Railway modelling as object-relation: examining the discursive framing of a serious leisure

Railway modelling involves the reproduction, miniaturisation and mimesis – with various levels of accuracy – of life scenes that are centred around the display and/or running of model trains. Railway modelling is a serious leisure activity inasmuch as it requires continuous engagement on the part of the hobbyists as well as the development of various skills. The scholarly literature on railway modelling has described it as serious leisure, which engages aspects of craft consumption, and which presents the potential for hobbyists to achieve successful ageing. The aim of this article is instead to conceptualise railway modelling as a serious leisure centered on the materiality of the models, which act as conduits for reinforcing particular normatives within the hobby. To do so, it draws on the concept of 'object-relation' to demonstrate how material things configure the relationships and modes of communication within the hobby. In deploying the method of qualitative content analysis as applied to a corpus of issues of a railway magazine, this seeks to show how materiality cements modes of communication and types of sociality within the hobby.