The BIG railway modelling survey

[Mike Storey]

I would add, in addition to Post 10, as well as size of space available/size of layout, whether one's current main layout (planned/under construction/actual) is an end-to-end, terminus to fiddle yard/traverser or a continuous circuit, or combination of one or more of these (or nearest equivalent). I guess an option would be needed to add a layout or three for those more prolific. That would help underline, or reverse, the statements often made about which type dominates the hobby.

 

Perhaps also a question about the minimum radius curves/points used/planned?

[richard i]

How about biggest frustration at the moment from some options that seem to do the rounds eg for me the fact pre gouping locos/stations are done but then no stock to run with them in order to see where the pent up demand is, this might have to be a free text box for the survey team to read and collate into similar topics; extra work yes, but most elightening i think.

 

Could also ask what we want from magasines, be it hard copy, digital, ability to save digital etc. but also article types; mine would be short focused tutorials in how to work something up in cad, but that one could be a list of tick the types of article you want to see. Layout, kit building, scratch building, scenics, DCC, etc.

[Andy Reichert]

muddys-blues, on 06 Mar 2015 - 06:06, said:

Andy, of course it is , just like air for tyres is free at garages, and water is free at garages, because us Garages get our electric for running the compressors for nothing of our Charitable Electricity Companies, and the Water Meter doesn't run when people want to top up their car engines and windscreen washers ... or the Free Loading Motor Home drivers who only want 50 gallons of water in their Motor Homes for showers and washing up etc etc etc.

You get anything for nothing these days.

 

 

Andy Y, on 19 Feb 2015 - 05:51, said:

Before the days when everything on the internet was free* people used to pay to advertise stuff in their local paper or hobby magazine etc. There are some folk who sell a lot through the classifieds here, some may be happy to pay a small charge to continue to place the number of adverts they do whilst others may not; it's a free world.**

 

Any charges will be announced in due course so it's a little premature to judge whether you'd use the service or not but I would hope that one of the net benefits is that it should be important to a seller to provide the best information and images to stand the best chance of selling it which will benefit buyers too (I have seen some shockers in Classifieds that I would doubt even the shrewdest bargain hunter could be bothered to fathom out.

 

I've also seen chancers come along to try and sell stuff for no cost when you know they've got a shop/garage full - if they were to sell something wouldn't it be right that pay towards the upkeep? What I can say is that the system will be geared up to be more beneficial to members of the site.

 

*Not according to the bills that go across my desk each month.

** Not according to my bank.

 

Please contact my managing agent for the current rates for my free internet market research opinions.

 

Andy R

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Andy - you have opened a topic with no apparent end

 

I don't know what market research experience/ability is available to you and Warners in house but I suggest that this survey needs some professional MR advice .....to determine what is important/relevant.

 

Maybe a college/university MR department might take this on as a project 'on the cheap'

 

For example I think one issue is not only the age demographics but how long someone has been active in the hobby and conversely how old are the newbies .... the same question looked at from both sides. In other words ..... are the majority of NEWBIE active modellers 15-25 or 60 plus. This in turn would give us a view on the long term health of the hobby.

 

But then again what defines an 'active modeller'?

 

This is a massively involved minefield of options and variants - GOOD LUCK!

[Colin_McLeod]

Personally I am not a collector if that is defined by having umpteen models with factory errors, etc.  I buy what I need to have a decent system and run what I have.  It does not sit behind glass cases gathering dust.  I spent hours assembling all the stuff required to model track bed, gradients, bridges and tunnels and whatever else as well as scenic items.  Sure all the buildings and accessories come out of the box although I have made some items in the Hornby image, if that counts.  In the end it becomes  a layout just like most featured herein along with  many ideas I have learnt from this group incorporated.

 

After having dabbled in N OO and LGB, it sure feels like modelling!

 

Brian.

Tinplate collecting and tinplate layouts and operating are all aspects of the hobby, so questions on same do have a place in the BIG survey

[WhiteRoseRambler]

How about everyone who replies to the survey gets 2 free credits on Buy & Sell! 

[justin1985]

Really good idea, and well worthwhile. Not an inconsiderable amount of work, but still within the capabilities of one friendly market researcher or academic social scientist to put together in an afternoon, and analyse in an afternoon. My thoughts would be to put something together using SPSS but I imagine even be possible using a premium version of a Survey monkey style web service ?

[The Stationmaster]

I do wonder if we're all in danger of running away with lots of added questions that go beyond (way beyond) what Andy was originally seeking to find out through the survey?  The problem is - for all of us - that we've got out ideas, and we've got questions about things like scale, gauge, type of layout and so on but the question is how much of that needs to be added or could be added without turning the survey into a huge questionnaire which many folk could ignore or simply rush through ticking boxes without further thought.

