Confessions From Within

I worked at a rather large model railroad manufacturer for about a year, and in that time, I learned a few things about the business that saddened me. I have had a layout in some manner or shape since I was eight years old. My best friend from childhood introduced me to scale modeling, and modeling with a purpose. His father had a medium sized layout in the basement, and when we grew tired of our 4x8 based layouts, we'd operate his father's railroad.

When I hired on with the model railroad manufacturer, I was very excited to be a part of the hobby I loved so dearly. I was working with overseas vendors on multiple projects at a time and felt as though my voice mattered to the end product. Model railroading is a business and that fact struck me squarely on the last day of August, 2001 when I was fired. I had never been fired before and I knew I had done nothing to warrant my dismissal in such a manner (the unemployment agency agreed with me).

The reason I and many of my co-workers had lost our jobs was the result of many factors coming together at once, and something at our company had to give. An economic downturn caused many to cut out recreational spending, such as $500.00+ model locomotives. At the same time this was happening, a very large and misguided project had been stalled yet again and the bank called in the debt. To cover the debt, the payroll was robbed in the form of layoffs. The entire summer of 2001 was ugly at our company.

I knew I would eventually get the axe because I refused to work extra hours for no pay, call up previously laid off workers and ask them questions, and rubber stamp high dollar models to open a revenue stream. I thought getting it right was more important than to knowingly sell inferior products. So much for my career in the hobby that had played, and continues to play an important role in my life.

I had no idea what kind of money there is in the model railroading world. A successful manufacturer can make a ton of money, but that profit comes at a large price - the constant need to out do the competition requires some gutsy moves and sometimes those moves don't work in your favor. Betting the future of your company and the hobby on an unstructured idea is foolish, but that's what happened at our company. I could understand if the project had been well conceived but not embraced by the market, but the problem was one of failure to lock in what the product was going to be when delivered.

Model railroading, like other "classic" hobbies has lost ground as an American pastime. Computers and the internet are a much more attractive hobby for the pre-teens. Model railroading requires one to be an active participant, video games and the internet allow one to be rather passive. How does a toy train compete with the immediacy and ease of use of a video game. It requires zero space and is viewed as a cool thing by peers; admitting you like model trains might result in being beat up!

I have moved on in my career, but I can't help think of what could have been if I still worked within the industry. I openly wish the company I worked for to fail - I feel sorry for those who would loose their jobs, but the hobby would be better off in the end. It still bothers me when I walk around the train shows and see locomotive projects that I was a part of for sale and fetching outrageous sums. Some of them are ticking away, ready to fail the instant you remove them from the box. That was before the company went to 100% quality checks because they received so many complaints. Sorry collectors, your factory air is actually an exhaust cloud from I-95.