So, coming back to model railroading after 25 years away from it, I re-subscribed to Model Railroader magazine. Wow, kinda sad. The magazine is now about 1/3 as thick as it was when I last subscribed 25 years ago. Still good content, but what jumped out at me is the almost non-existence of advertising content, including pages and pages of "mail order" dealers. This is sad because it demonstrates shockingly how interest in the hobby seems to have spiraled downward. The same thing goes for hobby stores. There used to be an awesome Hobby Shop only 20 minutes away from my house, with train layouts in almost every scale. It's been gone for years now too. Thankfully there are still some bigger dealers now with "online" shopping. Convenient, for sure, but it's still sad to see all the others gone. Time, and progress(?) marches on, I guess.