Doug,
I can understand your disappointment. My 3 kids are now in there 30's. We never had a permanent layout until they nearly moved out. Every year there was a Xmas tree display layout though, which they all enjoyed. From HO to Lionel to even LGB. As interests changed, so did the scale. The involvement really developed as we started building an actual Xmas village display with Department 56 Dickens ceramics. O gauge became the scale of choice after I purchased my first MTH engine. MTH & DCS changed it all for me and my kids, with all the bells & whistles, pun intended, & command control. At least till they moved out.
My oldest son lost interest once in high school & never really cared again. My middle son & daughter looked forward to it every year until they moved out. Now on there own, none of them have any interest at the moment. For a few years after they were all on their own, I lost interest in the Xmas display, mostly since I built a permanent layout in the basement.
I now have 2 grandsons, & even before they were able to crawl, they've been exposed to trains and of course many other things. That still hasn't re-ignited the interest in my oldest son enough, to have trains in his house for his boys. I did purchase an inexpensive Lionel G gauge Polar Express, which would get set up once in awhile, until it broke.
My grandsons, now 6 & 4, look forward to running my trains & slot cars every time they come over our house. Setting up the Xmas village is also something they look forward to each year. By the way, I constantly remind them that the trains are not just mine, but ours. Of course we have Thomas & friends, an O gauge & scale Polar Express, the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express, besides my collection of MTH & Lionel O scale trains. I even built an O gauge "Play Safe" streamlined pacific from theMax Fleischer classic 1936 animated cartoon, for my grandsons 5th birthday present during the Covid19 shut down. Of course I had to build a temporary outdoor layout so we could run the engine & stay socially distance safe. I just happened to think how ironic that the movie name was "Play Safe"!
After all this history & effort to explain my situation, is there a guarantee my grandsons will be life long model train enthusiasts. Probably not, but for now, I'm enjoying the ride as long as it lasts!
One thing's for sure, as "endless tracks" mentioned above, they'll remember that they had other alternatives presented to them by a Grandfather who loved them very much! Hopefully their whole life.
Enjoy your grandsons & your trains,
Joe
