Promoting our hobby to the young

[Gary Crawley]

We all have been having a bit of fun on the "Spark it up" controversery Forum but I would like to get some ideas for promoting our hobby.
From comments from other Forums it appears that the number of patrons at shows, conventions etc have been falling.
We have all had a bit of fun with Thomas but lets face it Kids love him.
Rene, living in Australia I don't know if "Garden Railways" has a stand at these shows but if it does it would be a great forum to promote our hobby.
Maybe a small G railway of Thomas that the children can operate, sight and sound.
Also a junior section in the Magazine that would feature their railway.
A competition for the kids etc
Regards
Gary

[Anonymous]

Hi Gary,
All for promoting the hobby to young uns, haven't got any myself and whilst all the neighbourhood knows I run trains none of the kids have asked for a look. A local club, the G Whizzers I think, have a very large layout just for kids that they take round shows and it's the kids who drive the trains, 5 minutes each(ish). I think that here in the UK the 'OO' guage is king for kids because of its afforability and they can get it just about everywhere. I like the idea of a kids bit in the mag but how many of us know kids who garden railroad? Worth exploring methinks.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[Rene Schweitzer]

Gary,

Yes, GR has a presence at many of the large-scale oriented shows in the US. Kalmbach in general also works with Greenberg Shows and GATS by providing signage, booklets to pass out, door prizes, etc.

Years ago, GR had a "just for kids" section in the magazine, but it didn't survive. Marc is very interested in kids' involvement in the hobby. We've run articles on teens' railways and Marc makes it a point to run letters we receive from young 'uns in the magazine.

From what I've seen at shows I've worked, kids continue to be fascinated by trains. Unfortunately, they just aren't exposed to them. Thomas is a great thing and so are movies like the upcoming Polar Express, but we all need to do our part to spread the word. For instance, my five-year-old cousin (and godchild) has a birthday, so I mailed him a three pack DVD of Thomas. My nephew, who will turn four next month, is getting a new addition to his GeoTrax train.

Some of the folks here already have great ideas to promote trains to kids, like Brian and his Father's Day layout, Ondrek's train night for the kids, and Richard's library trip. These are wonderful ways to excite kids (of all ages!) about trains. Let's here more ideas!

Rene (sorry so long)

[Anonymous]

Hi Gary
I think there are a niumber of things that could be done based on my own observation at exhibitions most train layouts are too high for children to see them.
So there need to be some layouts that are lower down so children can see them that where built specificaly with children in mind Snooville HO which was at the Perth AMRA (I think) exhibition and in a magazine was a good example.
It was bright colourfull not strictly prototype simple and fun most house holds would have the
soap and makeup containers that the stock was made of on the wifes dressing table or in the bathroom.
The other thing is that no one seems to manufacture the good solid reliable
not strictly to scale bright colourfull kids pocket money priced trains any more.
Triang Hornby did some nice ones that did not have to chucked out when the child was old enough,and it was time to move on to the more scale trains like Dad played with.
We need a Large scale train that can match that.with all the add on bits
and the train layouts that used to be in the big toy shops back
i am sure if the exposure level was there alot more kids would be interested
thats my 50c worth
regards John

[Anonymous]

At our house ,the first thing visiting children (and there are quite a few) ask "can we run the trains please".
Even after a days work I always try and get at least one going.They love it.
The reaction from the parents when they pick up their children is also good.I had one bloke that collects OO locos stay for so long that his wife phoned up to see if everything was OK.
Every year in our village we have a fete to raise money.Next year I'm thinking of making a loop of track in an enclosure,sticking a pin on the front of a train and let the children have a go at pop the balloons competition.Hope it works!
Troy

[kstrong]

Getting kid to run trains at 5 is a whole different ball game than keeping them interested long term. Setting up a table at a train show and letting kids take them "for a spin" is all well and good, and if mom and dad continue to let them play at home, then the chances improve, but it's not enough.

