Today is a special day for me and is going to influence today’s topic…
Today is my “Littlest Engineer’s” birthday!
He’s three.
He’s been immersed in trains and model railroading ever since he was born-- in fact, his first shirt had a train on the front of it. He got his first G-Scale train at six months and loved it. He would sit and watch it go 'round for as long as you’d let him-- or until he got the urge to go over and either eat it or else knock it off the track… whichever came first.
He started running the G-Scale train on his own at about 1-1/2 years. We set it up in the family room along with a small “yard” and several “industry sidings” and he had a whale of a time loading it up with his blocks and little toy animals and shuffling them off to whatever “industries” he imagined. And he (and I) built “buildings” out of blocks and other stuff to put by the tracks. And my wife and I have been making sure that many of his other toys are scaled in approximate dimension to his G-Scale trains. Which makes it very easy for him to set up towns or whatever according to his imagination.
He also loves watching “Thomas the Train” on TV and insists we all stop whatever we’re doing, including whatever other show we were going to watch-- so he can see “Thomas” when it comes on.
When I started building the HO-scale layout down in the basement I wanted to make sure he was included. So whenever possible I take him down with me so he can “help” as he’s able. At first I only let him go down when I wasn’t doing much in the way of construction. But now he’s gotten very good at sta
Getting kids involved and interested when they are very young is one thing, keeping then interested and involved in their teens is a whole different ball game.
What goes on at our local hobby shop/layout here in Maryville Illinois is probably the most effective method I have seen. Take a look at this thread from a couple of weeks ago.
That looks like a fun place to visit. I wish there were places like that around here. You’d think living in a big city there’d be more stuff like that, not less…
Many years ago on rec.models.scale, there was a similar discussion about how to get young people involved with building scale models. One of the responders made some good points to the effect that attracting kids is the wrong approach, that what the IPMS (the scale modeling world’s equivalent to the NMRA) should be focusing on is attracting young adults leaving their twenties, who are getting too old for extreme sports, video games, and whatever else distracts twenty-somethings, and who are starting familes and have young children, and are looking for family activities. I think this argument makes even more sense for model railroading, since there is a more social aspect to building a layout, especially with scenery and operations. So the question, in my opinion, is, how do we get families involved? Or, at least, get the word out on what a great family hobby model railroading is?
John, it is great that you are getting your son involved with the hobby. My two daughters (one nine, the other four) have a mild interest in my trains. The oldest has helped me make fuzzball trees, cast rocks, and make striated rocks from cork roadbed. The younger one just likes to come down to the train room, and watch the trains run and blow the whistle. I am hoping that they will help me paint rail, ballest, and scenic the new portion of the layout I am working on this coming year.
I don’t know that much can be done. Displays in malls would help.
But really the whole idea of kids making things - train related or not - seems to have declined. When I was a kid, making model airplanes, ships, cars, etc. was something kids did. Construction sets like Erector were popular. We also made things out of scrap wood we found. That doesn’t seem to go on as much today.
Today’s video games come ready to play, no construction required. Heck there’s nothing to set up, just plug in the game and turn it on. Or turn on the TV for passive entertainment. It’s really hard to make model railroading as exciting.
I think tomorrow’s hobbyists will come from the small group of people who want to do something creative. Make something themselves. Some of them will become model railroaders. We can encourage that by sharing our own creative endeavors with our children, neighbors, etc. and encouraging them to do likewise.
As the other posters have already said, making model railroading a family hobby is one key. Some ways not to do this (you know not to ask how I learned this):
have Mom and other relatives portray model railroading as “Dad’s thing”, accompanied by rolling of eyes and knowing winks whenever the subject comes up.
try to impress kids with how expensive the models are, and how careful they must be with the models. And woe betide the kid who sends one of Daddy’s prize locomotives or cars off the table edge or otherwise harms them by accident or just plain speeding.
insist on kids operating the trains in an adult fashion. Yes, kids can and will graduate into scale speeds and appropriate handling. But they also need some experimenting and unstructured play time, too - and this usually comes before they graduate into adult operations.
put the layout into a room that is generally shut off from the rest of the family.
