Quote:
Originally Posted by Seeb
Chris...could you ellaborate a little.
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Toy train guys are after the sort of things they had when they were a child. Stuff like Lionell and American Flyer. The larger sized trains with 3 rails if you remember that. There were all sorts of accessories you could buy seperate to make your trains do more and interact with the children.
Scale model railroaders want to make thier trains look like the real thing. And not just the trains. The citys, towns, mountains, rivers, etc. They are after a minature world that looks real. Most modelers will also take thier locomotives and rail cars out of the package brand new and paint rust, soot and dirt effects onto the fresh paint to make them look as if they have been out in the elements for several years. Plus they will even tag thier cars with grafitti. Afterall, there isnt a whole lot of real life railroad cars or locomotives that arent dirty or rusty. Even brand new stuff gets grime on it after a few days.
They even go as far as to operate like the real thing with industries and businesses on thier layouts with comodities that are served by a rail road. Passenger train schedules. They use time tables just like the real railroads runs thier trains across the continent.
Also, around the early 90s. Computers have finally entered the hobby in a big way and now instead of controlling the polarity of the track. You are controlling the locomotives. In the old days, you either moved forward or backward and if you had 2 locomotives on the same track. They both either moved forward or backwards. Now, locomotives are available with a micro chip inside that allows you to operate it individually from the rest of the locomotives no matter where the others are. For the first time since the old days, actual head on, or any sort of train accident is potential now. These type of systems require a system to operate the trains instead of the old transformers that connect to the track though. As its a computerized system that you connect to the tracks. Instead of the old small transformer box like in the old day.
Dont get me started on the hot new thing the last few years. Sound equipped locomotives. Companies are using professional sound equipment and recording the real locomotives to use for sound in the same make of minature locomotives. Right down to the idle sounds, horns, air brakes, etc.
Just a few pics I had saved to kind of show what its all about. This is not my work personally.
