Is the live steam hobby in decline?

[gwrdriver]

It's kinda interesting that the guy who started this thread is silent, or long gone. Despite dozens upon dozens of posts of help offered here he couldn't seem to handle machining mistakes on his Raritan.
Hopefully he'll bite the bullet and get back to it. Denny

Maybe, and maybe regrettably, he realized he didn't have the (Your List of what it takes here . .) to make a go of a steam loco, even a Raritan, and hung it up? Or maybe he was overwhelmed by the responses?

[milwiron]

He last posted on a FB group back in April asking the same questions hoping for better answers. Cars and dating are huge distractions for young people. I can remember (barely) having nothing else on my mind. Now all I think about is finding my 6" scale.
Denny

[Builder01]

I guess the "decline of the steam hobby" would also include the original poster! HA!

[David Powell]

In my experience there are three general groups involved in the " Steam " Hobby.
There are the " Lifers" who ,like myself were hooked , at an early age and who will literally steam into their graves.
Secondly there are those who, after having other,perhaps related hobbies, joined us. They may well be very successful but later move on to other, perhaps related hobbies.
Then finally we have the ' Wannabees" They can start at any age , they will talk a lot, have great ideas, maybe do a bit, but never seem to have the patience or time to complete a model and get it to run.

The really big question is" How can the rest of us encourage the latter two groups to become more involved"
Regards David Powell.

[Mike Walsh]

I guess the "decline of the steam hobby" would also include the original poster! HA!

I can't help but wonder if it's this type of thing that pushes newbies into the hobby - the expectation by others to move faster and not being as forgiving when they get overwhelmed at first etc etc.

I hope that isn't the case, but history has repeated itself... Folks start an engine and realize what a monstrous undertaking it is and stall out quickly.

[Builder01]

I don't expect anyone to move "faster". I expect newbies to be humble, versus arrogant, and to not ignore what the guys say, that have been there before. Ignoring the experience of others is disrespectful. This causes bad attitude in the old guys toward the new guys. I will not suffer fools and time wasters. (Not any more, been burned too many times by the guy that wants to build something)

If you are a new guy, put something together and bring it to your club track, you will get respect. Even if it is just bringing drawings and asking others what they think about it. Talking about building something is not the same as actually doing it.

[cbrew]

i will also add, just because of "old" guys have been there, done that does not make our way the only way.. if you are sharing your experience as gospel, that is not helping anyone.
I have a very specific way I approach machining/ welding, etc. this is backed up by my experience and my toolset I have to work with.
I do not get offended if someone asks for my input and they dismiss it. but i have taken a little joy is saying "told you so" after they screwup..

I really enjoy teaching someone how to think about the specific problem and coming up with a solution that fits within the toolset they have to work with..

[NP317]

CBrew:
Well said.
Working within their toolset, both machine and mental.
RussN

[rkcarguy]

i will also add, just because of "old" guys have been there, done that does not make our way the only way.. if you are sharing your experience as gospel, that is not helping anyone.
I have a very specific way I approach machining/ welding, etc. this is backed up by my experience and my toolset I have to work with.
I do not get offended if someone asks for my input and they dismiss it. but i have taken a little joy is saying "told you so" after they screwup..

I really enjoy teaching someone how to think about the specific problem and coming up with a solution that fits within the toolset they have to work with..

There is an argument for both sides of this. There are a lot of old timers in any hobby/industry that simply do something a certain way because "that's the way we've always done it". This is inacceptable to me in many cases when that's the ONLY excuse. If a bearing in a casing keeps failing, its time to try a different bearing or bore out the casing for a bigger one, for example. Technology advances and newer/better parts and ways to do things come to light. On the business side, you embrace it, or eventually your holdings are in the next months "Closed business equipment auction flyer".
I recently entered the large scale RR hobby. While new to the nuances of this hobby I've "sweat equity'd" my way though a dozen vehicles, boats, and motorcycles, fixing and improving things along the way and building up my own equipment and tools to do so along the way. I've broken, blown up, stripped, cross-threaded, over-torqued, melted, burned, shorted, seized, and done all kinds of things wrong, and in the process, learned how to do them right lol. That's the valuable experience that "old guys" bring to the table.

As far as the decline in the hobby, there is many issues for younger people. More and more are being forced into apartments as that is all they can afford, that means no workshop, no garage, no backyard, no acreage for their own track, no place to keep any trains, tools, metal working equipment, or extra vehicles.

[David Powell]

Someone who comes into the " Steam" hobby with experience in a related one( Antique car restoration, gunsmithing,small engine repair or similar) has a great leg up over a lad or lass who is without any related experience.
However, there is possibly a disadvantage in that they may have well established, pre conceived ideas and experiences from the previous hobby which are simply not applicable to steam and steam plants, although they worked admirably in the previous hobby.
These folk are sometimes harder to teach and slower to understand the needs of actually running steam plant than absolute beginners. with no previous related experience.
The hardest thing for some of them to grasp seems to me to be that no matter how well the plant is built, to run effectively the operator must pay continuous attention to running it. and strive to be able to predict its behaviour under varying circumstances, folk used to just turning a key and getting action are often overwhelmed by the need for constant attention most steamers need.
Regards David Powell.

[Russ Hanscom]

A comment reflecting back to the original posting. As a member of the Cumbers and Toltec RR, we were always concerned about our membership and its gentile decline. What we found after a little research, was that almost every activity, be it golf or RR or something else, was suffering the same decline. Maybe there are too many different activities competing for people's attention; dividing it up too much. People want to sample many without committing to any? Certainly instant media must have impact. Whoever can predict the future might profit from it.

[Mike Walsh]

A comment reflecting back to the original posting. As a member of the Cumbers and Toltec RR, we were always concerned about our membership and its gentile decline. What we found after a little research, was that almost every activity, be it golf or RR or something else, was suffering the same decline. Maybe there are too many different activities competing for people's attention; dividing it up too much. People want to sample many without committing to any? Certainly instant media must have impact. Whoever can predict the future might profit from it.

Man, there's a whole lot of truth to that!