Might I just say that the first Athearn kit I ever built in 1960 was basically a hunk of wood with metal sides and ends with a wood floor. It was almost impossible to get all the sides square and the seams to look good without a lot of filing and filling. The under-body detail was a brake cylinder that you had to paint and then glue in a hole you drilled in the wood floor. The trucks came in about a dozen pieces and had to be assembled while small parts were constantly flying off into no where. The grabs, ladders, and stirrup steps were all separate and had to be attached to the car body by drilling tiny holes using a template. The box car doors could be made to open and close but that was another hour of work. If you managed to keep all the parts together, got everything square, and didn't mess up the paint job too bad drilling all the ladder and grab holes though the metal sides, you could have a pretty decent looking car with about 8 hours work. This kit was looked down upon by the old timers because it was an "easy to assemble kit" and didn't even require soldering, carving, or wood putty. Why, the hobby was going to Hell in a hand-basket!
Fast forward 10 years to the the BB era. "Shake the box" kits, as they were known. No real modeler wanted those things. Molded on detail, one piece plastic body, plastic floors, one piece trucks. Real modelers still built things out of wood and metal, like those old Athearn cars. Why, the hobby was going to Hell in hand-basket!
Fast forward to the present. The era of the BB cars is ending. No more spending even a half-hour putting a BB kit together, just get it out of the box, plop it on the tracks, and you're done. On many of the cars, there are separate stirrup steps, grabs, and ladders, the under-body detail is often as good as what we used to see in scratchbuilt cars. The paint and level of detail in these RTR cars often exceeds what the best kitbasher could do 40 years ago. Why, the hobby is going to Hell in a hand-basket!
I think you can see where this leading. Times change and those of us who have been in the hobby for a while need to change with them or get left behind in the dinosaur pen. There are plenty of great kits still out there. Branchline is just one that comes to mind and they are no shake the box kits. They will be available as long as there's a demand, which will be until about the end of the natural lifetime of we dinosaurs. By then, all models may be 3-D holograms for all I know. RTR equipment is filling a void in this hobby, attracting the model railroader who has more money than time. At least he (or she) is in the hobby and has the choice. Even 10 years ago, RTR generally meant train set junk. How far we have come. I think model railroading is a big tent and I welcome all who come in.
