In the forty-five or so years that I have seriously pursued this pastime, change has been voluminous, and readers of this magazine will notice that recently I have written about change quite frequently. I guess it is a factor of growing older. Looking over editions of RMC and Model Railroader from the 1950's and 1960's teaches one that at that time, this hobby was still essentially a craftsman's domain. There were ready to run locomotives and cars, pre-built structures and the like, but for the most part, kits of those buildings and of that rolling stock were the staple. Wood, die-cast metal and even cardstock, with a little brass thrown in for those who could afford, it were the primary construction materials. Track usually had brass rail, in HO; other scales were lucky to have ready to lay track. Power packs were primitive by today's measures, by which DCC and Quantum Sound are beginning to rule the roost. But with all of this, it was a fun time to be a model railroader, and I look back at some of my older efforts, even a "mere" fifteen or twenty years ago, and marvel at how I was able to come up with some pretty good results, even by modern standards. As a segue, this change is especially notable in model locomotives in HO scale, one of my primary interests.
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