Victorian Era Drones: How Model Trains Transformed from Cutting-Edge to Quaint

I love how the technology label of the age is used throughout culture to indicate "modernity" and "cool". Everything today must be "digital" (whether that makes sense or not -- consider the rush to "digital voting" in the US in 2001 even though it only, and only potentially, addressed one perceived problem and introduced plenty of others).

You can see this happening to trains in the 1920s and thirties, when the high speed trains of the era adopted a "flyer" moniker (e.g. the "Philadelphia Flyer" express train -- and now "Flyer" apparently lives on as the name of a model train system). The term arrived as flight began to take over as the cool new transportation.

In the Atomic age we had "atomic fireball" cinnamon balls and the "bikini" swimsuit.

But my favorite of all is a toy waggon from the 1930s called the "radio flyer" which, though a simple kids' wagon, managed to adopt two high tech trends in one name, though it had nothing to do with either.

"For the 21st-century kids stuck in the back seat of that car, trains are noisy, antiquated, and irredeemably boring..."

Having been to a model railroad show or two, every model train/town/yard is a model from the 1950's, 1940's or 1930's. Nowhere did I see any bullet trains or maglevs or modern cities being modeled. I always found this depressing, as if the hobby only had a past but not a future.

The analogy of ham radio and model trains is nearly perfect. Its almost a perfect concern troll as seen in hand wringing ham radio discussions. All thats missing from this article being a ham radio concern troll is a completely unrelated demand at the end. Traditionally the ham radio articles end with "... and thats why we need to change the whole repeater coordination system to benefit me personally" or "... and thats why we need to change the whole radio contesting system to benefit me personally".

We're transitioning from a "large cheap real estate" world to something where we're a lot poorer (someone is certainly collecting a lot of money off it). Also each generation is a little lower on the socioeconomic scale on average which is a reversal of past centuries of growth.

Therefore hobbies that require a lot of physical real estate space and a modest pile of cash such as model trains or ham radio (at least HF work) or serious fine/artistic carpentry are all going to be kind of elderly gentleman-ish. I would theorize recreational gardening would fit on this list. Possibly more exotic cooking techniques fit this, are most sous vide system owners over 50, I bet they are. I bet almost all people remodeling their kitchen spending $50K to do it with commercial grade appliances are over 50.

Who is more likely to have $1000 and an empty basement, a 25 year old college grad living in his parents basement and driving Uber for beer money unable to pay his student loan or ever own a house or have children, or a 50 year old software engineer living in a burb house purchased before the worst of the housing bubble struck? Then take a wild guess what the customer look like at WoodCraft store or HRO (ham radio outlet) store or the friendly local independent hobby train store. Its beginning to have a demographic impact where store opening hours reflect retired people more than the few working age customer's preferred hours, seriously you guys call yourself a retail store but you close at 5:30pm every day? Well there's always Amazon if I need a saw blade or whatever...

Now as long as humanity continues to supply a continuous stream of 50 year old guys who've "made it" financially, those hobbies will continue in perpetuity. In fact ham radio is growing at an impressive rate. The "elder" population is generally predicted to be increasing. I would predict as the odds of "making it" get ever worse for college grads and ever better for skilled craftsmen and building trades, more stereotypical blue collar hobbies for old men will continue to grow, probably good times ahead for recreational carpentry and maybe not so good long run for ham radio.

Model railroads are interesting little altars to civilization and economics. Railroad expansion, popularity, and use were a by-product of the industrial revolution. And to build a small part of that in your basement demonstrates how those pieces go together.

Personally, it can be a great broad spectrum application of engineering, history, art, programming, electronics, and machining.

"Model Railroading is Fun". Said so on the cover of every issue of Model Railroader magazine for decades. They're trying too hard.

Check out Minatur Wunderland, the most elaborate model railroad in the world.[1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkmg3Y64_s

Apropos of anything else, simple model trains are not cheap. You can easily spend hundreds of dollars on a single train. And hundreds of dollars on track. Which you either have to have somewhere to set up, or be stuck with dismantling steadily on the floor.

A bunch of work to build something that runs around in the carpet on your floor in a slightly elaborate loop? Not so fun.

And so then you might dedicate some space, or a room, or garage to building a scene.

Now you've got more and more time, attention to detail, and oh yes, much more money for building models, decorating, etc.

What might have been worthwhile in older days is now an older person's hobby because it's _really easy_ to spend thousands, if not tens of.

I would also toss the word "masculine" into the discussion. In the old days it was very unusual for a kid not to grow up exposed to a culture of masculine hobbies. Of course Dad had some tools and a couple sawhorses in the garage, all Dads did. Exposure to "Dad Hobbies" at age 5 leads to interest in "Dad Hobbies" at age 30. I personally remember swinging a hammer on the plywood underlayment of a HO gauge model railroad layout and lots of hours going ham radio stuff with my Dad, and my kids are having the same experience. In my youth that was a standard experience, today that is every unusual.

Culture changes, and the vast majority of children today are like "Dad? What is a Dad? You mean mommies friend?" or "Dad hobbies? Dad has no hobbies because Mom took all his money and his house in the divorce.". Naturally those kids are not going to grow up interested in "Dad Hobbies" other than by accident. There are other interesting aspects of the de-masculin-ization of childhood.