The "sociology" of model railroading

[bikkuri bahn]

Don't know if anybody has seen this, but a very interesting, though admittedly overly long and rambling opinion piece on the social institutions and relationships of the model railroading hobby.  The author, John Bruce, apparently created some controversy in the model RR world (or rather the on-line model rr community) by publishing this piece.  I found the second half of the tract better than the first, especially the section about the American model railroad press and what the author believes are its shortcomings.  I find these opinion pieces on the hobby quite interesting, as I am a social scientist by education, if not trade.  Too often on the forums, any talk about the hobby relating to demographics, business decisions, and so forth are quashed by moderators, or by members touting the mantra- "stick to models!" or "it's just fun" (playing with my toys).

 

http://trainweb.org/lfnwfan/html/Sociology.htm

[CaptOblivious]

Thanks for this! I haven't read it yet, but I love these kinds of analyses!

[CaptOblivious]

Membership or participation in an e-mail group or forum can be a rewarding way to get information and experience good fellowship. But if we want to advance the status of the hobby, we need to be concerned with maintaining a high level of courtesy and mutual respect. We should withdraw immediately from groups that do not enforce a high standard of conduct on all members, and we should insist that our leadership maintain such standards. We have both the right and the responsibility to report anyone who sends unwanted, abusive e-mail to their ISP, and if the e-mail contains actual threats, to law enforcement. Hobby activities should not need to concern themselves with this kind of behavior.

 

Halfway through the article. Quite long, and surprisingly insightful. I like this guy.

 

Wonder if he's ever been to our forum…

[grumbeast]

I was hoping for more

 

I do enjoy listening to / reading peoples opinions, and while not a social scientist I am an Academic (recovering :)). But this was just the most irritating babble of someone who really seems to think an awful of himself.  I guess I shouldn't really criticize as my mind shut down out of sheer despair as I finished the section on the clergy (I loved his assumption that we are christian)

 

I've got to stop I don't want to rant

 

This forum is a fantastic community of diverse people who share a common interest, perhaps it is the fact that our shared interest lies outside our conventional cultural norms (for many of us) that makes us get along ( after all it takes more open mindedness to appreciate another culture)

 

I don't tend to think this much or deeply about our hobby, it's enough that I get a thrill when someones posts a pic of their work, or a video of train, or a request for help that I can address...

 

Graham 

[CaptOblivious]

Graham,

 

I admit I hadn't got to the bit about the clergy yet when I wrote that opinion above, and I do now clearly see a lot of that article as worthless ranting. A shame. Some bits are much better. The section on the NMRA is, although bitter, interesting, and the section on the model railroading press is quite a lot of history I didn't know. I think now that perhaps the piece is simply too long and too angry to effectively communicate his point, but I am nevertheless finding his analysis still insightful.

 

Except for that bit about the clergy. As a non-Christian, i was offended by it...

[Martijn Meerts]

There's a lot of modelers around on various forums who just try to show off, but never actually tell anyone how they do things. Or the people that think their brand and scale is the only "real" stuff. Marklinists tend to be really bad in that regard.

 

From what I can tell, most (possibly all?) people on the forum here are really open minded when it comes to various brands and scales. Of course there's the occasional discussion and bad personal experiences with certain brands etc, but we don't have flaming wars because someone really likes MicroAce for example, while someone else refuses to buy anything MicroAce. We also seem to be a generally much more helpful lot than other forums I've read. Could be it's because we're doing mainly Japanese, which isn't exactly mainstream stuff outside of Japan, and if that's the case, I'll stick to modeling Japanese for the foreseeable future =)

[to2leo]

What is different about this forum is that...

 

I think it is due to the fact that our interest lies beyond our own backyard and into other people's that are thousands of KMs away with a very different culture and customs.

 

It also doesn't hurt that many of us have lived Overseas, married someone from Overseas or were from Overseas too!

 

Again this long piece is from one's reflection with an US background and by no means an overview of the hobby in general.

[Kabutoni]

I did a speed-read (scanning) of the article and laughed a bit. It's not really of my business what other modellers do, aside from my fields of interest. Sounds maybe arrogant, but in the realm of Japanese modellers the atmosphere is really something different. Not so dusty and grey/brown, but more of a fresh and open minded touch (just like Graham said).