Yes, young kids (6 and under) generally like being a part of the hobby. At this age, the particular activity is not nearly as important as being close to and a part of Dad’s life. From personal experiences in both directions, at the later ages the secret seems to be having the kid do with parental guidance (and assistance when necessary). My dad showed me how to solder feeders to the rails when I was about 10. He then left me to do a couple on my own, but came back to see how I did. I was encouraged to buy and build my own car kits, and lay some track on the family layout.
Even with all the encouragement from both parents, of 6 children only 2 (1 brother and myself) have ever had the slightest interest in model railroading. As a parent myself, with the youngest now starting high school, not one of my 5 is interes
I agree, though I think it depends on the kids involved, and how involved the parents/adults are with them.
I have three girls, ages 6, 7, and 13. They are as likely to become catatonic in front of the tube or the Wii or the DS as any other kid. But when I invite them to do something hands-on, especially if it involves painting, they jump at the chance. Maybe it’s because they have my time and attention, or because getting messy with paint is normally verboten in our house, but they really get in to it.
They also like playing in my scrap wood bin. It’s full of odd bits of dimensional lumber and random sizes of masonite, plywood, and foam. They’ll just go digging through that bin and start stacking boards and leaning things up for walls to make houses for their dolls. They also enjoy just pounding nails in wood randomly.
They are very excited that I’m building a layout in the shed, but are disappointed that I’m not building fast enough. I need more of their encouragement [:)]
I think the inclination for physical hands-on and building is still there, despite the lack of instant gratification.
So maybe more personal hands-on involvement and quality time spent with older modelers will help keep kids interested.
I think a tendancy towards model building is genetic. My father built model planes all of his life. He introduced me to it as a “helper” when I was 4; that “turned on” the model builder in me, but airplanes were never my thing. I built model cars for a while, and graduated to trains when I encountered model railroader magazine at the school library. I refer to my need to build things as an “adiction,” because I’m miserable when I’m between projects. I can’t help it - I have to build something.
Based on that, I hypothesize that there will always be model builders - it’s genetic and even heredetary.
As far as modeling trains, I think it helps to provide exposure and encouragement, as described above. It’s also important not to inadvertently discourage it.
There are some things that could be created in the hobby to make the hobby more of a 21st century endeavor. The following come to mind:
Increase the computer interface with model railroads - I imagine using a computer to schedule/operate trains and throw turnouts. When DCC couplers become a reality (more than they currently are), I can imagine programing a layout to run on its own, including doing switching and spotting cars.
Another would be to develop a home laser cutter for cutting out parts for scratch building. Kids today learn CAD in high school. Sitting at a work bench with a ruler and x-acto knife must seem pretty old-school and imprecise.
My guess is that there are a lot more things that can be done to keep our hobby from falling into the catgory of quaint and old fashioned. If it is cool, kids will do it.
Most kids usually have the attention span of a gnat and a very simple gnat to boot. Just about any kid these days around or over the age of 13 has a cell phone in one hand and is texting his friends oh excuse me their “Peeps” unless that word is out of vogue by now. You need to tell them something 500 times and 499 of those times you get a dumb look followed by What? So when I see any of my kids be it my 17 year old step son or my 7 year old son who has special needs has any interest other then the usual techno or TV video garbage I’m all over it. My step son likes music and is a pretty fair guitar player So I let him "look and look only at my signed Less Paul acoustic guitar. Had a friend of mine give him some private lessons in exchange for some free Harley work. My little guy is no problem weather it’s trains or mucking out horse stalls he wants to do what dad is doing and most of the time that very cool. I have to say though he is an honest to goodness train nut, if he see’s a train on TV he’s yelling Allen Keller come on dad lets watch.
