Athearn HO, AU Outline, Manufacturers, Operations, Paints & Painting, Switching, UK Outline, US Outline

Are we the driver of railroad modelling’s demise?

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In my post yesterday, in response to a YouTube video about Model Railroaders’ content choices, I made the case for all model railroad magazines needing a change of direction, I think. After reflecting on that post for a day, I’m thinking we have a part to play in all of this. So I have to ask myself whether I am part of the problem.

Are we at fault?

As models have improved over the last 30 years, manufacturers in Australia have changed from producing models for sale in hobby stores and have moved toward taking pre-sale payments years in advance of the proposed delivery date. The current range of models, both freight and passenger and the locomotives available are simply stunning in their fidelity to the prototype.

We all want the best models available for the money. But when a four-car pack of injection-moulded plastic short 2-axle freight car models is heading into the upper $400 AU range on the second-hand market, I can’t justify that spending to myself.

I’m a modeller. Have been since I was 7. Luckily, I can buy a great injection-moulded kit of the same cars for under $30 each. These include photo-etch and can be extensively customised, in my case with better braking detail than the RTR models.

Being cheaper to make (I’m doing the assembly, painting and decalling for free after all), the manufacturer can have these kits stocked in hobby shops and available online, without having to lose his soul or his house in the process. He’s a local too, only 60 kilometres away (that’s almost next door in Australia), which means that I can attend one of two exhibitions each year to buy more from him personally. And I like that sort of connection.

I buy them one to three at a time, customise as I see fit and in the process, these kits teach me about the car type and its history while I improve my modelling skills and learn new ones as well. I am not great with photo-etch or decals, but I’m getting there building these kits.

Accuracy has a cost  all of its own

The high cost of tooling a new mould means that manufacturers are cash-strapped from the start. They need enough presales to make the tooling. Add the costs of more than one trip to the Chinese factory to negotiate and schedule times for manufacture, and at least one other to talk to the next factory that assembles, paints, boxes, and ships, and profits can evaporate quickly.

When you add tariffs, as we’ve seen recently, and you have a perfect economic storm. Models consistently improve, but cost a lot more at the point of sale for you and me. At some point, you have to question whether you or your significant other or others can afford you remaining a modeller?

Are you happy?

This is a big question that I wrestle with from time to time. I’m rapidly approaching my mid-sixties. If I’m lucky and I get a few more years, I hope to have the time that I lacked during my working life to play a lot more. I build and scratchbuild parts for my models to make them mine.

My small collection, which I have grown slowly since 1997 (almost 30 years now), is small by comparison to a lot of modellers. Almost all my US outline cars are Athearn Blue Box kits that have been modded and upgraded over time.  My Aussie outline cars are all kits.

Whenever I am at a train show or exhibition, I go straight to the secondhand traders, followed by the retailers. I try never to spend over $100 AU, unless there are some really great bargains. Then I’ll go and look at the layouts in the show.

I have found bargains at train shows, deceased estate sales (there’s another issue we should talk about), Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and other auction sites. I bought as much second-hand as I could afford before we moved back to Australia from the USA in the mid-2000s because I know what my local market is like: Expensive.

I’ve learned to live with errors in roof patterns, errors made by the manufacturer, which I fix when I can to make a more correct model.

I am a modeller, but I want to operate more than model. And using the 2-foot rule (if I don’t notice it from 2 feet away, it doesn’t matter) means I can live with it when I operate them. And I keep my enjoyment while feeding my family. That is my best outcome.

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