May 20th, 2005

On the Model Railroader site there is a discussion about the magazine "dumbing down" over the past few years. Seems some folks think there are too many articles geared towards beginners...

Well, my own opinion is "yes" and no"

Not trying to be ambiguous, just being realistic. It's not the magazine that may be dumbing down...It's the hobby. Or rather, the hobbyists. I think we have entered what might be called a "tinplate renaissance". For those of you who don't know, "tinplate" refers to those old Lionel and Marx sets that were popular back in the day. You could buy trains with all kinds of fun bells and whistles and operating accessories, but all made out of stamped tin. They were toy trains by today's reckoning, but maybe not in the contemporary view. They were as sophisticated and as realistic as possible for the technology of the time. Perhaps a major feature of "tinplate" was it came ready to run in vast variety. No muss, no fuss. Set up the trains and connect the controls and have fun. Unfortunately it was also pretty expensive. The average working class Joe couldn't necessarily afford such wonderful toys.

Time goes by...

It's the 21st century and a great many model railroaders are using a great variety of ready to run equipment. No muss, no fuss. Set up the trains and connect the controls and have fun. Unfortunately it is also pretty expensive. The average working class Joe can't necessarily afford such wonderful toys. They are as sophisticated and as realistic as possible for the technology of our time.

Get my point?

Since everything is either ready made or almost ready made, there is no need to know how it all works anymore. You don't have to build DCC controls and DCC equipped trains, you can just buy them. No need to scratch build a boxcar. Hell, there is no need to build a kit. Just open the box and put the thing on the tracks! Everything, from the fire truck and the fire house to the roadbed and scenery can be found either pre-built or in "shake the box" form. You can still build from scratch, but only if you WANT to. I can hear the voices now..."Why would you wanna do that?"

Like a ton of other things we do today, even our hobbies are "brainless". I'm not sure of the reason for this. I just know it is happening. It's become part of our culture. We have buttons on our microwaves preset for popcorn, why shouldn't we have "instant" model trains?

So you see Model Railroader isn't changing.

We are.

Well that's about all for now...See ya' next time.