Publicising G Scale

kedwards

kedwards

Caving, Garden Railways & more caving. Fan of TTTE
Question: How do we best publicise G Scale and get more people involved in the hobby?
Could it be shows? How many people on average attend a typical show?
Garden open days? Most gardens won't hold more than 30-40 people.
This, and other, online forums? What's the membership?
Or perhaps YouTube videos? How many views do your videos get?
Well Pine Tree Junction (https://www.youtube.com/user/PineTreeJunction) has clocked up an astonishing 13 million video views in a little over 5 years.
My video "Thomas and the High Speed Train" has just notched up half a million views in a little over 8 months. Remarkable figures, I'm sure you will agree.
Surely this must be good for the G Scale hobby. I can't see any negatives, can you?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lwFcOt0pzM[/youtube]

Perhaps we should hear what the locos have to say?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yalfb-eIm8[/youtube]


 
I'm surprised at how small our sector of the hobby is.

I frequently google various 1:20.3 or Fn3 things to get ideas, and will usually get a few of my own photos from this forum and the garden railway club in the results.


Scary ??? ??? ??? ??? ???
 
i think you just need to look at the 16mm web site.. to see how popular thommas trully is..
 
I think the 16mm society have twice the membership of the GSS.

What are they doing right.

Loads of nice railways on their website front page.
Information booklets for new members

I do wonder if the GSS is too involved with promotion and not involved enough with its existing members - perhaps renewals levels would give an indication of members satisfaction.
 
i think you just need to look at the 16mm web site.. to see how popular thommas trully is.
Click to expand...

Hi Mike, Sorry I don't understand. What's it got to do with the 16mm Association? The Bachmann Thomas the Tank Engine range is G Scale and isn't re-gaugable to 32mm track. The popularity of these products is beyond question. (deleted by mods)
What are they doing right.
Click to expand...

Hi Alan, Perhaps is nothing to do with this? Perhaps is as simple as 16mm being a more popular gauge?

But the whole thing is a chicken and egg situation. Big economies of scale kick in at a membership of around 2000. This means that a society can then afford to give more freebies to members like information booklets, DVDs etc. which results in yet more members. Societies have to promote themselves in order to get the size of membership at which increased benefits kick in.
 
It may be that the success of 16mm and reduction in G scale sales is down to one thing - there are lots of British 16mm items and relatively few British G items.

I would have opted for British G if there was any easily available. As it is I went USA and this has proved to be most interesting. I have really enjoyed finding out about US railways and find them fascinating so I am quite pleased that I was forced to look at railways elsewhere.
 
Well done Keith with the videos. It's not my cup of tea but the popularity speaks for itself. I'll try them on my granddaughter.
 
Keith E said:
Hi Mike, Sorry I don't understand. What's it got to do with the 16mm Association? The Bachmann Thomas the Tank Engine range is G Scale and isn't re-gaugable to 32mm track. The popularity of these products is beyond question. (deleted by Mods).

Hi Alan, Perhaps is nothing to do with this? Perhaps is as simple as 16mm being a more popular gauge?

But the whole thing is a chicken and egg situation. Big economies of scale kick in at a membership of around 2000. This means that a society can then afford to give more freebies to members like information booklets, DVDs etc. which results in yet more members. Societies have to promote themselves in order to get the size of membership at which increased benefits kick in.
Click to expand...

quite possably most 9 year olds dont join a soicaiety.. till they earn money by which time, they have out grown thomas? im not even going to go there, regards (deleted by Mods) thats out of order.. you can not prove it, nor dare i denay it.. thats just bang out of order.. the g scale socitey is about ALL things g scale, not just thomas.. unbelivavbly, i know, somme folks like american stock.. some like live steam, some like playmoblie, some like nequioda,sonme like roundhouse, some like acrucraft some like backman some ,like usa trains some like scracth building and some like thomas the tank engine.. the g scale sociaty is Not about thomas.. its about garden railewauys
mike
 
This thread is now posing two ideas.
1) Is Thomas a good way of promoting our hobby
2) Why is the GSS not as successful as the 16mm Association and how can it be improved

The Thomas question has been dealt with in a few other threads on this forum. But it is obvious that the Thomas series of kit is one good way of inviting newcomers to the fold. It may not be LGB but it is attractive in its own way, easy to run, has a certain presence and is definitely 'fun'.

As to the GSS and 16mm Association.
Although there is obviously quite a few folk crossing over from the generally 'plastic ready to run' to more involved modelling and building needing different skills as the folk progress through the hobby.
There is also the fact that a lot of 'GSC memebrs are quite (rightly too) happy running trains that are 'off the shelf' and do not actually get heavily involved in kitbashing, scratch building etc.
Members in 16mm Assoc. mostly tend to like getting their hands dirty. This can also be a draw for older youngsters much like working on bikes,cars etc.
Some of us (I include myself here) are members of both clubs.
Maybe there is also the perception, or the reality, that the 16mm members meet more often in different areas to exchange skills etc, whereas GSC members tend to meet to only run trains. I am not sure if this is true but I would bet on it. I am of course excluding special events etc.
That sort of physical 'area club' can maybe tend to draw in more interested newbies who want to model/build etc as well as run trains.

