Model trains are hot again
According to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
Shopping for holiday gifts this season, we were reminded of a universal truth in gift buying: What goes around comes around.
Train sets, it seems, are hot again. Sales of model railroads have increased 29% during the past decade, to $289 million a year, according to the World's Greatest Hobby, a model-train industry group based in New York. Throw in all those Lilliputian villages, landscaping and paraphernalia, and by one estimate it's a $500 million annual business.