MRH staff notes - 2
Let’s take a quick look at the hobby’s past and see if we aren’t
having a bit of amnesia about how it really was back in the “good
old days”.
Pulling out the first year of
Model Railroader Magazines
in 1934,
the first mention of building your own turnout had a drawing of
building your own turnout from strap metal (see the drawing on
the previous page). We don’t think that handbuilt turnout would
pass muster on anyone’s layout today!
Back in the model railroading magazines all through the 1930s
and ‘40s, it wasn’t uncommon to find articles about how to build
your own motor or transformer. Even as late as the 1950s, you
would find rather backward articles such as one on using stove
polish to paint your metal steam locos. By today’s standards,
these construction methods and materials feel antiquated.
After World War II, ready-made power packs started to appear,
and in the 1950s, some vendors introduced a revolutionary
new type of track: brass flex track with fiber ties.
The introduction of ready-to-run (RTR) plastic cars and locos in
the 1950s made quite a stir. By the 1960s, concerned readers
sent in letters about how plastic RTR was “killing the hobby” –
and if plastic didn’t completely kill model railroading, then slot
cars certainly would put the last nails in the hobby’s coffin.
The ranks of the hobby in the ‘30s and ‘40s numbered in the
thousands, and as the ‘50s and ‘60s wore on with its hobby-kill-
ing plastic trains, the number of model railroaders swelled to
over 200,000. As the hobby has continued to see ever improv-
ing product over the last few decades, hobby officials estimate
the world wide hobby audience today to be circa 500,000. Not
exactly what you’d expect from a hobby that was going to die
in the 1960s.
We believe the number of modelers who still build a lot of things
themselves numbers a few thousand – which means the number
today is likely similar to what it was back in the so-called “real
craftsman” days at the dawn of the hobby.
In the meantime, these “plastic trains” have triggered huge
growth in the hobby ranks and every one of us has benefited,
including those lamenting the bygone craftsman days of the
hobby.
History has proven the fears plastic trains would kill the hobby
have been unfounded.
The hobby ranks have grown tremendously, thanks to these
prolific plastic trains making the hobby something mere
When talking
to hobby
vendors,
please
remember
to mention
MRH.
MRH-Feb 2014
