Neil;
Thoughts from the colonies: (at least my part of the colonies!)
1) Locomotives (steam) are certainly getting built. In our club, more than ever. Some of these have huge 7-1/4" or 5" copper boilers.
2) The clubs are going towards providing amusement rides. We CAN NOT haul the public on our elevated track, only on our ground line. We gain club members because many of the new people love the interaction with the public. The public loves steam locomotives, especially interesting if you comprehend the next point:
3) I was raised without steam railways. But, I still enjoy them; used to do a lot of full size steam work, now sticking to models. We are about the same age, from what I understand. The public loves steam locomotives, despite the lack of them during their lives.
4) Sailors have the "two-foot-itis" disease, whereby, if they only had two more feet of boat length, they'd be able to… Model Engineers are the same way. I almost got caught up in it until I realized the supporting costs of building large locomotives would delay retirement by 5+ years to pay for the house and copper and workshop changes, so I'm sticking to 3-1/2 and maybe 2-1/2 and gauge 1 in the future.
5) Compare the cost of a Rob Roy boiler kit to a golf club membership, or the weekly petrol costs to commute long distances to/from work (a real problem here) and the Rob Roy boiler seems incredibly inexpensive.
Just my thoughts – John.