Where are the Great Young Model Railroaders?

I just found out that "the legendary V&O (Virginian and Ohio) that was built by Allen McClelland is no more. On this month's Scotty Mason podcast he interviews Tony Koester and Tony says that Allen and his wife have bought a smaller home in a retirement community and are moving". As one poster put it, "It is more than just losing a layout - it is a realization that another generation of model railroaders is reaching their golden years."

Which got me wondering: Where is the next generation of great, young model railroaders?

The Baby Boomers, many of whom grew up with model trains, were born between 1946 and 1964, which means that the youngest of us are in our mid-forties.

I can't remember the last time I saw a featured layout in MR or RMC that was built by someone of the next generation. (Doesn't mean it isn't happening - I just don't remember seeing them.)

 

Well, a new wave is being brewed under the tutelage of Thomas the Tank Engine as we speak.

The real answer is somewhere amongst us "Gen X'ers" and I think there are many that have been published in that age range although I don't have any hard evidence of it. You see plenty on the forums that either have great layouts in the works, done, or somewhere in between. I know a few personally that could have killer layouts if they stay focused and if the economy holds up.

I think part of it is MR has odd logic about what makes it, and with a lot more non-HO-scalers in the younger age groups there's gonna be even less to see until the current mass of pre-boomer silver hairs that have been paying MR's bills and dragging down the NMRA start to wane. (oh, was that my outside voice?) Then I bet MR and RMC will suddenly become our friends and you'll start seeing some innovation and new great model railroads in the hobby.

 

Simply put: they are playing video games and text messaging each other. It is a tough competition out there trying to interest younger folks in model railroads when they can be "fighting" aliens online. I try to strike a balance with my own kids...keeping thier interest in model railroading as ONE aspect of their modern lives. So far it is working but the teen years are coming fast...

 

I doubt if there is a "next generation of great, young model railroaders" in the sense many would like to see. Just like you won't see a 'generation' of steam engines - or even SD40s - highballing priority freight all over.

The interest in trains is there still, but I think the numbers are going to be less, and more significantly, the ways it can be expressed are greater. Railfanning is cheaper and easier due to easy/cheap (for now) private transport and digital photography. The simulator world has sucked some in, and that can be a modelling exercise in itself (though MR has gone a bit far in the latest issue ). Modelling itself has become more diverse with a great range of scales instead of pretty much O and HO.

I nearly said "sadly", but it's not really sad. Just different.

And how many of us kept it up through the teens and 20s?

 

i am young and i have a good sized layout and the next will be a bit bigger

 

If I'm not mistaken, there was recently an article of a kid's Union Pacific switching layout in Model Railroader. It was located in his mother's garage.

I definately read it in MR, but it might of been a back issue. I highly doubt it. Maybe December of 2007, that sounds right.

Lots of really young children "love" trains and Thomas The Take Engine. Unfortunately, not many of them ever get into real trains and model railroading; or if they do, they get out of it during their teens.

But I think the kids that stick with trains during their teens and the rest of their life do so because when they were younger, they WERE REALLY into trains.

I liked Thomas The Take Engine when I was 5, but I was also fascinated with real trains and model railroading. I would beg my dad to go to the train station. We would take the video camera and tape trains. We would visit club layouts, and I would read train books. We also had a 4X8 layout (which just became a 5X9) which got me into my first HO layout a couple of years ago.

 

Caution: Broad sweeping generalizations and speculation follow:
Model Railroading is and always has been:

• Expensive
• Multi disciplined
• Requiring:
  • Planing
  • Follow through
  • Supervision / encouragement / direction
• Contains little immediate gratification

This does not describe the "average" teen through 20something source of pleasure. There are:

• Girls
• Home
• School
• Career

to distract them.
As we hit out 30s and later the "woman / partner" has been selected, the Home is stable, School is done though the loans are still around, and the Career is more or less under way. As we hit our 50s more disposable income and time become available.

I don't feel these nature of people has changed much since the first cave man took up drawing, spear desing, and control of fire.

 

I think the next generation is, in part, here on this board. I am not old enough to qualify as a Baby Boomer (I'm now 34), though my mother is an older boomer and my dad was born during WWII.

I have noticed that I am not the youngest one around here, either.

There are lots of things pulling at young people, sure. But it's long been that way. I remember some of the kids in my elementary school taking a "so what" attitude because they planned on dropping out and making it big break dancing in movies and music videos, which were just then in their infancy. That fell by the wayside.

I have played video games now and then since about 1979. I don't spend a lot of time doing it anymore because I like the tactile sense of actually holding something in my hand and the feeling of accomplishment I get when I get somewhere on a project. I don't derive that from video games. Some people might.

