This forum has been boring of late so I figured it was time to stir the pot. I've been flipping through some old model railroad books today. N scale in the '70s. HO scale in the '80s. Track planning from various decades. What once was the latest how-to guide is often now a quaint historic record.

The hobby has come a long way in the past 20 years. Now we have knuckle couplers as standard equipment in most scales, an incredible variety of rolling stock, computer controls instead of daisy-chained toggle switches, an abundance of good-looking ready-to-lay track, and ready-made trees that don't necessarily look like flocked ping pong balls. Of course, anybody can still do it the "old fashioned" way, should he (or she) desire.

Everybody loves to gripe about change, for better or worse. So what exactly were the good old days of this hobby? What about the bad old days? Are these in fact the good old days?

Model railroading IS fun, d----t.

Now we have knuckle couplers as standard equipment in most scales.
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Actually HO had knuckle couplers as early as the mid 50s..These were made by Model Die Casting.

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and ready-made trees that don't necessarily look like flocked ping pong balls.
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How about the ready made lollipop trees of the 50/60s?
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What about the bad old days?
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I suppose that would be before my time when 90% of the locomotives had to be scratch built and freight cars was built from wooden kits and had paper sides.
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So what exactly were the good old days of this hobby?
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That's a wide open question but,for me it was the 60s.Affordable brass locomotives,improved A freight car kits,early RTR cars,better looking structures and better rolling trucks with RP25 wheels..Modelers seem to be less uptight when it comes to perfection then they are today.LHS was the place to be on Saturday morning and train shows was just that-a place to show your models and sell your unwanted models and parts.
Of course every decade was the good old days but,the 60s stands out in my mind as the best decade since things was starting to change.
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What once was the latest how-to guide is often now a quaint historic record.
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Most modelers back then snub the how to books as a rip off for new modelers since the hobby isn't exactly all that hard if they can follow written instructions or ever had a Lionel or American Flyer train set.

A lot of the modeling techniques use back then is still valuable today..

Even the car card/waybill was a child of the 60s and the 60s was the dawning of prototypical operation.

So,some things hasn't changed in the past 60 years.

Seems to me that any time one can enjoy model railroading is the "good old days". OK. OK, not trying to defuse the possible exciting controversy. Go ahead y'all...when were the real good old and bad old days of the hobby?

Unlike a lot of crazy things that have gone on in my life , model railroading has been a steadying influence on me . I can't really say there were bad days in the hobby ......some disappointments like mrr clubs like we discussed in the past , but that's about it . One of the really good things was meeting the late Dean Freytag and going to see his layout 2 or 3 times , in Akron OH . The steel modelers were a good bunch of guys as are forum members both here , on RRL and the brief time at 2 Guyz . Nothing controversial

T

I'm much younger than most on here (37), but I would label the "good old days" when I could go to the LHS, browse for an hour, and wonder and dream. Now, there are fewer hobby shops, even fewer that carry many trains, and the ones that do have a "we can order that for you" policy more than a "browse the display case" policy. On the other hand, these may be the good old days, because of forums like this one, and online hobby shops that I can browse as I am laying in bed. So much modeling info is available online - and it has definitely improved my modeling. But, I miss the days when I read Model Railroader for the first time about age 11 or 12, when I realized that model trains were more than just the tyco and bachmann toys I had, and that people actually built layouts that looked as real as the freight yard across town.

For those who want to reminice, go here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trainlife.com/">http://www.trainlife.com/</a><!-- m --> and select magazines - but only do it if you have A) nothing else that needs doing, and B) no honey-do's to attend to, and C) plenty of time to sit and read.
Like Lawrence Oates on Scott's Antarctic Expedition "you may be gone sometime"
Great Winters Reading - Enjoy

shortliner Wrote:For those who want to reminice, go here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trainlife.com/">http://www.trainlife.com/</a><!-- m --> and select magazines - but only do it if you have A) nothing else that needs doing, and B) no honey-do's to attend to, and C) plenty of time to sit and read.
Like Lawrence Oates on Scott's Antarctic Expedition "you may be gone sometime"
Great Winters Reading - Enjoy

Be nice if those was Model Railroaders from the 40/50s.The Athearn drive is silent compared to those locomotives that either howled,grind and scream as they rolled down the track.

