Quoted from too-many-pins:Unlike the pinball hobby the model railroad hobby is slowly dying and has been for the past 20 plus years. Kids today don't care about toy trains and us old farts are dying off so without "young blood" no one wants our old "junk".
There's a bit of truth to your statement but it's more nuanced than that. Someone else compared "Lionel" trains to "Woodrail / EM" pins and that's a better comparison.
There *is* a steady - maybe even surprising - amount of younger blood in the model railroad hobby. But as with all generations, that blood's affections mostly ties to what it sees. Today's 20- and 30-somethings have no idea what an F Unit is and likely have never seen one, say nothing of a random steam locomotive. Just as most older folks couldn't care less for a GEVO or SD70ACe - but guess what sells the most these days, versus the trains "you can't give away"?
IMO the biggest challenge to model railroading's appeal is the severely limited relevance railroads themselves have today. Tens of thousands of miles of rail have been removed in the last 30 years; mergers have consolidated once-proud regional institutions into alphabet soup; inspiring paint schemes and logos of the past are buried under rust and graffiti while new cars are monochrome with few markings at all. 9/11 turned formerly accommodating and friendly facilities into veritable police state. Railroading is not nearly as broadly inspiring as it once was. My kids do not and never could forge the same affection I once did. It is literally impossible.
Couple that to model railroading's own historic production glut: everything made in the last 50+ years will always be available. But more is always made. And much like today's pinball enthusiasts craving "deeper games with more mechs and/or flow", today's modelers want hyper-realistic detail that was literally infeasible 20 years ago, let alone 50. So the market for "Lionel" and similar has crashed and probably won't ever come back to previous levels. Vintage HO and N and other stuff will mostly suffer the same fate. Yet, truly high-end stuff tends to hold its value - just like high-end pinball machines.
Compared to pinball, model trains are a mass-market consumer commodity much cheaper to buy and easier to store. And the hobby fractures into so many sub-interests and attendant cultures that there's not really a cohesive "social whole", and the numbers participating in any sub-interest aren't always super viable on a regional basis. Whereas pinball is a bit more cohesive, socially. And more scarce. So supply / demand works more in its favor today.
Trains are not a hobby for the weak that's for sure. But they're a rewarding niche all the same for those who "get" its unique blend of tangible technical and artistic skill with creative reign and limitless objectives.
Heh, I gave Skip a break from "too many words" lol. I'll shaddap now.
Happy Rails!