I would be further along in my model RR empire if I weren't still raising a relatively young family. Between my nascent mortgage obligations (hey, only 28.5 years to go!) and the responsibilities of raising my kids I don't get as much done as I might have when I was 15 nor as much as I will probably get done as I get more established, move up from a little farther from bottom feeder status in my field, and as my girls get older and become more independent.

On that last one, I have been taking the time to introduce my kids to the fun I get out of both railfanning and model railroading. One of my four year old's is getting to be real good on a walk-around throttle at my NTrak club. She's very careful, watching her speed (and sometimes slowing down on broad curves so her train doesn't "fall off and get broke!"). The other one enjoys the model railroading not as much, but absolutely LOVES watching 1:1 trains with me. She'll sometimes point out trains to me as I am driving, since we often have to pass the UP or BNSF yards to get between our house and other places we go. Sometimes I get in trouble if I don't look or at least pretend to look.

I think Thomas the Tank Engine is going to prove to be quite a force in creating lots of railfans and model railroaders in the younger set. I know my girls both love Thomas, and I took them last year to see Thomas the Bank Engine at Mt. Hood Railway in Hood River and the place was absolutely CRAWLING with several railfans under 4 feet tall riding an actual train on actual rails.

I think it is incumbent on us in the hobbies of railfanning and model railroading to make sure we reach out to the younger set and get them involved in what we are doing. One of the most enthusiastic members of an HO club in my area is a kid who is about 10. As the club gets grayer and members start to age out (which happens to the best of us eventually), this kid is going to help keep it going.

The Boy Scouts of America has (or used to have, anyway) a Railroading Merit Badge. Perhaps other youth organizations have something similar. Perhaps we in the railroad community could reach out to youth through things such as this program and spark some interest there.

Yeah, there are all sorts of other "distractions," but people will eventually come to what interests them. I reject the notion that everyone under 40 or 35 or 20 or whatever age you pick is just a video game addict because I know it's just not true. The mass media is not an accurate mirror of what we really are as people. If each of us reaches out to the interested youths around us and offers some bit of our knowledge or hands over a throttle for ten or fifteen minutes or whatever we can keep these hobbies going for a long time. If we discount young people they'll discount us.

Adam


"I could go outside right now, and pick up a rock much older than any of us and drop it on your foot. The past didn't go anywhere." - Utah Phillips

 

I remember MR had an article about some kid in Hillsboro and his sort of proto-lanced UP/PNWR interchange out that way.

I scour magazines and boards for hints from a lot of the same graybacks that are writing or being featured in the bulk of the articles in the magazines. Why? Because most everything I have learned I have learned by listening to other people, especially my elders, defined broadly - my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbor-ladies from my childhood, the operating engineer posse that my dad mixed with, the old guy I used to work for on the blueberry farm, the other old guy I used to help with his beekeeping, my teachers in school, and so on.

Maybe some day I will write the next great article in one of the modeling magazines. I am more likely to have something about scratchbuilding or kitbashing as I find those aspects among the more interesting (and more readily accessible to me using my skills).

 

Incidentally, I am not trying to be contrary, but just trying to put forth some hope. This is a good discussion and one that I think a lot of hobbies, clubs, organizations, etc., need to have.

 

To SAMRA's great credit, we have a Saturday program for the Boy Scout model railroading merit badge. In four weekends, you do certain things and you qualify for the merit badge. Each Saturday that place is packed with Boy Scouts! They learn all kinds of things about both the prototype and modeling.

I would estimate we have about seven new members through this program. Of course, their parents have to be a member, too, as the young people are under sixteen or eighteen or something like that. In several cases, the parents stay long afetr the kids grow up to other things.

 

You are correct about the Boy Scouts having a Railroading Merit Badge. In fact, I will be teaching that merit badge on Saturday. I don't get a lot of modeling done with all the other Scouting things I'm involved with, but I do try to introduce railroading and modeling to the boys.:thumbs_up:

 

Hello, all,

I think there is a superb generation of young new model railroaders.

Many of us may not be aware of them, if we have not recently been to a
Free-mo or Prototype Modeler's type of meet, for example, the Western
Prototype Modeler's meet held annually in October in La Habra, CA:

Western Prototype Modeler's Photo Galleries

Another good younger-guy example is Harry Wong's photos (he's in his 30s, I think?):

Tracktime's Photo Galleries at pbase.com

Many of the guys there are in the 'younger' generation - maybe not as in teenager,
but certainly younger than the 'older' generation (whatever those definitions mean).

For what it's worth, that's been my experience...... the traditional NMRA, as well as many of the railfan conventions, seems much more likely to have the older type of railroad fan.

Of course, these are generalizations (again).

