We recently had some family visiting for a while so I was able to introduce our eight year old nephew to toy trains. To my knowledge he has never seen O gauge toy trains before, and has limited exposure to toy trains as a while. This child travels with the most recent pocket Nintendo constantly in tow, surfs the internet, plays youth sports, etc. He also has an active imagination. But, basically he is the type of kid who we constantly hear on the forums would have no interest in trains because trains can’t compete with all the new technology and the other activities.
Our guest quarters are in the basement, and so is the train table. The train is not wired yet (that’s another story) so it does not run. I don’t have any operating accessories. I have no scenery. Most of our forum members would look at it and say, “Boring!”
Did any of that stop my nephew? No way!
When he first saw the layout he didn’t shout, “Cool a train layout!” He said, “What’s this?” I showed him how to operate the Lionel O-22 switches manually, and gave him some early 1990’s starter set freight cars to play with. I showed him how to couple and uncouple cars. I pointed out the diecast automobiles. Then I left him alone.
When the family was leaving to go home I found out that he played with the layout every morning when he woke up, and every night before going to bed. Die cast autos were going in and out of gondola cars. Freight cars were put on sidings, coupled, uncoupled, etc. This non-powered layout kept his attention for the whole visit.
All kids will normaly like trains until there about 10, then they split in to 3 groups. One phases away from trains completely, no interest in them, the other phases halfway, ( e, g. he’ll look at a train when it passes at the crossing, and count the engines), and then you have the kid that will aways be a railfan. Thats just the way it is. The way God made it. And its a good thing thats it like that, you wouldent want everyone to like trains, then we would be like people sitting outside our local hobby shop for 5 days waiting for a Big Boy or something to come out. (Meaning the people who sit outside walmart for 5 days waiting on a play station 3) [swg]
Its a good thing he likes trains still at 8, at least, the way he does, playing all the time with a simple starter set! Hopefully he’ll turn into a great modeler and railfan.
I don’t come from a strong train history. My dad had an old Marx set when he was a kid, which I now have, and he did buy me two train sets growning up. It started with a HO on a 4x8 layout. I spent a fair amount of time on it (like most people play pool tables that sit in the corner of the basement). One day I went down to play with it after school, and it was gone. The other set was a Christmas present (O-27 starter sets) when I was 11. We never set it up on a layout, and it got minimal use. My parents sold that off too.
I didn’t realize then that most of the fun is spending time with the old man working on building the layout and imagining this fantasy world, together. Not just watching a train go around in a circle, but getting involved. Hopefully my son grows up building this layout with me and takes interest. If I can get 9 more years out of him, that’s a lot. It’s good to hear stories like yours.
I know this, I’m not selling anything at a yard sale, just because it doesn’t get much use.
I did, but not as much as I should. Maybe weekly, or twice a month after the novelty wore off. It went in spurts, and of course we would play with it when kids would visit. I grew up in a rural area and not many kids lived too close to me. The layout was pretty boring. It was a big loop on the outter edge of the 4x8, with a single crossing gate that would drop when the train passed by, which was nice. The track wasn’t attached to the wood, and I spent more time fixing derailments. I guess it was really never intended to be there that long, now that I think about it. It was all layed on a piece of plastic sheet (like a trash bag) that was all green with a little automobile road and parking lot painted on it. Dad set it up in about 20 minutes. It’s hard to keep interested at age 8 when there is a Atari and Pinball machine in the other room. Any improvement at all over a years time would have kept me intertained, but we didn’t know better.
Chris, what you are saying is what I have said many time in the past - and have said from seeing myself. I have done too many train shows, talked with too many kids and parents and seen the reactions to believe anything else. I’ve sold train sets and helped sell train sets to these folks.
Part of the perception on the part of the public is that many still don’t know Lionel is even in business. Lionel still has a long ways to go in overcoming that - even though progress is absolutely being made. And when they see the catalogs (even though there are now clearly products aimed at beginners) many come away with the perception this is an expensive adult hobby. I’ve always maintained that lower priced beginner types of products should be in their own catalog, apart from all the high end, pricey items.
From my own observations, mother’s have a very big say in the purchase of that first train set. It needs to be practical and affordable. Not once ever have I had a young family inquire about command control, other than price, which usually turns them off immediately. Once you have the child’s interest, and then dad’s interest, the money and the advanced features become less of an obstacle.
I’ve done shows where there were high end products with TMCC and DCS right across from me. Folks would look at my small, homespun layout with no fancy trains, go over and look and the top end stuff and then COME BACK again and again to look at my layout and to ask questions. It happened so much, even others around me came to the conclusion digital control and expensive options on scale proportioned trains WERE NOT the answer to enticing new customers. The evidence was just too overwhelming.
We adults have to remember when talking to newcomers that the trains that interest many of us, might not have appeal to a newcomer - especially on price. Once someone is established in the hobby with a growing interest by purchasing some additional train items, THEN they become more ac
This is what sparked my son’s interest in trains, and I simply took that spark and added a little kindling. IMO, kids just need more exposure the rest happens naturally.
