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In the News
The Future of Large Scale Trains
Sep 26, 2007
By Noel Widdifield
LSOL.com Managing Editor |
Author
Bio
One of the leading questions in all areas of our hobby today is, "What is the future of model railroading?" It is a question found in all of the model railroading magazines and modelers in all scales are asking it. Come read what the leaders of our industry think. Aristo-Craft, USA Trains, MTH, LGB, Bachmann, Accucraft and Marc Horovitz.
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One of the leading questions in all areas of our hobby today is, "What is the future of model railroading?" It is a question found in all of the model railroading magazines and modelers in all scales are asking it. Railroads have disappeared from the landscape for most people today. When I was growing up, we had the New York Central railroad running along the back of our property. When we went to town, we had to cross several railroad tracks to get there. Whenever we journeyed almost anywhere, we found ourselves waiting at a railroad crossing, with the crossing gates down and the red lights flashing. We used to count the number of freight cars in the train passing as a way of killing time waiting at the crossing. Railroads were still the largest employer of people in the country and railroads seemed to be everywhere. Railroads also provided the inspiration for many of us as we thought about what we would do when we grew up. Trains also inspired the toys that some girls and we boys played with. Most of us had a Lionel, American Flyer or Marx electric train. The boys we envied most had fathers who had large layouts in the basement, garage or attic. Trains were everywhere. As I grew older I, like many my age, continued to be involved with model railroading or after leaving it for a few years came back to it in middle age. Many of us my age, although not all, are now involved in Large Scale because of our lifetime interest in railroading. It was the involvement and knowledge about real railroads that got us interested in the first place and kept us involved as we aged. That environment is no longer with us and hasn't been since sometime in the early 1970's. So what happens to model railroading and Large Scale in the future? Will the hobby survive for future generations? Those are the questions we are interested in exploring. Perhaps not all of you care whether Large Scale survives for future generations, but most of those I talk to are very interested in preserving the hobby that has given us a lifetime of pleasure. So to explore the issue, I asked some of the key people involved in the media, manufacturer and sales of Large Scale trains today what they thought about the future. I asked them two questions. 1. "What is the future for Large Scale?" 2. "Who will the future customers be for Large Scale?" And I asked a few of them, "Is any of your advertising today focused on the future?" Their answers might surprise you. Read on to see what they had to say.
Q1: What is the future for Large Scale?  | Marc Horovitz
Editor
Garden Railways Magazine |
| Q1: What is the future for Large Scale? |
| I feel that we are going to be pretty much as we are today, only more so. The hobby will continue to develop along the lines it has in the past. Most of the expansion will be in standard-gauge modeling. In the beginning of the hobby, everyone was in narrow gauge because that was pretty much all the equipment that was available to us. The smaller scales were more into standard-gauge modeling. There has been a gradual shift in Large Scale towards standard gauge in recent years, as more of that kind of equipment has become available. I would expect that trend to continue until the ratio of standard- to narrow-gauge modelers is about the same as that in the smaller scales. A lot of things are changing in our hobby. We don't seem to begetting a lot of younger people into garden railroading, but you never know for sure what will happen. Look at what happened in toy-train collecting. Twenty years ago, toy-train collecting was flat. Then the baby boomers, perhaps in an effort to recapture a small piece of their childhood, started collecting and that hobby took off again. Something unforeseen like that could cause a similar boom in large-scale railroading. We do a random survey after each issue of GARDEN RAILWAYS and we have found that the average age is about 52. That means that there must be as many people younger than that age as older, so perhaps our collective future is not as bleak as we sometimes think it looks. |
 | Fred Devine
Vice President of Sales
Accucraft |
| Q1: What is the future for Large Scale? |
| "I see growth in Large Scale. One of the biggest areas is live steam and this is being stimulated by our key dealers throughout the United States. They are bringing more and more people into live steam. I am optimistic about the future. I think that as baby boomers get older, they will go from HO and N scale to G scale. I think that the more we develop fine art models in the Large Scale, these HO people who are fine scalers will be coming up and finding out that there is a home for them in fine scale modeling in Large Scale." |
 | Lewis Polk
President
Aristo-Craft |
| Q1: What is the future for Large Scale? |
