Hi,
My biggest concern is the hobby itself. How will trains compete with RC cars, RC planes, WII games, and DS games. What can we do to make it fun for
the younger generation. Why couldn’t the industry come up with engines
that run on batteries instead of electricity. I believe kids shy away from
the electrical aspect of the hobby. It can be a little imtidating for me.
Soddering wire, installing decoders.
Chris
airplanes,
As a member of “the younger generation” all I have to say is I wouldn’t be in the hobby if batteries replaced DC powerpacks and DCC command systems. One of the reasons I’m not intrested RC cars/ airplanes is that the planes and cars that can be run continusly (gas powered models) are extremely expencive, and the idea of running for 1/2 hour and recharging for 5 hours never appealed to me. This is why I wouldn’t like battery opperated trains. I when run trains I prefer to do so for several hours, and if everything was battery powered I’d be swapping batterys, waiting for them to recharge, or be buying new ones all the time. Also I enjoy wiring. I recently finished the wiring on my DC layout and found myself wishing I had a bigger layout just so I could add more blocks[:-^]. I think a major intmidating fator is cost. If you don’t want to use DC block wiring you’ll need a DCC system or operations get boring (also at this time DCC is really being pushed as a must have thing for the hobby). That means you’ll not only need a starter set but a DCC system to get into the hobby. Then you’ll need a decoder for the locomtive you just bought in your starter set in order to run it. Then you’ll have to install it. It’s intimidating, pricewise and because your first project as a MRR will be installing a DCC decoder[#dots].I think that not pushing DCC on incoming members of the hobby or including basic DCC systems and decoder equipped locomotives in starter sets WITHOUT making the price skyrocket is a good place to start. Bachmann is the only company I’ve ever seen do this and I think it’s a good idea. As far as competition goes, we have alot of it. Computers, Video games, Cell Phones, and e
I am 23 and am involved in this hobby for a multitude of reasons.
I used to be involved in RC cars as a kid. The battery life wasn’t long lasting then and if you ask me, it still isn’t. Yes, as a kid it was fun but you can’t do it when the weather is bad and everything is wet. You couldn’t play with RC very long indoors.
Another reason is cost. I can purchase an RC car or plane and maybe play with it for an hour or two. I could not fly a plane because I would spend all of that money and something could go wrong and the thing would crash and be destroyed.
I also noticed that in RC there is no scenery aspect to it. You never see an RC race track that is accessorised with miniture grand stands or miniature pit crew areas. You never see a miniature airport terminal and tower at most RC air fields.
That is why I love this hobby. You not only model trains, but you can model a multitude of other things to give the layout personality.
Well, I’m in my mid-40’s, so I don’t know what generation you’d call me. I have 3 boys, aged 13, 8, and 6. The oldest is a Wii, DS, and computer junkie, but still enjoys running trains with his Dad for an hour or so. The younger two use the Wii, DS, and computer, and watch some TV, but they’re equally avid train lovers, and both of them want their OWN layouts (where we already have two, mine and theirs) We have RC cars, and they only hold the kids attention for about 15-20 minutes, where they can “play” with trains for hours on end.
Admittedly, I wouldn’t let either of the younger kids near a soldering iron without me, but they watch keenly while I do it (and I suck, btw; I’m as likely to melt something as I am to solder it). They’re not very good at
The one constant through the history of model railroading is the trains, not the technology. We had wind-up, spring driven trains at one time. No wiring at all, and the new fad, electric trains, got rid of that.
Take a look at the new captains of industry, the leaders of tomorrow. They embrace the technology. DCC, with its modulated square waves and bus addressing, is right in the forefront of today. The young people of today who are embracing this hobby are not just “playing with trains,” they are gaining the hands-on experience with computer control systems that will propel them to the forefront of tomorrow’s workforce.