 

Next to that I tend to mingle in a bit with a certain Dutch narrow-gauge circle (OO9 society) who are also very warm hearted and open minded people on modelling. One acquaintance is Ted Polet. He has had a few articles featuring his layouts (e.g. Rae Bridge) in Continental Modeller, several Dutch publications on his name and so on. His main point is to make a great atmosphere on your layout and not so much showing off your stuff. This puts more of a smile on peoples face, rather then shock and awe. I really like this philosophy and try to persevere this approach on my trials in the modelling world. It seems a lot OO9 modellers (internationally) have these same thoughts (lots of reasons, probably one because a lot of creativity is involved) and it creates an atmosphere of harmony, rather then nerdyness on meetings, shows and the intarwebs.

 

Point being, model railroading and the philosophy around is IMO defined by the group and field of interest. Could we be that friendly group of customers in an a club, drinking beer and having a laugh, while all others are only interested in expensive cocktails and their hairdo?

[bikkuri bahn]

What is different about this forum is that...

 

I think it is due to the fact that our interest lies beyond our own backyard and into other people's that are thousands of KMs away with a very different culture and customs.

 

My feelings exactly to2leo.  I think the international nature of the forum members makes for a more open, less dogmatic environment.  Without getting into a rant, the US based online rr forums tend to be too narrowly focused  (diesels, heavy freight, our rr's are number one!, etc.), which is a reflection of the parochial nature of the hobby population and US culture in general.  Ironically (or perhaps naturally), the biggest contributors to international sections on US rr forums tend to be foreign based posters=preaching to the choir.

[cteno4]

having a heavy academic background myself (hopefully i recovered a while back) i have to agree with graham's opinion. there seemed to be some interesting thoughts as well as some lame ones here and there, but a lot of just rambling in between along with a lot of bits of facts thrown in all over the place. really not know what the piece wanted to be. its close to a small book in length. if he wanted to publish something this extensive then it should have had a lot more structure and editing to fit more concise ideas as well a delineation of background and opinion/thesis content. its also a mess of stream of consciousness writing.

 

ive been a member of a lot of mr related groups and forums over the years and seen the full spectrum of stuff occur and never fit much of a pattern to me. these beasts are pretty organic in nature so hard to fit hard rules to IMHO and depend a lot on their evolutions and communities. JRM is a good case in point compared to others.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[marknewton]

There's a lot of modelers around on various forums who just try to show off, but never actually tell anyone how they do things. Or the people that think their brand and scale is the only "real" stuff. Marklinists tend to be really bad in that regard.

 

LOL! Marklinists!

 

Martijn, that made my day!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

...One acquaintance is Ted Polet. He has had a few articles featuring his layouts (e.g. Rae Bridge) in Continental Modeller, several Dutch publications on his name and so on. His main point is to make a great atmosphere on your layout and not so much showing off your stuff.

 

Toni, you're not wrong about Ted Polet. I love his work. Rae Bridge and his other modelling is very inspiring.

 

I agree with the comments everbody has made so far about the friendly nature of JNS. Although I still belong to a couple of other forums, I find this is the only one I read and contribute to regularly, for those reasons described.

 

Haven't read the article yet, though!

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[Mudkip Orange]

This guy is a crank.

 

That said it was interesting to find out about some of the politics behind the scenes at the various magazines.

[cteno4]

judging from some of the guy's writings im not sure i would trust any of his facts or background materials.. he draws some large conclusions from little evidence and also seems to have his own thoughts that form his results rather than data he puts forward. in looking at it a second time i was struck by the rambling nature of the whole thing, trying to tie a whole bunch of random thoughts into some larger grand unification theory or conspiracy theory (very academic as graham might say...).

 

not sure what the usefulness of this whole thing is other than his thoughts on model railroading and a few random observations. important to him, but i dont see the usefulness to others or as good points to discuss particular issues well in this sort of presentation with everything sort of gummed up in a blob. would have done better by just focusing on one issue at a time and doing a clear point on just that issue sans any larger sociological structure and being more complete and rigorous on each. then they would have been good discussion points and perhaps then after doing a few some unifying thoughts/principals/rules/theories would might have floated up to then expound on and open to general discussion. this was throw a bunch of random stuff in a pot and boil it up and something will bubble up concept -- not the way you do science.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bikkuri bahn]

I think the title was used in a figurative manner, rather than to indicate a serious academic paper (which it is definitely not).