| "It is clear to me that the future of Large Scale is a combination of the garden and simplification of running trains. The garden is the number one hobby in America. And the hobbyist is looking for simplification of running trains in the garden. It is far too difficult today. We have to give them more sophistication with ease of use. And we are working on our Train Engineer to make it easier to use and yet have more capability. It has got to be simple. The rule in our company is if I can't do it, we don't make it. And I am the least technical person I have ever met. (Laugh) So the future is outdoors in the garden and simpler and easier to set up. That means less cleaning time (of the rails) and perhaps battery operation so that you don't have to worry about track cleanliness. I have been in Large Scale since it began and I see it growing exponentially. We have only one person out of ten thousand that is a gardener railroader today. There is no reason why it can't be in the thirty-to-forty per ten thousand. And there is no reason we can't make it more interesting and easier to do and more exciting, that is the direction we are heading in. I am now sixty-eight and I am still looking forward to a super bright future. |
 | Jon DeKeles
Publisher
Large Scale Online (LSOL.com) |
| Q1: What is the future for Large Scale? |
| The future of Large Scale cannot depend on people moving from the smaller scales to the bigger scales. This will help growth in our section of the hobby, but if you watch the numbers you can see the small scales are decliing in participation and we are not seeing all of them coming into Large Scale. It is important that we get new people into our section of the model train hobby. The local clubs that go to local shows and demonstate what our hobby is all about are doing a great service to all of us. One key goal would be to do what the pond industry did and that was make it easy to put a pond into your garden. Think of a section in Home Depot or a Lowes where starter sets and the needed accessories were in stock for people to add a train to their garden. Placed right next to the pond section it would be a great place for people to pick up a starter set, some blocks for roadbed, some bark, etc. A simple DVD instruction in the set could help them get started. In one afternoon they could get a train on the ground in their garden, catch the fever and grow their railroad from there. |
 | Charles Ro, Jr
Owner .
USA Trains |
| Q1: What is the future for Large Scale? |
| "I see growth, definitely. Unlike the other scales, all of the models have not been done yet in Large Scale. Each of the manufacturers is introducing new locomotives and each is staying in their own area. Maybe after we make all of the locomotives we will begin to duplicate each other. The customers are always asking us for what they want so that makes it hard to gauge what to make because there are so many areas for us to focus on. There are a lot of people coming into Large Scale. Some people say they are not coming into Large Scale. But what we see since we have our own hobby shop is that there are people coming in to look and buy. They come in to see what we have to offer. If people have a hobby shop in there area, they come in to see what is available. People today do not want to go into an old dirty hobby shop run by a bunch of old model railroaders. Our store is clean and modern. That is what buyers want today. They want a nice clean store with an operating layout. The people coming into the hobby today are families. We see the little kids and some a little older coming in with their parents." |
 | Tony Castellano, President
LGB of America, Inc. |
| Q1: What is the future for Large Scale? |
| The future for large scale is going to be up to us (manufacturers and distributors) and what we make it to be in the future. We have to get the product that the consumer wants to them in a timely manner and for a price that is marketable. We have to work together to create a hobby that people will enjoy doing with the family. I believe there is growth for large scale, but focusing only on the current market group is not the answer We have to extend the hobby to the young as well as the middle age and the old. The product has to be visible to the general public and we need to create evangelists for the large scale product. If we are creative as a group we can all benefit from our efforts. I see the children at various shows and venues just fascinated with trains. We should be able to capitalize on this. We can not fight the video game market but I think we can be an alternative of it. We have not limited ourselves which is good to just narrow gauge or standard gauge. There are many people who have different interests from the collector to the people who just want to have fun running their trains. We just need to identify them and market to them in the right way and by doing so the future of large scale can and will grow. |
 | Joe Freeman
Vice President of Sales
Bachmann Industries, Inc. |
| Q1: What is the future for Large Scale? |
| "People in the hobby have always thrived on new products. These new products have been supported very nicely by the current customer base. As long as we develop and manufacture new products that are prototypical I see a very bright future for Large Scale. My only concern is that our demographics indicate that are customers are getting older and older. To keep the hobby growing we are going to have to develop interest in the hobby by younger children and getting them in the hobby. That is the tough call, not only in Large Scale but in every scale of model railroading. We need to find a way to get the kids involved and get the 30-year olds involved. But I think the key is new products and new product development, new innovations to get the consumer to buy and to join the hobby. The sad part today is the difficulties of a competitor (LGB). The brand that they brought to the table, by being the first manufacturer of Large Scale trains would be missed. The loss of parts for those products that those hobbyists that have bought lots and lots of LGB, will be where to go now to service their equipment and buy parts. That is one negative and it may impact us somewhere down the line, but hopefully Aristo Craft, Bachmann, Accucraft and the other manufacturers will pick up the slack and we will see what will happen in the next year or so." |
 | Andy Edleman
Vice President of Marketing
M. T. H. Electric Trains |