As the battles of Europe were won on the playing fields of Eaton, so too will the economies of the 21st century be dominated by those who rise to the challenges of the new technology. Don’t ask for simplification of this hobby. Instead, demand more complexity, more concentration, more involvement so that we will all learn.
For hundreds of years now, railroads have joined cultures and thus promoted peace and economic development. And even our small-scale pikes have their part to play as we move forward towards a brighter tomorrow.
If that is your biggest concern in life, you are a very lucky man - I (like a lot of other parents) have probably a few dozen worries about my kids and the future that looms way ahead of “will my kids enjoy model railroading in exactly the same way as I have done when they grow up?”
In my experience, the best way of making something fun for your kids is to not try too hard to make them like it.
They will find what they like on their own, just as you found what you liked. But surprisingly often, most of us will find that we were quite a bit more influenced by our parents than we thought when we were adolescents [:D]
Also - don’t worry too much about the future of the hobby.The death of the hobby has been predicted for quite a few decades, and it is not dead by a good margin yet. And even if the hobby should change in a major way or even die, it is not one of the greater tragedies of life.
Our great grandparents did not have either the time or the money for much in the way of hobbies. No man knows what the future will bring. Perhaps our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will live lives pretty different from the lives we live.
Pretty much the only thing we can be sure about with the future is, as the Danish scientist Niels Bohr dryly observed: “it is hard to make predictions, and especially about the future” [:D]
In any case, I am sure our kids and their descendants will figure out how to live their lives and hopefully have quite a bit of fun along the way, without me spending too much time worrying about whether my h
In answer to your question, I have G gauge in the backyard, HO in the basement. the HO runs with DCC, the G gauge is battery powered/radio controlled. The batteries are not a problem as I keep the diesels on a trickle charge in the garage when not running. I actually like the battery power, but is not practical for HO at this time, who knows next year.
Bob
Being a kid in his 50’s I can say without hesitation that you can’t make something fun for a person who has no interest in it in the first place. If you want to appeal to the hi-tech geek kid there are computer controlled programs for model railroads, programs for CTC switching and how about the electronic complexity of DCC it self. A lot of us just know enough to get by and a lesser few know a whole lot more to help us unfortunate one’s who are just getting by. Heck MIT has a model railroad club your never going to find bigger or better geeks then you find there, so the technical appeal is there if thats what floats your boat. I saw their web page and every picture had some young guy with a laptop doing something to his trains.
There is a T shirt that has been around the Harley community for years that says if I have to explain you won’t understand.The same can be said about any hobby. I fail to see the attraction of hitting some little white ball from hole to hole but show me a big articulated steamer pulling a coal drag or the SP daylight and I get all warm and fuzzy.
The same goes for model railroading, the bug bites you and you never recover. Maybe you take a break form it for one reason or another but I think you will be hard pressed to find one of us who is in to trains that wasn’t interested in them as a kid.
My youngest son is totally bonkers over trains thats because his dad is an incurable train nut do I hope his interest last and it’s something we both can share as time goes on, of course I do but if he is like his older brother who has a passing interest in model trains but would much rather play his guitar (or at least thats what he calls it) I may be disappointed but hey thats the way it goes. As long as their happy, healthy and don’t get brought home by the cops I’m ok with that.
I’m 26 and I’ve got fond memories of sitting on the fold-down 4x8 “layout” (really just a double oval) with a Tyco train set and “playing” with them for hours on end. I built my first “layout” (again a 4x8 plywood double oval) when I was about 10 and ran trains on it for hours on end, perfectly content. Then I got more and more interested into other topics, flying, working on cars, girls (what teenager doesn’t at some point?), then college came, and here I am more or less just getting back into it. But instead of buildin a plywood empire like I’d started with, I’m more interested in the realistic possibilities, like making a true, operating layout! My daughter 2-1/2 loves trains, which means we can get online and watch videos, or go down to the railroad tracks and watch trains, and I’m also sure that once I get the space, I’ll be able to get her into operating a layout with me.
