Biggest model railway forums

[How about a Dictator Loco Class?]

Does anyone know what the biggest model railway/model railroad forums are in order?

 

And where does rmweb come in the list?

 

Surely rmweb is the biggest and best in the UK (I Know it's used internationally obviously) but is it in the world's top 3 biggest if not 1st or second?

 

Just out of interest. Most rival forums have much fewer members don't look as good and have much less content if I'm not mistaken.

 

Rob

[BoD]

Rival forums?

 

It isn't really a competition is it?

Edited April 11, 2018 by BoD

[Prometheus]

I'm not sure that you can compare the various forums that easily: chalk and cheese really as each has its own distinct personality and purpose. There are also invitation-only forums that do not receive publicity because they are private.

 

I'll not mention it by name but there is one forum that I particularly dislike for its members' habit of regularly not acknowledging advice or help after it has been requested. It's just appalling manners, particularly when one has gone to the trouble of posting photographs for them or providing links. It's not one of the two that normally spring to mind when the subject of model railway forums come up though.

 

Tony

[tomparryharry]

I'm sure a bit of innocent googling will answer that question.

 

As an aside, what will you do when you find the largest forum?

 

Are there taxation implications?

 

Cheers,

 

Ian.

[Talltim]

I've tried various US forums as I model US and RMweb seems to have far more traffic than them. The Model Railroad Hobbyist forum seems among the biggest.

I suspect there may be big German and Japanese ones, but they will be in German and Japanese and thus unintelligable to me!

[woodenhead]

I must admit, I have been wondering myself if there is another forum out there that is less restricted than RMWeb,

 

This site only caters for people with modelling interests between T and Gauge 1, RTR to exquisite handbuilt models, DC or DCC and box files to epic sprawling scenic wonders. 

 

And when was the last time a thread opened on one topic and became an enthralling debate about something completely different that took up pages and pages of content.

[jonny777]

Rival forums?

 

It isn't really a competition is it?

 

 

Most things seem to have been reduced to a competition these days. 

[Kris]

Rival forums?

 

 

I don't know, there are some very childish comments made about RMweb on other forums. 

Edited April 12, 2018 by Kris

[LNER4479]

http://www.h0-modellbahnforum.de/

 

This ones quite big. How good's yer Deutsch? From what I can make out, the grouping of topics looks remarkably like this forum...

Edited April 12, 2018 by LNER4479

[Guest]

I don't know, there are some very childish comments made about RMweb on other forums. 

 

...quite often posted by ex-RMWebbers who have left this forum after a mega "toys-exit-pram-at-high-velocity" moment. Some of the venom is rather amusing.

[Andy Y]

To try and put some specifics against this I've got some figures from alexa.com, Amazon's marketing tool which provides comparative rankings for sites based on traffic levels. It's been quite a while since I last looked at the data, I used to say that we came third amongst sites within our interest area after Model Railroader and Kato but Kato seems to have dropped a bit and the differential between RMweb and Model Railroader is not as large as it was - but it isn't a contest, obviously they are two different interests geographically. Trains.com isn't just a forum-led site as it's more about their publishing as a whole so it's not even comparing pears and pears.

 

Anyway, here's a list of some sites with their worldwide ranking figure (toy trains are not as popular as cats with hats and stuff).

 

Trains.com (Model Railroader) 60122

RMweb.co.uk 91012

Hattons.co.uk 111852

model-railroad-hobbyist.com 135652

Walthers.com 142048

Hornby.com 163060

Bachmanntrains.com (USA) 206711

Katomodels.com 223018

Bachmann.co.uk 585064

 

If you want to look at figures for other sites it's easy enough with alexa.com and there may be some railway interest ones I've never thought of.

[brack]

I'd query the conflating of biggest with best when discussing forums. I'm sure a lot of people are members of several and which is best is going to be a rather subjective matter depending on their interests and who the other members of each are.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

You mean there are others?     

