The article stated various ideas about how to show-off model railroads during open houses and train shows. I very much disagree with many of Mr. Fischer’s opinions. To be fair, Mr. Fischer did provide some good ideas for train shows, and his article was written quite well. I am afraid that Mr. Fischer is “dumbing down” the hobby of model railroading. He advocates running colorful trains, instead of realistic looking ones. He also advises against realistic operations such as his example of arranging a triple meet. He included several other comments like these as well. I see this as an insult to model railroading. Mr. Fischer is lowering the standards of the hobby in order to appeal to the general public.

I see many things in this country being dumbed down to the average people. I am sorry to see this country losing the quality it once had. Here, I will present a few examples. As a high school teacher, I have seen the quality of work being dumbed down for a long time. In the 1980’s to the present, there has been a move to integrate many special education students into the regular classrooms. The idea is that they will do the same work as the regular students, with some modifications. In actuality, the quality of entire schools are being dumbed down to help these lower level students succeed. Disney in another example of dumbing down. As soon as Michael Eisner took over as CEO, Disney was no longer concerned with producing quality movies and theme park attractions that took intelligence and thought to understand. Now Disney caters to the average general public, and has, as a result dumbed down considerably, and is producing junk. CNN news is stooping lower and lower in its attempt to appeal to the general public. What started as a quality news network is now entertainment news for the average or below average population. Newpapers have been dumbed down for a while. Try reading some newspaper articles published in the early 1900’s. They were designed for the educated, intelligent people to read. Now they have been dumbed down to the point that many elementary students can read them and understand them well.

I do not want to see my hobby be dumbed down to the general public. Each year, a local park in the Phoenix area where I live presents “Railfair.” It started out as a weekend when railroading enthusiasts meet and run trains, discuss trains, and learn about railroading in general. In the past several years, it has followed the way that Mr. Fischer suggests in his article. It has been dumbed down to the point that serious model railroaders rarely attend. Most of the people in attendance now are small children who like to watch the choo-choo go around and around. I will not bow down to operating a colorful train to make them happy. I do not want to attract the general public. I want to attract people interested in real model railroading.

If you are only interested in seeing a colorful choo-choo go around and around, then please find a different hobby. If you are interested in using timetables, waybills, weathering a freight car, creating realistic scenery, or any number of other things related to quality model railroading, then I welcome you to the hobby.

I would like to know some of your opinions.
Thank you

OK, I've had my say, and most importantly, if you don't have fun doing it your way, do it different or give it up!!!

I have nothing against attracting children and beginners to the hobby. I just think that we should not forget the quality aspects of the hobby as well.

Thirdrail, you have helped to prove my point. It is time that we quit trying to appeal to the masses and focus on the small amount of people more interested in the better qualities of model railroading. The problem is, we are creating the audience of small children and people with little interest in the hobby. People with higher levels of thinking in the hobby are beginning to quit coming to the shows, since the shows focus too much on the lower level audiences. We need to come back to when we created more train shows and other public performances for the more serious railroader.

Actually, a good teacher would never tailor his teaching to his audience. That would result in exactly what I am talking about here, dumbing down the classroom. A good teacher tailors his teaching to a level a little higher than his class.

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Elias Valley Railroad (N-scale) www.geocities.com/evrr

[This message has been edited by Konstantin (edited 11-01-2001).]

Thank you for showing an interest in my posts here.

I agree that everyone is right, depending on their priorities. I think a good show would offer displays with diverse levels of sophistication. Simple displays to show how to get started, and sophisticated displays to show what is possible. Having only the latter can be intimidating for a novice. Having only the former is uninspiring.

I am a newcomer to this, having bought my first train set (as an adult) just one year ago. It was a basic Life-Like set with two freight trains. I've since added track, two Athearn locomotives and two different sets of passenger cars. The latter because my main interest is in train travel, not freight.

I've had all kinds of fun running my trains under the Christmas tree, around the house, and now on a shelf around the upper perimeter of a room.

I truly admire the level of sophictication the serious model railroaders have developed. Maybe someday I will want to get into it to a similar degree, maybe not.
However, I think of my trains as toys, not small versions of the real thing. For now I like colorful trains, so I have no interest in weathering my rolling stock.

Someday, when I can make the space (or get a bigger house), I want to build a "Toyland" layout using toys for scenery. Things like Lego houses, erector set bridges, tinker toy windmills, candy cane forests, alphabet block retaining walls, etc. I expect I'll use traditional landscaping materials to tie it all together into something resembling Toontown. I expect I will incorporate a small switch yard and sidings so I can try out some of the more sophisticated maneuvers, lest I get tired of having the trains just go round and round.

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Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth.
-Mr. Toy

I think we'll all agree it's important that we MUST continue to attract the young people to our hobby -- for without them, the hobby will eventually wither, as lynn points out. They have so many other things to grab their attention nowadays ... when I was a kid, there was no TV, no hand-held video games, no Playstation -- so, model (or at that age, "toy") trains occupied a lot of my time and there was little to distract me. Not so today.

Unfortunately, I think we sometimes HAVE to bite our tongues and cater to the young just to get them attracted them to the hobby -- and that often means "dumbing down" the hobby to appeal to them. Bright colors, lots and lots of trains, the trains coming out of tunnels, and loud sound effects are part of that. I know, it's often illogical to a a real aficionado and it doesn't appeal to me either at this age -- but once we get their interest and they see how much FUN it can be (that's when we "hook em"), THEN we can move them on the more intelligent and thoughtful levels of the hobby -- as konstantin mentions in his post.

I guess I'm trying to say I feel strongly both ways -- we need the kids to keep the hobby growing, and we need to ensure they understand what "model railroading" can offer at all levels.

The two or more model railroad shows I participate in each year have such a wide range of scales and enthusiasts that everyone's tastes and interests seem to be covered. We usually have everything from G to Z, tin plate to super detailed. I believe many of us see value, interest, and fun in all of these, maybe not for yourself but certainly for others.

Are we 'dumbing down' the hobby by including such a wide range of scales, skills, and topics? I certainly don't think so. In fact, I believe we're showing that model railroading has incredible depth and breadth to accomodate almost anyone's interests.

Ron