Technology was more reliable 54 years ago.

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Here is my 1960's controller.

https://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/F ... &mode=view

Built to last. Easy to use. What more does one need?

My granddad had a really complex Lionel train set and town built into his wall like an enclave, with lights.
It would have been from the 50s-60s.
He was an Engineer and built all the scenery / electronics himself.
No computers at all, just switches.

Looking at my grandparents it seems people were also more reliable 54 years ago.

That switch looks familiar.
That's the style I've seen before.
I can only imagine what they're like now.
Likely wireless with 100 preprogrammed things that fail.

I prefer DC control with a nice home made control panel using cluncky toggle switches. I found out how much I loved this when I bought into DCC back some 20 years ago and later realized how much I missed DC.
While computer control was nothing new, even when I tried DCC I never wanted computerized control. Todays DCC control systems use tablets or laptops as a controller and to me it is a route I never want to take. I would go out of my way "NOT" to buy a new car (Even if I had the money) that has a "Tablet-like" dashboard screen as I would find it too distracting. My last car which I only kept for a month or two had a little red "Knightrider-like" speed readout display actually exactly like those red speed figures on the Knight Rider car, and I did not like it as it was far too distracting.
Ordinary dials and I am completely happy as I look at the road ahead and only look when I want to at them. The bright modern dials mean I don't look at where I am driving! Same as satnavs. My mind just does not do satnavs. I don't use radios. I don't like distractions.

Model railway wize, the older DC control done right works just as well if one knows what one is doing and is arguably more reliable and is much more straightforward and easy to use.

This is about as advanced as DC got, and it is not that difficult to use as even a child can get the trains running on this without the need for a handbook. (Early 1980's technology). DCC often needs the manufacturers handbook at the ready just to use it if one is not used to it, and is needed anyway for the more complex stuff. Yet the DC controller above looks complex but isn't complex to use.

https://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/F ... &mode=view

Though the above controller is overkill, one only needs a simple speed knob and direction switch. Here below the speed knob doubles up as a direction switch. The extra switches are for extra resistace for slower speed control for shunting, and half wave rectification where the motor is less likely to stall at slower speeds. (Not really recommended for todays less durable motors, but full wave rectification can be used instead).

https://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/F ... &mode=view

The Powermaster shown again here below... Six section switches (One only needs one on a simple oval layout). This time a variable rectification slidebar usually kept to the right so one has full wave rectification. (Left is half wave). A simple centre off control knob for direction and speed and a little green full power boost button incase a loco stalls. (Just gives full power and if the loco does not move when that was pressed, it is time to get up and go and check it!)

https://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/F ... &mode=view

you're saying that the new model rocket has glitches. But the old model rocket got us to the moon fifty years ago. Ergo all technology form fifty years ago when we went to the moon is more reliable the tech of today. Thats several kinds of fallacious reasoning.

The Saturn V that went to the moon is still the work house of NASA today. They are only now trying to replace it the Artemis. But the Saturn V itself was not created out of whole cloth. It was itself the product of three decades of failed, and often disastorous rocket designs. NASA had plenty of rockets explode on the launch pad in the Fifties, and NASA itself was building upon the earlier German Nazi wartime rocket program - which also had plenty of technical failures before they could get a decent "vengence weapon" able to deliver warheads to kill British civilians. The tech wasnt intrinsically better, or more reliable, in the Forties, or in the Sixties than now. It was just as untried and true for its time as the Artemis is now, if not more so.

Here is some low lights of space rocket tech since 1942 (its in reverse historic order).


https://youtu.be/Z99pGVDZhaY

I think that a major tipping point in the consumer electronics sphere was when Japanese companies started to set up factories overseas, and later began to license foreign companies to use their brand names. Japanese-made video recorders from the later 1970s and earlier 1980s were excellent products, but the ones which bore their names in the 1990s and beyond were generally very poor in terms of build quality.

My first video recorder was a Japanese made ex-rental Sony C7 Betamax machine, bought secondhand in 1984 (probably manufactured in around 1980), which lasted until 1996. After that, I owned around ten VHS machines, mainly Sony and Panasonic, but manufactured in places like Thailand, Slovakia, and even Turkey, all of which had an average lifespan of under two years.

My brother insists on everything German-made if he can find it, even his kitchen tap.

There's no company loyalty for employees today.
Go to any shop for any manufactured product and they'll say they don't even know the inventory.
They couldn't care less if you shop elsewhere.
They expect to stay at their jobs a few months and move on.
There's no customer service or "customer is always right" mentality anymore.

Most people are satisfied to buy crap from Amazon or box stores so long as it's cheaper.
As a result that's the level of craftsmanship we're willing to expect.

If something doesn't work, send it back or discard it.

It's rare to find a cobbler or watchmaker, or anyone with true skills in any field.