After its all said and done it was a fun time and a interesting time.

My favorite PFM locomotives..
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I had 2 of the GP9s and 1 SD9..The price at Frank P.Halls? $21.95 for the Geeps and $24.95 for the SD...Affordable for those that had good paying factory or construction jobs.I was only 12 and received the SD9 as a Christmas gift,one GP9 as a birthday gift and traded in a Penn-Line H9 and $6.00(my weekly allowance for doing chores*-dad was a railroader ) for the other geep at Halls.My dad let me do the haggling and he thought I did good for my first time..



*There was no free ride with my dad..My chores was cutting grass,taking out the trash,trimming hedges and other such things..I know I came out far better since I learned the true value of money and how to earn things I wanted.

Ralph Wrote:possible exciting controversy

You read my mind.

I think there is no such thing is the good ol' or bad ol' days. No matter what time you pick there are both good and bad things to be said about whatever time you are talking about. Take now for example. We have a bigger and better selection of most everything from scenery materials to boxcars. Command control systems have never been better or had more bells and whistles. So does that make today the good ol' days? Not for me. Why? Price, the cost of almost everything in the hobby has gone up wayyyyyy faster than inflation. They said on the news that in the USA the average income has decreased over the last 4 years by 10%. Have we seen a 10% decrease in the cost of MR supplies? Nope and then when you factor in outside cost factors like the price of gasoline doubling during that same time period along with the increase in the cost of everything else as well it doesn't leave many hobby $$$$$. On the other hand I wouldn't want to go back to the days of dyed sawdust for grass.



PS: If you don't agree with this post you are a b*tthead




PPS: The PS is only an effort to keep this topic as a "possible exciting controversy" .

Wow , Mike ....did you say ........DYED SAWDUST for GRASS ? ....I haven't seen that one before , could you do , like, a tutorial ?? Is there N scale sawdust ?

On a more serious note , costs have certainly gone up disproportionately . As for the insane gas prices , I simply leave the car in the garage about 5 days a week . I walk atleast a mile each day ...gets me where I want to go and makes me feel a lot healthier . I bought a bike for exercise and going to stores that are close .....I guess in a weird way , the gas prices have actually helped !....never thought I'd be saying that .

T

The "Good Old Days" of model railroading? A piece of scrap plywood, propped up on an old table. Grey hand painted roads, populated with Matchbox and Tootsie toy cars and trucks. Old Tyco locomotives intermixed with some AHM, and rolling stock where road names and numbers didn't matter, even if two were the same. Buildings straight from the box with no weathering or paint, just plopped down on Life-Like Grass mats next to bottle brush pine trees. Thirty-six years ago on my very first layout. Are they the "Good Old Days", of model railroading, or just a great memory from the past.

And thirty -six years from now, when you can buy pre-built and weathered structures, rolling stock that you can pull from the box, place on the rails, and start delivering imaginary product to your layouts customers. Better looking scenery material, and locomotives that you can operate by using your "iWhatevers". Maybe today what I do in model railroading , might be considered..."The Good Old Days."

I guess it depends on whether you are talking about model railroading, or railroad modeling.

That said, for me, the good old days were the construction articles in RMC, and MR. ( my first serious model built from a construction article was Jack Work,s "Coal Mine" Oct., Nov.,Dec. 1959 .
The wood and printed paper sided rolling stock kits.
The early Plastic kits like Varney, and the Athearn wood and steel side kits, and having to go to the Hobby Shop to get trucks and couplers for these kits. Learning how to do scenery without the "Bottle Brush trees", the "Lolipop trees", the "grass mats".....

