NO NEW SCALES --- In What Sacred Scripture is it Written?

We have been involved in model railroading at many levels, in many scales, and one of the features of the hobby that strikes us is how the entire interest is divided into several non-intersecting components which, if they are not hostile to each other, are generally non-communicating. What do we mean ?

First, there's standard run-of-the-hobby-shop model railroading, which in itself is divided into the standardized scales : HO ; O scale (three rail, two rail, trolley / traction [where darn few people seem to be working in Light Rail , rather than historical streetcar); S Scale; G Scale (even tho' we know there is no such thing, only a G Gauge, with a variety of scales in a California Cobb Salad melange); and so on, with all their variations;

second, there's Live Steam, which includes a surprising number of scales and side interests.
Some (like one-inch scale) have sadly slipped into comparative oblivion), and which increasingly covers electrically powered diesel outline in 1:8 ; and some rather large variations like 2.5 inch-to-the-foot and 3.75 inch-to-the-foot scale narrow gauge running on the 7+ scales (thanks to the Robinsons for providing that handy-dandy inclusive name for that group) ;

Third, we find Park trains (which includes giant amusement park ride-in cars) whose enthusiasts, I have found, sometimes don't even seem to know about the rest of us (one recent memorable comment by a retailer of Park trains : "Live Steam ... what's that  ? ).

Finally (actually, I'm confident that you will be able to come up --- easily --- with other aspects that I've omitted), there are the railroad museum volunteer groups, who are trying to press the issue of railroad history. These range from trolley museums (generally doing a good job) to essentially short line tourist railways. I'll let you judge the effectiveness of those groups; and a large number (if not actually a plethora) of side interests ...

Few members of one group talk to members of other groups. Too bad, so sad !

Therefore, I want to applaud the efforts of several groups in the Greater Tampa Bay area, which have broken the ice (although there may still be some icebergs which are not showing the cold temperatures beneath the surface). They have begun to band together with a land-owning utility and a private citizen, and a Florida State railroad museum. They've met at least once on a special train ride on the old Seaboard RR in Western Florida for a nicely run and well-managed open discussion regarding everyone working together to build a major rail-oriented nexus in a small town called Parrish about halfway between Tampa and Sarasota. The effort is expected to include all of the segments of the interest, presumably and hopefully working together to produce the railroad eqivalent of Einstein's Grand Unified Theory. I hope they do well ; I'm waiting with bated breath to hear more.

Update : Lots of talk, no action !

Further update : They don't even seem to talk to one another any more !