The Model Railroad Dilemma

I am a railroad modeler, not to be confused with model railroader. There is a difference and it creates a dilemma for manufacturers and modelers alike. When I worked in the model train industry developing models for a well known manufacturer, I was surprised at how few of my fellow employees had trains. I think I might have been the only operations oriented modeler in the entire building. It's not that difficult to believe since I worked for an O gauge company who produced very few "scale" models.

Manufacturers make models that will sell. The larger manufacturers need to make models that will sell many many units. They typically choose models that allow for multiple road names and paint schemes. The tooling costs are high, but they make that up with volume. Even for manufacturers that specialize in scale models there are compromises that have to be made to appeal to the largest audience to recover the initial costs of production.

When I started in the hobby as a pre-teen (I think the term now is tween) I had little money to spend on trains. Athearn, Like-Like and Roundhouse to the rescue! They had many bargain priced models to choose from and at less than $4.00 a freight car, after mowing a few lawns I could fill out my roster. The models weren't highly detailed, nor were many of them true to the prototype (or any prototype). But it didn't matter, I was able to run trains and enjoy the hobby. I was the target audience for those models.

As I progressed in the hobby, the purpose of my layout changed. I was no longer content with watching the train make endless loops on my 4x8. I added a passing track, a few sidings to spot cars, and the cou de gras, a second throttle to allow 2 trains to ply my 4x8 universe. I quickly graduated to operating my layout, not just blindly spotting cars here and there. Each siding had a purpose and that purpose required specific freight cars.

Here's where the dilemma kicks in. As I researched the locomotives and rolling stock in use by my chosen prototype in that time period those bargain models fast lost their appeal. My fleet of Athearn twin bay PRR hoppers were nothing like the H31a stenciled on their sides. The F-7 and GP7 when compared to the prototypes were all wrong. Having an incorrect model was worse than not having the model. Much like the transition from adolescence, my transition to scale railroad modeler was clumsy and uncoordinated.

It was difficult shedding the cocoon of my foundation in the hobby, but I emerged a scholar of the prototype and nothing less than an accurate model would suffice. In the late 1980's there was little to no ready to run rolling stock that was highly detailed. There were limited run kits, but my small budget and lack of skills stopped me dead in my tracks (no pun intended). I either had to shell out big money to get the level of detail I was after, or shelve my plans and take up some other pursuit. I ended up leaving the hobby in favor of bicycle racing.

Tens years later I returned to the hobby to find that the demand for affordable, high quality detailed models had created a tremendous amount of available models. Several manufacturers had created high end product lines, but was there more to the models than a Madison Ave make-over? The product was better, in details and running characteristics, enough so that I returned to the hobby. The compromises in product didn't seem so bad and the level of detail was an order of magnitude better.

The level of detail in the models has advanced at a tremendous pace, but the initial dilemma still exists. The product has to have a market, and 10,000 slobbering Pennsy fans might not be enough for a manufacturer to release a one of a kind freight car that is of sufficient quality to turn a profit, let alone break even. In the past 5 years, the level of detail in plastic models has improved due to the advancements in pad printing technologies, improvements in die tooling, and the reduced costs of manufacture in China. The result has been an explosion of limited runs by established vendors and hundreds of start up companies. There is almost an endless number of choices for the high end modeler.

But someone has to buy all these choices for them to continue to be offered. It's the same dilemma as always, make what will sell to the largest audience possible. How many modelers need an accurate model of Alto Tower?

Has the hobby grown that much since early this decade when several major manufacturers were scrambling to make payroll? It would appear so.