Breathing New Life into an Old Standard Hobby

Sometimes, even the best subjects, the most fascinating hobbies, can grow stale. We're put in mind of the model airplane hobby in the 1950's, when even avid model airplane buffs, like members of our family, got tired of swinging an airplane model around and around at the end of a string.

Then came radio control --- another set of technologies to learn, a new freedom to fly, and then --- giant scale, much larger than anything ever seen before.
The entire hobby had new life breathed into it. Giant Scale radio control airplanes have now become the darling of --- not only hobbyists throughout the world --- but also, of military users where, under the name of drones, they have struck fear into the enemies of our country.

We are just naive enough to believe that a similar revolution could occur in the model traction hobby, solving several issues simultaneously . Just picture this approach to encouraging the formation and growth of Mega-Scale traction :

1. Yes, radio-controlled (remote-controlled) . Instead of sitting perched precariously on top of a model streetcar, no worries about disturbing or crushing that beautiful rooftop detail --- including the very name of "trolley".

2. Taking advantage of the new size (we suggest P Scale --- sometimes also called DisPlayScale ---   2 inches to the foot, one-sixth scale), the interior detail suggests new worlds of possibilities such as populating the model with passengers; magnificent sets of controller-and-brake handle hardware; hardwood floors; interior lighting that serves the purpose of bringing out realism AND detail .

3. Suggesting an entire line of accessories for small , cottage industry manufacturers to produce --- before our friends in Asia catch on.

4. New track standards ( 9 1/2 " gage, accurately scaled to a fine standard), that encourages more (apparently beloved) technical infighting among the Pundits of Standards . Once that's quickly settled, some of the fine track manufacturers branching out into new lines of pre-fabricated P Scale rail products.

5. Hundreds (?!) of seamstresses in attic workshops busily designing and sewing miniature clothing in styles of street clothes not actually seen outside of a Sears- Roebuck catalogue since the decades of the 1920's - 1940's .

6. All those nifty building fronts, formerly seen only in H0 and O scales, now proudly serrving as backdrops for our new giant scale trams. Shrunken Treasures suddenly receiving dozens of orders for their magnificent one-sixth scale historic houses.

7. Brave substitution of small-scale construction for full-size restoration, among trolley museum volunteers .

8. New periodicals, new model traction clubs, old street photographs dug out of storage, a new series of treks and even organized field trips to museum archives, restoring their usefulness despite the Draconian copyright laws.

9. A new outlet for the sale of those great little electric motors, just maybe saving a hard-pressed small business .

10. Model building made possible once again for all the aging and ophthalmologically-challenged hobbyists, who will find it much easier to build a model that does not require them to perform the work under a huge magnifying lens .

11. A sudden rush of T-to-the-Fourth-Power hobbyists to Walmart stores, buying $8.00 action figures and fashion princesses, to be re-clothed in something resembling familiar people, not fashion models, not Wehrmacht soldiers, not even GI Joes. Dress them in three-piece suits, in overalls and Farmer John work clothes, what used to be called --- without derision or sarcasm --- street clothes .

12. A rebirth of interest in model automobiles, but this time at one-sixth size . We can't wait to see a 1938 Buick at two inches to the foot.

There's lots more, but we're leaving it to you to fill in  the blanks.