Like what everyone else says, you’ve gotta at least introduce the idea to the younger ones, and if they don’t like it, then they don’t like it.
I understand what you are trying to say, but your concepts are a little off. Batteries are a stored form of electricity, so only the method of delivery is different, eh? Check out some of the garden railroad stuff, some makers are trying out the battery power/ RC controls potential market. Warning, it is Spendy! If you are really interested in trains check out TAMR or find some clubs that might have a youth division, and participate in whatever part interests you. Not everyone is a wiring or scenery whiz, some like to learn about operation, to learn why the prototypes did what they did. As with any hobby there is a learning curve…enjoy! John
I don’t see any of the above being serious competition to serious model railroading - and I became a serious model railroader years before my beard started to grow.
As a child, and even now, I am a hands in the machinery kind of person - pretty pictures on a monitor screen don’t move me. To get my attention, show me a three-dimensional item that has lots of interesting bits and pieces, that moves and that brings back memories of times and places I enjoyed. Slot cars, RC anything and virtual items can’t compete. (If I see a photo of something interesting, my first reaction is, “How can I make a model of that?”)
As for aircraft modeling, I did build - and crash - a few. That’s when I decided that trains were more likely to survive. (Later I spent years bending wrenches on Sam’s aircraft, 1:1
So many questions…
Why did most of us gravitate to that new HO Scale train modeling? Spending our paper-route pennies buying Model Railroader magazines for an exorbitant 75 cents? And, why would we forgo spending more money for the three-rail Lionel, with the fake smoke, and vibrating cattle pen accessories rotating into cattle cars, that a cousin displayed only at Christmas?
When I was “a young-un” – there was another hobby competing with that other new hobby of R-T-R HO Scale Santa Fe figure-eight train sets (you could only buy Athearn Santa Fe in the middle of Pennsylvania) that were a big deal because engines were powered by only two rails instead of three rails.
That other hobby: Scratch-built balsa wood-frame, shrink-paper-covered, model airplanes that had them new-fangled gas-powered engines, all controlled by guide-wire handles, where the operators stood in the middle of the football field, on a slow-practice morning & afternoon, flying the extremely loud airplanes in circles (remember the wire), while trying not to get tangled-up with the other half-dozen flyers, each taking their turn to get on the field of play?
What happened to these cool airplanes? Their wire-tied operators? Trapped indoors during the winter months? Where did they all disappear to?
RC toys and video games have been around a long time and they haven’t killed the model railroad hobby and there is no indication that they will. Model railroading does not have to compete against these other interests to remain vibrant. It has always been a niche hobby, appealing to a small but ardent following. I’ve been in this hobby over 40 years and I can never remember a time when someone wasn’t predicting its demise for one reason or another. The hobby is still here and as healthy as ever. All one has to do is look at all the new offerings coming out from a multitude of manufacturers to know that the hobby is thriving. These people are in business to make money and they wouldn’t be spending the money on new products and innovations if there wasn’t a market for them.
Back around 1958 or so there was an outfit that offered HO F7 A-units powered by dry-cell batteries. IINM they used a Globe/Athearn body shell. A local hobby shop had a few of them and they ran pretty good, but they didn’t sell very well. I don’t think they were on the market very long. They were mentioned in Model Railroader Magazine back at that time. I can’t remember the name of the manufacturer.
I’d hazard a guess that most kids know what a train set is. If the interest is strong enough, then it’s incredibly easy to start diving deeper via the internet and finding out that there is a world of possibilities in this hobby beyond the toy train stage.
Wiring is one of those things that will be a necessity, some will like it, others will hate it, but it’s still a necessity, and not just the basic track power, switch machines, block power, routing, etc.
It doesn’t have to be that complicated, not at first, but one can learn in stages as progress is made so there shouldn’t be a huge learning curve, and there are plenty of how-to books available on any subject.
The hobby has never been as easy to access as it is now and it’s getting a little easier all the time with downloadable articles and ezines available.