Looks like google predicts the end of model trains

[sailormatlac]

It's funny how many people forget that hobbies are often the mirror image of what you see in reality... For people growing in the 50s, trains were everywhere... Then they slowly disappeared. What's the percentage of people travelling on trains in North America nowadays? I could name tens and tens of people around me that never stepped aboard one in their lifetime and some are 40 years old. When I was a kid, they was still some substantial freight traffic in my area and it made an incredible impression on me... Back then, it was still possible to guess what time it was when hearing a whistle... That kind of thing never happen in our tidy sleepy and disconnected suburbia. Trains aren't anymore, for many of us, a part of their daily life.

In an other hand, I must agree that things are slowly moving from reality to virtuality. If you just want to operate trains, you don't have to build a layout anymore. As for video games, since the late 80s, I always hear the same complains again and again. They said the same thing with movies a century ago... Maybe a lot of people waste their time in games. My question is would they really do something out of their hands without games? The issue isn't the game, but rather how they were educated. Looks like someone somewhere forgot it could be a good idea to show them they could do much more in life with their hands.

Also, maybe the hobby is skrinking, that's a fact. Does it really means it's dying? Would the entire hobby shut down, I would stop me to continue 'til the very end of my life.

;-)

Matt