Opinion: Model Railroading, Media, and Trends

What model railroading used to be, and what it is today, is already on it's way out.  It's time to embrace change.  The next generation of model railroading will probably look something like...

• Casual -- People need to be able to occasionally dabble in model railroading without needing to make huge up front investments in time, space, tools, or supplies.  The step between, "I bought a train set" and "I'm going to build a shelf layout" is still quite large.  How to Build a Switching Layout by Lance Mindheim was almost ahead of it's time in this regard because it does a fantastic job of eliminating a lot of the overhead of woodworking and scenery layout tools that people often infer are pre-requisites to building a layout. A household drill, a paint brush, a hobby knife, and you're pretty much good to go.
  
  
• Nomadic -- Both space and portability are concerns.  Personal layouts bolted to a house or that fill an entire den or basement are out.  No one wants to spend $1000 on a shelf layout just to toss is out when they have to move a year or two later.  Likewise, no one wants to install permanently mounted lighting, and screw a fascia to the ceiling like many MR magazines show.  On the flip side, if layouts are built truly portable there should be a market for shelf layout resale.
  
  
• Approachable operation -- There are more people that love playing board games than there are people who love operating model trains.  However, operating model trains is near identical to playing a board game where the board just happens a 3D miniature world.  When model railroaders say "operation" they are really just talking about "playing" by a set of "rules."  On the flip side, the rules need to be approachable by someone casual.  No one likes to play board games that take an hour to understand the rules.
  
  
• Whole package over individual pieces -- The old guard of model railroading is decrying how people now days don't build rolling stock kits and there isn't as much scratchbuilding.  That's because the nature of model railroading has already shifted from a focus on individual pieces (ie. rolling stock) to a focus on the whole layout.  That we have train shows which have rolling stock build contests and awards is probably just a left-over relic from that time which will eventually fade away.  There might be the odd cottage industry that makes this work for some reason, but by and large, going back to the "casual" aspect, even so far as rolling stock that comes pre-weathered, I think these things will become more popular because they decrease the amount of crap you have to own and things you have to learn.
  
  
• Personal software+machine based manufacturing -- Cricket, Glowforge, CNC routers, 3D printers etc.  Drawing a building in software, hitting print, having a machine cut all the walls precisely out, doing a little assembly, then glueing on some details like window frames or shingles: that is what I think the very near future looks like.  The learning curve on the software will decrease, the price and accessibility will increase.  This probably won't affect the core model railroading industry, as, if high-quality track, rolling stock, and engines are available that will be much preferred over a 3D printed one for most cases.  But for scenic details, the home-manufacturing approach will probably start to take over.

 

I also think that the media consumed by the next generation of modelers is also relevant too.  Magazines, print or digital, are probably dead.  Forums too.  As are email groups.  Bottom line:  No one wants transient media that is primarily text.  And yes, that includes this blog as well.

Just to be clear, I'm classifying transient media as the kind of here-today-gone-tomorrow stuff that is consumed in a psuedo-informational but mostly entertainment focused way different than more permanent media like a reference book which would be consumed more out of the intention to gain knowledge of a particular topic.

Videos are obvious.  Model Railroader and Model Railroad Hobbyist both have video offerings.  At around $2/mo I can tell you I'd rather pay for that than a magazine subscription.  The content is more interesting, interactive, entertaining, and it's easier to understand watching a motion picture than reading about it in a magazine.

What's more, and I think this is equally as important, is the comments on the videos posted to MR Plus and MRH's videos are overwhelming positive compared to their own forums.  Going into model railroading forums is often like walking through a septic tank.  On the flip side, the comments on the videos are always very supportive, positive, and just a much more pleasurable community to be a part of.  I might hazard a guess that this is because the slow adopters who are often the cranky complainers aren't watching the videos, but that's really just an approximation.

Personal video is important too.  It doesn't seem to be getting much use by model railroaders yet.  Are there any individuals with a model railroad focused YouTube channel that have over 10,000 subscribers?  Even some of the more niche hobbies like home CNC machining have channels with almost 100,000 subscribers.  It would seem like there's a lot of growth potential here.

YouTube is the obvious target, of course, but upcoming sites like Twitch are also relevant, maybe even more so.  Twitch got it's popularity becoming a site where people could stream video of themselves playing video games.  If you're above the age of 35, that probably sounds like the most ridiculous thing you could think of.  Consider, however, that as of March 2016 Twitch is the 88th most popular site in the US, averaging 40 to 50 million views a month.  For comparison all of Kalmbach's train related websites (trains.com) of which Model Railroader is only a part are ranked 10,415th in the US.

Despite Twitch being built for gamers, it now has a growing based of people using it to stream "creative" activities like drawing, painting, or woodworking.  Having produced YouTube videos myself, I can attest to the overhead of effort in doing model railroading solo, vs. doing model railroading and filming the whole thing, not to mention the editing afterwards.  Twitch allows model railroaders to start streaming without the extra work of changing camera positions, editing, and all that.  It would be really interesting for some modelers to start streaming on Twitch while working on their layout or a project.  (As an aside, I'm not at a point where I can work on my own layout right now, but when I get back to it I plan to try Twitch streaming when I do)

Pictures have value as well because often they can have a comment attached to them.  Most of the blog posts I put on this site would fit into that format.  Instead writing blog post and inserting pictures, all the pictures could be uploaded to an album, which each picture having a small-ish comment that explains that step or the progress at that point.  It's the same content, but in a format that people probably already skim the blog post doing.

The word "instagram" might be foreign or it might conjure up an idea of thousands of "selfies" with all matter of extreme photographic effects applied to them.  While early on that was the case, instagram is beginning to mature into a platform that people can share a stream of pictures about something.  Maybe it's their day to day life, their travels, their hiking or climbing, or their hobbies.

Here's a great non-model railroading example of an instagram account:  Thomas Heaton.  He's a landscape photographer and most of his shots fall into one of three categories: a.) pictures of how he's taking a picture, b.) the final product, c.) pictures of himself during his travels.  This translates to model railroading extremely well.  His stream isn't filled with a bunch of selfies or other ridiculous stuff.  It's a really nice stream to follow.  There's no reason model railroader's couldn't emulate this, posting a combination of pictures of their work in progress, and the final result.

Instagram might be the newest thing out there, but Flickr is well established too.  The best example that comes to mind is Ferd Mels flickr account.  I would be willing to bet that at least a third of the people doing 7/8n2 today are a result of seeing one of Ferd Mels gorgeous pictures and being wooed into the idea they could do that too.  I mean, look at those shots.  It's really hard not to like them.

The point here isn't that Twitch and Instagram are the next big thing so jump on those bandwagon blah blah blah.  The idea is that model railroading will ultimately change because society is changing.  In addition, the changes to how society consumes media as a whole will affect model railroading too.

I for one am happy with where this all seems to be headed.