The most important thing I'd like to add is that the ever growing amount of
model railroad equipment being sold is being bought by someone... and many of
them may be younger than we know, and many of them seem to be
fans of Prototype Modelers and Free-Mo

Of course, I'm just a young 49, myself.

Hope this helps!

 

I dont think the "older" generation (and I mean this with all due respect!) should worry about the younger generation coming into their own in the Model Railroading community. I can name off guys I know under 40 who have nice layouts or are in the process of building on both hands, but the guys over 50 are far more numerous.

As for me, I fall into the typical 20-something category. I'm single, I finished college, my employment isn't steady (position terminated 2 weeks ago), and I dont own anything larger than my small truck.

However, at the ripe old age of 22 I am pursuing awards through the NMRA Achievement Program in hopes of being a Master Model Railroader by the time I'm 30....thats a goal of mine.

 

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that modern railroading is just not as exciting as years gone by. As a kid I absolutely loved sitting and listening to my grandparents tell stories of riding behind steam and how much the railroads meant to the common individual (In Eastern Kentucky the L&N was a way of life!) My grandfather is gone and with him went all those wonderfull stories that I remember so well. Modern railroads are a behind the scenes operation and like I've said in other posts are so sterile. I see young kids waving at trains and doing the "trucker" blow your horn but that is about the extent.

 

I'm not worried about it. I got back into model railroading in 1972, at age 24. For the next 20 years, I raised kids, and established my career. Yes, I built five layouts during those years, but none to the point where I could surface in a publication.

In 1992, at age 44, I started the DeWitte & Pittson. It wasn't really a "serious" model railroad. It wasn't until 2002, at age 54, that I got serious. I finally had money and space and, most importantly, an intent.

I see plenty of good young modelers, like Daniel Leavitt and Mike Skibbe, who are publishing in their 20s. That was unheard of in the 1970s.

 

I thank God regularly for Thomas!

 

A few point worthy of consideration in association to this discussion...

In fact, there is very little evidence for any numbers of the younger generation in the hobby press today, distinctly the reverse of the situation that prevailed several decades ago. In 1956 MR reported on a survey that indicated 1 in 5 of their readers was a teen. This figure had declined to 1 in 9 by 1974. Teens have not been mentioned in their surveys since. Note also that MR dropped its teen-oriented Student Fare column about a decade ago. Think they know something?

Likewise, the dramatic increase in the reported average age of MR's readership, about 33 from the 1940's through the 70's, to 55+ today, also reflects an increasing lack of younger people in the hobby for decades.

I'd also point out that during the 50's and 60's a great many MR authors were very young, some even accomplished teenagers and many of these went on to be well known hobbyists/authors down to today. Certainly, there is little indication of significant teen presence in MR today and the photos of contributing authors, accompanying the articles, generally looks like a collection of senior citizens.

I suspect that the only reason younger people seem prevalent on some model railroading forums today is their disproportionate numbers on-line, compared to older (Baby Boomer and pre-Boomer) hobbyists. At least one indicator I've seen suggests upwards of 50% of the older generation of modelers may not even be on-line, let alone on train forums!

Times change and so do popular interests. Most boys had a set of Lionel, Flyer, or Marx trains in the 50's. That had all but ceased to be true by 1970 and for about a decade slot cars almost totally replaced model trains as a youth interest. After that, tin-plate trains - once visible in every hardware and department store around Christmastime - had vanished from the scene. At the same time, real trains became less and less evident in everyday life as railroad lines and service were cut back, or abolished. The heroes of youths were pilots, not locomotive engineers. Today, computer games and the Internet totally dominate the interest of younger Americans. Youths desire everything "now", decidedly in conflict with the concept of spending months or years in a basement building a layout. You can't turn back the hands of time.

I'm believe that Thomas' influence on the future of our hobby has been wildly exaggerated by some. To date I have not seen a single published item or survey that even suggests interest in Thomas as a small child evolves into an interest in model trains later in life. Thomas has been popular on American TV for about 20 years now and should have produced some such evidence by now if it actually had any influence and it has not. Consider that Thomas is aimed at 5 year olds, whereas traditional longterm interest in model trains came from older pre-teens and young teens. Honestly, I would think that admitting to your teenage classmates today as having an interest in model trains would likely prove more of a stigma, just because of Thomas, than any benefit!

And then there is the all-important matter of time. Today's lives, particularly for teens and young families, are infinitely busier than was the case 3, 4, or 5 decades ago. Countless things to do outside the home compete with any indoor hobbies. And even indoors, TV has 128+ channels, with endless first-run movies. teenage fare and sports shows that number 50 a day! Hobbies in general are a vanishing aspect in American life. Sad to say, I can't see any wave of youthful participation in our hobby's future.

NYW&B