| Q1: What is the future for Large Scale? |
| "My response is somewhat lengthy, but I think it's important for your readers to understand the importance of appealing to both young and older consumers. Many model railroaders have questioned M.T.H.'s decision to include some of the more whimsical features in our products. I believe such inclusion provides a better chance of attracting new consumers to our hobby than if they were not included. Serious modelers often find such features insulting and toy-like. Yet the market isn't made up of serious modelers. In fact, serious modelers in every scale are a minority, yet manufacturers often are forced to kowtow to their requests or risk receiving intense criticism of their product releases. The challenge for today's manufacturer is producing products that can appeal to both the serious enthusiast and the casual fan. At M.T.H. we've long believed that Large Scale has quite a future and is the primary reason we began producing our RailKing One Gauge product line in 2002. While our One Gauge lineup doesn't yet encompass the huge variety of products we've produced in our O Gauge lineups, it does represent our fastest growing product line with most pieces selling through within a few months of their release. Certainly some of our success stems from the fact that our products are built to correct 1:32 dimensions, feature attractive pricing and come outfitted with an unmatched array of operating features. In reality, however, continued success in Large Scale will likely stem from two factors; an ever-growing selection of products from all of today's manufacturers and a large target market from which to attract new customers." |
 | Scott Polk
Vice President of Sales
Aristo-Craft |
| Q1: What is the future for Large Scale? |
| "Having just been in Large Scale for a few years, for me, I really think that it is up to the manufacturers. Don't get me wrong, the consumer is the most important part of any future, but as a manufacturer you need to keep on building new and exciting products to continue people's enjoyment in the hobby. I think the future is definitely strong from what I see at all of the Large Scale and other train shows. I am continually speaking to consumers. They are happy about the way that the hobby is going. Of course, we all have had some bumps along the way, but the future looks good. "For me, I definitely see the future being in the hands of the manufacturer. For us to continue to bring out the products that we are doing now provides a big part of the future. There is no slowing down and you have to keep moving as a manufacturer. From what I see the future is going to be strong. We are getting a good response from everyone. I believe that as long as the manufacturers come up with new and innovative products that the hobby will continue to grow. Without the manufacturers there can be no hobby. Product managers and others within the industry need to continue to come up with new ways to keep the consumer happy and excited about the hobby. A lot of those new and innovative ideas are definitely from the consumer. We get ideas from hobbyists all over the world for new products. Some of those ideas come into play and some get put on the list and perhaps get pulled out somewhere down the road. At Aristocraft we have a product "brain trust" that we meet with and discuss new products. Most manufacturers have new product lists for products three years out that they continue to work on. We get a lot of ideas from consumers. Many people give us ideas about what they would like to see and since they are the ones who buy the products, we listen to them. We have people who work at Aristocraft who are extreme hobbyists and they know what the market is looking for and we listen to them and talk about those ideas too when we are deciding what to develop. All of the manufactures are all on the same page when it comes to new ideas. They just go in different directions when it comes to developing the ideas. All of the manufacturers in the hobby today make high quality products. I think we all get our good ideas from the consumer. " I am high on the future. Of course, I work for Aristocraft, but I believe that the future is strong for all of us in Large Scale today." |
Q2: Who will the future customers be for Large Scale? | Fred Devine, Vice President of Sales | Accucraft |
| Q2: Who will the future customers be for Large Scale? |
| "As I mentioned, it will be the baby boomers who are moving out of HO and N and moving into Large Scale." |
| Lewis Polk, President | Aristo-Craft |
| Q2: Who will the future customers be for Large Scale? |
| "Well clearly it is going to be the entire family. This is the one hobby where we have more women in it than any other hobby in the model field. They love the buildings, the flowers, the figures and so forth. And this is the only hobby that the family can do together at home. If you are going out skiing, you go away. In tennis you go away. Golf, you go away. The garden railroading is a family hobby and you can do it at home. And so I think that family in general will get involved in doing this and we need to bring in the entire family and make it interesting". "We can do this by bringing more decorating inside the houses or structures in the garden. More beautiful flowers and the plants and the door prizes and more excitement running with radio control in the future. The kids love to do that. Put a Train Engineer control in their hand and it is like running a TV remote. They are just absolutely thrilled by it. And we are going to do more things with radio control that will interest youngsters as well. So it will be an entire family hobby. And that is how we are planning to push the company into the future." |
| Jon DeKeles, Publisher | Large Scale Online (LSOL.com) |
| Q2: Who will the future customers be for Large Scale? |