Are there any GSS areas, that meet on a consistent basis, and do modelling, scratchbuilding, kitbashing etc sessions besides just running trains?
Perhaps this is an activity that the GSC could promote amongst the membership and so create the interest value.....not sure....who knows.

Our local area GSS has monthly meetings during the winter where trains are run. There is always a good turn out and also a few new folk pop in out of curiosity. Maybe, at the meetings, we could also have a few expositions of modelling, electronics, weathering skills etc to see if the new folk would become even more interested, but would it 'expand' the membership.....a possibility....
 
Approaching the question from a slightly different perspective, railways are no longer the mainstay means of traveling. So, Out of sight-out of mind. I believe most young hobbyists like to model what they see. Other than the few high speed trains, there isn't much to get really excited about, if you're a youngster.

Thomas is an anomaly. The success of the TV series was due to the fact that it was different from other children's television as far as characters go. I really don't believe they connected real life with Thomas.

In England, train travel lasted much longer than here, in the US. So there was something that could be replicated in miniature. Not that model railroading wasn't a hobby over here. It's just that we have a tendency to move on more quickly to the next fad. A behavior that I am not proud of. Garden railroading was alien to us until the 1980s. And it took LGB to spark that interest.

So how to get more people into the hobby? More public displays. Not the typical train show, but displays in places where you would not expect to see one. More prime time programming, an expensive endeavor. Manufacturers advertising to a broader audience. I'm sure there are other ideas.
 
I take my trailer layout to Agricultural and Vintage shows here in Eire. I usually manage seventeen to eighteen shows in the season (April through to September). I have only made one convert (from 00 to G) as far as I know.

But, whatever, my efforts attract attention and I get more requests to attend than I can manage. I have run Thomas & Friends but did not last year - the locos tend to be a lot faster than my US stuff so I have to take off all the latter before I can properly run TTE (quite wearisome!). But I also realise that for all those that take an interest there are probably a lot more that would not give it a second glance!

I get lots of questions and try to point people in the right direction. I'm a member of GSS and always wear my badge at shows.

When I have time (which seems never nowadays) I like getting my hands dirty making things. GSS represents a broad church - mainly in what we call G Scale (the latter title being something of an oxymoron along with G Gauge). But we are quite happy with these titles.

Mike Duffy's Rule 8 applies to a lot of us - after all, we are not frogmarched into the hobby - we are in it for the enjoyment (both personal and its' spin-off for onlookers).

Now 16mm - that's the same (but different!). People modelling in that scale, more likely than often, choose accuracy (0 gauge track at 32mm equals two feet in 16mm) and proportionally larger trains size-wise. I enjoy looking at them all (mainly through the media alas :() Given the one-time plethora of 2ft or 600mm gauge railways, one can understand why 16mm people get their 'hands dirty' - they have to!

So, revisitiing the TTE question, my answer is that 'HE' has a place and 'WE' (other than themed railway events or "Theme Parks") are the people to bring him alive in the flesh!

That said, I show two sides of the coin in my "West meets the west" themed layout - so entertain all ages - and demonstrate railway modelling (however quirky it might seem).

Maybe the GSS should do something similar similar? ;D
 
Is the fall in Gscale members in the uk directly related to the demise amd rebirth of LGB? Traders went through a lean patch and those who survived have had to find new suppliers, none of whom are as big as LGB. The other point made elsewhere is that folks want to model UK outline and there is not much available to buy, so kit bashing and scratch building may be the way to go for them.

There are many in the gscale fraternity who make excellent models, but there are also many who want to run out of the box models.

If the GScale Society in the UK exists to represent those who run Gscale, maybe they should be building relationships directly with the manufacturers and traders. These are the people who want to sell their product and who need to see the hobby growing if they are to survive. Out of this may come initiatives to promote the hobby and to retain existing members.
 
The 16 mm NGM, of which I am a member, is about as big a misnomer as the GSS. It now covers anything running on both 32 mm and 45 mm gauge tracks, from 7/8ths to 1;22.5 and even 1:32 can be seen running on members lines. Yes, they do major on live steam and battery power but not to the exclusion of DC/DCC operators.

One of the big problems at shows is how to convey the feel of a railway in the garden without having to cart around a few tons of earth, a load of turf, a few hardy dwarf conifers and in a space a lot larger than is normally allocated. With all due respect to those who display their meticulously built trestle borne layouts it's not showing off the full possibilities of this hobby to the uninitiated.

I would suggest the two main societies concentrated on the setting up of garden railways at all the preservation railway sites and other associated "living museum" operations where they are not already present to give the hobby its fullest exposure to the uninitiated. That could be accomplished through the existing local groups. It should also be born in mind you need to operate these "attractions" on the same days as their hosts and those there should be willing to engage with the public and have a decent stock of promotional material to hand. It might help if trader/manufactures offered some direct assistance to these operations.