Life is good a long as we have trains and a juice box. I feel if you can get your kids or a niece or nephew or a friend’s kid into trains at as young of an age as possible it’s the best thing before their impressionable minds are polluted with all the crap in our society today. I was in my LHS several months a go and a single mom came in with her son who was 15. He was looking to build his first model railroad. He had a railroad picked out as well as an era a track plan the whole works. A very smart young man had been doing his research for several month on line and by reading now get this of all things BOOKS! from his local public library! So being as the only other people in the store was the guy who works there and myself, he asked me if I could help them out with any questions they might have. So I did my best to answer all their questions and he was set on using the Woodlands Scenics foam stuff until they started adding up the cost
Well, I know I’m doing my part. My friend and I are in the 9th grade, and I got him interested in model railroading a long time ago. I gave him his first “trainset” (acually, they were some locomotives, railcars, and some buildings from my layout, as well as a Model Power transformer and a lot of track) and we have been partners with our layouts ever since. Well, over time, he moved into an apartment, and we have to scale-down his layout. Now, he has a 2-foot X 4-foot space maximum for his layout. My family plans on enclosing 1/2 of our 2 car garage for a model railroad layout, and I figured my friend and I can start our own “club” (acually, it will more than likely be just us two. Fortunately for my other friends, they didn’t have to endure the ear-full about trains I can give) and we can work on the layout together, incorporating, to our likings, whatever we buy on our “raids” at the hobbyshop. Still havn’t got a clue on what to do, as far as era or prototypes go. More than likely, it will be a mythical CSX/FEC branchline in Florida. We both live in Florida, and are growing up watching CSX trains running on the mainline. I still have yet to take him to the railyard though.
You may have a point there about the “family activities” perspective, though I would imagine that the age point would be a little higher when incomes get higher and a bit more stable. As is discussed in the various forums here people don’t often get “back into” MR until their mid-to-late 40’s or early 50’s because they have just graduated from the bulk of their familial obligations (kids, college, home, etc) and are beginning to have some free cash.
That’s my 13 year old exactly. The wife and I have a theory that it’s all the hormones bouncing around in there. But the funny thing is, if I ask her to come help me build this or paint that, her synapses seem to reconnect instantly. She’s real big on getting quality time from us.
I tried getting my boy [who is now almost 18] interested in trains when he was ~3-4, but his neighborhood pals eventually lured him to more exciting things like video games and Pokemon cards.
When I moved to my current house and built my most recent layout, my youngest daughter liked to hang out with me in the garage where I was building it. I sometimes let her run the more “childproof” trains and she enjoyed that so much, I dedicated a corner of the layout exclusively for her use. One of the gifts I gave her on her 7th birthday was a pre-built Model Power house with some Preiser figures to go with it:
She’s almost 12 now, and she’s more interested in cell phones and Ipods; the trains are a distant memory.
If anyone in the family wants to participate in the Hobby with me, I’ll welcome them with open arms. But I’ll never try to impose it on anybody.
Who then proceeds to tell you about her hobby like its the most natural thing in the whole world. I always enjoy the irony present in that one. Mind you, she makes beautiful quilts. But it would be nice to at least get in a word or two about Model Railroading now and then.
Both her Mom and her Sister, on the other hand, have been down to see the layout and their opinion is “Cool!” Her mom even wanted to run the train-- how could I say no to that? [:)]
Yeah, kids don’t understand the value of money. Its not an appreciation thing-- its until they get a job, have to feed themselves or go hungry-- and get themselves to work on time every day that its usefulness starts to dawn on them.
I don’t put anything on the layout I’m not fingers crossed prepared to lose. I know that “things happen” and do my best to let it go. Educate if necessary, but no need to scold unless it was done intentionally.
Fortunately my little engineer doesn’t have that problem. He’s very respectful of the trains and we’ve only had one accident so far, which was largely my own fault for leaving it where it was. And in even that one, after the engine hit the floor, I picked it up and put it back on the layout where its still running fine to this day. Fixed a broken stanchion on the handrail and there’s a chip out of the tender coal chute. It could have been a lot worse.
[quote user=“fwright”]
insist on kids operating the trains in an adult fashion. Yes, kids can and will graduate int
As others have mentioned, I don’t think it’s realistic to have a kid be exposed to the hobby, get hooked, and continue long term through the rest of their lives. There are too many other life events in the way. I would think the main thing would be to give them a taste of it at young age so they remember it as a positive experience. If that happens a certain percentage will pick it up again in their twenties or thirties or later.
If a child shows any interest at all in model railroading I’d whip up a cheap and simple layout, maybe with some Atlas snap track or spare parts from our scrap bin, and then let them run the heck out of it until they interest (which might be in a few weeks). When they lose interest, and they will, accept it, hope the seed is planted and let them move on.
