Model Railroading: Still on Track and Running Strong
The experience, however, did leave us wondering. Just how popular is model railroading in this age of electronic goodies and couch-potato kids? Has the classic HO-gauge Pennsylvania Railroad given way to Sony PlayStation? Does anyone still riding the trains still find them romantic and worthy of the honor of recreation? Reminiscing about the massive Lionel O-gauge set-up that eventually took over the basement of my childhood home, I hit the Internet with a multi-engine search for the current status of railroad hobbying.
“Just” a hobby?
The first search pulled up 73 sites related to model railroading. At first that seemed a paltry number. The Internet-savvy reader will know that it is not unusual for a multi-engine search to turn up results numbering in the thousands. As link lead to link, however, it became apparent that the number of sites devoted to model railroading (and its full-sized parent) are merely the tip of the iceberg.
The first link followed piqued my interest. The site is home to the Pasadena (California) Model Railroad Club, which has been in existence since 1940 and is still drawing new members. The Club boasts its own massive HO-gauge model display, with 30,000 feet of track and 15 to 20 trains running.
Links to other clubs and groups of aficionados connect to other sites where proud members display and discuss their own efforts to recreate the railroads. Requests for members with special skills in wiring, layout, mountain-building and design abound.
History lessons
Additional links lead to discussion boards where model train buffs post questions and answers and wax rhapsodic about the trains they are building. The Recreation-Guide hosts one of the largest bulletin boards. Their forums boast, at this writing, 4392 members (more joined as I followed the discussions) and as many as 360 members logged on in the middle of a weekday, a coup for any discussion group as most people are at work and, presumably, too busy to address their hobbies.
The desire to count the number of forums and questions running was strong, but it was too difficult a task. Every rail line ever built has its own followers, numbering in the hundreds and even thousands. Each train ever manufactured is being replicated somewhere by someone who has taken a particular fancy to it. Details and specs abound! I could not determine whether there was one line or one train which outstripped the others in popularity, and I wasn’t about to risk being taunted and flamed off the board for suggesting such a thing. These hobbyists, like the war recreationists, take their play seriously.
It’s with good reason that people are enamored of the railroads. Northlandz sports a passable section of panorama devoted to the history of the rails in America. There is a clear depiction of the building of the tracks that lead from the east and west to the center of the country. Small figures of the hard-working immigrants, primarily Irish and German, pounding spikes into the earth are visible, and its difficult not to feel a pang both of sadness for the loss of so many lives in service to the birth of this nation, and of pride and awe at the scope of the job they did. Where the East met the West, even the tiny plastic figures seem about to burst with excitement and pride.
As true as it is that “man’s pathway to glory is strewn with the bones of a horse” (Anon.), it is equally true that the pathway to the future of the United States was strewn with the iron rails and signed with the bloodied hands of the railroad and its builders. As much as history appears to fade with time, this segment, at least, lives on for millions of rail buffs and recreationists.
Into the Twenty-first Century
Of course, it would not be possible for any hobby involving manufactured goods to move into the future untouched by technology. The modern version of the old two-handled transformer controller that ran four trains across my father’s basement floor has changed little in the fifty years of my own experience. Trains still run on electricity, and are still controlled, for the most part, by an intent hobbyist sitting on the floor or at a control panel, twitching switches and turning dials.
There is, however, something new in the world of model railroading. In fact, there are two notable changes. The first is the Digital Camera Controlled (DCC) locomotive. These new engines are equipped with high-tech digital controllers that keep them on track and running at the appropriate speed. They are programmable, so it is possible for more trains to run at once without falling prey to the short attention span of their operators. Though the details are quite complex, I gathered that it is possible to automate many of the actions that in the past were guided manually.
Digital camera technology has also been applied to a track-powered color camera system called, appropriately, “Choochoocam”. A diminutive camera applied to the front (or rear) of the locomotive and drawing power from the tracks which also power the train, will send color video to a standard TV or monitor, giving the viewer a close-up, full-motion experience. This is, for now, the epitome for model train hobbyists. Not only do they have the thrill of the art of recreating the train of which they are most fond, but they may also “ride” that train, viewing their landscape creations, scale-model buildings, tunnels and trestles as if they were sitting in the engineer’s seat. This, from the Choochoocam online site:
CHOOCHOOCAM IS A TV QUALITY
VIDEO CAMERA SYSTEM MOUNTED
IN YOUR ENGINE OR TRAIN CAR WHICH
TRANSMITS REAL TIME, FULL COLOR
VIDEO TO YOUR STANDARD TV !
“Trainz”
My concern that videogaming might have supplanted hands-on model railroad construction turned out to be unfounded. There are available several computer programs geared to railroading, but they are very much part of the entire hobby experience rather than a replacement for it.
The most highly-touted of the “sims” (simulation programs) is Trainz. From the Gamespy.com archived review of the program comes this description:
“The gameplay itself is broken down into three unique areas, each that would appeal to model railroaders. The “My Collection” mode lets you collect your favorite trains from around the world while also offering more details than you’d probably ever need to know about the different locomotives and cars. You can collect engines from the US, UK, France, Germany, and Australia; most from the last half century or so. As Auran has promised to keep adding expansions to Trainz you’ll eventually be able to collect classic steam engines from the 19th Century as well. For now you can add engines to your collection from famous lines including the B&O, Santa Fe, and New York Central.”
Hardly the threat I’d imagined; instead Trainz seems to be geared towards expanding the model train buff’s ability to view and “collect” (if only on a hard drive) trains that might be otherwise unavailable to him. With play comes exposure to information and a broadening of the historical perspective of the gamer.
Climb aboard!
In addition to the forums, clubs and organizations, and the tech sites, there are dozens of links available which take the collector to the home pages of the companies currently engaged in constructing and marketing model trains, either en masse (Lionel, et al) or by special order. Recreation-guide.com offers a comprehensive guide to equipment in all gauges from the tiny S through HO, O, N, LGB, G and British and European scales. If a hobbyist can’t find what he needs on one of the sites listed in this guide, he simply isn’t trying.
So, if you, too, have occasional fond memory twinges of long hours watching a model train make circuits around your homemade display, it may be time to drag out the old trains and renew your acquaintance with the rails. The hobby (and business) of model railroading is going strong, and the options are more varied and exciting than ever.
