What would our hobby be like were it not for the Internet?

Not in your lifetime, Joe! 

Yep!  But I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed the hobby itself well before there ever was a public Internet.  It did not take an electronic medium for me to partake of and enjoy the creativity that this hobby offers even to the most solitary of "loners."

I lived in Hawaii when the Internet was in its infancy, and had no problem whatsoever getting the products I wanted and meeting fellow hobbyists, both locally and through the numerous NMRA national conventions I attended on the U.S. mainland and in Canada.

As far as I am concerned, those years were as rewarding to me personally as the current times--just somewhat different.

Internet = More information (good, bad and ugly) at a fast pace.

Pre-internet= Less information ( (god, bad and ugly) at a slower pace.

Mark

In 1967 I replied to an ad in Model Railroader to send a LSSAE to someone for a list of Lionel trains. I suppose it took a week for the envelope to arrive at the advertiser. It took another week for the advertiser to put my envelope back in the mail to me. At least another 5 days for the list to reach me. I saw something I liked and immediately sent a check to the seller. 5 days later he deposited the check in his bank and 14 business days after that the check cleared. About 3 days later the train item was mailed by Parcel Post. The post office delivered it about 2 weeks later. In all it took 8 weeks to receive my item. In addition I went thru all this without even seeing a poor photograph in advance or having a tracking number. Hate the internet or not, who would want to ever go back to the way it was....

Now you got me thinking, what would our lives be like without the internet?

Ya, we would still have books for information but how would we find the right book?

The internet has improved my life so much I don't know what I would hate to lose more, it or air-conditioning.

It would be much better...at least there would be at least one good hobby shop left in the major cities.  

There is no denying all the good points of the Internet ,they are too numerous to mention. There are many benefits that we don't even think of. Information is everything and it offers that in abundance. Progress is meant to be but the speed in which the world is changing due to the Internet is unprecedented. Change happens so quickly that it is impossible for people, the economy and just about everything else to keep up. After a full day out in the world I treasure my basement train time a bit more each day. And to the shock of everyone I know, I do not take my cell phone to the basement. I do however have Legacy, DCS and computers helping me run my layout. 

Some good comments in this thread. The only thing about the internet is that we don't get to interact face to face as much, otherwise, it's a great tool depending on how one uses it. 

That said... 

:

Prairie

I'd probably still be in HO, or out of the hobby altogether.

My 1st real piece of 3-rail equipment was a Seaboard Air Line RS3 from MTH.  On a whim, I searched for O-scale Seaboard Air Line equipment and found a place down in Florida that had the RailKing RS3 and had to get it, didn't even have a piece of track at the time.

It's still Locosound, but I kinda like the way it sounds, I bet a PS2 or PS3 kit would really make it bark!

Well said Allan. I'm sure that there are more that share the same feelings.

Before the internet I might have bumped into any one of you on the street and thought you were just a normal human being.  Now I know better.

I certainly enjoyed the hobby well before the internet, but because of the vast amount of information that the internet puts at my fingertips it has improved my overall enjoyment of it.  The internet has also certainly enhanced the camaraderie aspect of the hobby as well.  Just as an example since recently retiring, I just today published my very first website.  I would encourage (no, I would ask you) to take a moment to visit it.

Visit my new website Bo's Trains at http://www.bostrains.com 

Mr. Miller made the observation perhaps a year or two ago, & others have sought to confirm his observation in this thread. That the hobby has become “increasingly social” (for some if I may point out).  And I find that particular facet of the hobby most intriguing. I wonder if that dynamic is a function of the internet per se, or rather a development of dynamics going on in our society as a whole.

Does this increasingly social O-Gauge carry over to other areas of the world, or is it peculiar to the United States? Is the increasingly social merely a comparison of how the hobby was experienced in the past, or are we seeing aging demographics for some and an increasing need for those to reach out and communicate? Or is this O gauge social trend an extension of the international Facebook fad/era? I for one doubt that the social dynamics on these forums have changed at all since I joined in 2006. Rightfully many will care less about such questions. I OTOH, w/ a strong background in the social sciences and perhaps a little too much time on my hands have a habit of pondering such issues.

Perhaps the short answer might  be  simply ... yes!

