Re: Turning brass domes--what do I need??

Posted by Jim Courtney on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Turning-brass-domes-what-do-I-need-tp2591p2609.html

Derrell,

Thanks for the Sherline/NWSL information.  I'll look into it.  Should I win the lottery, actually be able to retire and have time to experiment, fabrication my own parts is still appealing to me.

As to supporting American manufacturers (and New Zealand products seem fine as well--". . . look for, the Kiwi label"):

I've tried to make a point of supporting my own local retail hobby shops, always paying retail to help them, so they would always be there when I needed a particular bottle of paint or some S scale 2x3s on a Saturday afternoon for a project that couldn't wait.  

But then Al Gore had to go and invent the internet! Online sales began driving them out of business. In the greater Seattle area, one after another shop has closed. The only remaining store of consequence is Steve DePolo's Inside Gateway. Steve's current business plan is to be the last hobby shop in the Pacific Northwest to go out of business. I see no reason to order things from Walthers, as they had more to do with the destruction of the American retail hobby shop than anyone. So, if I need to replace or add something, I try to order from Caboose Hobbies if they have it in stock. I haven't actually been in the store since 2001, but somehow it makes me feel better, just knowing that they are still there.

These days, most hobby purchases are done online, usually direct from the manufacturer, ie wheel sets and metric screws from NWSL if that is what I need, order my plastic castings from Grandt directly, or call Keren at PBL if I need a pair of trucks, soldering supplies or maybe a new C&S kit to bash.

WARNING--Non-railroad Philosophical Content:

I fear things are only going to change more radically. This latest cultural revolution, the tech/information revolution, is only about 35 years old.  It took the industrial revolution about 100 years to run its course, from Robert Fulton's steamboat to commercial aviation.  We are building an American economy so specialized that only about 1/3-1/2 of the population has the smarts to participate and benefit from it. You can't even repair a car without being computer literate. And the human beings actually assembling our gadgets are all overseas. The vast sea of clerical staff, that typed, filed, copied and moved paper around are long gone. Agriculture requires far fewer people to harvest and distribute huge amounts of food. Increasingly, America doesn't build anything other than niche items.

And robotics and rapid printing technologies are in their infancy. I can easily imagine a day when every home has a 3-D printer, just like a washer, dryer or dishwasher. Instead of going to a store and buying housewares, you go online, buy a piece of software for $22.50, download it and print a set of dishes, say, or a new shower head or faux silverware or Cooke domes in 3/16" scale. And there go the jobs involving retail, inventory management and shippers like UPS and FedEx.

So what happens when half the population can't really participate in the economy?  What do we do with all those people?  That's the question neither political party wants to address. It does not bode well for future expendable income to spend on wonderful things like scale model trains, so the model train manufacturers stay in business. In truth, we're already pretty far along that road. In America in 2015, it really sucks to be uneducated or below average in intelligence--statistically every other person you meet on the street.

End of depressing rant.