| "The future customer for Large Scale can be found in three different areas. First, there will be the general migration of people from smaller scales to Large Scale. This is a natural progression and is not something that we should depend apon. Every year the number of people that subscribe and read model train magazines drop. Therefore less people will be available for us to upgrade to Large Scale as each year passes. Second, there is a real need to keep the current people in Large Scale -- in Large Scale. We must not lose site of the fact that people are leaving Large Scale because of the increase in the cost of the product, and the difficulty they have in installing and maintaining a railroad that is outside. Manufacturers need to listen to the current installed base of users and take serious the questions of couplers, scale, and prototypical products that are reliable. Third, is the newbie. The person that has never considered a Large Scale train to run outside in their garden. They are everywhere. They are in garden clubs. They are in your local church. They are at the county fair. All it would take would be for each person in the Large Scale hobby to get one other person involved and you would double the hobby overnight. |
| Charles Ro, Jr., Owner | USA Trains |
| Q2: Who will the future customers be for Large Scale? |
| "You are going to see the smaller gauge people coming into Large Scale. They will come from the population who are already into trains. They are people who love trains. They are people who have indoor HO and N scale layouts and they want to go outdoors with their hobby. This is a family thing, with the wives and children. Large scale is a family scale. It is found outside rather than down in the basement where the traditional HO and N scalers are to be found. They are looking to have a model railroad in a different environment". "There are other people besides the HO and N scalers because the hobby is an outdoor hobby. Many people want their railroad outdoors so that other people can come visit and enjoy the trains outdoors. There are people that come into the hobby because they have seen the Large Scale trains in a mall exhibit. Because real trains have kind of disappeared to people, these exhibits will cause them to begin to think about and see real trains more. It is really hard to say what things will be like in 20 years because we can't know the total environment for people. It may be that trains will change and there will be more real trains found throughout the world. If that happens, people will see more trains and be more interested in them in the future. When I look at my store on a Saturday, it is filled up with a lot of people. There are a lot of kids coming in that are interested in trains. I think there are plenty of new people who are interested in the hobby. We just need to be more visible to more people. The Internet has made the hobby more visible. There are many things out there on eBay. The Internet has made it a worldwide environment for marketing our trains. On the down side, it has made it harder for the small hobby shops to compete. These stores are a bricks and mortar operation and that means there is a lot of overhead. That makes it difficult for the small stores to compete with the Internet sellers. Without the hobby shop it will be difficult for people to get help with their purchases after they buy it on the Internet. When something goes wrong with a purchase from Internet sales, who do you go to for fixing it? You can't go to the computer." |
| Tony Castellano, President | LGB of America, Inc. |
| Q2: Who will the future customers be for Large Scale? |
| The future customers, as I mentioned in the first question, can be all ages and all types of customers from the die hard collector to the hobbyist to the family that just wants to spend time together. The home improvement market is growing and more and more people are spending time in their gardens, enjoying the fruits of their labor. Many are adding landscaping and various types of ponds and water falls to their gardens and backyards. We will continue to have our core group of customers, but I think with more of the baby-boomers who are reaching retirement and have disposable income they can be our future customers. In addition we can attract many of the smaller scale customers to create the bigger is better atmosphere. Promoting the product to landscapers and using our product in various commercial applications is a way great way to expose large scale to the general public. The continuous World's Greatest Hobby shows over the last few years have exposed large scale to 1,000's of potential customers. This is the type of efforts we need to continue with. |
| Andy Edleman, Vice President of Marketing | M. T. H. Electric Trains |
| Q2: Who will the future customers be for Large Scale? |
| "Like the success the O Gauge market has enjoyed over the past fifteen years, success in Large Scale can occur as the marketplace identifies and attracts the support of an increasing consumer base. The most common demographic the entire model railroad industry targets are baby boom men, followed by their families. The baby boom market is huge, with more than 70 million consumers below retirement age. The appeal of a family-based hobby, traditional in its nature, can be a wonderful alternative to the fast-paced world we live in. With the inclusion of onboard technology in many of today's products, trains can appeal to both those who appreciate technology and those who prefer the simpler things in life. Model railroading helps build family bonds by connecting multiple generations of a family together. So, it's a pretty easy "sell" to consumers who appreciate the wholesomeness and family values our hobby embodies". "There are two keys to attracting these potential consumers. One is through exposure in venues they might not otherwise associate with model railroading. Exposure is often accidental