New member

Hello all,

I am new member. I live in France, I am 58' old.

I am modeling american trains since 1977, in HO, HOn3, On3, and since 1987 Sn3. I like all scales, and all US trains, but I have a "little" preference for Colorado narrow gauge, since my first US travel in 1989. It is a love affair !

My English is approximate, be lenient with me !

 

 

Comments

mecovey's picture

Welcome

Hey glad you're here and your English is fine.

Mike

European model trains

Welcome to this forum,

 

Are there any toy train makers in France?    Or any European nation? I know of ACE, ETS, Marklin,LGB and Dapole are there any others out there?

I have a On30(On2 1/2) train and like it a lot. My main intrest is in American Flyer S gauge and in any O gauge trains.

 

If you like narrow gauge trains and enjoy a good book to read look for "Playing with trains" I can not remember the authors name it may have been Poesy but not sure. 

ChrisNH's picture

Welcome to the

Welcome to the Forum!

Regards,

 

Chris

“If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.”           My modest progress Blog

Welcome

Thank you Mike.

Welcome to the

Thank you Chris.

European model trains

 

When I was a kid, there were several manufacturers of trains in France. Unfortunately, children today are no longer interested in miniature train. (I have two sons and two grandson who does not interested at all!) There are more than a manufacturer industrial Jouef, but that is part of a Italian group . As against, there are many craftsmen who produce beautiful things.
In Germany, there are still manufacturers: Märklin, Fleischmann, Liliput, Roco, etc ... But they also have difficulties because of declining interest from young people for the miniature train.
Period !...

WOW, Kids here are more into

WOW,

Kids here are more into video games as well, Yet the hobby is alive and well among young adults and retired people. Part of the problem here is marketing is aimed at collectors and older people where as in the 1950's marketing was aimed at the kids.

 

 

Marketing aimed at the kids

The problem isn't one of marketing but of being able to get the stuff.

When most of us were kids we could feed our hobby apetites by going t the local hobby shop which was usually only a matter of a few blocks a way. We could easily get there and we didn't require parental supervision or transportation to do it. So we could buy what we wanted and could afford.

Today, things are very different. Hobby shops are fast disappearing thing. And if the do exist, they are usually in shopping area that is only accessible by car and that means one has to convince Mom/Dad/sibling/Grandparent to take the kids there. Buying stuff also requires a certain amount of money that kids may not have today aside from getting the parent/grandparent/aunt/uncle to pay for it. This is at best proplematical because many adults feel that anything spent on what they see as toys is a waste of money that could be better spent on other stuff.

The other problem is that once the kid earns enough money to support a hobby he is usually distracted by such things as girls, cars and the business of life.

 

This is no secret to any of us because we've probaly been there, done that and have the T Shirt.

Now add to that the fact that markiting is an expensive item that most hobby companies can't afford unless it is targeted at a market segment that is known to be willing to buy what is being marketed and you get the idea that the marketing is aimed at us and not our children or grandchildren.

Irv

joef's picture

One thing everybody fails to account for

One thing everybody seems to fail to account for in the lack of hobbyists among the 20 and 30 year olds today is the fact the demographics also show the younger generation (Generation X) is also MUCH SMALLER than the Baby Boomers.

If the market is much smaller, you sell less (DUH).

However, the good news is the next generation after that - Generation Y, the oldest of which is just now entering their 20s - is already LARGER than the baby boomers (that's right LARGER). This means the sales of train sets and so on should be on the rise again - and if you check out things like this Reuter's story, that's just what we're seeing.

If the market is much larger, you start selling more (again, DUH).

There are other factors as well, but I don't think they apply nearly as much as the sheer sizes of these markets.

And with the internet, the train hobby is poised to be very available to the Gen Yer's, who already are showing they are conspicuous consumers - plus mom, dad, grandma, and grandpa tend to shower them with goodies - creating even more conspicuous consumption around Gen Y.

Joe Fugate​
Publisher, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine

Joe Fugate's HO Siskiyou Line

Read my blog

joef's picture

One more thought on marketing trains

I find it interesting to see all the attempts to explain the sales or lack of sales of trains to the various generations.

Yet no one seems to be taking into account the size of each market in terms of total heads. Let me put it this way ...

Let's say you have these groups:

Group A: 200 people

Group B: 100 people

Group C: 250 people

Let's also say you sell train stuff and you market your goods to each of the three groups. Which group are you going to sell the most to? Probably group C the most, then group A, and you will sell the least to group B.

Think of Group A as the Baby Boomers, Group B as Generation X, and Group C as Generation Y. The only wrinkle in my explanation is group C is mostly little kids right now without a lot of money, but mom and dad are from group B, and grandma and grandpa are from group A - and they DO have money ... so this means the sales will probably be more like: group A the most, group C next, and then group B.

But the good news is as group C grows up, they will start buying more train stuff. The fact they are LARGER than group A means they could end up buying MORE than group A, all other things being equal.

What I like is even in things like the Reuter's story on the increase in train set sales, everyone want's to explain the increase or decrease on marketing savvy - when in fact it could have nothing to do with that! It most likely is just the market's larger - but then we couldn't beat our chests as much, could we?

Joe Fugate​
Publisher, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine

Joe Fugate's HO Siskiyou Line

Read my blog


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