The best thing we can do to promote this hobby amongst kids it to include them in the various activities we attend, be it a convention, swap meet, or monthly club meeting. I grew up with this hobby. I enjoyed going to train shows, but was almost always treated "as a kid" by the merchants there. They rarely took time to answer my questions, and the look of sheer horror when I actually picked up an "expensive" locomotive to examine it would make Stephen King proud. (These weren't the high-dollar brass locos, either--just your "average" Atlas or Kato locos, around $75). Some flat out refused to let me hold a locomotive. Granted, these guys didn't know me from Adam, and I'm sure other 10 year olds may have dropped a loco or two on their watch, but what message does "no, you can't look at this" send? It's not exactly the most inclusive attitude. Just a little of that is enough to send someone running from any activity.

I think the best thing we can do for this hobby is to realize the difference between treating someone like a child versus treating someone like a student. If a child asks a question, it's usually because they have an interest in learning the answer, even if it's a 2 year old's "why?". A child who walks up to a complete stranger at a train show to ask a question inherently demonstrates an even stronger will to learn because he or she has to overcome the barrier of approaching a stranger first.

I was lucky to have parents that supported my efforts in this hobby, but I don't think that in itself would have been enough to keep me involved. Without the positive experiences I got from the monthly club meetings I went to, I'd probably be doing something completely different. With only a few exceptions, folks at these meetings treated me as an equal. They listened to my questions and explained their answers. It didn't happen instantly, but once one or two people realized that I was genuinely interested, others picked up on it quite quickly. They had no problem letting me hold their "expensive" locomotives, or put them on the track, or run them. They enjoyed teaching me about their model, and I wanted to learn how they built it. It's that teacher/student relationship that we need to nurture as a group.

Now that I'm a much older child (I still refuse to grow up), I find myself in the position of being the teacher on more occasions. (I still take every opportunity to be a student, too.) I spent a recent morning at the Colorado Railroad Museum talking about live steam locomotives with a 6 year old who had an unbelievable knowledge of railroading. I showed him how to put water in the boiler and handed him the throttle. He and his parents left with a club membership application. My own involvement in live steam had similar roots--as an obnoxious 14 year old, I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at a steam-up at the late Jack Wheldon's railway. He showed me where to put the water and the alcohol and sent me out on the line. It would be two more years before I got my first live steamer (and 6 before I got one that actually ran), but that little seed stuck, and has been continually nurtured over the years by other enthusiasts who are willing to share their knowledge.

It's a widely held belief that it's far easier to learn when you're young. It's an odd paradox, then, that we have this inherent resistance towards teaching those who are most capable of learning. We're now at least two generations removed from the days of steam. The only way the glory of that era will survive is if we pass it along to future generations. We can't do that if we keep telling them they're just kids. Aren't we all "just kids?"

Later,

K

[SandyR]

Kevin, BRAVO!!! You said it better than I ever could! Not to change the subject, but women are often ignored, even when they show great interest in our hobby. I'm lucky to be in a club where I am accepted and not ignored or talked down to.
We have both a Thomas train, and a James train at our layout in a local mall. Those two trains are the first thing that visiting kids head for. While they're entranced is a good time to strike up a conversation with the parents. Once THEY are interested, the kids stand a chance of being given a train of their own.
And don't overlook the battery-powered cheapo plastic trains that run on G-gauge track. They're quite affordable, though certainly not all that prototypical. But 'prototypical' is not the hook that gets the kids. It's the sense of something magical, the 'Disney' experience. They, and adult newcomers too, are not often attracted by weathered equipment, no matter how much we enjoy it ourselves. It's often the brightly-colored train running through a garden of color-coordinated flowers at a garden show, that gets them.
Guess I got in more than my two cents'-worth, huh?
SandyR

[Anonymous]

I got hookekd on thomas and this mad obcession has grown from there.

[Anonymous]

To me the love of model trains is a family tradition to be handed down generation to generation. It’s practically a birthright.


Here’s me more than 50 years ago with my grandfather’s trains. That’s my sister Pat looking on too.