 

At least RMweb has the same number as a decent class of electric loco. Pity Walthers has a "Pacer" number.....

Edited April 12, 2018 by Peter Kazmierczak

[Nearholmer]

The only other one I use is Classic 0 Gauge, which is tiny, and now that a massive, years long, and very, very bitter, flame war has subsided, extremely friendly, with a very high percentage of members knowing one another face-to-face. Intimate is possibly the right word.

 

I hinted a few times during the flame war that it might be better folding to become a sub-set of RMWeb, there already being quite an overlap of members with 'collectable//vintage' here, but that simply highlighted that some people are terrified of RMWeb.

 

They perceive that they will be beaten-up by sneering finescalers, have to read eight million posts a day to find the three threads that interest them, or get involved in flame wars.

 

In short, there is a place for big, and a place for small, some people shy away from big.

[Barry O]

Is this a bit of "do my research for me as I may want to do a bit of using a forum as a way of getting free advertising"? or am I being too cynical?

 

Baz

[kevinlms]

You mean there are others?     

 

At least RMweb has the same number as a decent class of electric loco. Pity Walthers has a "Pacer" number.....

Regarding Bachmann UK. That assumes BR built an awful lot of Class 58s!

[Allegheny1600]

To try and put some specifics against this I've got some figures from alexa.com, Amazon's marketing tool which provides comparative rankings for sites based on traffic levels. It's been quite a while since I last looked at the data, I used to say that we came third amongst sites within our interest area after Model Railroader and Kato but Kato seems to have dropped a bit and the differential between RMweb and Model Railroader is not as large as it was - but it isn't a contest, obviously they are two different interests geographically. Trains.com isn't just a forum-led site as it's more about their publishing as a whole so it's not even comparing pears and pears.

 

Anyway, here's a list of some sites with their worldwide ranking figure (toy trains are not as popular as cats with hats and stuff).

 

Trains.com (Model Railroader) 60122

RMweb.co.uk 91012

Hattons.co.uk 111852

model-railroad-hobbyist.com 135652

Walthers.com 142048

Hornby.com 163060

Bachmanntrains.com (USA) 206711

Katomodels.com 223018

Bachmann.co.uk 585064

 

If you want to look at figures for other sites it's easy enough with alexa.com and there may be some railway interest ones I've never thought of.

Hi Andy,

Very interesting!

I could not find the correct category on Alexa so I gave up but my usual way of 'ranking' websites would be by members and total posts, here are my current (limited) observations;

 

RMWeb (UK, WWW) 33,568 members, 3,023,513 posts.

Stummis (German, EU [mainly]) 23,988 mem, 1,476,736 posts.

H0 modell (German, EU [mainly]) 6,768 mem, 479,067 posts.

Turntable online (German, WWW) 43,334 mem, cannot find T. posts! (model & proto).

Diesel Detailer (USA, www) 3,919 mem, 75,274 posts.

M.RailroadForums (USA, www) 6,103 mem, 424,969 posts.

ModelRailroader (USA, WWW) cannot find mems, c. 2+ million posts.

MRF (UK, WWW) 14,582 mem, 383,772 posts.

NGRM (UK, WWW) cannot find mems, 515,152 posts.

 

I'm sure the 'posts' total has gone up while I've been compiling this list! Hopefully, it shows that RMWeb is pretty much the world leader when it comes to the totals, "Stummis" in Germany is probably next closest. Although "Turntable online" has a higher membership, that is most likely due to a mix of Prototype, Historical and Modelling members.

There are more US forums, at least one I looked at today appeared to be closed, 'down', offline or whatever. I'm aware of Dutch, Italian, French, Scandinavian and Japanese forums but - I cannot be bothered to look at them, sorry! Sometimes, I wish I didn't like number crunching and statistics.

Cheers,

John.

[Andy Y]

You've pulled up some sites there John I've never heard of! Figures for 2006-2009 could be added to ours (not that it means anything once you deduct sausages).