Sharing your interest in matters sociological, as I read your musings, a thought occurred to me, an analogy. Growing up from the 40's thru the 60's, in one of the many small, suburban milltowns around Pittsburgh, PA, I had a particular, parochial view in my mind of the world. However, once I began attending a liberal-arts college in Ohio, my entire perspective and appreciation - of nearly everything - changed, almost completely. Not to be cliche', but a whole new (actual) world opened up for me.

What I am suggesting is that parallel to my experience of getting further educated, such a broadening of one's perspective is what may have occurred once the Internet and model train forums, for example, became a regular part (like my previously religious attendance every weekend at train shows) of our enjoyment of this hobby of ours. For selected moments, we left the basements, attics, and garages and came out into the energizing light of making far more friends and being exposed to a whole new world of resources and ideas that lay beyond the walls of the LHS, train shows, and visiting a few friends' layouts. A new world opened up. And there's been no going backward.

Just some thoughts.

Frank

I certainly hope no one has taken it negatively my comments on the changing social dimensions of our hobby. With probably north of 1500 lifetime posts to my credit here I consider my self a persistent participant, sometimes to my own personal bemusement. Having worked in major institutions for practically my entire career and retired now,  I have noticed my social interactions in my family, neighborhood, even with total strangers in stores has dramatically increased, perhaps to fill a now social void. I often post right here merely & tediously as an assertion of self, rationalizing that it is "something that needs to be said." In hindsight it rarely does.  That is filling a social need, though seldom recognized as such.

There is another social factor across the internet which is also seldom discussed, and that is the collection of a select few who provide a social environment much to their own financial expense. Deploying paid personal, devoting their own time and effort, I am speaking of the OGR team that enable a platform such as this. That is a social act & commitment that goes far beyond the personal & financial expenditures it takes to run a successful business today. I regularly thank (which is a pro social act) those at the top, and all those that interact with me, be it to my own initiated threads or within the threads of others.

So very true...The unappreciated few. Another word of thanks to Rich, Allan and the entire crew at OGR. At a time when my close train friends were passing on, I found this forum. I found a place where others who have aged along with their prewar and early postwar trains can still come together. The OGR Forum allows the aged, more experienced hobbiests a chance to share their knowledge with those just now entering the wonderful world of Std & O-Gauge trains.

I highly doubt that, they were closing quite rapidly for 30+ years before the internet became widely available (1995)

The Internet has been a mixed bag for me, mostly positive. Information that would otherwise be unavailable except by random chance is now available because of the expanded knowledge base. Techniques I never would have thought of on my own are readily available. I've been able to track down equipment I otherwise would not have likely found on my own. I've done business with hobby shops, train stores and vendors I wouldn't have even known to exist without the Internet.

Another up side is I've met people I would otherwise not have known who have a common interest in the hobby, provide input and assistance, good advice, and a similarly warped sense of humor. This has also allowed me to discover the vast number of people who are also living on the Isle of Denial, thus expanding our intelligence network.

The down side (major) is that those same people who I would otherwise not have known are now part of my life, which means that there is a personal sense of loss when something happens to them or their family members. I would not have otherwise felt this sense of loss had it not been for the Internet. I've felt this most recently with the passing of Sean's father and with members of this and the O Scale Trains Yahoo lists.

The other down side (minor and sometimes entertaining) is when I screw up (and believe me I have) there are a few hundred more witnesses to it.

Just my thoughts.

I should hope nobody has. It would be difficult to imagine why anybody would. Afterall, if you cannot speak calmy and openly, and in as measured a fashion as is your want, esp. in a neighborhood as pleasant as this one, where could one speak?

Frank 

There's a positive side and negative side to the internet. I think there is more positive than negative but when you've been through the negative side like I have I sometimes wish we could go back to the '60s and '70s (not to those trains just to the way we interacted).

Hi Phil, I think the internet is simply a logical by-product of computer technology. Our modren toy trains are also a by-product of the same high tech.

High speed and storage in our PC's has made it possible to not only enjoy the new control systems but better graphics and cheeper production technques. 

I believe that when a person discovers a new and better tool someone will find a way to put it to use. Thus massive computer storage created the need for the WAN, that produced the router, the IP address and on and on and on.

Faster processors made it possible for the engineers to miniaturize componets due to improved design and handling capabilities. This in turn provided the componets for the new control systems. So it all ties together, there could of never been today trains in the seventies, or eighties, the technology was just not there yet.

Was this one of Al Cox's 100-page lists?  Madison Hardware prices seemed "reasonable" by comparison, as I recall.