I have been to a few train shows here locally and I love seeing that there are still a few young people starting in the hobby. By this I mean the kids that have grown out of the “Thomas the Tank Engine” age but still like trains.
Also many new companys have been started in the past few years the have been started by this younger generation.
BLMA has grown very rapidly because of all the new never before seen models that they have produced. Personally I attribute this to the youthfull enthusiasm of the young owner.
And believe it or not T’s Custom Trees is owned by an 18 yo kid. Again, lots of new cool products that are bringing new life to the hobby.
Kinda makes you wonder where the hobby is headed in general?
It is great that some younger individuals are still interested in the hobby. Even though my own children never got fully vested in the hobby they may be re interested later in life. There is one one teen in our club that is a great asset to have. He is a cracker jack electronics whiz that has done a few projects for the club layout. He also shows an enthusiasm that inspires some of us old timers to show more interest than we would if he was not there. The hobby will get through another generation for sure.
I was at a train show this past weekend. It had a good number of layouts at it and the one thing that really jumped out at me, was the number of kids taking part in running them. They were also talking about the deals they had picked up at the show.
After seeing this and seeing how so many kids eyes light up at the sight of trains, I am convinced more than ever that Thomas The Tank Engine has done our hobby a big favour.[:)]
Its good that the shows are attracting more young people to the hobby. I’m a young modeler myself, just 20, but I’ve never been to a show. I don’t think I’ve seen any other young people at the train shop I frequent at home. No surprise really since the guy that owns the place always stares me down when I walk in and talks to me like I don’t know what I want or what I’m talking about. Even after visiting said shop often and spending a decent sum of money his attitude hasn’t changed much. Oh well, I’m not going to let some old geezer ruin my model trains.
Hi Brent, I was at the same show on Sunday with my two sons. I noticed not only the amount of younger people in attendance but also there were a few taking part in the displays running trains on layouts in their club shirts with the “big kids”. Of course the huge Lego display was a hit.
At 16, I have an interest in trains (both real and model) that struck me around 13 years old, and is too intense to get rid of.
I never was into anything transportation related untill I got my first train set from an estate sell, for $10. I originally got it because of this one flatcar that just “looked fun to play with” The set had several switches, and other add-ons, which I built in a few afternoons, and I started building huge loops of track all over our backroom, with a huge railyard with those switches, and I was setting up huge trains with 2 or 3 locomotives, not knowing that the 18" radius track would garuntee a de-railment 1/2 way through the train.
A few weeks later, I picked up my first issue of Model Railroader (with Pelle K. Soeburg’s work on the front cover) and I was blown away. I started going to the hobby shop, buying extra cars and locomotives, and so on, and it snowballed from there.
I have also brought a good friend into the hobby.
Sorry about the “My-life-story-in-this-hobby” story guys. It’s easy for me to get side-tracked, and I guess I really went far off the mark on this one.
To answer the question, I’d say Tohmas the Tank Engine has really helped introduce new enthusiests to this hobby (and should be considered a great ally) and the outlook looks great for this hobby’s future.