The Corona years brought a small boom to the industry. "Old" fans of model railroads and newcomers rediscovered or rediscovered the inherent potential of the hobby. The reason for this is simple. With its offer of deceleration, stress relief, meaningfulness and fun, the hobby provides a counterbalance to a world that is spinning ever faster and is characterized by polycrises. Psychologists at Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) and Erasmus University Rotterdam, for example, found in a study conducted in 2020 that active leisure activities can reduce states of emotional exhaustion. Hardly any other play topic encourages such diverse and intensive leisure activities as the model train hobby, in which the intact world on a small scale temporarily blocks out the overly complex world on a large scale - and builds bridges at the same time. "The Spielwarenmesse 2024 was dominated by the trend of kidults, adults who are young at heart," says Sebastian Topp, NOCH Managing Director. "For us, the trend isn't really new, because model railroads have always been a generational offering that brings young and old together. What is new, however, is that people are openly embracing their hobby again without having to worry about being dissed. We are very pleased about this, but we have also worked hard on this, both with products and in marketing."

The corona pandemic is history, but both old and new customers seem to have remained loyal to model railroads. Market leader Märklin, for example, was also very satisfied with the development of business, which is remarkable in a year in which Germany slipped into recession. Manufacturers of accessories are also not dissatisfied in view of the general conditions of rising energy and material costs. "It's a good sign," says Horst Neidhard, "that the end consumers have stuck with us and, for example, on the Saturday of the Spielwarenmesse in Hall 7A with their passion for the H0, N, G or Z gauges, enthusiastically examined the manufacturers' new products."