Why Do We Feel The Need To Have Young People Take Up Our Hobby?

Ted S posted:

I wonder whether people who grew up without seeing, or reading about steam locomotives and passenger trains will come to places like Hamburg (RCT&HS) and Strasburg (RR Museum of PA?)  These are the trains I love, and inspire me to model.  But will the younger generations appreciate them!?

I'm not young (47) but I'm definitely not old enough to remember steam engines or passenger trains.  And yet, here I am.  That said, I think your point is valid.  I share your concern and I'm sure the hobby's numbers will be smaller for just that reason.

By and large, this is an old guy hobby.  If you expose kids to it, they'll pick it up.. a few decades from now.

I recall as a youngster, when reading the model train magazines, It was all old guys in them.  I didn't see any kids or young people'... in the mags.  I see plenty of kids at the shows around the country.  I would think some will get into the hobby.  In time and as time goes by, sooner or later they will tire of video games. If they still have any imagination left... they'll be fine.  Of course the products will also still have to be available'...

One of the key points mentioned is the fact that parents  'don't have the time' or don't interact with their children much the way our parent did way back when. 

The point of having a child is to love them, nurture them, expose then to the world. When you leave them to the 'electronic babysitters', they lose that creativity, imagination and become introverted. 

My son is not your typical kid - loves to be outside playing basketball, biking; loves Legos and Hot Wheels. Loves to be with me and his mother. If I'm stepping out to run an errand or swing by the firehouse (I'm a volunteer firefighter) he will jump in the car with me. If I'm in the train room he'll hang with me and run the trains. If he's outside shooting baskets, I'll go outside and shoot some with him. 

He's not passionate as I am over trains  - his passion is coins, science and cars. But that's ok with me.

The takeaway is that truly spending time with children - talking with them, doing things with them and exposing them to different aspects of life, hopefully down the road, they'll want to do the same with their children.

I don't. That doesn't mean I wouldn't try and help or encourage some youngun' who showed interest, but I'm not going recruiting.

No one in my family had any interest in trains, but I acquired one at a very early age....not even sure how, where, or why, but it happened. I think if it's meant to be, it will occur one way or another. The old "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." applies, I think.

Simon

A couple key points people are missing:

1. This hobby isn't cheap. If someone is looking to get into the hobby a decent starter set is around $200. Not a whole lot of people have hundreds of dollars lying around leftover from their budget to spend on expensive hobbies, especially people in their teen years, early 20's, or those just starting a family. In high school, undergrad, and my master's program I was out of the hobby as I didn't have the extra money or time to spend on it. Several years out of school I now do.

2. Space. If one doesn't have a house with a basement it's hard to find the space to build a layout. Many younger people live in apartments, possibly with roommates. They may not have the space for a layout. 

These are probably 2 of the biggest factors in limiting entrance into the hobby. Think back to when you were young. It would have been pretty hard to justify dropping $1500 on a locomotive. As people advance through their careers (and age) they end up earning more and having some disposable income, hence why there are more older people in an expensive hobby.

I'm 28, couple railroading friends, one baby.

I concur with several points made. I don't recruit either, and I don't feel obligated to.

It's hard to fault kids or parents choices when trains are selling for $200-to crazy money, and a used video game is $25. Plus, video games can build cooperation and problem solving in ways a very budget layout could never do - lots of bang for the buck.

I also feel like the roundy-round layouts lose interest. Prototype operations have a purpose and attract a certain type of person, regardless of age. I think a significant number of airsofters or reenactors could come to the hobby to operate a model train in realistic manner.

Griff Murphey posted:

I gave my 12 year old grandson, who was adopted from Ukraine at age 11, an MTH Crescent Limited 4-6-2 and Lionel cars to match. Unfortunately my operating briefing was incomplete. He had a derailment and did the rerail with full power still applied - the ensuing sparks which as we know can be spectacular, scared him and worse, his mom (my daughter) so I doubt it’s been run since. Don’t make my mistake! Be sure you do a full briefing on the nature of electricity. My daughter who grew up around my trains now thinks they are a fire hazard... End of my $400 investment (track, cars, power) not counting the gift of the 4-6-2.

Not only a complete briefing, but often it's helpful after an incident to immediately recreate the incident with the student, and go though the proper steps showing him what to do, maybe laugh a little and put him at ease. If a student has an incident that frightens him, often the best thing is to immediately repeat it and go over it, and let the student understand what to do and be confident and not afraid of what happened. Otherwise, sometimes the student stays scared and won't engage in the activity any more.

When I think younger, I think of people in their 40s or 50s. Those who might buy sets for their kids.  Without those people, the hobby will die.  