The EU destroyed the UK's car, coal, fishing, farming and many other industries by using our own taxpayers money to subsidize mostly German industries against us.
German cars subsidies paid for by the UK had the highest grades of steel. They bought their steel from Margam in Wales. I know this because a steelworker told me what had been going on and this was back when Rover was still in production. He said we have the best ores in the world here which is why the steel works was kept open because it was the only place where the ore was found pure enough to make steels suitable for NASA.
The UK car manufacturers were not subsidized (As to be fair we couldn't) and therefore had to use recycled cheap grades of steel which is why our cars used to rust quicker than German cars did. We could not sell our cars at the prices that German cars were selling.
Just to prove the EU was purposely trying to collapse the UK's industries and quoting a car manufacturer as an example, the most profitable car manufacturer was Reliant due to its unique market in 3-wheeler car sales which under UK law, as they were under 400kg in weight were classed as tricycles so could be driven by those with a motorcycle licence. (Reliant were excellent at this in design and their engine was the worlds first all aluminium engin in mass production and is why they used a very clever lightweight chassis and a fibre glass body to make a reasonable sized vehicle with 3 wheels to comply with the tricycle law).
When Tony Blair sold the UK into the hands of the EU (Arguably without the peoples permission as we did not get the chance to vote), the EU changed the law to allow 4 wheels to be used and heavily subsidized a French car manufacturer called Aixam to directly compete with Reliant and at much reduced prices. These 4 wheeled cars were sold a lot cheaper than Reliants were and suddenly dealers sprang up everywhere!
The EU knew Reliant could not compete as in the past Relaint made the Fox and the Kitten (The Rebel before that) but though these were the direct 4 wheel versions of the Robin (First came the Regals, then the Robins, then came the Realtos, but due to Jasper Carrots calling them all Robin Reliants to avoid being sued with his jokes, some assumed the make was Robin, so the last few years they called the new shape Realtos Robins instead. But at the time Reliant had ceased production of the 4 wheeled version which never sold well despite being nippy little cars, but even if they had done, they were a tad bit heavier than the 400kg max limit and the EU knew this. (For a reference, the 2 seat Smart cars are over 500kg despite having smaller engines then Reliants).
Once Reliant went bankrupt the subsidy for the French built Aixams ceased and the Aixam dealers closed which later forced motorcycle licence holders into either passing their tests for cars or onto quad bikes. (The UK before the EU changed our laws refused to allow quad bikes on the road (Or the offroad trike equivalent) as they did not pass the UK's strict stability test which Reliants had to pass which involved weaving through cones at reasonably high speed which Reliants exceeded this and did it at 70mph when they had to pass it with the early Robins! (Contrary to popular belief, I found the Robin was more stable than the next vehicle I owned which was a Fiat Fiorino van. There is a way to drive a 3 wheeler though as drive them like a 4 wheeled car and one can get into trouble as 3 wheeler vehicles drive differently, and to get them to tip either heavy weights were added on one side (Top Gear!) or they were driven fast in reverse (Mr Bean)).
Now it wasn't just the car industry that the EU attacked in this way. For years the EU (Previously known as the "Common Market") had used the UK contribution (We joined the Common Market part so our taxpayers were paying into that) to subsidise Polish coal so it could flood into the UK market and undercut our own government owned "Not for profit" coal industry. When the miners went on strike our taxpayers were already paying to keep our miners in work and they went on strike again, and like my Dad said. They were already earning three times he did and he was in a specialist trade.
So Margaret was forced to close our coal industry because of this. Then once this happened, the EU withdrew the Polish subsidy on coal.
The EU then went on to desicrate one British industryafter the next using the exact same methods or new methods like they did to desicrate our fishing idustry by using Spain.

But yes. Any countries pwoples, if they are disciplined so they can learn the skills can do really good quality work to make great products, but one needs to follow the money. Allow a country to thrive and it will do well. Help it along and it will do even better!

How to collapse a country or a whole empire?
Stop disciplining the next generation. A few generations further on or even less and watch what happens! Famous examples. Greece and Roman empires which collapsed from within when discipline was relaxed. (There is a big difference between beating and correcting before anyone thinks I don't know).

Both of my older brothers were into train sets. They built a huge one together.

Planes, trains and spaceships.

My granddad was an Aeronautical Engineer. ^
Planes, trains, and spaceships, indeed.

When he died the train stuff all vanished.
We have no idea if someone in the family took it, or sold it.

My mother is still upset about it today.

I hope your brothers have theirs.

Someone in your family knows. Your Mum would be more upset by the covering up of the truth than where the collection had gone. Is the knowing that someone had lied or had not owned up is the issue.

His sons are all dead.
His daughters --- nope, no way.

My grandparents refused to have friends so it has to have been someone in the family.

Where would they put it though?
Why didn't my grandmother notice?

This thing was massive.
It was like something you'd see at Disneyland with automotive design.

No I'm saying I think there's a possibility the moon landings were faked, due to technology not actually being advanced enough to make that happen over 50 years ago. The evidence being that it's never been achieved in the 50+ years since then, and now there being so many problems with Artemis 1 even getting off the ground. Which shouldn't even be happening due to all the claims in all that time, that another moon launch was completely infeasible due to how expensive it would be.

Last edited by Matrix Glitch on 10 Oct 2022, 9:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It does make you wonder. ^

They would have likely sold it to someone at a guess. A trader prehaps? Traders rarely give much for it though compared to its real value but will collect and remove quick.

Typical trader value is 10 to 20% of the real secondhand value. Be lucky to get above 30%, but large collections will likely be less compared to selling each item individually (Which is what most traders sill do).
May have been sold at action but one poses the risk of being found out and one also has a lot of work to do in dissassembling, which is why traders are usually called as they specialize in speedy dissasembling with minimum damage.