Model train makers to return to children's rooms

[John Ashworth]

Makers of model trains want to return to children's rooms

Posted : Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:08:22 GMT
Earth Times

Nuremberg, Germany - Cracks have been forming in the idyllic miniature world of model trains for a long time. Model train makers have been struggling for years with sinking revenue, and the insolvency of the world-famous Marklin, announced early last year, speaks volumes.

It's commonly accepted that when Marklin coughs the entire industry gets a cold. But a walk around the world's largest toy trade show in Nuremberg, Germany seems to indicate that a renaissance in model trains is on the way.

Model train enthusiasts rub their eyes ruefully and ask themselves which target group might start making cash registers ring again. It appears an answer has been found: The makers of model trains first and foremost want children to become enthusiastic about the hobby.

"I see chances for this in the mid-term, but certainly not in the short term," is how Volker Schmid, director of Germany's toy industry association, assessed the model train industry's intentions. "Computer games still dominate the selection of toys in children's bedrooms," Schmid added.

Indeed there are colourful model trains for little children to play with, but there is a huge gap between these toys for young children and the toy trains made by Marklin, he said. The industry simply missed the chance it had earlier to offer products that provided a transition from childhood trains to the grownup models.

By now model train makers have recognized this problem and are forging new plans for the future.

"Children are really model train freaks. There has to be a way to get them introduced to the hobby," said Leopold Heher, director of the Austrian-German company Modelleisenbahn Holding.

He sees the solution in a "miniature world as a building block" meant for children over the age of 12. The plans are only on paper now, but the intention is for them to result in a product ready for sale as soon as possible. The miniature world is expected to include tracks, trains and accessories such as train stations and city buildings. It will feature music over loudspeakers and doors that open with the press of a button.

Model train makers such as Marklin want to win over the new target group by offering starter kits that include a set of wagons, tracks and turn-arounds.

"We want the brand Marklin and the subject of model trains to return strongly to the consciousness of consumers," said Lars Schilling, marketing and operations director at Marklin, which has its headquarters is in Goeppingen, near Stuttgart.

The company plans to be better represented than previously at trade shows with the idea of talking more directly with children. The advantage of such shows is boys and girls can play with the trains.

"Beyond that it will depend on winning over younger model train collectors," said Schmid. "You need people in their 50s who collect just as those in their 60s and 70s do."

Model train makers are hopeful about winning customers among the generation of people whose kids have left home and who arelooking for a hobby or hoping to fulfil a childhood dream.

"When you are older you often have time and space for such a hobby," said Reinhold Ott of Modelleisenbahn Holding, which owns the brands Roco and Fleischmann. In any case the planning, construction and extension of a railroad landscape is a creative task.

Copyright DPA

[Derek Walker]

Yep... and make it so that one doesnt need a bank loan to buy a starter set too. They have taken model railways out of the realm of toy into the realm of overpriced luxury already.