 

 

 

STATISTICS

Total posts 581729 • Total topics 37765 • 

[BlackRat]

I've had a look about from time to time and concur with some of the comments above.

 

The I tersting thing to me, is how names come up time after time, often with thousands of posts!

 

The time spent would no doubt be better spent modelling.

 

No idea where they get the time from, I spend to long on here as it is!

[How about a Dictator Loco Class?]

Is this a bit of "do my research for me as I may want to do a bit of using a forum as a way of getting free advertising"? or am I being too cynical?

 

Baz

 

 

What's interesting is that you are the only person on this page that's trying to get little scraps of business by putting this under your post and in fact all your posts;

 

My weathering website : http://activeweathering.co.uk/

my blog http://www.rmweb.co....-of-weathering/

My gallery http://www.rmweb.co....hering-powders/

My bodging http://www.rmweb.co....ng-and-bashing/

 

 

But actually I've just clicked on it for the first time. How have I never heard of you before and your a fellow Leeds lad!?

 

My actual job is weathering but I don't advertise my weathering services lol

[How about a Dictator Loco Class?]

John and Andy you have given amazing data! Thank you. How interesting. I love your statistics and number crunching ways John! (-:

 

And I'll definitely use alexa.com in future. It seems way more useful/interesting than Google trends.

 

rmweb does look the most used site according to what everyone has said. I'm proud of what Andy has achieved with this awesome site! My favorite by miles. I wish it had an eBay rivaling sales section too though. I think it was trialed and didn't work if I'm right sadly?

 

Rob

Edited April 19, 2018 by How about a Dictator Loco Class?

[Barry O]

What's interesting is that you are the only person on this page that's trying to get little scraps of business by putting this under your post and in fact all your posts;

 

My weathering website : http://activeweathering.co.uk/

my blog http://www.rmweb.co....-of-weathering/

My gallery http://www.rmweb.co....hering-powders/

My bodging http://www.rmweb.co....ng-and-bashing/

 

 

But actually I've just clicked on it for the first time. How have I never heard of you before and your a fellow Leeds lad!?

 

My actual job is weathering but I don't advertise my weathering services lol

but you do work for a commercial weathering company as per the shots in your photos ....

[How about a Dictator Loco Class?]

but you do work for a commercial weathering company as per the shots in your photos ....

I don't get how it being commercial makes much difference? The company is my baby. I was put in charge of all production when I started there aged 19. I've slogged my guts out to try develop it for 15 years and biased production heavily towards weathering and helped us focus solely on railways now. My earnings aren't a fixed wage, but are actually a proportion of what the company takes as it peaks and troughs it's way along. So actually it would be massively in my direct interest to promote the company. Unlike a Tesco worker for example.

 

Personally I think it's great that people like you can advertise their pictures, websites or services on here as you do! It's part of the interest and fun of rmweb, to find out more about everyone and check out loads of interesting model railway related links.

 

That's why I was puzzled about you using the word 'cynical'.

You were maybe slightly right in guessing my motives for this topic. But I was seeing if my research was accurate, rather than letting others do everything. And I was genuinely interested in knowing if rmweb is potentially the most used model railway forum.

 

I reckon it probably is from the interesting answers.

And now when anyone types into Google; 'biggest model railway forums', it brings them here and they can see those great insightful answers, thus promoting our beloved rmweb. (And then this pile of unrelated garbage at the end)

[bike2steam]

Does anyone know what the biggest model railway/model railroad forums are in order?

 

And where does rmweb come in the list?

 

Surely rmweb is the biggest and best in the UK (I Know it's used internationally obviously) but is it in the world's top 3 biggest if not 1st or second?

 

Just out of interest. Most rival forums have much fewer members don't look as good and have much less content if I'm not mistaken.

 

Rob

 

I'm just surprised that someone's got the time ( or inclination) to bother to find out, or is it another attentive problem !!??  

[locomad]

Then there's Facebook, seems to be loads of them, especially the very specialise sites which follow a very small hardly known manufacturer from the 60's