AHC( America's Hobby Center) - Who remembers it ?

[Dennis Moritz]

Amazing. HereÂ’’s no 103 comment on this thread. I grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. My friends and I rode our bikes up to 22nd and spent our allowance when we had enough. Flew control line wherever we were not chased.


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[Mark Mc]

Curtis,  I also found a Papillon kit a few years ago and put it in my build queue.  I plan to use it for templates to make three planes.  One built as it should be built, using 40 years of experience and modern equipment, other than the Bee engine.  One as an electric.  And one built exactly the way I built that first one, mistakes and all, just to see how it would've flown with an experienced pilot flying it.

Mark

[curtis mattikow]

Curtis,  I also found a Papillon kit a few years ago and put it in my build queue.  I plan to use it for templates to make three planes.  One built as it should be built, using 40 years of experience and modern equipment, other than the Bee engine.  One as an electric.  And one built exactly the way I built that first one, mistakes and all, just to see how it would've flown with an experienced pilot flying it.

Mark

Um.  Build ONE, and see if you want to do that same thing three times after you do the one!

[Gary Dowler]

My experience with AHC was via my dads Model Railroader magazines, which was also my primary hobby as a kid.

Gary

[curtis mattikow]

My experience with AHC was via my dads Model Railroader magazines, which was also my primary hobby as a kid.

Gary

Model Railroading was a MUCH bigger hobby, and AHC did MUCH more business with trains.  Like our model airplane hobby, that hobby is facing collapse, too.  Such is life.

[Andre Ming]

As a 50+ year model railroader, I would say "collapse" isn't quite the word. "Adjusting" (in some cases severe adjustment) is a better term.

The basic hobby of model railroading is still doing well. Segments of it isn't faring so well (sound like C/L woes?), and the outlook in those segments is a bit gloomy.

Doing well:

* HO scale. Still a very good market for all the more popular persuasions of modeling preferences. Good market for new products, as well as a good buyers market in the secondary market.

* N scale is still doing okay.

Not doing so well:

The 3-rail world -

* "Traditional" type 3-rail trains, of which the huge bulk of Postwar Lionel comprises, is in trouble. Simply put, the "Baby Boomers" that fueled the nostalgia-based market are aging out as well as passing on. The subsequent 3-rail generations do not have near the interest in Postwar, or traditional sized 3-rail trains. As Postwar/Traditional hobbyists die out, their sizable collections are being dumped on the market. Postwar price points are about 50% what they were some 10-15 years ago. Worse, there's no hope of a reversal in sight.

* "Scale" 3-rail is doing fair, but again, the secondary market is saturated with deceased modeler's collections. This poses a problem for the mfg-er's of 3-rail trains. The big players in 3-rail mfg-er's are trying to infiltrate the HO scale market, but that is a significant challenge given their "toy train" mindset.

There will be a model trains hobby into the foreseeable future (albeit smaller), but it will evolve as it always has since its conception well over 100 years ago.

The great thing about model railroading is there is no governmental interference that has negative impact on the way the hobbyist enjoys his hobby, or that will impact the "business" of model trains. (Model trains have yet to be perceived by our fool government as a terrorist  threat, nor can they be perceived as interfering with the prototype, as is the case with "flight patterns/no fly zones" in model aviation.)

Hope this helps.

Andre

[curtis mattikow]

As a 50+ year model railroader, I would say "collapse" isn't quite the word. "Adjusting" (in some cases severe adjustment) is a better term.

The basic hobby of model railroading is still doing well. Segments of it isn't faring so well (sound like C/L woes?), and the outlook in those segments is a bit gloomy.

Doing well:

* HO scale. Still a very good market for all the more popular persuasions of modeling preferences. Good market for new products, as well as a good buyers market in the secondary market.

* N scale is still doing okay.

Not doing so well:

The 3-rail world -

* "Traditional" type 3-rail trains, of which the huge bulk of Postwar Lionel comprises, is in trouble. Simply put, the "Baby Boomers" that fueled the nostalgia-based market are aging out as well as passing on. The subsequent 3-rail generations do not have near the interest in Postwar, or traditional sized 3-rail trains. As Postwar/Traditional hobbyists die out, their sizable collections are being dumped on the market. Postwar price points are about 50% what they were some 10-15 years ago. Worse, there's no hope of a reversal in sight.

* "Scale" 3-rail is doing fair, but again, the secondary market is saturated with deceased modeler's collections. This poses a problem for the mfg-er's of 3-rail trains. The big players in 3-rail mfg-er's are trying to infiltrate the HO scale market, but that is a significant challenge given their "toy train" mindset.

There will be a model trains hobby into the foreseeable future (albeit smaller), but it will evolve as it always has since its conception well over 100 years ago.

The great thing about model railroading is there is no governmental interference that has negative impact on the way the hobbyist enjoys his hobby, or that will impact the "business" of model trains. (Model trains have yet to be perceived by our fool government as a terrorist  threat, nor can they be perceived as interfering with the prototype, as is the case with "flight patterns/no fly zones" in model aviation.)

Hope this helps.

Andre

Good post, there.  More specific and accurate than mine.
This stuff goes in cycles...I'm heavily into restoring cars...a Model T in 1980 went for $25000, guys who had one when they were young came into their money, retired, and restored or bought them.  30 years on...those guys are all DEAD and their collections came onto the market, and now a Model T ain't worth squat.  Just like your Lionel trains.  Note that wartime or prewar model airplanes are dead, too.  What used to be a $150 Cleveland kit, well...now you are lucky to find a buyer at all.  Stuff from the Seventies is hot right now.  Same with cars.
Mind you...the cream always rises to the top, a Rolls Royce will always be a Rolls Royce, and worth more than a Ford...Sixties model airplanes are losing interest and value because those guys are dying, Seventies and Eighties stuff still have some interest.