The Sociology of Model Railways

This is what I call a rant! The Sociology of Model Railroading (Link from Cold Spring Shops)

It's about the American scene, but a lot still seems familiar. I've generally avoided the British 'grotmeet' scene, but I haven't heard anything about it that contradicts this:

A Weberian, rationalistic approach to swap meets would assume that they are meant to be efficient local markets for second-hand merchandise. They would, for example, be a means for hobbyists or those leaving the hobby to liquidate unneeded supplies in a fast, informal way, without the potential heavily discounted effect they would see by trying to sell them back to a hobby shop. Some swap meet vendors are able to negotiate with heirs to purchase the model railroad assets of estates and then sell these assets at swap meets.

The rationalistic assumption would be that the consumer goes to a swap meet expecting to find a lower price for merchandise that she may find acceptable, though it may be outdated or in imperfect condition. One might also assume that a seller, finding price resistance to goods at a particular level, would be prepared to negotiate in order not to have to carry the goods back from a swap meet unsold.

A major factor that contradicts these rationalistic assumptions is the fact that many hobby goods of the type that are offered at swap meets have simply lost all economic value -- while hobbyists are fond of calling swap meet merchandise "junk", much -- probably a lot more than half -- of what appears at swap meets can't realistically be sold at any price. It is literally trash, kept from the landfill by the expectations of the putative sellers. Often it's dusty, broken remnants of merchandise that was already schlock when it was new in the 1970s or earlier. The effort to restore it to operation, if it's practical at all, is greater than the still-low cost of new, better-quality merchandise, and the original junk hasn't even got sentimental value.

I've also seen the dysfunctional clubs and egroups plagued with constant flamewars. But I've also been a member of clubs and egroups that don't suffer from those problems.

One thing in his rant I don't recognise at all is the description of the exhibition circuit, which is the major difference between the American and British railway modelling scenes.

In America (if magazines are anything to go by), the best layouts are huge, permanently installed basement-busters. Except for the occasional open day, the public never gets to see these layouts. Meanwhile, portable exhibition layouts revolve around modular layouts made up from disparate modules, sometimes with with ill-matching scenery and different standards of modelling.

The British scene is totally different. I believe this is a result of a combination of two factors, our smaller houses (without those gigantic basements), and our more compact geography. Here, many of the biggest and best detailed layouts are not permanent installations, but portable exhibition ones. Quite a few are too big for the owner to be able to set up and run the whole thing at home! As a result, it's only at public exhibitions that these layouts are ever set up and operated. Combine this with the fact that many British cities are only a couple of hours drive from a dozen other large cities, and you get a thriving exhibition scene, with a large number of high quality layouts, many of which have multiple public outings a year. For just about every model railway club, the highlight of the club's year is the annual show; all the better shows showcase not just the best of the club's own modelling, but many high quality visiting layouts as well. And for trade support, with a few exceptions (Doncaster?), the grotmeet junk dealers are conspicuous by their absence. Instead there are a lot of small cottage industry business selling their own products, often obscure items the average model shop doesn't stock.

Overall, I think the British model railway scene is in pretty good shape.