Add Somebody To Our Hobby This Year

Greetings All Have a SAFE/HAPPY New Year.

We are make resolutions each year, some we try to keep, some we laugh off and one or two we we really work hard to keep.

PLEASE make this one resolution this year and try to keep it going: Introduce at least ONE person to our hobby of MODEL RAILROADING. It doesn't take much, strike up a conversation with somebody at the Hobby Shop (young Dad/Mom with KIDS), at the next Train Show, NTRAK layout, open layout tour etc etc ZERO in on the YOUNGSTER, standing there all wide eyed watching the trains run. If you have kids in school, any grade it doesn't matter, see if "show and tell" is going on and GO. Do you have a HOME LAYOUT that could be opened up for tours? Schools (especially grade schools) are ALWAYS looking for something to do. Sure it will take a little work and extra people to pull off, but the kids will love it and if you have a little 1/2 page handout, to give to JR., the handout can work it's way up to Mom or Dad.
If your Club or such has an Open House or Swap Meet, make sure every local school knows about the event and you post a notice on ALL the bulletin boards you find or see.

There are many ways to introduce our hobby. I'm sure you can think of at least ONE WAY yourself.

AND LAST: To the very few STICK IN THE MUD'S who don't: "Want any kids around my layout, at our Show/Swap Meet because they cause problems, they are more trouble than they are worth!!!!" GO JUMP IN THE LAKE I don't want YOU around my layout for the EXACT SAME REASONS! Our hobby needs new blood to survive, we have to work to get people interested, and it will all pay off in the end.

MODEL RAILROADING IS FUN If you don't feel that way, the door is right over there, don't let it hit you in the A** on your way out!!

 

I always talk to people I meet at the LHS and invite them up to my club to view our layouts and maybe join. But the closest LHS I deal with is about 50 miles from my clubs location. Not many people want to travel that far. I carry a stack of my clubs business cards in my wallet and pass out quite a few to people I strike up a conversation with and also talk up the hobby at my towns museum with visitors to it's display of the Railroad that used to pass through town. I also work on the museums layout. This is in addition to the people I meet while displaying layouts at several shows my club does each year. I have a feeling that many people don't want it to be known that they play with trains. I always bring out that the trains are not toys and that there are many talents that can be developed in this hobby. One thing I won't do is invite people that I don't know to my home to view my layout.

 

Most schools anymore are more paranoid about private home tours like you mention than they should be. And are usually too short sighted to understand the historical potentials that could be taught on a "toy train" layout. You want to get kids into trains through school, start at a museum and then get them curious about the little trains (that fit inside the house) Even a Live Steam layout in a prvate property is iffy, and they used to be great for fieldtrips.

I'm sorry, but sitting on youer high horse to berate someone else's doesn't sit right with me.

You remind me of the past-president of the local train club. He bent over backwards to bring every person in the world to the club, the show, and us to them. Great Guy, and his (and your) philosophy is *not* a bad one, but in the process of trying to make the Hobby fun for everyone, it stopped being fun for us. A train show every other weekend, open-house this, Operations that, Everyone needs to be here for this meeting, how can you tell me you can;t come out: we were burnt out, and for a lot of us with no room for a layout, the club's permanent and travelling layouts WERE our layouts. And all we could do was fix it so someone other than ourselves could run on it.

Don't get me wrong, we love going to shows, and since you mention Indiana in your sig, perhaps you've heard of us: We're one of the only traveling modular layout at GTE to not only not have the red-rope barriers, but routinely put a throttle under the layout for a kid to reach, because that twinkle in their eye when they press thje 2 on the Digitrax throttle and the engine "Whoo Whoos" for them is worth it. Heck, we've even got a wooden Thomas Layout ready to roll for shows for the same purpose for littler engineers. Even set a benchmark for other Indiana shows. And we;re not too proud to chase anyone off who wanders in on nights other than the Visitor Nights. And we think we'll be on for Milepost 50 too. But there's a fine that must be drawn between time for the hobby, and time for your hobby. And if time for your hobby means you protect the privacy and sanctity of your home, then you have that right. On the flipside, if time for the hobby means that you have no time for yours, then it stops being hobby.

Which is, ironically or not, the philosophy of our current president, who, depsite admitting that even most of US won't see his own layout outside Facebook (when he builds it), has taken all the things our Past Pres has done and built on top of them rather successfully.

Lastly, you can't just ADD someone to the hobby. Otherwise it's not a Hobby for them, but an obligation. What you can do is keep an eye out for people already shoiwing interests in the basics and offer to nurture them along. Sometimes, they'll take you up on the offer. Sometimes they won't. And even if they do, they may very well fizzle out. But you can't force the issue, and if by the time they're ready to see your private layout (and home) they should've satopped being strangers and started being Friends.

So here's to making new friends in Model Railroading in 2013.

And if I've grossly misread the tone in your message, then my apologies. Here's a picture of a train to make it up.

 

Quibbling aside, we have a model railroad exhibit at the Madison County Historical Society in Anderson Indiana every December. There are two rooms filled with model trains from S and O27 to HO and N as well as a HO 1946 Ringling Bros - Barnum and Bailey circus train display. This exhibit is up and open all year but we push it in December.

That said, I think that we are doing a good job in getting the hobby across to visitors. The kids love at. Many adults love it and some have expressed an interest in getting into or back into MRR. Yes, it is work, but it is well worth it.

In May, I plan to have my home layout open for Milepost 50 (that is our NMRA division 50th year anniversary regional convention here in Indiana.

Do I believe that we can promote the hobby? Yes. Do I think that we need to promote the hobby? Absolutely!

 

I tried to pass the hobby on a few years ago when the Athearn Blue Box kits got phased out. I purchased about 20 and went down to the local Boys Club and demonstrated how they were built and decorated. Went pretty well but couldn't find the kits anymore to continue the event.
It's nice to be able to pass along the hobby to young folks or else it won't be here soon

 

Over the last few years my club has received several sizeable donations of cars and locos from elderly modelers who are leaving the hobby or have passed on. Many of the cars were Athearn, Accurail, Atlas or MDC's still in the original boxes. My club began a program at shows called Cars for Kids. For a small donation to the club a child (Girls as well as Boys) and their parent assemble a car kit and then run it on a train on our layout, hopefully to begin a layout of their own with the car.

 

I plan on introducing two people at a time to the hobby. A parent/grandparent/guardian will bring one kid to my home layout. They will run the trains. (I will have my finger on a remote that can kill power to the booster as needed.) I hope this will be a fun “quality” time for them. (It will probably be another couple of months before my layout is suitable to start.)

Bob

 

Warning, this is a downer post by me!:uhoh:
At 64 years old I could not care if any one else ever gets into model railroading other then if they do it will help to keep the cost down for the few items I still wish to buy.
On the other hand I really do not need much of any thing else so I am good to go.
I live in a county that has only 8 other modelers (that I know of and was told about) and they are HO and only 3 have layouts. The rest only run at the NMRA club or on the other 3 peoples layouts. They are so into 1:1 fidelity that it was boring to me.:droll:

 

That's all well and good. But... it doesn't stop others from promoting the hobby. I'm 73 now, and I admit being concerned about bringing new folks into the hobby. I would like to see it outlast me.

 

Here is another way to help people (and especially kids) get connected to the hobby. Use a live train station announcement to personalize a message to them. Something like: “Jack and Jill the train is about to leave the station and go to ...; ALL Abroad!” All it would take is optional name tags, one walky-talky hidden in or near the train station, and a remote “announcer” with the other walky-talky that can see who is at the train station. I can already picture the surprised expressions on visitor’s faces!

Bob