7 ms·

I think what drew people to model trains was the ability to create and automate your tracks. It's an interesting and fun thing to do, basically designing a syst

by lnrd 3y ago

I think what drew people to model trains was the ability to create and automate your tracks. It's an interesting and fun thing to do, basically designing a system and going trough all the small things needed to make it work. I can see how today this itch can be scratched by many different videogames (Factorio, just to give one example), while decades ago it was either model train or nothing much else. I think younger generations are drawn to cheaper and easier to access forms of entertainment that provide similar intellectual experience. It's a shame for the hobby, but I find it a very reasonable thing to happen.

jonathanlydall 3y ago
My thoughts too. When I was little my brothers and I played a lot together with Lego. Now we’re all over 40 and occasionally play on a heavily modded Minecraft server to scratch that itch. In many ways it’s so much more practical, essentially unlimited building materials with no real cost, no issue with physical space in the house, we can do it casually in the evenings while doing voice calls on Discord, no unpacking or packing up needed before or after. There are even great rail cart mods for those interested in track switching type activities. We make a point of doing in person LANs about every quarter, also for old times sake.
- fragmede 3y ago
  Some of my friends are even already doing the meet ups in VR.
jprete 3y ago
I think this is the best explanation. I myself spent enormous time on Factorio "model trains" and it was even better because my train decisions were always motivated by an external requirement in the game. Model trains by themselves feel a little more sterile in comparison because they're disconnected from the rest of the world.
lupusreal 3y ago
Honorable mention for OpenTTD
- justsomehnguy 3y ago
  I was going to mention it too. Though after billions of billions made in TT/OpenTTD and whatever imaginable railroad systems it lost most of it's magic for me. Every once in a while I install it, browse and add some mods (FISH of course) and... after I'm on +300% profit each year it starts to get boring.
  - FinnKuhn 3y ago
    Playing together with friends and with mods for different settings like Japan, Canada, etc. is what keeps the game interesting for me personally. It isn't about having a giant profit, but building interesting things.
  - lupusreal 3y ago
    Yeah, the economy is pretty easy to beat. I've found that using the cargodist option can spice it up a bit, it makes it a bit harder to print money using passenger lines. Nevertheless, the greatest challenge for me is fixing all my own past mistakes.
  - stevage 3y ago
    Yeah, the basic economy of TT was always disappointingly easy.
  - rrr_oh_man 3y ago
    Workers & Resources, bro
  - stuaxo 3y ago
    The multiplayer one on OpenTTD is a bit addictive, but each game takes about 3 hours, and the other players are very very good.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
shagie 3y ago
> I think what drew people to model trains was the ability to create and automate your tracks. The original home of many people who became hackers (old use of the word) was the TMRC at MIT. Tech Model Railroad Club - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Model_Railroad_Club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Model_Railroad_Club As told in Steven Levy's Hackers book, there were two groups in the TMRC. There was the group that went on train rides and did meticulous models on top of the track... and there was the systems and powers group that worked with wires and automation (from the telephone company) under the track. From the Wikipedia article... > The club was composed of several groups, including those who were interested in building and painting replicas of certain trains with historical and emotional values, those that wanted to do scenery and buildings, those that wanted to run trains on schedules, and those composing the "Signals and Power Subcommittee" who created the circuits that made the trains run. This last group would be among the ones who popularized the term "hacker" among many other slang terms, and who eventually moved on to computers and programming. > ... > At the club itself, a semi-automatic control system based on telephone relays was installed by the mid-1950s. It was called the ARRC (Automatic Railroad Running Computer). It could run a train over the entire set of track, in both directions, without manual intervention, throwing switches and powering tracks ahead of the train. A mainframe program was used to compute the path, and all modifications to the layout had to be compatible with this ability.
- euroderf 3y ago
  Nowadays there's GPL-licensed one-size-fits-all digital control software called RocRail. I haven't tried it myself but it looks good.
MPSimmons 3y ago
Factorio has definite model-railroad vibes. Including actual functioning train layouts. But nothing beats looking at a running model on a tabletop.
dylan604 3y ago
Seems to gloss over the physical space required to have a model train. A video game can come in many sizes from phones to consoles and is much more accessible and even portable. Growing up, we had a 4'x8' sheet of plywood covered in the fake grass and then decked out with structures, trees, people, cars, and all sorts of stuff. It was a lot of fun setting it up, building the models, and deciding on a track layout. Took weeks building it. It took days to get bored with it. For some reason, we thought it a good idea to tack down the tracks for better stability, but it made it a nightmare to rearrange the tracks. However, it stayed like that for years and from time to time as I got older would fire it up and quickly bore of it again.
- euroderf 3y ago
  > it made it a nightmare to rearrange the tracks. This is where sectional track is a godsend. Easy to rearrange before worrying about tacking it down. For example, Märklin C-track. Ballasted roadbed. Clicky connectors that stay connected. Metal bits for attaching power+control leads. And for tacking it all down, Homasote makes it easy to detach+reattach and deadens sound.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  > Took weeks building it. It took days to get bored with it. That's my experience as well. A guy I met in a store had inherited an absolutely massive Rokal set, a lesser known brand so there wasn't a lot of documentation about how it all worked. He asked me to get it all working. The whole installation on 8 full sized sheets of plywood had been cut up to move it into his basement, they'd cut a temporary hole in the floor to move the sheets in but all the wiring had been cut and there was zero documentation. It took many months to figure it all out and to get it connected to the point where it would all work reliably. But once that was done I think I looked at it for 30 minutes before moving on to something more interesting. I loved working on the set itself though, especially because I kept finding new details that had previously eluded me (such as working traffic lights!).
stevage 3y ago
Yes, and if you're really into the physical aspect, there are all kinds of robotics kits and lego and such that can give you that.
- neuronexmachina 3y ago
  There's also Lego trains: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/express-passenger-train-60337 https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/express-passenger-train-6... The sensors and engine can be controlled via Bluetooth Low Energy: https://github.com/topics/poweredup https://github.com/topics/poweredup

by lnrd 3y ago

jonathanlydall 3y ago

My thoughts too. When I was little my brothers and I played a lot together with Lego. Now we’re all over 40 and occasionally play on a heavily modded Minecraft server to scratch that itch. In many ways it’s so much more practical, essentially unlimited building materials with no real cost, no issue with physical space in the house, we can do it casually in the evenings while doing voice calls on Discord, no unpacking or packing up needed before or after. There are even great rail cart mods for those interested in track switching type activities. We make a point of doing in person LANs about every quarter, also for old times sake.

