 1950s-1960s era was known for both increasing performance and unique styling. Most modern cars have more performance than their earlier counterparts, but they completely lack in style. If you look at a modern Camaro or Challenger, they borrow styling cues from the originals. Some of the newer cars are at a point that it becomes hard to tell what they are without their badges as clues. That typically did not happen in the 1950s-1960s era. Over time, less of the older cars will be shown as their owners age out of the hobby. Why go to a car show if it just looks like a dealers new car lot?

The other reason for the car show decline has to do with the cost. Many of the classics have appreciated to a point that few of the young generation can afford them. I can remember when they were just cheap “used” cars. You could buy many of them for only a few hundred dollars and still drive them away. Nowadays you are lucky to find a usable body shell under $10,000 to start with for some of them. Unfortunately we are closing in on a time where gasoline powered muscle cars will sadly become regulated to static displays in museums.

For the record, I used to be into older metal model trains, but got out of it when I started collecting vintage muscle cars to restore. My father wanted the space in the basement back, as model train tracks and layouts do take up a lot of space. I kept the trains to pass on down the family tree someday. My grandnephew will likely end up with them when I pass on.

They need not take up a lot of space. I am slowly making a little railway which is 2ft wide and 7ft long. I am building it in 0-16.5 otherwize known as 0e or 0n30 depending where one lives. The narrow gauge of 0 gauge.
I have made a little more progress since this photo was taken, though there is still a lot of work to do.



I show this to demonstrate that one does not need a lot of space to enjoy the hobby.
The round holes are to reduce the weight of the layout where the platforms are going to go. The missing track pieces in the middle are put in place when the layout is used. These bridge across the join inbetween the two boards as it was found to be a more reliable method then bringing the track to the edge of the board, and it also avoids damage to track which is vunerable at the edges. The larger holes are where I am doing scenic work to lower the level of the scenery in these areas. I also have plans for it to run from batteries so one does not need extension leads if used at exhibition. (Exhibitions always seem to have wires taped across the floor! I hope to avoid this for safety, and also I don't need to take up valueable power points which others will need).

Your set up is nice. The setup that I had took up most of a 10’ by 15’ unfinished room. It was a storage area for excess laundry originally when the house was built. It was floor mounted, so you really could not do much with the space above it. I wish my father would have took interest in that hobby, but he was too busy with work.

I will run things like this on it. Here is my loco. number 1.

That's going to be nice!
I love On30, lots of potential in either small or large spaces.
And for those who might be in to freelancing quirky small trains ...

Finally drove a bit on my poor, neglected, part-of-a-layout at home.

Had been long enough since last driving trains, several months, that it was necessary to vacuum the dust off the track.

Is one end of a plan from Model Railroader's old "101 Track Plans" book. Not sure the plan number, 56, 57, 59, something like that. Is a 3-sided shelf layout inspired by actual Belfast & Moosehead Lake short line in US New England area, though I am setting it somewhere much warmer.

Was started a good decade ago but I ended up putting what energy and time I had with the mess my health is in to a local model RR club started in 2009.
My track has clearances set to run either HO or slightly wider On30.

I was the only person in club who did On30, so in order to participate in club's modular HO layout I got some more HO stuff after giving most of mine away years earlier.
And speaking of who in club knew what, I was the only person who even knew Gn15 even existed though several members did standard G scale!



Eventually this area could make a nice little scene,

We had an HO layout when I was young. When I played with it I went off and left a transformer on. I was prohibited from playing with it alone after that. My brother really got into it. My mother told me that when I got older it would be mine. When I told my brother that he said no way in Hell. I put trains out of my mind and sent on with life. When I lived in an Apartment in Atlanta I got an N gauge set and some engines and set up a track a few times. After I saw a model railroad exhibit I got a Z gauge set. I went so far as to build a layout. I get tired of seeing a train go round and round and my interest waned. I later threw away the layout. My Mom likes trains and I have set up n gage track and run them for our amusement a few times, but I have not made a permanent track. I have a problem that different makers use different couplings and they usually don't work together.

When I was growing up our family went to Washington D.C. on a train. We also road a few excursions. My car wrecked once in Atlanta and the cheapest way to get home to Birmingham was by train. That was fun. There is a railroad museum near Birmingham where you can take a short ride. I road in a steam engine once. I subscribed to a railroad magazine once. It was interesting to read reminisces about people's days working on the railroad. I don't have any other experience with trains though.

At Christmas, I set up an O gauge train around the three to amuse my Mother. I only dabble with model trains now and then. I'd rather spend my limited funds on other hobbies like collecting early photographs, and plants. I am still into dinosaurs but don't by many these days. I even thinned down my collection.

You will probably like this site as he makes kits to several different scales. 0e is the same as 0n30 and 0-16.5. ----》 ⊙

Z is tiny. They now do T scale which is even smaller.

Trains are boring.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

From the age of 15 until I was 21 years old, I was heavily into model trains.



I did first become interested in trains when I was 13 years old from the day I had caught the only double decker train to run on the Melbourne train lines in Australia.