The "Good Old Days" of Model Railroading

[torikoos]

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see Bachmann releasing new locos that are very good subjects for something like this though, so my gripe here is almost out of date), and there are several 'one man ' companies that have ceased trading for various reasons, particularly detail parts etc.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