 

The question is - I think - not so much what the questions should cover but what Andy hopes the survey to reveal.  That in turn should indicate what the questions would be.

[Kenton]

I always seem to have big problems with these type of surveys. (There I go being negative again!) No, it is not with the principle - which I am all for - it is with the practicality of completing them. My modelling covers many scales and many gauges and not all of the same period, my modelling interest is in short locos but not all steam (so sort of rules out - but not entirely) the typical 30's-60's. I have no interest in coaching stock whatsoever - yet they are on my one of NG layouts. RTR I buy but that is usually driven by a whim or by having something as a stand in. The range of interest is quite staggering yet there are many areas of the hobby I have no interest in participating (I'll look at them in an exhibition, but there is no basic interest) those include foreign. There are many areas I would like to be better at, many I have dabbled in in the past and would like to have time to revisit. But in most narrow surveys I can only define myself as a kitbuilder. Though some days it feels more like armchair modelling.

 

So it is a bit like that topic on the ratio of time spent on research:modelling:operation.

[BMacdermott]

Hello Andy

 

I not sure who is the greatest supporter of ‘surveys’ – you, me or Oz! I will be putting a few thoughts to you on a PM as there is too much to post here!

 

As I was doing this, I had visions of the character played by Geoffery Palmer in the ‘Reggie Perrin’ TV series – ‘Jimmy’. I think he would have purloined a glass of wine from you, plonked himself down in your favourite armchair and ruminated:

“Tricky blighters, surveys”.

 

As noted by Mike earlier (#35), there is a danger that the survey is so big it actually self-defeats. My feeling is that a succinct number of key questions might be a way forward. Hence, my forthcoming PM to you.

 

All the best with this worthy project!

 

Brian

[Andy Reichert]

It's the "It's a big tent" thing that Magazines are stuck with and so continually push for the big advertisers.

 

There are actually many hobbies, all of which are unfortunately called "Model Railways", but having a paper magazine for each would be financially impossible. (But to support my point,  lots of "free" forums/e-lists for each tiny fraction abound).

 

I'm sorry, but I still don't fit in any of the usual categories. And while the emphasis is on "what to run 10,000 of next in China", that is always going to be the case for me and a whole slew of other hobbyists who don't fit in the big tent either.

 

Andy

[Kenton]

 

I will be putting a few thoughts to you on a PM as there is too much to post here!

 

...

 

My feeling is that a succinct number of key questions might be a way forward.

Contradiction.

 

Sorry, Brian, but why just a PM to Andy. Why not share the thoughts with us all in the open discussion? I just don't see the point of telling us all you are going to PM Andy on open forum. If it is important to keep it personal then why not just do that instead of broadcasting the fact?

[Ozexpatriate]

The BIG Model Railway Survey

I had intended to start this today but I decided it would be worth getting some input from the wider membership.

 

Made me think of this for some reason.

 

 

Ask and it will be given to you.

 

And according to our custom, several of us have made suggestions, openly or privately, - either way, it matters not.

 

Naturally there is a spectrum of tolerance toward survey instruments. I (like Brian suggests) love data and survey instruments are a great way of discriminating a signal amidst all the noise - and boy is there plenty of noise. As such, I have a pretty high tolerance for survey instruments and, so long as they don't take hours, will happily fill one out. Doubtless there are others who, finding themselves spending more than 45 seconds on one, will get frustrated.

 

One certainly can't please everyone all the time, nor perhaps anyone entirely, it would seem, but in there somewhere is a medium where most of the people are mostly not unhappy. (Forgive the double negative, but it is deliberate.)

 

At this point all we have done is make suggestions as to the kind of things we as individuals would like to see - per Andy's request.

 

No doubt Andy has in mind what he is looking for and hopefully some ideas have helped him.

 

Perhaps people would like a poll about the kind and volume of questions that should be included in the poll?

 

(Hopefully that last question will be recognized as me being deliberately facetious though, on second thoughts ...)

[The Black Hat]

There also is a need to discuss how the information is to be collated and the sample. Not every modeller still uses RM Web, plenty of others still chat in groups and clubs, even pubs, although the demographics of that is changing over time, and many others will still just use print media.

 

It would be interesting to see the survey set up in a way that allows statistics to be gained. So if you select your a 30-35 modeller and then select modelling privitisation that it is registered, against a 30-35 modeller who is modelling BR steam transition. So you can find out how many of what age, model what and with who. That in itself might mean an awful lot of cataloguing information, or to get someone to design a system where it can be done. But the more this grows the more collossul the task. The information it could give though would be staggering and brilliant as it would allow an excellent view of the hobby, as well as give information that would slay some myths. I also think it might reinforce some things of what ive been thinking for a while. But hey - I would say that!

[westerner]

What happened to the survey?

[Andy Y]

Somebody ate my time. Sorry.