Happy New Year! A little rantette(?)

[jonadel]

Conventional wisdom demands that you should ALWAYS have another adult in the train room if there is anyone young. Kind of a sad commentary on our society.

Jon

[Warburton]

I have yet to have younger children over (elem school) that they didn't really enjoy seeing my trains run. I also bought each of the neighbor boys a Lionel set for Christmas several years ago. But to tell you the truth, I'm wary of having kids in to see my layout now because of all the accusations of child abuse that you see on TV. So now when I do, I make sure to leave the door open and have another adult (preferably my wife) with me. Isn't that sad???

[jonadel]

I think Allan M. has it right, one person or family at a time.

On Thursday night one of my wife's good friends from the office brought her 5 year old son out and all of us just had the best time ever. We ran trains downstairs for well over an hour and then came upstairs for cookies and milk, in the kitchen area we have a "pencil" Christmas tree with an older Lionel G gauge with just a simple loop. After our treats we came in the living room and watched the Polar Express go around the big tree and he did great with the simple remote. His one wonderful comment was "there are trains everywhere" made us all smile, then his Mom said they would stop on the way home to pick up the Polar Express, a little extra track and the add on cars.

Will it be a lifetime committment, hard to say but the seed has been planted. Now I need to get his Dad out here to plant another seed[:)]

Jon

[Anonymous]

[#ditto]

[Anonymous]

I indeed do sympathise with you! I certainly agree with what everyone else has said. There are various things to point fingers at. There are the train manufacturers themsleves, but we've hashed and rehashed on the forums what they could be doing to better promote the hobby, so I'm not going to elaborate any further.

Retailers indeed are also a culprit. How, may I ask you, are kids supposed to get interested in trains if they don't see them for sale anywhere? Stores certainly aren't going to sell more trains if they keep cutting back on their stock. If they carry fewer items, naturally fewer people are going to buy them. The really scary thing is that even in my lifetime stores are selling fewer trains than they used to-and I'm 19! Here are a few specific examples. As a kid, I would always eagerly await the Home Hardware Christmas catalogue, which had a large selection of trains, albeit HO, that took up a whole page. There were three different sets, plus a selection of add-on engines, rolling stock, track, buildings and other accesories. In their 2005 Christmas catalogue, they have just a single HO set, which unless you're careful, you won't notice. The Sears Wishbook also always had a full page for trains as well, which consisted of one or two HO sets, plus a G scale set. Today, not a single train set (other than toys for toddlers) is listed in their toy section! I can also remember as a kid going to Toy R Us to buy rolling stock, track, buildings, figures and Life Like grassmats for my HO layout. Today, all Toys R Us carries is a couple of starter sets.

I agree that Thomas and other wooden trains are a great way to get youngsters hooked. However, if they're ever going to develop that interest in trains further, they're going to need to get more advanced trains. The problem is that these trains aren't out there! Sure, they might lose interest in their teen years, but there's a very god chance that they will come back in adulthood, just as many here on the forum have. Wooden trains alone aren't going to make hobbyists out of many kids unless they graduate a step further. That's where model trains come in. Another problem in that respect is that most of the electric trains stores sell are HO. HO trains are nice, but they aren't toys that you can play with. Although there are of course exceptions, the fragility of HO almost guarentees that many kids will not get hooked on it. Just imagine how many children lost their interestin trains due to an HO set that woudln't run and were easily destroyed.

Then, there is also society in general. We now live in a culture where many parents don't spend the time they once did with their children and instant gratification is valued in toys. Why work with your boy or girl to build a train layout when you could just plunk them down in front of the TV with their Playstation and be done with them? Video games and all the other popular gadgets out there are warping our childrens minds. I once read an artice about how toy manufacturers in general are suffering because kids are abandoning their toys at a much earlier age, something that is not healthy for childhood development. The childhood years are crucial. Video games and many of the fad toys out there now are certainly hurting children's ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Two days ago, I saw a feature on the news about the increasing number of computer users in China. With this, many kids and teens are becoming addicted to online video games. So bad is this problem that they actually have government-run boot camps to deal with it. Besides things like rigorous phyical trining, they are given various therapies and anti-depressants, as they go through withdrawl. Even after this, they said that at least one in five of the teens who left got hooked once again.

I myself am extremely unique for someone my age in that I've loved trains all my life and also that I've never been one for mny poular trends. From reading my post, I'm sure you've realized that I despise video games. I've never been thatinterested in new technology. I do think that modern technology is good for many things-I'm typing this on a computer after all and I don't know where I'd be without the internet-but I think that it's gone way too far to the point of insanity.

