MR: BRING BACK STUDENT FARE!!!!!

Guilford_Guy · September 24, 2007, 4:00pm

I completely agree!

So Tyler, who is the conductor on the infamous pig train [:P]

I think a lot of great work has been posted by teens in the forums so why not magazines?

SSW9389 · September 24, 2007, 6:16pm

I would not mind a bit if Student Fare was brought back. If it helped a youngin’ to better understand the hobby and kept them in it that is a good thing. Being on the back side of 50 in my estimation the hobby is aging fast. The model railroad club I belong to has more people my age and older and not too many coming up behind us. I understand from another thread that NRHS is having the same problem.

Ed

NSlover92 · September 24, 2007, 6:47pm

14, I have a 4x8 with a 4x4 staging yard with Digitrax, yes it’s a 4x8. I agree with eeryone here about the need for a newbie forum. Now, my 4x8 isnt a newbie layout. I have been into trains all my life, first O gauge, now HO I have been a HO modeler for 3 or 4 years. 4x8’s aren’t for little kids if you have full scenery with industrys and a controled operation. Also, it is just a place to run my trains, till I get my full sized 12x22 room with layout in my basement, just waiting on funding. A newbie 4x8 would be…some circle tracks, with a double crossover in the middle on a table painted green with matchbox cars sitting around. Mine is all done right with high quality locos (BLI,Atlas,PMC, Athearn RTR), cars, and everything else. But, what this hobby does need is a way to draw more teens and stuff. That is where my fellow teens and I need to work. Mike

on30francisco · September 24, 2007, 9:47pm

13 here and I support this idea also. I am sick and tired of going into LHS and having them stare at me when I ask a decoder question or ETC. Were just as serious as you guys are. Thank you.

Agreed. I started when I was 12 and liked Student Fare a lot when it was in MR. Even as an adult, there were 13 year olds that could still teach me a thing or two about some aspect of modeling. I suspect the problem today is that most teenagers spend way too much time in front of a computer or game console to become model railroaders. If I see a teenager in a hobby shop today asking about trains, I know he or she must be very different from their peers and try to give them as much encouragement as possible.

I also have no problem with 4x8 questions. Yes, they may get repetitive and even tiresome at times but these forums exist to help everyone. Segregating “newbies” in their own forum is distasteful to me. [2c]

I’ve always enjoyed Student Fare and learned a lot from it, both as a kid and an adult. Although my layout is around the perimeter of a room, I’ve had 4x8s and have always and still prefer continuous running as opposed to complicated operations. I remember building “The HO Railroad That Grows” by Linn Westcot 25 years ago. Although it tries to put as much track as possible on a 4x8 sheet of plywood, it was FUN to build and run.