How big is the hobby in the UK? An interesting statistic

[brossard]

I'm curious how the age distribution looks.  In our club of 10, we have just 1 teenager (and his dad joined for support even though he doesn't do trains - cracking carpenter though).  The rest all have grey hair and progressive specs.

 

John

[AndrueC]

7 minutes ago, brossard said:

I'm curious how the age distribution looks.  In our club of 10, we have just 1 teenager (and his dad joined for support even though he doesn't do trains - cracking carpenter though).  The rest all have grey hair and progressive specs.

 

John

We have two or three in their 20s/30s and there's a couple of young lads come along with their dads but otherwise, yes, it's all grey hair and sarcasm.

Edited January 22 by AndrueC

[F-UnitMad]

1 hour ago, F-UnitMad said:

.... Unless someone is just an armchair modeller. 😁

 

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

You can even get magazines about that.

 

I once started a Thread over on Western Thunder about a spoof new magazine called 'Armchair Modeller'.  The Agony Aunt feature proved very popular.

I think it could have been quite successful if published for real..!! 😂😂😂

 

[kevinlms]

20 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

The inversion in the ratio of single issue buyers to subscribers between RM and Model Rail is interesting, I wouldn't have expected that.

And how do they count people who regularly buy a printed copy each month from a newsagent or hobby shop?

[kevinlms]

17 hours ago, JohnR said:

Surprised the digital subs for RM are so low - you get the 75 year back catalogue!

The date reference was Feb 2022, when was the full back catalogue made available?

[Derekl]

17 hours ago, JohnR said:

Surprised the digital subs for RM are so low - you get the 75 year back catalogue!

You get access to the back catalogue on a print only subscription - you don't have to take out a digital sub.

[JohnR]

15 hours ago, AndrueC said:

I've never looked at any of that though. No interest frankly. When the new edition comes out I scan through it but frankly I consider the most value of my subscription is not having adverts on this website. From my perspective reading anything sequentially other than a novel is 'old fashioned'. I'd read RM a bit more thoroughly if the digital reader rendered it more like a web page but that incurs additional editorial expense that I wouldn't expect for the current subscription.

 

 

A digital subscription to Railway Modeller doesnt remove ads on this site. RMWeb is part of the Warner stable. 

[AndrueC]

43 minutes ago, JohnR said:

 

A digital subscription to Railway Modeller doesnt remove ads on this site. RMWeb is part of the Warner stable. 

Oops. I meant BRM subscription then, lol.

[jjb1970]

I suspect quite a few magazine buyers are not actively engaged in the hobby. Some may be considering diving in, some may be on a hiatus as they have other things to do and pay for, others may just enjoy reading about model trains and seeing layouts. A lot of magazines for other hobbies serve readers who enjoy reading about and drooling over fast and expensive cars, yachts, crazy price watches etc without every buying any of it. A regular whinge from car enthusiasts is 'why do magazines waste so much space reviewing Ferraris and Aston Martins rather than the new poverty spec Ford Fiesta 1.0L, the obvious answer is because their readers want to read about exotic stuff rather than stuff they can drive for themselves at any dealership if they want to by asking for a test drive.

[MarkSG]

16 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Hmmm …… there has to be a bit of deliberate sequentiality in reading, otherwise it’s just a random string of words, but I think I know what you mean: cover-to-cover, taking articles in the order that they are presented.

 

Does anyone read magazines like that? There’s certainly no good reason to, and I personally don’t. In a month, I probably read most of the articles in RM, but the order in which I read them is based entirely on my whims, not the batting order the editor decided.

 

For printed magazines, yes, I typically do. I settle down with a mug of coffee on the sofa (in winter) or a glass of beer on the patio (in summer) and deliberately have a break from the day when I do nothing except read the mag and generally enjoy the peace and quiet.

[Geep7]

On 22/01/2024 at 21:14, F-UnitMad said:

 

I once started a Thread over on Western Thunder about a spoof new magazine called 'Armchair Modeller'.  The Agony Aunt feature proved very popular.

I think it could have been quite successful if published for real..!! 😂😂😂

 

The railway modelling equivalent of Private Eye? The only trouble is, the spoof news almost feels like reading the real news these days.