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Model trains don't have the broad appeal they once did. The same year GMMES was founded, 1953, toy manufacturer Lionel hit record sales of $33 million.
火车模型不再像以前那样具有广泛的吸引力。格雷芬德海洋与工程模型协会成立的那年，1953年，玩具制造商Lionel创下3300万美元的销售记录。
A visionary Lionel sales executive named Arthur Raphael, who died the year before,
该公司中一位富有远见的销售主管，阿瑟·拉斐尔在前一年去世。
believed that if the company could keep kids interested in trains until age 14, they'd be hooked for life.
他相信，如果公司能在14岁前一直让孩子们对火车感兴趣，他们将终生为此而迷。
But with the rise in popularity of NASA and the Space Age, Legos and toy guns and Hot Wheels, and eventually Nintendos and Xboxes,
但随着美国宇航和太空时代（Space Age）、乐高（Legos）、玩具枪支和风火轮（Hot Wheels）、以及最后的任天堂（Nintendos）和Xboxes公司人气上升，
Lionel (and its British competitor, Hornby) collapsed into bankruptcy and languished through various buyouts.
致使Lionel及其英国竞争对手霍恩比（Hornby）惨遭破产，后来经各种收购而萎靡不振。
While it's unclear whether their obsolescence has made classic train models more valuable, they're still zealously sought-after at auctions by collectors,
虽然尚不清楚，他们的过时是否已经使经典的火车模型变得更有价值，但他们仍然是各种拍卖会上受到收藏家们热切追捧的对象，
including loco-obsessed celebrities such as Rod Stewart and hooked-for-life fanatics such as my father, a Lionel addict,
这些人中包括迷恋火车机车的名人比如洛·史都华，以及痴迷一辈子的狂热爱好者，就像我父亲，他痴迷于Lionel。
who, in what he insists makes perfect sense, has invested my meager inheritance into Southern Pacific and 763E Hudson electrics, each costing $2,500. Sir Rod declined to comment.
他把我那一丁点遗产投资到南太平洋铁路公司（Southern Pacific）和763E哈得逊电气公司（763E Hudson electrics），每家公司花掉了2500美元。他这么做，一点也不让人感到惊讶。
They're pieces of art, my dad says.
罗德爵士拒绝置评，而我父亲则说，它们是艺术品。
Anyway, as with anything of value and beauty, model trains have sometimes attracted the attention of thieves and vandals.
不管怎样，像任何具有价值又美丽的东西一样，火车模型有时也会引起盗贼和破坏公物者的注意。
In October 2017 a thief gripping a tiny flashlight with his teeth climbed through the ceiling of a shop in Devon, making off with expensive locomotives.
2017年10月，一个小偷用牙咬着一个小手电筒，爬上德文郡一家商店的天花板，偷走了价格昂贵的火车机车。
Roughly a year later, a drunk burglar with a metal butter knife attempted to rob an 85-year-old retiree of his prized model railroad collection at his Lincolnshire cottage.
大约一年后，一个喝醉酒的窃贼用金属黄油刀试图抢劫一位85岁退休老人，这位老人在林肯郡的小屋中收藏着珍贵的铁路模型。
(According to the Telegraph, they tussled, and the octogenarian and his wife sat on the tosspot until the police arrived.)
（据《每日电讯报》的报道，他们扭打在一起，这位八旬老人和他的妻子压在酒鬼身上，直到警察赶到。）
And only this past May, there was a smash-and-grab at a model railway exhibit in Stamford.
就在今年5月，在斯坦福举行的一个铁路模型展会上，发生了砸窗抢劫事件。
