Interestingly John Nehrich of the RPI club would dispute that theory based on his experience with recruiting students to the club. Trains are no longer a "big thing" in modern America. Many run at night, or through "bad" parts of town so may people rarely see them. Unless you live in one of the few areas were a lot of people commute into the city, you probably don't think of trains for traveling either. Amtrak tries to attract people by showing that they are as comfortable as the airlines - how sad is that!
I'm not raining on anyone's parade, and I really wish there was more modern stuff available in S. But I think the average person not already interested in trains has a positive image of them that is mostly formed by the more "romantic" image of railroading in the 1940s and 1950s. Its the sound of the steam engine, not the diesel, that springs to mind when people think of "trains". I've even seen television ads showing a diesel train, but with steam sound effects! To repeat past threads, if the current manufacturers all say they can't sell modern models, then complaining about it will not likely do much. Right or wrong, they have made a decision based on their experience and you probably need to show them proof that they should change it. Anybody know how sales fo the DPH modern boxcar compare to their USRA gondola (since both models were introduced around the same time)? If the boxcar has done well, maybe another project could be floated that would DPH would be receptive to. Pieter Roos --- In [email protected], "meldridge2000" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Here's my too long editorial about bringing new people to S Scale. > > I think the transition era is the absolute worst era to entice anybody > younger than 60 into the hobby of model railroading or into S scale. > > I am 47 years old. I never saw a steam locomotive operating until 1975 > when I saw the Freedom Train. I have seen diesels all my life, > probably started noticing them about GP9 era. The most popular > modeling era is the transition era. If you are a small manufacturer, > you zoom right there, where you have some hope of a profitable product. > > Steam locomotives have a unique attraction, especially for men. They > are massive machines with hundreds of moving parts, generating immense > power, noise, steam and smoke. Building even a simple model requires > time, accuracy, and skills that must be developed. I think if people > are willing to go to a Renaissance Faire and try to immitate a > thousand year old world, it shows a certain attraction to the lost > past, even if we never experienced it. Even among people who never saw > it, there will always be an attraction to the steam era. > > Diesel locomotives have their own attraction, but why would someone my > age or younger be interested in RS1's, SW1's, PA's, E8's? I've never > seen any of these operating, but I have seen modern diesels. Why would > I rather purchase a model of an RS1 than an SD60? As long as there are > trains there will always be an attraction to the modern era. > > I believe the transition era is modeled for two reasons: a lot of > people currently in S Scale were impressionable young lads during the > transisiton era; and I can buy a low priced diesel for half of what it > costs for a low end steam locomotive. In twenty years one of those > reasons will disappear, and I expect there won't be enough market to > sustain the other reason. I believe the attraction to the transition > era will almost completely disappear. > > By the way, does it escape our notice that, unless I'm mistaken, AC > Gilbert manufactured modern era equipment? The company that is > responsible for many of our senior S scale friends choosing S scale > and staying with it for decades? > > What we need is someone who can float a couple of million dollars to > manufacture modern stuff for the next 20 years with no expectation of > profit. > > -Michael Eldridge > -San Jose, CA > -Modeling the 1920's, before my dad was born. To REPLY to the list, use REPLY ALL; to reply to the sender, use REPLY. For those of you on DIGEST mode, all REPLY messages go to the list (remember to edit the SUBJECT of your message). Change message settings, use our CALENDAR or LINKS, view shared files or photos, view the list archives, GO TO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