A lot of good thoughts here (and one or two absurd ones). Mostly good though. As with any aspect of our lives it is usually the result of many forces and factors. Two that haven't been mentioned here are: First the cost of trains as a percent of income as compared to say 1950. There is a significant disparity there. Two is that in many parts of the country trains are not a visible part of our everyday life as they were 70 years ago. Many of the communities that were served by rail are now served by trucks, and passenger service is almost non-existent. People don't see trains as a part of their everyday life. In fact, think how many people on this forum frequently ask what color ballast should I use or what color should I paint the rails? For me it's a no brainer with the CSX main line 4 miles away, but not so easy for many here. My two cents worth.

I think one other thing that is going for the hobby is real trains. Granted as stated above not many people are them with their daily lives. With excursion trains being the only main way to see anything, this is where the seed may be planted. I know the BR&W by me always has events for the kids. Last year's Railfest had a few working layouts. I know Christmas time is especially hot for the Railroad as Santa starts in November sometime.

My dad introduced me and brother very young into trains. I vaguely remember being 3 yrs old going to see PRR 1223 on her last weekend running at Strasburg. I do however remember very well taking my finger and running it down the gold paint on the driver spokes and then attempting to give it a taste, much to my mom's pure horror. (Thanks dad for paying more attention to the fireman shoving coal)

Since then, I have pursued a career in railroading, now modeling O scale hi-rail trains, and also going to see and operate trains whenever the opportunity arrises.

My brother took to hosting railroad photo charters, and brings his two kids to Strasburg every chance he gets. They've even built their own little layout, and custom painted models for each member of our family.

I can't thank my dad enough for exposing us to something that has become such a critical and therapeutic part of my life. Not to mention, my way of life income wise. I'm 32 now, if the time ever comes that I have kids of my own, you better believe trains WILL be a part of the family.

A train layout is a wonderful way to teach children about their community.

With houses and businesses, churches and schools, fire stations and hospitals, restaurants and sports fields, the child has a chance to see the many parts of their home town.

A good economy may mean a new railroad siding for new industries that employ their neighbors.  A train station offers a place to start a journey to other places. 

And older steam engines can take them back in history to when in-door plumbing had not replaced the outhouse.  Ugh gross.  Really Dad?  They sat over a hole in the ground?  What do you mean no electricity?  They had to hand-pump their water?  Eggs come from chickens on the farm?  No cell phone towers?  How did they operate their computers?

There are many lessons building a railroad can teach, even to those of us much older.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Lot of good, thoughtful answers here. I think part of the answer is people are looking back to when they were kids and the path that has led them and others to 'come back' to 3 rail as adults, and assume that the same thing is important for the future of the hobby. Even on the scale side of things, in N and HO, you read a lot of narratives in Model Railroader and other places how the person 'got into" N or HO as a kid, then got into cars and girls and whatnot, then went to school, got married, etc, then came back as they got older. With O three rail many of us did have them as kids (I am in my mid 50's now, so I missed the 'peak' of the PW Lionel experience, but I inherited trains from my brother), then did come back. I think with the introduce kids to it the idea is even if the kid doesn't get into it then, they will have seen it, and the bug will hit later, and I think there is truth to that. I don't share the picture of young kids today, that they are somehow defective because they aren't in to trains, it must be the internet, must be social media and video games, they are 'easy', etc, I think simply that as always has been, there are other distractions. Back in the 1950's, kid hit their teens, and it was often cars that caught them, or sports, or dating , or doing more in the outside world as they got older...and back then, it was television that was turning them into mindless idiots in the 'great wasteland' as the head of the FCC called it in the early 60's.

I think anything we can do to sell the hobby, to kids and their parents, is important, not just because train companies make money out of things like starter sets that allows them to produce other things, but because some kids will enjoy it, and not to mention the parents might get interested, does happen. 

One thing, while trains are obviously an expensive toy, as has been written on here many times they always were, back in the golden age there was a reason Lionel produced things like the scout set and had lower end engines, it was because the PW products were pretty expensive relative to salaries at the time. We think of the layouts we have today, but with kids back then they would get new items for their birthday or Christmas or whatnot, a new switch would be a big deal, a new freight car, engines were a big deal (I was lucky, I got into trains in the early 70's, back when people were selling PW stuff for nothing, 50 bucks and you got a ton of stuff, so price wasn't better back then, it is just that the trains were a hot item and kids would get things piecemeal.

Keep in mind, too, that the hobby has changed a great deal, it is not really a 'toy' any more, even the semi scale stuff is a lot more intricate than most things in the PW period, and the upper end engines, while in relatively price not that far off from the top end of the PW era, offer scale fidelity and features kids could only dream of back then. 

If I was going to retitle the thread, it would be something familiar that we need to bring 'new blood' into the hobby, rather than necessarily 'young people' alone. Introducing young people is about planting a seed for the future, the other part is getting new people into the hobby of various ages, so there is a base in the future. I have to agree that with trains across the board it tends to be an older hobby and remembering back when I started reading train magazines in the mid 70's, it always was a hobby of those in their 30's on up, with more than a few gray hairs in it, too.

