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Have you seen these new video games on the Microsoft XBox and the Sony PSII systems? I have to admit it is amazing stuff. You become part of the game.......your friend at his home (or someone else across the continent) is also part of the game via a broadband connection. You work together to achieve a mission or a goal, such as on a battlefield. Unbelievable graphics and communication abilities. Some people mentioned RC stuff. I watch my kids and thier friends in the back yard. That stuff is also amazing. The electronics have really evolved. They get so much power out of these rechargebale battery sticks. And the models with the fuel engines are little rockets. So, jumping ramps, getting big air, racing, big smash ups, hill climbing and 4-wheeling, chasing cats and other animals. Its a rowdy thing going on. And since these things always need to be repaired, and upgraded, the boys gain mechanical and electrical skills. "Geeky?" You bet it is for a teen, or even a pre-teen. I think my boys keep the MR to themselves. And I've heard comments out of other boy's mouths about the weirdness of the hobby. Our small layout is in my home office, partly because a MR is not healthy around a bunch of rowdy teenagers. My kids have never brought their friends to see the layout. One thing about "geeky." I shoot ducks every winter. Lots of people have made comments (behind my back) about me. That I'm stupid, weird, Elmer Fudd, etc for hiding in a salt marsh before dawn, making duck sounds with a call. So why are my sons interested in model railroading? They have the video games and the RC trucks. The fall is crowded with Pop Warner/HS football and hunting. What makes a boy come in from all the rowdiness and mayhem and noise, and go nose to nose with a little locomotive, guiding it to couple up with a string of cars? Or to think of more ways to make an area on the layout look more realistic? Its the Railroad Gene. Like so many of you have mentioned exposure to trains. There is a gene in our DNA that either gets triggered or stays off. You either understand trains, or you don't. Not much gray area. You get it, or don't. And if that gene gets turned on, as we all know, it lasts your entire life. As my kids grew up, we spent many a long weekend in Strassburg, Pa ------people call it "train city." We often slept in a real caboose (Conrail, of course, when ever it was available) at the Red Caboose Motel in Stassburg. The gene was triggered! And "Roadtrp," its not just boys that put cars above girls. My son has a Good Charlotte CD, maybe you've seen the music video, song goes .... Girls don't love boys Girls love cars and money ....... Jim
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