It was looking at the photos of the Gore and Dapheted, and trying to build a model of one of John Allen's box cars, or flat cars.
It was looking at the world around me, and trying to reproduce it in 1:87 scale.
It was when the model railroad Magazines, were about modeling, and not advertizements for "Megabuck RTR". ( In *this day and age*, one reasonably detailed RTR, HO, passenger car costs more than a full tank of gasoline!!!!!???? REALLY ?????? )

For me, the ""Good Old Days", have been, are now, and always will be, about the "model building" , and not so much about the "railroading" ( defined as: scale RTR trains running in an endless loop, through semi-believable scenery, and "Plasticville buildings".)
For me, it was never about "Toy Trains", and that includes,( however beautifully reproduced - exquisitely detailed - Highly Overpriced ) Ready To Run. It was always, and still is, about the "hobby" of building models. Model barrels, model fences, model trees, model rocks, model "Home Heating Coal Company Building" scratch built with hand scribed Balsa sheet, based on an abandoned business structure in Lindenhurst, L.I. N.Y., with a stub siding off the LIRR. The dimensions were worked out from the length and width, as "paced off", and several hand drawn detail sketches.
[attachment=12733]
[attachment=12732]
and ........Details......
you name it, a model can be built of it.

shortliner Wrote:For those who want to reminice, go here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.trainlife.com/">http://www.trainlife.com/</a><!-- m --> and select magazines - but only do it if you have A) nothing else that needs doing, and B) no honey-do's to attend to, and C) plenty of time to sit and read.
Like Lawrence Oates on Scott's Antarctic Expedition "you may be gone sometime"
Great Winters Reading - Enjoy

I recently stumbled on Trainlife by accident searching for Arrow II information, but it is AMAZING. Already, I've found many articles on projects I wanted to do (Conrail SDP45s, NW2s) as well as rare photos and information on some of the rebuilt equipment.

I would never have thought of looking in "Pacific News" to find detailed articles on the converion of NJ transit's Arrow Is to Comet IBs, or the rebuilding of the Arrow IIs for hoboken service. It all apparently happened out west, but there is so little documentation out there! This website was absolutely amazing, even if a little difficult to search.

I generally agree that the quality of the offerings from manufacturers has increased leaps and bounds, part due to the advances in manufacturing technologies and materials.
That's all good.
What's not so good is that there haven't been many 'cheaper' models that can be turned into something great (I am very happy to see Bachmann releasing new locos that are very good subjects for something like this though, so my gripe here is almost out of date), and there are several 'one man ' companies that have ceased trading for various reasons, particularly detail parts etc. There are a few new ones, but with less and less models to use these on, their businesses are suffering too.

Also I'm a little bored with seeing endless colour and road schemes of the same models, and not new models released instead, and what's released is generally on pre order and very limited stock never longer production runs, which means in these times of smaller budgets, in my case when a model is announced, I start saving up, but almost never reach the point that it's released and I can order it , but instead, when I have the funds, the model is already sold out..... me not reaching budget is also due to the fact that shorter production runs mean higher cost per unit, due to the investment needing to be earned back with less units produced...

So in a way, yes I miss the good old days (late 80's, early 90's seems like a good compromise) even though I love the models and standards being produced today.

Koos

eightyeightfan1 Wrote:The "Good Old Days" of model railroading? A piece of scrap plywood, propped up on an old table. Grey hand painted roads, populated with Matchbox and Tootsie toy cars and trucks. Old Tyco locomotives intermixed with some AHM, and rolling stock where road names and numbers didn't matter, even if two were the same. Buildings straight from the box with no weathering or paint, just plopped down on Life-Like Grass mats next to bottle brush pine trees. Thirty-six years ago on my very first layout. Are they the "Good Old Days", of model railroading, or just a great memory from the past.
"

OMG I missed you when you were here.... :mrgreen:
Charlie