in nature like those displays we see in malls from Thanksgiving to New Year's. In fact, holiday displays are probably the most obvious venue for inserting model trains into the consumer's consciousness. Some of the public holiday displays M.T.H. has sponsored over the past decade get exposed to hundreds of thousands of consumers during the months of November and December. The World's Greatest Hobby on Tour shows the past few years have also proven themselves to be some of the most effective public attraction vehicles our industry has seen in years, often garnering 30,000 attendees in a single weekend thanks to a burst of television advertising in the weeks leading up to the show. Purposely, these shows are generally centered around or just after the holidays, helping to foster the natural exposure of model trains to consumers well after the special, family-oriented holiday months of the year. "The second method is far simpler, much less expensive and relies on the consumer themselves i.e. word-of-mouth. Model railroad consumers are our hobby's most powerful promotional vehicle and as such can influence thousands of new consumers to give our hobby a try. For those with Large Scale layouts in their garden, a family event or neighborhood barbeque is a great way to introduce new customers to the fun and excitement of railroading. Many customers, friends and relatives may not even know about the hobby because they never got to see a layout in person. By inviting them over, you may just be creating a new model railroad fan. "These "accidental" discoveries of our hobby certainly introduce new consumers to today's model railroading industry. Additionally, large scale has an advantage over the other scales thanks to its connection to gardening. Not only does the gardening aspect extend the model train "season" well after the holidays have concluded, it often proves to be an excellent "hook" for the wives of model railroading men and gives large scale a much higher percentage of female participants than other scales. "But at M.T.H., we realize that simply targeting adult consumers and their families won't necessarily retain their children (and increasingly grandchildren) in the hobby if the product itself doesn't hold additional appeal to these younger, more technologically savvy participants. For that reason, we've long infused our products with a technology package (Proto-Sound 2.0) that brings model trains up to a similar level of other high tech gadgets today's younger consumers utilize in their daily lives. Not only is it important that today's model trains include features that make the products more realistic (synchronized puffing smoke, digital sound effects, command control functions, etc), but the trains need to include controllable features that can be customized by the user. Whether this means the train has the ability to play music while traveling around the garden as you enjoy an outdoor dinner (as M.T.H. products do) or can be reprogrammed with different sound effects (as M.T.H. products can) by simply visiting a website, it's important that the user feel that today's products can provide a level of interaction beyond simply making the train run in a big circle. After all, that can get kind of boring to the average customer". "Model railroading has a century of existence behind it. Many of today's consumers may have worked on the real railroads or had a family member in the past that did so. Many of today's consumers may have ridden trains as youngsters or lived near tracks that carried rail traffic past daily. Most of those experiences are from the past and younger customers, so vital to the hobby's future, will likely never share those same experiences. The attraction to the hobby for the younger customers may solely exist in their relationships with older family members who can share their memories via model trains. Thanks to technological innovations and natural associations (like the holidays and gardening), Large Scale growth amongst younger customers is far more likely today than in the past. To ensure that such growth continues, manufacturers must continue to infuse their products with features and functions that appeal to young and old alike. Such a commitment is the backbone of M.T.H.'s philosophy and gives us great confidence that the future of large scale is indeed bright." |
| Scott Polk, Vice President of Sales | Aristo-Craft |
| Q2: Who will the future customers be for Large Scale? |
| "That is the question that always comes up. What do we do about the children and getting them to stay interested in trains? They are the future, but how are we going to get them to give up video games and other things that they are interested in today? That is what we need to work on. I believe that the future customers are people my age (early 30's going into their 40's) who are just coming back into their childhood and want to start running trains again. These are definitely the future customers and all of the manufacturers need to find a way to keep that child enthused in trains throughout that period of their life. That is a tough thing. That is where trade shows come into play and possibly that is where we need to try to put together other sorts of groups where children can get into the hobby and continue to enjoy it. " |
| Marc Horovitz, Editor | Garden Railways Magazine |
| Q2: Who will the future customers be for Large Scale? |