Hello All! Kids sure do enjoy Toy Trains when exposed to them. Here’s a story for you. In addition to being a Driver’s Ed Instructor, I Drive a Van for a School Transportation Company in Eastlake as well & this past year I had a Lady who is a Grandmother & a very Wonderful,Sweet Lady as well. Anyway, she was a Moniter on my Morning Runs to the School over on the Southwest side of Cleveland & was teriffic with the Two Girls that we Transported to School as they could be difficult at times. This Dear Lady has such a sweet disposition that the two Girls took to her & became better behaved (especially the one girl) This lady & I became good friends & as a result of this when she mentioned that her now 10yr old Grandson’s Birthday was coming up last month & made mention that he enjoys Trains & that she had wanted to get him a Train. I told her that since she was such a big help to me with the Girls & such a nice lady that I would give her one of my Trains out of my Collection for her Grandson. At first she asked me how much she would owe me & I said that I wanted no money at all & that it would be just a Gift for her Grandson due to all of her help with the School Run. Anyway, she was speechless at first & then accepted my offer. The Train that I gave her for her Grandson was a Lionel 8204 Atlantic Type Steam Engine based on the old 2026 tooling with the Sound of Steam,Smoke, & Whistle with the Box & Warranty & the Following Freight Cars: 9800 series Butterfinger Reefer,9700 series C & O Boxcar, a C&O Yellow & Blue Hopper, Libby’s Pinapple Vat Car from the same time period & a Lighted 9167 Silver & Yellow C & O Caboose all new in the Boxes & I bought a 140 Banjo Signal, 1033 Transformer, Pair of Remote 027 Switches, Two of the Three foot 027 straight tracks, 14 Regular straight tracks, 12 Curved tracks, & a Figure Eight & Fourty-Five degree angle Track sections to
In answer to your rhetorical question - no one who has ever seen their reaction to them, even ‘sophisticated’ worldly NYC teenagers from the ‘projects’, never mind 8th grade hill billies who drove to school in their agricultural plated trucks with gun racks! Those were the days, both sets of kids I have taught as a shop teacher. However the crux of the matter is not just the trains, they wouldnt hold their interest for very long, its YOU being willing and ready to play with THEM that really counts.
The other ‘secret’ is not being too uptight about HOW they want to play with them. Young children, for example, have absolutely no concept of ‘scale’ or the proportions of one thing to another. they simply don’t see it. Slightly older children, especially boys, tend to have a lead foot and weakness for crash and burn episodes, again you have to accept it and not get too uptight about it. I keep battered warhorses for just this purpose and incidentally we had several good lessons on the strength of that, figuring out what it took to keep them on the rails at higher speeds and working at it until we could run full throttle.
My four year old niece who is a bright, active child who can exhaust legions of adults trying to keep up with her will sit down with me and play trains for hours at a time without switching focus. Its my job to drive, she isn’t interested in that, she’s the one that orders me to deliver stuff to various places where she then builds farms, zoos, theme parks and invents fascinating tales about the ins and outs of it, which she explains on the fly. Those trains opened up a whole new dimension of interactive play and of course she’s learning so much in the process.
Some people say that trains will lose their fascination because kids don’t see them anymore, they arent part of their lives as they were for ours but I think thats wrong because children understand alternate realities, make believe worlds, perfectly well and trains are a comforting bulwark, a pillar of safe
There could be toy train references in popular animated programs on Disney and Nickelodeon.
Who will make a tie in of Jimmy Neutron in Retroville on Nickelodeon and advanced Toy Trains.
The setting for Jimmy Neutron is called Retroville, so why not have them work in some Toy Trains to remind kids that O Gauge Toy Trains still exist and some even come with high-technology.
my 10 yr old neighbor boy heard my trains and came strolling over to peak, this was two weeks ago maybe. Since then he’s here alot. Anytime he see’s me head towrds my big garage he comes over, cuz he knows my trains are in there. I gave him a ho set to mess with and he is just thrilled, and so am i to have some one to share my trains with.
I’ve been wanting to find ways to spread the word as well. Some for the hobby, but also for all of the small LHSs that are struggling right now. I want these guys to be around until they choose to close their doors, not because they are forced out…I’ still working on finding a way to do that.
hey wes i am with you on the whole hs thing…i was thinking of asking the lhs if the wanted to try and have a once a month or so gathering of some type. most of my lhs are all rc stuff, i have one with limited train stuff mostly ho. but i thoought if they’ed put on a rc show once a month then the train guys can set up to and pass out flyers and set up tables with small layouts or something. I was thinking of starting a local train club here. I have 3 garages and i plan on using one just for trains, and its 35 ft wide and 50 long. so i have plenty of space and its got central heat and ac. So i was thinking we could use my building even. Its still just a thought right now. but who knows
It’s a start. I’m sure we are not the first ones to try to breath fresh air into the hobby. I live in a neighborhood, and there are a ton of kids running around all of the time. If I could just get a couple of them to take an interest in trains before Christmas, then maybe they could talk their parents into investing in the LHS inadvertantly.
your right wes, were not the first im sure. i wonder if its too expensive for some and maybe lack of space also. I know when i was in the service i wanted to have a layout but didnt have room at the time, untill i bought my present house.
And trains and scenery isnt cheap. it adds up quick. thats 1 down fall i see…
That’s true, but a lot of the kids I know will get $500+ in stuff for Christmas, so a $200-$300 dollar train isn’t out of the question. If we can target the parents, that would help. I don’t care if they buy HO scale, as long as they buy something train related. Of course, buying HO doesn’t help the LHS stock a better selection of 0 gauge, but at least it keeps the doors open.
your right again, parents are the key. Who cares if they start ho , as long as it opens the door and gets them hooked. later on they will see the light of o gauge.