In some ways there is a parallel with something else I know more than a bit about, classical music, it has the same concerns with 'aging out' of its audience, but I have read articles from a long time ago that talked about the same thing,so perhaps it always has been something older people tended to be attracted to. Another parallel is people worry because thanks to what has happened in schools, with tight budgets and the like, arts/music teaching has been cut back or slashed, so kids may not be exposed to what kids in earlier generations were, and they worry they won't then pick it up later....much like we worry that kids aren't exposed to trains that much, aren't exposed to the model versions either, and thus will never get interested. 

modeltrainsparts posted:

A lot of good thoughts here (and one or two absurd ones). Mostly good though. As with any aspect of our lives it is usually the result of many forces and factors. Two that haven't been mentioned here are: First the cost of trains as a percent of income as compared to say 1950. There is a significant disparity there. 

Are trains more expensive or less expensive now?

Gas was a quarter a gallon, a hundred bucks a week was a decent salary, a car cost (maybe) a couple of  thousand dollars and depending on where you lived, a house might have been 4 figures. Not counting pennies.

And going to see the Phillies was painful no matter what it cost. Still is.

Gerry 

"I'm not young (47)"

Depends on perspective.

When i first introduced our children they loved the small 2 track 4x8 layout even had a pair of and still do today of 2343 F3s that i hand painted there names on each of the shells that were in pour shape.

Took them to some train shows but nowadays they do not go by them as they have busy lives otherwise.

Without a proportion of the younger generation having an interest as we depart what will eventually happen in my opinion does not look good for model trains as sales will eventually decline .

DaveP posted:

One of the key points mentioned is the fact that parents  'don't have the time' or don't interact with their children much the way our parent did way back when. 

The point of having a child is to love them, nurture them, expose then to the world. When you leave them to the 'electronic babysitters', they lose that creativity, imagination and become introverted. 

He's not passionate as I am over trains  - his passion is coins, science and cars. But that's ok with me.

The takeaway is that truly spending time with children - talking with them, doing things with them and exposing them to different aspects of life, hopefully down the road, they'll want to do the same with their children.

DaveP,

Very well stated!

Aside from all the other alternatives now available to kids and adults, trains are no longer important. Do kids play with any TOYS today? Please name a few. I have 10 grand children, and I think they have been mostly wedded to their "screens".

Over the years on this forum, I've gotten the impression that some of you "worry" about getting new blood into the hobby so that new goodies will continue to be produced for you...or so someone will be there to purchase your stuff.

One of my grandsons was my "train buddy" from 6 months old to 7 years old. We played with trains, watched train videos, and took MANY trips to Strasburg (often over-nighters). But at around age 7, he no longer showed any interest (including "visiting" my layout). Frankly, this does not bother me at all, since this is just one of MY many hobbies.

I build some of my old plastic models with my grandson weekly in the summer, I put on the glue, he does the assembly. Last year he set up two loops of Lionel for Christmas. He is a fanatic Lego builder and easily does the 16 and up ones. I think he will always build something.

As a dentist myself, at age 70, I think the new generation of dentists who are not taught lab work in  school nor subjected to the infamous chalk carving test for dental school admission, don't have the hands us old ones do. Selling a lot of work is the strong point they have, I think.

My take on it is our own fears that the hobby will die off after we are gone.  But i think we are just in a "down' cycle and the hobby will grow again as the next round of modelers retire and become more active.  In today's society, there is precious little time to attend train shows or frequent the remaining hobby shops.  So many of the younger modelers are "hidden" from the older generation.  The younger ones do not need or have time for the socializing part that many of us are used to doing, be it at shows, the hobby shop or local club.   Modern technology has enabled them to model behind the scenes so to speak. Pretty much anything one might need is available from ones own smartphone.  One can order and pay for it while on break at work, or while laying in bed after putting the kids down for the night.  One day these "hidden" younger modelers will slowly come out of the woodwork as they retire and become more socialy active in the hobby.  Atleast that is my take on it from taking to others and setting up a layout at shows.  I see many younger folk having an interest in the hobby, is it as many as it was 10 or 15 years ago, no, but still an interest.   

We as an active hobbiest need to promote the hobby in the best possible light and not bemoan the state of anything while among the general public at shows, shops ect.  We as an active hobbiest need to promote there is a path into the hobby for EVERY income level, in every scale from Z to G.   G and O being the best for children with S and smaller for teens and adults do to fragility.  If you own a hobby shop, stocking sets such as the Harry Potter and Polar Express are very important.  This includes the "add ons"  Both of those series are still very popular with kids and adults alike.  I see way to much negativity at shows, from dealers and hobbiests.  If you want to moan and groan, do it away from the public eye.  Nobody wants to join a hobby that breeds negativity and grumpy old men.   For dealers that carry lots of used HO.   Make up a few decent sets, a decent locomotive, a few cars, small oval of track and power pack.  Put it in a "pop can" flat and price it fairly.  Many parents have no clue what it takes to make a good complete set.  This will save time and increase sales.     Just my thoughts.    Mike