| "In ten years our hobbyists will be much the same as today, though we hope there will be an influx of new customers. Kids are not getting interested in Large Scale. As far as attracting kids to our hobby, in realistic terms, it can only happen through family involvement, I think. And even then, the best that we can hope for is to plant a seed that will mature at a later date. "Kids are involved in computer games today. That, coupled with the fact that full-size railroads have largely vanished from public consciousness and the additional fact that our hobby is a rather sedate one that doesn't have a great deal of flash, doesn't provide a lot to attract kids in the same way that they were attracted when we were young. I think those in the hobby are doing as much as we can to expose the younger set to large-scale trains. If the hobby is to grow in the future, it will have to come from those younger folks in whom the seed has taken root. In any event, I think we're all in for an interesting ride." |
Q3: Is any of your advertising focused on the future? | Fred Devine, Vice President of Sales | Accucraft |
| Q3: Is any of your advertising focused on the future? |
| "Our advertising is focused on our new products with new innovations that we are bringing to the market in brass and plastic models and in the different scales in large scale. I think this is evidenced by the fact that whenever we come out with a new model, we improve it over the previous models we have released. So we are always learning. Our engineers are always coming up with new ideas to make better products." |
| Lewis Polk, President | Aristo-Craft |
| Q3: Is any of your advertising focused on the future? |
| "We are not currently doing any outreach at this particular time. We are advertising only where there are G Gauge people we know are reading the magazine, stories and websites and so forth. We do see where we will have to do this in the future. When we are ready we will reach out a little bit further. And I want everything in place. I want to make it even simpler to operate our products. It won't be too long." |
| Joe Freeman, Vice President of Sales | Bachmann Industries, Inc. |
| Q3: Is any of your advertising focused on the future? |
| "We really haven't been targeting specific age ranges or specifically for male or female. All of our advertising has been directly for new products. We have the hope that they will intrigue the model railroaders who want that new product. We are developing a better website because that is obviously the way of the future. We are developing a newsletter that will be on our website that will announce new products on a regular basis. What has happened over the past several years is that retailing has turned into a mail order Internet business. The average hobby shop, and there are three thousand of them today, and we sell to them in HO and other scales, just doesn't have the dollars to support a large inventory of all locomotives, cars and equipment. So the universe of retailers is down to six or seven people who now support the different manufacturers. And that is probably the negative. The problem that new consumers are having is where to find the stuff. They don't know about the St. Aubins of the world, the Trainworlds of the world, etc and that is what we are trying to do with our website. We will have links to the different retailers. But negative is that there is now a very small universe of these retailers and it is very competitive. But even with all of that, I am kind of enthusiastic and it still comes back to introducing new products." |
| Scott Polk, Vice President of Sales | Aristo-Craft |
| Q3: Is any of your advertising focused on the future? |
| "Right now all of our advertising is aimed at new products that are coming out within the year. We don't really do any targeting in our marketing. We don't really point towards children or towards a certain age group in our advertising. It is something that should be looked into. When a good idea for bringing children or a certain age group into the hobby is identified, then advertising might be geared towards that group, but right now we aren't doing anything like that. I have talked to many people in the industry about the idea of starting something aimed at children or younger people and everybody would love to be a part of something like that, it is just a matter of figuring out what should be done and coming up with the right plan. The TCA program for young kids has had some successes, but it is probably too early to tell about the outcome. TCA is such a large organization and they have trade shows all over the US. We go to a couple of them, but in Large Scale there are so few shows that it will be harder to do. But I definitely believe that it is something we should do. We do draw a lot of children to the shows, so why not set up some sort of program for them throughout the country. Perhaps they could participate through local hobby stores and with manufacturers. It could be done, it is just coming up with the right game plan and funding, of course. "Focusing on the long term is definitely the thing for me. Seeing how we can grow the industry. I know that a lot of other manufacturers have a lot of young people like me working for them and in the hobby. The future is definitely important for a lot of those young people. " |
| Jon DeKeles, Publisher | Large Scale Online (LSOL.com) |
| Q3: Is any of your advertising focused on the future? |
| "Yes. We target the Internet advertising with general informational sites like www.gardentrains.com. or www.howdogardentrainswork.com. We try to do radio talk shows that target gardeners. We also look for opportunities to write articles for trade publications that are related to outdoor gardens and ponds." |
| Tony Castellano, President | LGB of America, Inc. |
| Q3: Is any of your advertising focused on the future? |
| "We are constantly reviewing and adjusting our advertising and marketing efforts to reach as many potential customers as possible as well as to continue to advertise to our long time devoted customer base. Unfortunately we do not advertise as much as we should and as much as we need to. A focus has to be decided on which will be effective for our advertising future. Once we have a clear direction which way to proceed, we can only then advertise effectively and adjust our advertising for the future."
