Posted by cfcfcf 6/30/2025
Long Rollers
Barely Legal Signals
Locomania!
Chuggers
Driver's Wives
Hot Steamy Machines
Whistleblowing Enthusiast
SMUTS
Country Tooter
Shudders & Squeals
Stiff Points Quarterly
The Linkage Lover
This Oiled Life
Footplate Fanciers
Tiny Tunnels
Dirty Platform Digest
Wide Gauge Wonders
Derailed Darlings
Market is hot(ish) now though, or was a few years ago. A friends dad died and he had trains. We helped ebay all of it. Owned a toy store or something, lots of rare stuff (like window displays). We even had a guy buy one of the rare posters, return it for questionable reasons, and then start selling counterfeits. Even so, the grand total wasn't a ton of money, more within the "worth doing" category.
Why?
To me it seems there are more hobbyists than ever. It's finally "cool" to play DnD, Covid gave hobbies a big boost and people yearn to do something away from screens.
But I think it’s a combination of “toy trains” being pushed out of the “hobby” so fewer new kids are introduced to it (the Lego Train clubs get some heat and hate and generally are disregarded by the “real model trains” for example) and that the “train obsession” has other ways to discharge these days.
Many people who would have built elaborate basement models instead spend their time perfecting Factorio or Minecraft worlds (any sufficiently advanced sandbox game becomes a train simulator).
So a collection of model steam trains might lose value, as fewer people have remember them in use, but the hobby can continue with high-speed electric trains etc.
I think this is Brave Express Might Gaine…?
How would a buildings and pest inspection have missed it?
Or, maybe he found it during inspections, knew he would never convince his wife to buy the house on the strength of the train set alone, but did managed to convince on the strength of the house... now he has to sell the lie?
model train network
Uh huh... fortunate indeed.
My immediate thought was, his wife discovered his hobby, and the money spent, and "No, it was here when we moved in!"
Then the news shows up, and of course, he can't tell them different, or busted!