I think the real question is not so much one of getting kids in the hobby but rather getting new PEOPLE in the hobby at any age. If the new comers are 15, 35, or 60 it doesn’t really matter as far as the health of the hobby is concerned. My personal experience has been to see a lot of people becoming seriously interested in the hobby at retirement.
Another thing that tends to help is exposing kids to the real thing. Being nearby a loco pulling a freight train and near a rail joiner will suck any kid in. Then when they are exposted to the models they can relate to them better.
I would have to agree with Paul that there honestly is little that can be done in this area. The broad interest in scale model trains arose in the late 1940’s and 50’s, a period which also saw an explosion in children’s interest in the toy trains from Lionel and Flyer. The circumstances surrounding and causing those striking peaks in interest were unique to the time and simply will not be repeated.
Consider also that hobby shops long ago were for many young people the introduction points into the hobby. It was there you went to purchase your plastic model car, airplane, or ship building kits and probably saw operating scale model trains for the first time. For a long time the prices of the model railroad rollingstock kits were on a par with the model automobile and aircraft kits and the smaller, entry-level, locomotives were very cheap. Then, too, back in the 50’s there were Saturday morning TV shows about the hobby, some hosted by the great sports heroes of the day and at Christmastime every department store of any worth had a large display layout of Lionels. Today we have Thomas, a live action cartoon with talking trains! Nice for pre-schoolers, but do you think teens or tweens watch it and are influenced by it to enter the hobby?
Hobby shops today are rapidly becoming extinct. So, where does one go for that exposure to model trains these days? HO and N equipment increasingly cost a small fortune, far beyond what most teens and younger kids are willing to pay for items that are essentially useless without the layout needed to use them on. Model trains can’t possibly compete with the electronic devices kids have now, either. The XBox comes fully RTR. Bring it home, plug it in and you’re 100% ready to go. Beyond a simple train set put up on the kitchen table for one night, the needed layout for model trains takes months to build before it’s worth anything and, unless you happen to be extremely tal
Most model railroaders desire to recreate in miniature, what they have seen or see in real life. As a kid, that principle exists also. Matchbox cars, tonka trucks, even doll houses are tiny little things that are seen in real life, and kids like to play with those. Even video games are based on big real things (space ships are at least pretend real).
Unfortunately, real railroads are disappearing, relative to when most of us remember as a kid.
So put effort into sharing some positive experiences with your kids involving real trains, and maybe they’ll think they are cool, even rare, and will want to have a little minature world created in the basement. Watching and hearing real trains in operation trains may be the best way. That’s the point of view they will have as a modeler.
Grandpa and Granddaughter #1. She will be 3 in a month and is already starting to use the throttle. I plan to get an HO Thomas for her very soon… (well in a month [swg])
She is also into puzzles big time and I am trying to find a Thomas one for her.
I agree with others that time spent with the hobby with our little ones is time well spent whether or not they ever actually become MRRs themselves. I just try to have some good time with my granddaughter and she loves Grampa’s trains!
I have to admit, that my son, who is now 23, successfully resisted any of my attempts to turn him into a model railroader, a hobby, which I “inherited” from my father in the old fashioned way. My dad took me to watch trains on weekends, bought my first train set and fostered my growing interest, although he never built a layout of his own. Remembering how I got started on the hobby, I tried to entice my son at an early stage. I took him to watch (and ride) trains, bought a wooden “Brio” railroad, when he was three and “graduated” him to LGB G scale trains at the age of 6. He did have some interest in trains, but finally not enough to grow it into a hobby. At the age of 11, he detected the computer world, and has stayed with it ever since. He is now heading for his master´s degree in computer engineering science [:)]
I guess it was much easier to get my generation started into the hobby. We were either into trains, or into slot cars, model airplanes or ships. That was our world - no computer and therefore no internet, no computer games, no chat rooms. No cell phones, little to no cash to spend - all of that proved a much better soil to grow a hobby like model railroading on. Today´s world offers way to many distractions for trains to become an attraction.
But we should not get discouraged and keep on trying- after all, there is a new generation ahead of us - our grand children!