So we have heard from some of the industry leaders on their views on this issue. Now take a look at the photos I took at the Big Train Show.
On the second day, I stood at the entrance doors and took photos of the first two hundred people who came to the show. Although this is not a perfect sample of who is into Large Scale, it certainly gives you a feeling for the types of people who came to the show. Look at them and try to decide what they tell us about the future of Large Scale.
Watch them in a video here: The Faces of Large Scale Video, Click here Now that you have read what the leaders in our hobby think about the future and have looked at a sample of people who attended a large trade show for the hobby, what do you think? Take the poll and let us know your views.
| Jon DeKeles' Comment |
| You have a very fine idea! Trains in Lowes & Home Depot!I hope someone picks up on this. WOW! Think of it, all the people going into these stores. Why did I not think of this? |
| Pete Null - 08/26/2007 - 04:32 |
| Advertisement |
| I still think they are missing the boat by not advertiseing in "garden magazines " . But I'am sure they know more about advertiseing than I do . Just a thought |
| Dean Sleeper - 08/26/2007 - 04:52 |
| Reaching the young |
| I believe you manufacturers are missing the market. The idea of new and better products and advertising is obviously essential. But, you don't apeal to the young these areas if they don't go to the train shows or read train magazines. You need new approaches!!!My suggestion is based on my personal love to visit "real trains". I have gone to many from east to far west {Alaska}and have never seen large scale train exhibits at any of these locations. If I were a marketing director, I would have an attended, operating garden railroad at every major operating tourist railroad. Imagine the exposure of a youngster who is visiting Durango and seeing a steam train for the first time. "Gee, Dad, look, they have garden trains like this that we could have at home!!!" Thus exposure to a market that would pronanly never have gone to a "model train show"Inovative ideas such as Home Depot and Lowes and this approach exposes a whole new future market.I have other ideas but space is limited. Good luck to all. |
| Jack Burns -Desert & Rock Garden RR - 08/26/2007 - 08:51 |
| Future of Large Scale |
| Fantastic Article!!!Everyone had so many good ideas but there seems to be a tension between 'what can we do to keep the current GRRer happy', 'what can we do to pursuade the smaller scale hobbyist to become interested in large scale' and 'how do we attract new people into the hobby'. What the manufacturers do will most certainly affect the future...will they be able to balance these three areas successfully? What the clubs do will also affect the future..are they involved with community events to provide exposure? What current GRRers do can also affect the future..showing off their layouts to others, allowing kids to operate the trains and maybe bragging about their hobby on forums other than the GRR forums. The ideas I thought were the best: Advertising in Garden mags..being present at Garden shows (I bought my first engine at the Philly Flower Show).a presence at Landscapers and the garden areas of places like Lowes and Home Depot (not to mention their holiday displays)...having a 'fine scale' or 'more prototypical' line of trains..simplification such as offering battery operated/R/C engines (not everyone is electronically inclined to convert),an easier way to create/maintain the roadbed (without breaking the bank), availability of animation on the layout that can be initiated by a child pushing a button (like you see on the HO and O displays)..more building and figure options (kit form or built up)..more attention to the whimsical as well as the real (circus/carnival trains, things like the things at Fairplex..the Fairy barrel train is a good example). Clubs should (and many probably do) have displays at community events. Our Club has a display at the annual Toys for Tots train display (all scale) and last year we won the People's Choice Award for our display..so people do appreciate large scale. We also were at the Allentown Fair and hopefully will be at the A'Town Flower Show in the Spring. Of course cost will always be a problem. It is great to say it is a family hobby but young families may not have the disposable income to afford it..I know I couldn't until my kids were grown and on their own..so it is my grandkids who play. I put on trains that can take the inevitable derailments and the boys have to put them back on the track. Ah well JMHO Barb |
| Barbara Karkutt - 08/26/2007 - 09:36 |
| Getting Kids Involved |