We are going through a major recession that is resulting in the hollowing out of a swathe of middle income sector job roles, the traditional "seed bed" of those with a disposable income and time to get involved with hobbies. Couple this with the fact we are slowly reverting from a current 70/30% split of owner occupiers to that of 40 years ago, 30/70% , and you can see where some future problems for a hobby like this may lie. Yes, in Germany another hotbed for "g Scale" they have a similar 30/70% ownership profile but then they have very much different security of tenure laws to ourselves that leaves their hobbyist more secure in setting up their line on land they do not own. Max
 
mike said:
i think you just need to look at the 16mm web site.. to see how popular thommas trully is..
Click to expand...

An excellent point Mike. I came into GR via G- Scale and Brian and Caroline at Glendale. We still buy and run G and even accurately build in the scale. However we also build in 16mm and 7/8 scales. Our local group welcome G scale devotees and I usually provide a live track layout at our 16mm local group meetings. Completely ignoring the "combined" organisation supporters,

I would suggest that G-Scale is a lot more popular than is generally assumed by the level of membership of the national society. One of the great perceived "problems" with G-Scale membership is the quality of the 16mm Assn publications. Nuf said! Mixed shows, with more evenly balanced mixes of scales, including the Society Nationals and Regionals might be a good way to go to show the alternatives offered from both sides of the same GR coin. Also encouraging live rail running facilities at every opportunity would bring out more G scale devotees. After all everyone knows that 45mm track is the true GR scale. Now off to the bunker again.
 
Not wishing to be all doom and gloom it should also be born in mind the gradual demise of that great source of hobbyist - the well provisioned pensioner. We are rapidly seeing the removal of the traditionally beneficial schemes such as final salary and defined benefits for inferior "money purchase" options. These are highly dependent on the state of the stock markets when you seek to "cash in". This not only affects those entering the work market but even those on the cusp of retirement. Not are only are people going to go into retirement with vastly reduced disposable incomes but also a need to continue working beyond retirement age due to marginalised incomes during working life and an inability to afford to save.

The relevant societies and manufacturers need to understand these factors when planning the promotion of the hobby or there will be a lot of mis directed time and effort. Max
 
Although the restriction on financial matters might indeed affect the G scale hobby, it would also affect those in the 16mm fraternity too.
And as the types of locos seen in 16mm areas (especially the brass jobbies) can cost, on average, considerably more than a lot of 'off the shelf' plastic kit....surely the 16mm followers would be affected too...but 16mm membership is growing
 
beavercreek said:
This thread is now posing two ideas.

As to the GSC and 16mm Association.

Our local area GSC has monthly meetings during the winter where trains are run. There is always a good turn out and also a few new folk pop in out of curiosity. Maybe, at the meetings, we could also have a few expositions of modelling, electronics, weathering skills etc to see if the new folk would become even more interested, but would it 'expand' the membership.....a possibility....
Click to expand...

Our 16mm group run a meeting every month throughout the year. We broadly do what you suggest above and in fact also meet in between times at a garden meet (workshop or two) to work on rolling stock etc. however our main portable group layout was unfortunately built to run Battery/live steam (non insulated), but in both 32 and 45. Unfortunately we cannot run live track on the main layout. However the nice LGB track being both portable and well insulated is taken along and live rail running is therefore a clip up and power on job for general running. This has been very popular. I notice that the Beds 16mm group have also provided 45/32 tracks for both gauge running. We have a pretty even gauge split between our group members GRs which are either 32 or 45. Mine is 45 here as are my three nearest neighbour members railways. All three are completely insulated to run live rail. We are doing everything that we can to promote garden railway running in the 32/45 scales and the mixed membership is slowly growing, so it seems to work. No upfront membership fee, just a pay per visit possibly helps. Certainly pays for the hall and refreshments etc. My biggest gripe is cleaning the portable track after some ******* steamie has spread gunk from over oiling his loco all over it >:(

However when it comes to the G-Scale Society most if not all of our members prefer the 16mm membership benefits although some do belong to both organisations. Make of that what you will. Fact is fact.
 
beavercreek said:
Although the restriction on financial matters might indeed affect the G scale hobby, it would also affect those in the 16mm fraternity too.
And as the types of locos seen in 16mm areas (especially the brass jobbies) can cost, on average, considerably more than a lot of 'off the shelf' plastic kit....surely the 16mm followers would be affected too...but 16mm membership is growing
Click to expand...
I was more thinking to the next 10 years. Ask the dealers about the past 7-8 years of this recession and it has been the bread and butter stuff where sales have suffered. The top end "brass jobbies" are selling well. Up to now. Max.
 
Enginehouse said:
I would suggest that G-Scale is a lot more popular than is generally assumed by the level of membership of the national society.
Click to expand...

I agree with that. there are at least 4 G railways near me and the owners have no interest in clubs, societies or forums.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom