As Others See Us

Matt Webb visited the Western Model Railway Club's show in Ruislip. Apart from some comments about the sadly typical poor running on some layouts, this quote struck me as interesting:

I was surprised not to see any futuristic trains. There was a small layout of Croydon Tramlink and a single layout which included diesel and electric era trains, but otherwise locomotives dominated. But where was the TGV, or a maglev? Perhaps this is simply because layouts with more points are more exciting, and futuristic, high speed trains don�t work like that.

So much for the 'public want to see kettles' attitude of some exhibition managers. This show did seem to have an excessive boiler bias, with just a single D&E layout mentioned.

It seems to me that the emphasis on historical modelling is very much a British thing. If the relative numbers of new models for different eras is anything to go by, German, Swiss and especially Japanese modellers emphasise the contemporary scene. Is it because those are countries where people still take pride in their railways, and see the present-day trains as something modern and exciting, rather than something mundane and boring?