I'm building a model of a park for an architecture class using an engineering scale of 1"=20', which, if my math is correct, works out to approximately 1:240 scale. I was hoping I could use some N scale train stuff for it, but that's about 1:160 scale. Can anyone suggest anything closer to my scale? It doesn't have to be precise, just close enough to look about right. And I'm a bit pressed for time, so if you know of specific manufacturers or on-line retailers that would help a lot. Thanks.
Any reasonable question is ok. We don't always know the right question to Google. Searching for 1:240 scale figures isn't going to take you to Z scale figures.
As well as being a sort of social club, these forums exist largely to share specialized information, and it seems to me that the OP was asking a question that we're in a better-than-average position to answer. After all, enough people already think model railroaders are just a bit nuts, and we don't need to unnecessarily alienate someone who just walked in to ask an innocent question.
1: Why should we care what other people think of us, and our hobby?
2: Barmy as Wolf can be, it's not entirely his fault that people think that way! ;-)
a) I answered the substantive question w/ my ref to Z scale. other posters (I'm glad to see) provided similar and even better answers.
b) I referred OP to Google when he asked for online vendors. That he can do himself. Why ask others to do this service for him?
c) OTOH, requests for reviews of online vendors are appropriate here, even though many of them are reviewed on line also. Etc.
PS: one of the regulars here often googles and provides URLs in answer to a question. Very nice of him. I used to do that too. I just don't feel like doing this anymore.
I have no problem with providing substantive answers. But I draw the line at providing URLs which a poster can find for himself, given a substantive answer. I have in the past given search phrases, actually, and will do so in future.
PS: what bemuses me are people who confess they've googled for a vendor's website, have found nothing, and ask you to provide it. If Google can't find it, it ain't there, folks.
Because if we don't care, the hobby will very likely continue to slowly shrink -and eventually die- for lack of new blood. Good PR can help fend off that day, and good PR begins with good manners.
After all; how much does it cost you to be nice to a stranger?
Never said it *was* entirely his fault. Just suggested that one catches more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Search skills are something that must be learned, -they even teach classes in same- and as a result there are a lot of different skill levels floating around out there. Knowing what questions to ask and how to phrase them can result in wildly differing results, so you shouldn't automatically assume that everyone else has your own ability.
Besides, the OP never said that he *hadn't* already tried using Google.
That's a non sequitur if ever I've seen one. I think, as do others, that people who watch football are nuts, but no-one suggests that sports are shrinking and will evetually die.
But leaving that aside for a moment, the assertion that the hobby is shrinking/dying is made here on a regular basis. And yet it is seldom backed up with any evidence.
So why do you reckon the hobby is shrinking
Nothing, but then again, *I* wasn't the one who gave the OP a serve.
Uh, because I'm 63 years old, have been a railroad modeler since I was about
5, and have steadily watched the members of model railroad clubs become collectively older and older, as well as watching the number of local clubs -and their associated railroads- decline.
Despite the fact that our club has an outreach program to encourage youth involvement, our members are dying off quite a bit faster than they can be replaced, and we now have a grand total of *two* who don't yet have grey hair. (Or very little hair.)
Our club runs down at the San Diego Model Railroad museum one Saturday a month, and the four clubs associated with the museum are all having the same problem we are: not enough young members. In fact, this exact subject is frequently the subject of conversations down there, and I've yet to hear
*anyone* disagee with the premise that the hobby is slowly declining, and, if left to continue in the present direction, will die out in the forseeable future.
Nor, to the best of my knowledge, did anyone accuse you of doing so.
Despite the fact that young people today have many other "virtual" fields in which to play, perhaps some of it is because railroads are no longer as interesting as they once were. Many of the oldest amongst us can still remember steam locomotives on the mainlines. The best I can do is to recall seeing Milwaukee Road electrics go by. Or remember travelling on UP or NP passenger trains as a young kid. I still have a paper engineer's cap given to me because I was interested in trains as a young child on a trip from Tacoma to Portland on the UP. I thought the F-unit at the head was boring even then.
What is there about today's railroads to inspire the imagination of today's kids enough to inspire them to model them? I download Bud Law's and many of Joseph Testagrose's photos on alt.binaries.pictures.rail religiously, but the contemporary pics do nothing for me.
I don't know. I understand the nostalgic feelings that inspire me to want to model railroads, including those that died far before I was born, but given all the competitive attractions of today's world, virtual or real, I'm not sure what would inspire a person born in 1995 to develop a passion for model railroading. Especially (IMHO) since it's mostly about buying RTR stuff with little creative input these days.
And let's not forget the decline of the local hobby shop. When I first got interested in model railroading, there were at least five hobby shops within an hour of here whose primary product was model trains. Now, there is one and that one is two hours away. Trains still hold fascination but like everything else in kids' worlds today, not for long. When we were in school, things were different. We learned to pay attention. Now, a teacher changes things a lot more often just to keep kids' attention.
And I think that as more people are service oriented, fewer people "build things" nowadays. I was lucky in that I had a next door neighbor who showed us how to build lots of things. He was a true handyman. Now, those kind of people are few & far between as well. Look at the decline in plastic kit modeling... nope, no builders.
There are those who think that Thomas the Tank is going to be the hobby's salvation. But what do the kids who grew up with Thomas do when they feel like they are too old for him? I don't think they "graduate" to real model trains... : (
From reading modelling mags, British and US, I get the impression that there are far more "finished" models, cars, trucks, aircraft etc at high prices and very few kits. My local model shops (30min and 3hrs drive) bear this out with snap together radio control aircraft and off-road cars, finished models etc but still lots of plastic military kits. The model railway sections have shrunk to almost nothing. There's now one specialist model railway shop with loads of expensive stuff and a small scenery/buildings section.
My conclusion is that modellers, including railway modellers have more money but less time. I'd guess that the amount spent has rocketted up over the forty + years I've been in the hobby (in real terms) but by smaller and smaller numbers of enthusiasts.
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