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Re: A train fan today.............
Author: David.Curlee
Date: 06-29-2017 - 14:37
Good or bad, I really do think the hobby is changing significantly.
1. The old 'front door' to being a railfan has been nailed shut. Hobby stores and book stores, like magazines and books, are going away. The internet has attracted a much wider audience but it's badly fragmented all over the place -- some people post here, some use Trainorders, Facebook, e-mail lists, but not necessarily all of them.
2. Photography has taken hold as the primary activity, more than it ever used to be, and at the cost of other interests within the hobby.
3. Railroadiana is dying off. Newer railfans do not collect timetables, rulebooks, lanterns, keys, locks, pins, or anything of that nature. I know from experience it's difficult to give that stuff away to younger railfans.
4. Railroad history. Are there any modern day railroad historians? Is anyone cataloging historical events from, say, 1990 to the present, with the intent of someday publishing the info? The trouble with the internet is what I alluded to earlier. Information is badly fragmented across many websites, which may or may not still be active. It's a somewhat scary thought when you realize that Trainorders.com houses in the forums 20 years of modern railroad history, and decades more of historical content. What if Trainorders suddenly went poof?
5. Nuts and bolts of railroading. Less and less railfans care about esoteric subjects that involve railroad operations or engineering, unless they once worked in these professions.
1. The old 'front door' to being a railfan has been nailed shut. Hobby stores and book stores, like magazines and books, are going away. The internet has attracted a much wider audience but it's badly fragmented all over the place -- some people post here, some use Trainorders, Facebook, e-mail lists, but not necessarily all of them.
2. Photography has taken hold as the primary activity, more than it ever used to be, and at the cost of other interests within the hobby.
3. Railroadiana is dying off. Newer railfans do not collect timetables, rulebooks, lanterns, keys, locks, pins, or anything of that nature. I know from experience it's difficult to give that stuff away to younger railfans.
4. Railroad history. Are there any modern day railroad historians? Is anyone cataloging historical events from, say, 1990 to the present, with the intent of someday publishing the info? The trouble with the internet is what I alluded to earlier. Information is badly fragmented across many websites, which may or may not still be active. It's a somewhat scary thought when you realize that Trainorders.com houses in the forums 20 years of modern railroad history, and decades more of historical content. What if Trainorders suddenly went poof?
5. Nuts and bolts of railroading. Less and less railfans care about esoteric subjects that involve railroad operations or engineering, unless they once worked in these professions.