| Our local club,the Washington Virginia Maryland Garden Railway Society, with the help of LGB, has provided an exceptional train display at national or local botanical gardens in the Washington DC area for the past several years. LGB has provided us with hand-outs that are both kid-oriented and appropriate for creating interest with the parent set. As a result of these efforts we have welcomed many families into the garden railway experience. Our next show will be at the Brookside Gardens in Wheaton Maryland during the month of December. Additionally the club holds outdoor shows throughout the year where kids can get eyeball to eyeball with Large Scale rolling stock. It is so much fun to watch them! |
| Dusty Suit - 08/26/2007 - 09:46 |
| commment |
| I think a Garden Railroad Club working with Home Depot & Lowes is a grand idea. They both have great How To's on the week end. A program could be set up,( How to build a simple & easy operating garden railroad in 6-8 weeks )use the stores lumber, ponds, brick pavers, garden items, bird house kits, etc. Make it fun and enjoyable for young and old alike. I think it would be a win for Family bonding, Garden Railroading, and the stores attracting a new breed of DIY customers. |
| Jack Butler - 08/26/2007 - 20:37 |
| Kids are involved |
| Thanks to our British friends, millions of kids have been exposed to and are 'hooked' on large scale railroading. They just don't know it. When kids see my trains run they usually say something like..."That's just like Thomas the Tank Engine!" With a little more 'local' exposure through mall shows, fairs and the local TV programs these kids would realize that they could partake 'first hand' so to speak. I have grandkids who layout Thomas tracks over the whole house that rival my outdoor pike. I'm sure they'll inherate my junk and someday build their own railroad. Like I said...They are hooked! |
| Phil Benedict - 08/27/2007 - 17:53 |
| Trains at Lowe's |
| The local Garden center had the Aristocraft little critter sets for maybe a year. They quit carrying them a few years back because they didn't "move well". I think that is a shame because Garden trains in a landscape center just seamed to be a perfect fit to me. Would be nice to see them at Lowe's, but I kinda doubt that will happen within the next 4-5 years. people tend to resist new unproven ideas :( |
| David A. Maynard - 08/28/2007 - 17:49 |
| Growing the Hobby |
| For a hobby to survive, it needs new blood every day. The article asked a lot of Manufacturers their opinion, but no one asked the clubs their opinion. This is where the loyal experienced GR enthusiasts meet the newbie and help them into the hobby. Manufacturers can help through simplification of operation, but clubs need to take these products to the public and show them how easy it is to become a Garden railroader. Lastly, the great thing about GR is that both spouses ( and when your lucky your kids/grandkids) can particpate equally. This is the real charm of GR. |
| Dave Marecek - 09/01/2007 - 21:40 |
| Thanks to Noel |
| Thanks Noel for a great article. You seemed to have gotten pretty good cooperation and responses. And, I wonder who you didn't hear from! LGB of America implied a couple years ago about exposing the hobby in new venues like garden centers (a great idea if garden centers will give it a chance. There is a space vs. draw to be proven.) This was about the time they participated in the Walt Disney World Flower and Garden Show at the permanent Germany pavilion garden train display. I wonder how successful it was since they haven't participated since. Have heard various reasons why, but can't verify. Totally agree with a number of responses to grow the hobby including reaching out to place ads in non-train publications. More importantly, for manufacturers to supply user friendly products - simple, ready-to-run, remote control, and battery operated. I also feel the impetus should be geared toward kids, families and older adults. Teens are probably not a viable demographic on their own. |
| Phill Lowe - 09/03/2007 - 05:50 |
| G Will Survive |
| When I was heavy into HO in the early 80?s this question was always around because the regulars were mostly middle-aged or older and some felt we needed more youth to keep it going. Well HO is still around and going strong so I think G-gauge will survive any lull in growth. Actually these questions are being asked in the larger riding scales and other hobbies with the attention of the youth being drawn to the electronic toys rather than some of the toys that require work to set up and maintain. As we get older we can appreciate things like the railroad hobby more and enjoy working with model trains. |
| Rick Henderson - 09/04/2007 - 17:16 |
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