Just Sayin'... Wrote:
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> It was good. Most of the shows were interesting,
> though the crowd was down a bit, perhaps due to
> weather issues in NorCal.

I'm not so sure about the weather. I used to enjoy shows and attend them regularly. I saw Summerail (Eastern version of Winterail) as kind of the "Superbowl" of shows on my side of the Big River and looked forward to it.

Now, I have absolutely ZERO desire to attend anything, local or major. I was reflecting on this the other day and I believe the root cause may be that I actively participate on Flickr and Railpictures.net. I find by doing so, every day is like a show, and I'm somewhat burnt out (or maybe jaded is a better word?). But I will say everyone and their brother posting shots of MRL's "last days" became like beating a dead horse to me.

I also find at many of the local shows the presenters simply show the same things they have posted on Flickr for the past year. So, maybe the shows are only becoming appealing to an older generation who doesn't sit around looking at Flickr on their phones? I don't know. I'm middle of the road agewise; Not completely married to technology and mobile devices, but I do use them. But I don't have "an app for everything" by any means (nor do I want to).

I could see shows becoming a passing venue as younger generations do things differently. We already have a lot of fans who rarely go trackside. To them, sitting home and watching twenty different railcams around the world is much more exciting, and a screenshot of some incredible locomotive consist is just as satisfying as a slide in a Kodachrome box to the older generation. And I don't think you're going to find these fans sitting around in an auditorium when they could see the same thing on their phones, probably while watching the railcams.

Just one guy's opinion.