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there a couple of things ive noticed


Jimbo

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some things I've noticed,,, Granted I'm new at all this,, The Japanese people all seem to love trains! an cameras!!  after watching a few vids  Ive found they seem to love taken pics of trains or anything else!! very cool, reminds me of the Yamaha engineers that I met years ago, very polite very nice, taken pictures of the snow in Vermont ,, an talking with us through a interrupter which was interesting,,   I have seen a lot of vids an such on you tube about how to"s      an have been surprised at the amount of set ups are on the floor?? not really much as far as lay outs,,?? space,, time wise,,??  don't know??  An then some of them make mine look like something a second grader made lol,,oh my,,    A lot of you people in this forum do some amazing work!!  I only wish that I could get my hands to do what my mind is picturing,,   I have found out that ballasting is not what I like,, after having to change things its a pain!! an gets into my points!! an such,,  The rest is fun!! Im a where that my layout is simple,,  an not really planned out, ha more like free style you could say,,, Its all fun an games, an I love seeing what everyone is doing!!   Thank 

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Generally speaking, i have observed that the more influence the railways have or had over a country's society, culture and development equals the more railfans.

 

Countries like the United Kingdom, United States, Russia (plus former Soviet "influence area") and Japan, where railways played an important role in shaping the country itself, we could say, have an "higher percentage" of railfans than countries like Greece, Brazil, Norway or South Korea, where railways played a limited role and railfans are few.

Edited by Socimi
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1 minute ago, Socimi said:

Generally speaking, i have observed that the more influence the railways have or had over a country's society, culture and development equals the more railfans.

 

Countries like the United Kingdom, United States, Russia and Japan, where railways played an important role in shaping the country itself, we could say, have an "higher percentage" of railfans than countries like Greece, Brazil, Norway or South Korea, where railways played a limited role and railfans are few.

true,, where I grew up trains were every where,, but now I might see one train a week,,(local) The main line which it 10 miles away Has two freights an two Amtrak runs a day,

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3 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

true,, where I grew up trains were every where,, but now I might see one train a week,,(local) The main line which it 10 miles away Has two freights an two Amtrak runs a day,

 

 I think it's not about quantity, but rather "how much prominent is the "train" in one's country culture" that determines an higher percentage of railfans than other countries.

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Here in Japan it seems a number of factors work together to create and maintain the large group of railfans. The very existence the large rail related fan industry means that it is easy to attract new members. For example, on TV, Tamori, a popular TV host is a railfan and he regularly devotes an episode of his late night show to focus on some railway topic. One episode a number of years ago focused on the origin of the Ginza Line,  and near Akihabara hunted down an obscure predecessor Tōkyō Chika Tetsudō manhole cover. His popularity can often take advantage of and grow interests in all things trains with his audience. If you are a young child, the toys and children books are a natural step to becoming a railfan. My 5 year old student is quite knowledgeable about trains when I showed him a photo of a Shizuoka Shimizu Line train, then he knew what I was talking about. I've also seen mothers with baby carriages and fathers carrying toddlers stopping to look at a passing train. For some mothers I think that it is better than TV as a distraction. I've seen mothers spend about 10-15 minutes with their child watching trains go by. I'm sure that they do this regularly. Nursery teachers with their carts with 2-4 year olds will make a stop near a train line as they make their daily walk about. Even if you are not near a rail line it can be as near as a local bookstore with their 4 - 7 magazines, or the various travel by rail TV programs or its incorporation into manga or regular dramas or rail related sections in magazines. There are stamp rallies where you visit a station to stamp a logo on your rally sheet. The JRE Pokemon Stamp Rally is most popular here in Tokyo with boys AND girls. Interest in trains seems to be gender neutral (with toys and at events) until some time during primary school, but young women can often be seen snapping cell phone photos of unusual trains. 

It is a big business in Japan that has not been duplicated in the US or England, I believe. I think that it is a smaller niche there. 

My two cents. 

 

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In Germany model railroading was a big thing in the times after war, during the Wirtschafswunder and the 60‘s but nowadays people who are attracted to (model) trains are mostly kinda creepy, not very friendly and usually big know-it-alls 😄

For children over here it‘s a great thing tho since we have a wide range of (wooden) toys around trains, lots of museums and a big train infrastructure over here. The issue is to transition this affection through teen years as that‘s a time where such hobbies sometimes are the reason for being laughed at, which is something I also sometimes had to deal with and it makes you think twice mentioning or admitting that you‘re into this stuff even later in your life.

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16 hours ago, roadstar_na6 said:

In Germany model railroading was a big thing in the times after war, during the Wirtschafswunder and the 60‘s but nowadays people who are attracted to (model) trains are mostly kinda creepy, not very friendly and usually big know-it-alls 😄

For children over here it‘s a great thing tho since we have a wide range of (wooden) toys around trains, lots of museums and a big train infrastructure over here. The issue is to transition this affection through teen years as that‘s a time where such hobbies sometimes are the reason for being laughed at, which is something I also sometimes had to deal with and it makes you think twice mentioning or admitting that you‘re into this stuff even later in your life.

true when my brother an I were young we both got HO train sets, granted very basic,, we had to share the "train table" his on one side an mine on the other,, lasted a few years But its always been something in the back of my mind that I wanted to do again, besides it gives me something to do in the winter time here!!

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