And here’s my grandson Patrick with some of my trains. He has plenty of his own too.

Regards,
Bill C.
South Jersey

[powlee]

Gary
I totally agree to bringing the young into the hobby. That`s not the hard part, keeping them interested in later life is the hard part. My dad encouraged me in the 1950`s but that was a different era. There are too many other alternatives now. My son liked to run my trains when I had a 00 in the garden. He had his own Thomas set but soccer and computer games took over. My daughter got embarrassed when her friends came to the house and there was her dad in the garden running his trains.
My kids are now fully grown and take no interest. At our annual club show, the kids come with their parents but it is unusual to see any come on their own.
As Kim says, 00 is king in the UK but even that is expensive for children to buy.
G Scale is even more expensive. Why do you think I bring a lot back from the US.
Ian P

[grandpopswalt]

I'm beginning to think that to be railfan is more a matter of genetics than nurturing I exposed my two sons to steam trains, both real and model, from the time they were old enough to walk. We had a family layout, S gauge, later an HO layout. But neither of them ever really developed a deep connection with the hobby. So, it may be that you have to be born with the "train" gene.

I now have two little grandsons and have already started my campaign to convert them. The two year old shows some promise. His favorite toy is a little wooden Thomas pu***oy, who knows, he may turn out to be the "train buddy" I've been longing for.

And I agree with the notion that we need to take the young ones seriously when they show interest. A child will respond much more favorably if he or she perceives that they are being considered as an equal by the adult. A brief and uncomplicated discussion about the mechanics of trains, their historical importance, and how they affect our daily lives will help the yougster make the connection between the model he's playing with and the real thing.

Walt

This is a great hobby and I'm passionate about it and really do want future generations to be able to enjoy it as well.

[Gary Crawley]

Guy's
Thanks tor all the advice
One thing I'm going to do to promote a bit of interset is to have a treasure hunt, one for the small kids and one for the older/adult people.
They will have to find say 10 objects from a list of clues with a reward for completing the tasks.
The clues and objects would be both railway and garden. eg, a person or object that is lurking amongst the railway.
A Garden Railway version of "Where's Wally"
I do agree that maintaining the interest of children as they get older is very hard but one thing that I do is to take them on a steam train trip for their birthdays, (get the smell and sound in their heads) we are lucky in Canberra we have a strong railway historical society.
We must keep trying.
Gary

[Anonymous]

gary
thanks for getting this going we all need to get are grand children involved with trains mine started about 50 yrs ago and rekindled many times. thank God for my parents. and guy's we need to keep the ball rolling.[:)]

[Anonymous]

I think the best way to reach the young is to start thhem out at a young age [;)] This would need to be done by the parents and grandparents. So keep the bloodline flowing folks, give trains to the kids [^] Now another good way to reach the kids is to have more movies and Tv shows with trains in them and/or about trains. Too many parents seem to put Jr. in front of the Tv to learn about life, sad but true [V] But the media has a real brain washing and programing effect of youth these days. I think that new movie North Pole Express I think it was called, but could be wrong will be a good start [;)] Also, pllaces like Toy R Us and Wally world(Wal Mart) need to carry a bigger selection of train sets like Lionel O27 besides HO. I was in llooking at Brats R Us the other night for Die cast cars for the layout and noted only 2 HO sets (Low quality) as well as a couple real cheap junky looking trains there [:(] So more train sets need to be made availible in the bigger retail toy stores. So theres my advice for the mainstream suggestions to promote. The other big thing would be to spend the time with your kids and share in the activity of playing trains or other activities as well, this is what our kids need the most [;)][:)][^]

[Anonymous]

thats alot of the idea is to make it fun for the kids and spend are time with them.

rocky's great advice
So theres my advice for the mainstream suggestions to promote. The other big thing would be to spend the time with your kids and share in the activity of playing trains or other activities as well, this is what our kids need the most.

everbody has great advice and remember Happy RR[:)]

[Anonymous]

This 14 year old is obsessed with trains.