fragmede 3y ago
Some of my friends are even already doing the meet ups in VR.

jprete 3y ago

I think this is the best explanation. I myself spent enormous time on Factorio "model trains" and it was even better because my train decisions were always motivated by an external requirement in the game. Model trains by themselves feel a little more sterile in comparison because they're disconnected from the rest of the world.

lupusreal 3y ago

Honorable mention for OpenTTD

justsomehnguy 3y ago
I was going to mention it too. Though after billions of billions made in TT/OpenTTD and whatever imaginable railroad systems it lost most of it's magic for me. Every once in a while I install it, browse and add some mods (FISH of course) and... after I'm on +300% profit each year it starts to get boring.
- FinnKuhn 3y ago
  Playing together with friends and with mods for different settings like Japan, Canada, etc. is what keeps the game interesting for me personally. It isn't about having a giant profit, but building interesting things.
- lupusreal 3y ago
  Yeah, the economy is pretty easy to beat. I've found that using the cargodist option can spice it up a bit, it makes it a bit harder to print money using passenger lines. Nevertheless, the greatest challenge for me is fixing all my own past mistakes.
- stevage 3y ago
  Yeah, the basic economy of TT was always disappointingly easy.
- rrr_oh_man 3y ago
  Workers & Resources, bro
- stuaxo 3y ago
  The multiplayer one on OpenTTD is a bit addictive, but each game takes about 3 hours, and the other players are very very good.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

shagie 3y ago

> I think what drew people to model trains was the ability to create and automate your tracks. The original home of many people who became hackers (old use of the word) was the TMRC at MIT. Tech Model Railroad Club - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Model_Railroad_Club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Model_Railroad_Club As told in Steven Levy's Hackers book, there were two groups in the TMRC. There was the group that went on train rides and did meticulous models on top of the track... and there was the systems and powers group that worked with wires and automation (from the telephone company) under the track. From the Wikipedia article... > The club was composed of several groups, including those who were interested in building and painting replicas of certain trains with historical and emotional values, those that wanted to do scenery and buildings, those that wanted to run trains on schedules, and those composing the "Signals and Power Subcommittee" who created the circuits that made the trains run. This last group would be among the ones who popularized the term "hacker" among many other slang terms, and who eventually moved on to computers and programming. > ... > At the club itself, a semi-automatic control system based on telephone relays was installed by the mid-1950s. It was called the ARRC (Automatic Railroad Running Computer). It could run a train over the entire set of track, in both directions, without manual intervention, throwing switches and powering tracks ahead of the train. A mainframe program was used to compute the path, and all modifications to the layout had to be compatible with this ability.

euroderf 3y ago
Nowadays there's GPL-licensed one-size-fits-all digital control software called RocRail. I haven't tried it myself but it looks good.

MPSimmons 3y ago

Factorio has definite model-railroad vibes. Including actual functioning train layouts. But nothing beats looking at a running model on a tabletop.

dylan604 3y ago

Seems to gloss over the physical space required to have a model train. A video game can come in many sizes from phones to consoles and is much more accessible and even portable. Growing up, we had a 4'x8' sheet of plywood covered in the fake grass and then decked out with structures, trees, people, cars, and all sorts of stuff. It was a lot of fun setting it up, building the models, and deciding on a track layout. Took weeks building it. It took days to get bored with it. For some reason, we thought it a good idea to tack down the tracks for better stability, but it made it a nightmare to rearrange the tracks. However, it stayed like that for years and from time to time as I got older would fire it up and quickly bore of it again.

euroderf 3y ago
> it made it a nightmare to rearrange the tracks. This is where sectional track is a godsend. Easy to rearrange before worrying about tacking it down. For example, Märklin C-track. Ballasted roadbed. Clicky connectors that stay connected. Metal bits for attaching power+control leads. And for tacking it all down, Homasote makes it easy to detach+reattach and deadens sound.
jacquesm 3y ago
> Took weeks building it. It took days to get bored with it. That's my experience as well. A guy I met in a store had inherited an absolutely massive Rokal set, a lesser known brand so there wasn't a lot of documentation about how it all worked. He asked me to get it all working. The whole installation on 8 full sized sheets of plywood had been cut up to move it into his basement, they'd cut a temporary hole in the floor to move the sheets in but all the wiring had been cut and there was zero documentation. It took many months to figure it all out and to get it connected to the point where it would all work reliably. But once that was done I think I looked at it for 30 minutes before moving on to something more interesting. I loved working on the set itself though, especially because I kept finding new details that had previously eluded me (such as working traffic lights!).

stevage 3y ago

Yes, and if you're really into the physical aspect, there are all kinds of robotics kits and lego and such that can give you that.

neuronexmachina 3y ago
There's also Lego trains: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/express-passenger-train-60337 https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/express-passenger-train-6... The sensors and engine can be controlled via Bluetooth Low Energy: https://github.com/topics/poweredup https://github.com/topics/poweredup