Odd-d, I couldn't agree with you more about cellphones. I absolutely hate the things! Nothing annoys me more than being in a restaurant or some other public place and hearing somebdoy's cellphone blaring out its fancy ringtone! I'd love to just grab the thing and... I do think that cellphones are a good invention, though. I have a cellphone myself. I know that if I ever got in a car accident or was in a situation where I was away from a phone and needed to make an urgent call, I'd thank the Lord a million times I had that cellphone. But, besides such practical reasons, I really have no use for the thing. In the months I've had it, I've used it fewer than five times. When I have, it's been some quick call to my parents to let them know that the drive to the city went well and that I'll give them a call once I get to my apartment later on or something like that. It has a colour video screen and I'm sure is loaded with games and all sorts of other amazing things, but I don't know how to access these features and really don't have any desire to learn how. This was actually the cheapest phone I could get. They don't make bare bones cellphones that are just telephones for talking anymore.

But, enough with the negativity. It's always gret to hear that there are people like you guys hereon the forum who know how important it is to promote this hobby and do something about it. Happy New Year, everyone! May 2006 bring health and happiness to you and yours and also bring some new train enthusiasts into the world!

[thor]

Originally posted by ChiefEagles

Thor [and the rest], you are our best ambassadors. Here is an example of how it is done. "Adopted" brother [long story] has new first Gramdson [adopted Greatnephew]. His first Christmas, I send him a Thomas set. Pops had train when he was young. Pops sees how much Grandson likes trains. Pops gets Polar Express. Now small layout but it is going to get larger. [;)]

Good one ChiefEagles and the rest of you!

Chief I'd hazard a guess our 'long stories' are the same. Asherah isn't my grand daughter, I think technically she's a niece, as close as I can figure it but the truth of the matter is she might as well be our daughter but we won't go into that! Good thing someone likes kids, whats the matter with biological parents these days? Ooops, sorry... grin.

Darn it the little guys are FUN! I mean how dumb do you have to be not to see a heaven sent opportunity to buy toys with a clear conscience? "Its for the baby..."

"Oh, really? Pretty advanced for a 3 year old girl then?"

"Oh yeah, sure, I mean you should see her matching the outputs on the ammeters to get a smooth triple header! Only thing she likes more is Lego Technic"

BUT all joking aside, people dont give kids credit for just how smart they really are if you'll only give them a chance to show you. Sometime I'll find and post pictures I took when she was 2 (no exaggeration) she didnt know I was watching as she quietly and competently disassembled a mechanism I'd bought for her to play with and then put it back together again. She was so absorbed she never noticed me peeking and taking flashless pictures. Okay so she didnt get it quite right but it was a small error and she wouldnt let me fix it, I had to tell her how to do it so she could do it herself.

Yeah kids have short attention spans and yeah they'll sometimes throw a massive wobbler right when you wi***hey wouldn't but they're little guys, give 'em a break! I love kids. I remember with great clarity exactly what it was like and which adults I preferred and why. Then, just to really cap it, despite being either ignored or patronized by those who should love them the most they are so patient and loyal to the same folks.

They're NOT little saints but give them half a chance and a helping hand and keep your temper and they'll usually come up trumps.

The great thing about our hobby is it teaches patience, ingenuity and self reliance and any child you get hooked into it I can virtually guarantee will soon be head and shoulders ahead of the pack just because of what the hobby more or less demands from its practitioners.

Now my lovely wife of three years is an artist of no mean ability, she took a jewellery making program at F.I.T (Fashion Institute of Technology) but never had any interest in trains till she met me and had no choice in the matter! So I took her to Trainland in Lynbrook to show her what was what and predictably she was entranced. She's an RN and has a magic touch with children and with her connivance our little friend will - I hope - have found herself a hobby that will teach her so much without her being aware of it.

As a teacher I used trains again and again to teach 'Technology' and as I said before, the worst and toughest kids were fascinated with them and treated them with great care. These are the sort of kids one tends to stereotype as thugs in training and I found them to be well worth the trust and risk.

I took a crew of them to the FIRST Robotics competition Finals at Disneyworld a couple of years ago and most of them subsequently were awarded full scholarships - over half of the crew - and went onto various technical colleges. So I know whereof I speak as to the educational value of trains. After all a layout is essentially a one dimensional robot, as I told them when they initially hooted with laughter when I outlined my training program. The hardest part of the whole task was persuading Administrators, Heads of Departments and other such pig headed, narrow minded busybodies, that the most effective way to instruct is to amuse!

Ooops sorry I guess I got a bit carried away there.

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