^Did about 80% of the work in the picture.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by petedabeat

This 14 year old is obsessed with trains.



^Did about 80% of the work in the picture.

LOOK OUT MARTY! We have another bridge guy here. Maybe you should ask the parents for a welder for X-mas[:D]

[Anonymous]

Hey Ya'll

I think this is agreat idea. I am the only one in my family who likes trains, but, My 21 year old brother just had a baby and I am now a proud Uncle. To get him into large scale, I purseuded my brother to purchese a Mamod and he let me go at the kit.

I aded another set of wheels and made it an 0-6-0 and painted it blue. I added a Face and with a few Mamod Coaches, I made a Thomas with Annie and Clarabel. My nephew enjoys it and when I visit my brothers they ask me to run it for him. (They don't know how)


Anyway, I am planning on putting up a train display at my Churches Fall Fair. I am sure they will love it.

Nick.

"SPREAD THE WORD, IT IS THE AGE OF TRAINS"

[Anonymous]

Hi petedabeat
that is going to be a nice set up when finished (these thing are they ever) and running hope we will see more pics as it progresses
regards John

[Anonymous]

petedabeat,

Are you 14, or is the other person (if there is one) 14.

I am 13, so I plan to make something soon

Nick

[Chompers]

hI petedabeat, and locomotive10.

I'm 13 also. wow didn't know that there are so many of us teens w/ rail roads.

[Chompers]

hi, Im 13 too

i have my own rail road. petedabeat I realy like your rail road.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Chompers

Loco10, theres some other kid on MLS thats 14.

Carpenter Matt, I don't think I'm gonna get a welder for X-mas, but my b-day and x-mas are really close together so I might get a combined gift for both that might be a GP-38-2 or a SD-45 road thats on closeout.

[Gary Crawley]

G'day Kids
Good to see you guy's keeping the dream alive.
Gary

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by petedabeat

Thanks Chompers

Loco10, theres some other kid on MLS thats 14.

Carpenter Matt, I don't think I'm gonna get a welder for X-mas, but my b-day and x-mas are really close together so I might get a combined gift for both that might be a GP-38-2 or a SD-45 road thats on closeout.

Petedabeat, I understand. It sounds like you all(you, chompers,locamotive 10) have great parental support with your hobbies! When were all planted 6ft under you guys will be the "Gurus" of your generation keeping this dream alive. Maybe there is a future GR Mag editor among you![:D]

[Anonymous]

Hi Matt
Dont know what the future holds for young ones.
But it looks like they are doing a good job of showing some of us older ones
what's what already, with the pictures and some of the other contributions they have made to the forum..
Definatly going to be leading lights in the hobby when we have our candles snuffed out.
regards John
PS keep it up boys you still have a lot of valuable contributions to make

[powlee]

Hi folks
I know this is an old topic.
Today our club held its Open Day (we don`t have exhibitions, we are only a small club). I am the only G Scaler in the club so when all the 00 & N layouts come out, it gives me a chance to dust off my smaller trains and give them a run. One of the 00/H0 boards consists of 4 parallel tracks, no points or as yet no scenery. So British Rail runs alongside Erie Lackawanna and so on.
This is where the young kids get interested because trains just pass by constantly. We put on long trains, they get excited trying to count the trucks. The dads want to go and look at scenic layouts, the kids don`t.
When`s Thomas coming? We oblige.
It can be an exhausting day, especially trying to keep them back from the track.
But if just one of them begins an interest, it is worth it. But I would advise dad to start at G, then you don`t have sell your smaller stuff later.
Happy Railing kids.
Ian P

[Anonymous]

Stuff the young; let the little buggers look after themselves. What about promoting a greater income for aged gentlemen; that live in the southern hemisphere, who are interested in Garden Railways, this sounds more like it to me.

Regards Ian

[powlee]

Mr Brown
Are you having a pop at the young or ME?

[Gary Crawley]

Ian
Bet you don't like Christmas either. [#dots]
Gary