Why Do You Think People Quit Model Railroading?

[Virginia Atlantic]

What, do you reckon, are the most common causes for why people who are interested enough to start up with this hobby, eventually quit it?

[wm3798]

I can only speculate, because I don't foresee this being a problem for me, but I would suspect that finding other pursuits more satisfying would be a legitimate reason.

Lee

[Kisatchie]

1st reason: Hurricane Katrina comes to mind  :'(.

2nd reason: models are becoming road-specific and cost lots more. If Katrina hadn't forced me out, todays prices would have.

[wcfn100]

For me, i will be the cost.  As a kit-basher and general tinkerer, when it gets the the point where if I make a mistake on a car it's going to cost me over $40 to replace, I may find a new direction.

Hopefully detail parts and kits will find their renaissance before that happens.

Jason

[jmlaboda]

Heartships -- hurricanes are just the start but you can add earthquakes or other natural disasters, divorce, a death in the family, job loss, forced retirement, disability, other interests, getting older... just to name a few reasons people stop modeling.

[Denver Road Doug]

I'll agree that the various hardships are probably number one on the list.  I've had about four or five in the past year and it's hampered my participation.  But in a lot of ways the hobby is helping me through them.  So it's kind of a backward Catch-22 I guess.  I'll admit I've been a little burned out lately, but not enough to quit entirely.

Other interests could slow things down for model railroading (primarily due to opportunity costs of time and money) but I don't see anything that would make me quit completely short of complete financial ruin or physical disability preventing me from participating.

One of the great things about the hobby is that it doesn't require any consistent level of participation so if you have to take a break it's not a huge deal.

[asarge]

Time or lack of time as much as anything.

[Dave V]

Too many waffles...

[TrainCat2]

Similar to Kiz, Hurricane Andrew destroyed my layout, ruined my brass collection and kept me out for 10 years. I found that multiple hobbies keeps MRR fresh and it never gets old.

I also think that beginners take on too much and get frustrated with many layout revisions. This hobby commands a great amount of skills in different disciplines and many newcomers do not take the time to learn about layout planning before blindly jumping in. Those that do their homework first or are truly bitten by the bug prevail and last a long time.

[ryourstone]

A full time job in the IT business. The standard 80-90 hour workweek this field has devolved into edges out almost everything else.

[Mr. G]

I got out for about 10 years and am struggling to get back in.  In my case, it was college and the military getting in the way, followed by struggling to start a regular career and household.  Model railroading is so time and money intensive.  The research consumes you even once the actual construction starts to eat away at your time.  Sometimes you simply hit a wall in either time or money.  When I tried to get back into it 5 years ago, my job was in the process of becoming intense.  Work days never ran less than 12 hours.  It was simply a no go.

As far as others' reasons, I guess it comes down to frustration, from what I've seen.  You get the time, money, and spare room lined up, and then you're faced with the enormous task of getting started.  You read a dozen back issues of MR and talk to the local frothers at the hobby shop and it's all too easy to get turned around and feel that it's hopeless.  MR is showing you amazing layouts that burn more electricity than a airport and then gives you spotty advice for laying an unsatisfying oval on a 4x8 sheet of plywood.  It's hard to filter out the real advice from the BS.  Factor in the maze that is DCC, bench work, and wiring in general and you've got a recipe for early burnout. 

I've tried to walk both my father, a friend, and uncle through it after they decided they wanted to try their hands.  I was too impatient, time-constrained and very likely poor as a teacher to really get them started.  What do you say when someone shows you a bizarre mix of equipment (mixed eras and even scales) and asks how to put it together?  The uncle is still trying, but he's still a bit overwhelmed and under-motivated.  Too many people seem to get skittish when you break out a dremel and a soldering iron.  You need to be a bit of a polymath to make a strong go of it. 

I'd also like to suggest, although it's my own bias, that MR and company often make the smaller scales seem too daunting and thus limit people to larger pikes in HO scale.  Starting on a door or a compact pre-fab may serve people much better. 

[Norm P]

I haven't quit, in fact, my interest in it has seen a resurgence the past couple of months, but I'm going so slowly no one but me could tell it's going anywhere--so if you asked anyone who knows me, they'd probably tell you I quit.

I can't seem to settle on a prototype to follow, and I don't want to freelance. Initially I was dead-set on modeling the late 80s to modern era, but lately the late fifties (just past the end of steam I guess) through early 70s have started to appeal to me. The only constant so far has been my desire for a gritty urban/industrial layout. That would probably mean a spaghetti bowl of spurs and switches, which along with zero knowledge of electrical work and DCC serves as a deterrent to me getting much done so far, so again, to someone on the outside looking in, it would appear I've quit. But I haven't.

Good luck translating that slaughter of English grammar.

[Walkercolt]

Many people try to bite off more than they can chew all at once. N-scale trackwork has to be perfect. The magazines, the forums, the "experts"(without layouts!) say "code 55 flex-track is the only way". They try it and can't make it work. Kato Unitrak or Atlas' new True-Track, or even the Bachmann EZ-Track(with all it's warts) are far better choices for the rank beginner who doesn't even know what kind of railroad he wants yet. The "standard" Bachmann engines and alot of Model Power stuff doesn't improve the situation. The "$20 engine" mind-set is hard to break.
When I used to do RC aircraft, I saw tons of "burn-out" back in the "bad-old days" of Cox engines and crummy(but expensive) radio equiptment on 27MHz where CBer's could crash your plane.
Economics (including divorce) are usually the least of the reasons that people lose interest in a hobby, but the now "normal" 60 hour work week leaves most people with no time to do much of anything.

[MrKLUKE]

.

[asciibaron]

i think many people get bored because they built a 4x8 or door based layout.  many of these "modelers" have zero interest in the prototype, rather, they are interested in the idea of trains and are looking for a way to keep from being idle.  once the layout is finished, they are finished.  it never was really about the trains.  they don't know the difference between a Baldwin RS-12 and an Alco RS-1, and they don't care.  they buy what they like and run the trains around endless loops.

a neighbor of mine a few years ago had built a layout in his basement.  it had three loops that were not connected.  he was happy to have 3 trains running and that fine by him.  we wasn't building a transportation system, he was playing with toy trains.

-steve