They haven't done this (or at least I haven't seen it) for a few (Maybe 5) years, but the HIA (Hobby Industry Association, I think) did an annual survey of the US model train market. It was over $420 Mil at the wholesale level, meaning presumably $1 Bil at MSRP, although probably more like $800 Mil at street prices. It actually went up a bit to $430 Mil, even in recession years, although there was hand-wringing at the time that it represented more a bunch of retirees starting back up in Lionel, and even just mature modelers upgrading their fleets with more expensive detail, DCC, Sound, etc., rather than new modelers. BTW, it still was the biggest selling hobby in their world, beating knitting, RC, etc. While at least 15 years old now, I recall the Sam Posey book "Playing with trains" where he interviewed someone at Walthers. They stated that in that year, they sold 29 miles of HO scale track. That's about 153,000 LF. Again, no context as to how many or who. It may be a bunch of old timers expanding our layouts, but if you figure a 4 x 8 layout with a double oval of track plus sidings, that might average 30 LF of track. So, if that represented about half expansions and half new 4 x 8 layouts, that would be about 2,400 starter layouts in HO. I imagine sales may be less now, but who knows? My takeaway is that this is a huge country, so even a small % of us involved in MRR can add up. If new N equals new HO, I would expect similar layout numbers, but approximately half the track sold. We still see kids fascinated by moving trains at train shows, so the natural appeal hasn't changed. Houses are actually getting smaller statistically now, after decades of the average home size rising, which can only help N. I always liked this topic, although none of us really knows the true sales numbers. It's just fun to speculate.
