Population Density

Population density is definitely going to have an effect on things. There are more larger cities close together in the US north-east than the mid-west, so a lot more people to draw on for train shows etc.

I would imagine that "per-capita" numbers of modelers across the country would be fairly even, but hard to measure.

Population density

I’d lean more towards population density. The San Francisco area supports several clubs and local hobby shops, despite short, mild winters, and a high popularity of “outdoorsy” hobbies. 

tornadoes

At least that's what someone told me when I asked why no basements in California.

 Basements are model railroad magnets.

 I know it is silly but I often wonder if there is some correlation. Oh yeah.....snow and ice. that factors in some too.

Our reader distribution

tornadoes?

  I think it's more earthquakes. Who wants to be under the hose when it falls in the hole?  :> )

  Seriously I think it's more of a climate thing, we'd rather be out in the sun than holed up in a basement,and being a mild climate we don't need under the house space, we can just add another garage for our toys instead. Additionally some places in the state basements don't fare well in the winter too. Locally we have very few houses with basements as the ground is shale type material with a layer of clay soil  so drainage is poor, any basement would need careful waterproofing to be usable.  ....DaveB

Major metropolitan areas

I wonder what the percentage

I wonder what the percentage of MRRs there are across the board? In other words how many modelers per 100,000 population. And then I wonder if that number is consistent across the population? So the population centers of the east would have more modelers because there are more people living there.

Per Capita Modelers

I guess I’d want to judge by per capita basis. City A might have 2,000,000 residents and say 10,000 modelers. City B might have 1,000,000 people but 7,000 modelers.  City A has more modelers but City B has a 40% higher per capita rate of modeling. Where would you say modeling is more popular? I don’t know myself, I’m just wondering.

Barry P

Where I live gets few if any

Where I live gets few if any tornado's so why are basements standard here?

Also I live in a very high population area and have had a hard time finding any decent hobby shops.

@jimfitch - Many reasons

Basements (or cellars) were often used to store foods where they could be kept cooler during the summer and kept from freezing during winter. Later one had to have a place to store coal and HUGE furnaces to keep the place warm. And then they became the norm (where possible).

How many modelers?

Another factor.

I think another factor in some of the western states is home size. I grew up in PA in a 3 story house with a basement. The house we rented when we moved to Nevada was a total of 800 sq. feet....on one floor, no upstairs or basement.

Our first house in Montana was 1000 sq. feet total on 2 floors. The house we bought and are in now has 2600 sq. ft. on 2 floors and I have a room 11 x 23 to work on before I start a layout. I thought about going the free-mo route, but the nearest major city is 2 hours away, and we are talking 8-12 hours to the more active areas east and west of here.

Regarding the basement issue...

My father was a civil engineer, who designed our house (in northern Ohio).  He did not want a basement.  But he said that the foundation had to be below the freeze line -- to avoid a shifting foundation due to freezing and thawing of soil.  So he designed a crawl space that was about 3 ft deep.  The only things we used it for was for our furnace and car tire storage.

So areas where the soil does not freeze, like much of the south and south-west, don't need basements.  I live in Alabama now, and very few houses here have have basements.

My experience

I've only lived in three places: Tallahassee, Florida; Aberdeen, Maryland, and the Puget Sound.

The first of these was a festering hole devoid of the hobby or any hobby shops even back when they were common. I left the hobby in utter disgust after some terrible experiences there. Not much 1:1 scale trains, either.

The Maryland area had lots of layouts and hobby shops, back before the internet made them all easier to find. I never went to op sessions in MD but talked with plenty of people in the hobby and got some neat tours of some of them. There was also one of the most impressive train shows I ever went to, at Timonium...

In the Pac NW, I got here when the internet was gaining ground so I have an idea of what's out there. This around the time I got back into the hobby after being out for well over a decade (though I'd go to model train stores and shows for 1:1 RR stuff and books). I watched many of the local hobby shops dry up right about the time I got back into the hobby but there are lots of great layouts. Lots of swap meet, too. There was one last weekend I couldn't make it to, but there's another in two weeks. 'tis the season!

Speaking of seasons, I have noticed that layouts get abandoned from around May to September, as that's the good weather time here. I suspect in the upper Midwest and northeast, it's similar.

I live in a Desert literally

I live in a Desert literally aka Model Railroad Desert.  I see stuff in the midwest and think, I want that here and would like to see that here.  People here are into more outdoor things and we have zero basements.  

Population density.

The other factor is that the areas with a larger population also had more different railroads. I live in the railroad epicenter of the US. Literally. 10 or more class 1 railroads were headquartered within 2-3 hours of where I live. 

We still have commuter railroads/transit systems in the large cities here. Amtrak runs high speed passenger service here. 

I feel like it’s human nature that we more or less reflect the situation of the prototype railroads. 

Good thoughts

Good thoughts being shared.  One I had not considered, that was mentioned, is the number of prototypical railroads in an area. 

I could see where the Chicago area for example could generate an interest in trains and model railroading given it’s  a major hub and has a long history with railroading.  

Joe

Chicago kid

I grew up on the Southside of Chicago and then the south suburbs, then North Central Wisconsin. I was chasing trains when I wasn’t golfing from age sixteen on when I got my driver license. Dad before the war, WW2, worked for PRR but not after. I believe model trains is an acquired taste. I knew lots of guys in my teens that liked the trains and have no modeling interests since. Basements, every house I have ever lived in has had one. My son lives in Austin, Texas and basements are rare there because of the soil. He has no interests in modeling anything and he grew up in a creative (mom) household. He flies drones for survey purposes.

Tom

Ah come on guys. Basements

Ah come on guys. Basements are for one purpose. That is, to collect water.

Jim  

I've live in the upper

I've live in the upper Midwest, WI, and basements a the norm.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  Some soil conditions are more conducive to basements than others.  In areas of high water table or clay soil, crawl spaces are better, or a split level type home, also called bi-level.  Walk in the front door, go up 6 steps to the main floor, down 6 steps to the lower level.

Those that think a basement is only for collecting water, must of had a bad experience in a poorly designed home, built in an area with soil not conducive to a deep foundation, like a basement.

Up here, we need a minimum foundation depth of 4', to get below the frost line.  In properly draining soil, basements are a "no-brainer"   Nice and dry, and usable space, year around.  Nice and cool, when it's 90+ outside.

It's where my lay out resides.

Mike.

2 Things Jim

You left out junk or excess stuff no one is willing to part with

I saw a lot of that while looking for a house, well this house. There were a few places that hadn't made a serious effort to start packing yet.

Jack