Well, I'm only 72 at present, but I hope I have a few good years ahead of me, now if the dang budget would just keep up! I am finally building a big layout and it may end up being more bite than I can chew, eh? Meanwhile I am still enjoying the challenge. I installed my first two decoders last week, one a Tsunami with sound! I am very into Operations and the sound helps to keep it good. John
Hopefully younger modelers will continue to come along. Its up to us "older" guys to mentor and encourage younger members in our clubs. Unfortunately, some clubs become an old codger society and don't always welcome new members. I remember those that helped me as a young teenager and showed me the ropes and I will always appreciate their help and continue to help younger modelers when and where I can.
BTW...Chronologically, I am 50 years old, but I prefer to consider myself a much younger man, just heavily "weathered".
I'm 70 and working on my 3rd HO layout that is 70% complete. First train was a Lionel O-27 in 1947 and I've been hooked ever since. This is a great hobby and I hope to continue for many years.
Gale
Pittsfield, IL
Hello I will be 39 in March and been in and out of the hobby since I was kid. I model in ho trying to stay in 1935-45 ear. Been working on this layout for 5 years now it is a 9x12 L shape.and still have a long way to go. Have a nice day Frank
I recently turned 70.
Got my first electric train the same year as my first piano lesson--age five. So my profession (music) and my hobby have pretty much grown up together.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
thank you everyone for responding...i did not think the thread would get this big. lets keep it going. i enjoy reading about other peoples experiences with MRR
Wanted:
Good Woman with N scale Y6b, must cook and clean, be moderately interested in scratchbuilding trees, dress stylishly and be entertaining. Please email photo of Y6b...
I'm 39. All my life my friends have been older, wiser guys who were into hunting, fishing, other guy stuff, some of them were MRR's, other's not. Now and only now, have I found a couple of friends my age who want to get into the hobby... My wife on the other hand, is very interested, and every time I do a project she's supportive, Going so far as to set up a "Man Cave" for me in the garage so I'd have all the modern connivances- computer with TV card, Fridge with suds & soft Drinks, and a quiet place to build the railroad... I taught her how to do bottle brush pines, and her tree skills have far surpassed mine... She can do almost any type of tree that appears in any of the articles... all but a palm...LOL
Fellow modellers are nice to have around on occasion, but I don't want to belong to another club... its like being on a church board that smokes cigars, but only plays by the rules that are convienient...
you could always do a card table sized diorama and take it to your local train show... you'll meet people your age there. and the diorama will give you stuff to talk about.
I am 62. Been in the hobby since 1971. Started in HO, moved to O and have been in S for the last 17 years. Plan to start the "big one" in year or so after retirement and finishing the basement.
Enjoy
Paul
I'm 47. I was a model railroader when I was a kid. Then school, girls, cars, job (not necessarily in that order), and now am finally able to return to the hobby.
John
Well, I'm 62 and have been modeling for over 50 years. I went from O to HO to N and am looking at Nn3. Just started a new layout and might incorporate an Nn3 logging camp. Makes me feel like a teen again - so I'm thinking age is pretty much what you make of it,. I'm retiring this year so hopefully I'll have some real time to devote to it.
Unfortunately, my "Honey Do" list is growing faster than I can lay track. The up side is that my wife is also a miniaturist ( 1/48 scale) and has shown an interest in the buildings and scenery. She also has an online shop with a line of laser cut dollhouse kits and we might kit a few N scale structures based on local buildings found along the right of way of the NWP.
Modeling the fictional B&M Dowe, NH branch in the early 50's.
OK I was bored. 47 people have listed there age, average is 36.6 years old. Age groups
10-19 7
20-29 8
30-39 4
40-49 7
50-59 11
60 plus 10.
If you said you are all most say 30, I used age 29.
Maybe Walther's should advertise in the AARP magazine.
I hate Rust
IVRWDo you think my dad will be joining our ranks when my sister and I grow up? Assuming I wasnt born, would he ever join our ranks? What do you think...
Do you think my dad will be joining our ranks when my sister and I grow up? Assuming I wasnt born, would he ever join our ranks? What do you think...
... it´s in the genes, IVRW, it´s in the genes!
Maybe when your father has put you and your sis through college, he will come back to this great hobby. Actually, it was my father who got me started. He had some trains (Marklin, early HO scale of 1934 - imagine the value today) as a young boy, but due to the war, and the bad times that followed, he was never able to build a layout of his own. He fostered my interest, though, and is still an avid reader of the TRAINS magazine - at the age of 84.
zgardner18 BATMAN Retired at 53. What is it they say? Dream..... Plan..... Build.....? Maybe after another glass. Brent Brent, I am so jealous of you right now. NOT because you say you are retired but that you have a golden retriever that looks just like the one I grew up with. Waiting a little longer and then I'll be getting my puppy soon.
BATMAN Retired at 53. What is it they say? Dream..... Plan..... Build.....? Maybe after another glass. Brent
Retired at 53. What is it they say?
Dream..... Plan..... Build.....?
Maybe after another glass.
Brent
Brent,
I am so jealous of you right now. NOT because you say you are retired but that you have a golden retriever that looks just like the one I grew up with. Waiting a little longer and then I'll be getting my puppy soon.
Actually this girl on my lap was two days away from having eight puppies. We have six Goldens. If you want to see more just Google "" and my wifes webpage is usually at the top of the page.
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
shayfan84325 I'm 52. It appears that there is a fairly common pattern to model railroaders' ages: There is a bunch in the teen to early 20s group, then another bunch in the mid-forties and older group. This actually follows my own "career" with the hobby and I think it's pretty common: I got started in model railroading as a teen, then left the hobby in my 20s and 30s to pursue my career and do the family thing, then I started again in my mid-forties (using a variation on my "teen era" track plan). My guess is that many of us follow that pattern, or we get started by"helping" one of our kids and end up getting hooked ourselves in our early-mid 40s.Of course, there are exceptions, but I hypothesize that these are common patterns.As a teen I was frustrated that there weren't more of us in the hobby, and that the non-train-fan kids were not very nice about my hobby. Generally I kept quiet about it, and that made it even harder to find other "train guys". Frankly, I wish the model railroading demographic were more evenly populated both age-wise and gender-wise (wouldn't it be fun to have more women in the hobby?), but it is what it is - we don't intentionally discourage folks of certain ages or gender; the hobby just doesn't fit them, is my guess.Now that I'm an old timer I find it interesting how many people I find who are also in the hobby and are happy to talk about it (many of them were "closet" model railroaders as teens, too). I also find the non-model railroaders still don't "get it," but at least they are nice about it.
I'm 52.
It appears that there is a fairly common pattern to model railroaders' ages: There is a bunch in the teen to early 20s group, then another bunch in the mid-forties and older group. This actually follows my own "career" with the hobby and I think it's pretty common: I got started in model railroading as a teen, then left the hobby in my 20s and 30s to pursue my career and do the family thing, then I started again in my mid-forties (using a variation on my "teen era" track plan). My guess is that many of us follow that pattern, or we get started by"helping" one of our kids and end up getting hooked ourselves in our early-mid 40s.
Of course, there are exceptions, but I hypothesize that these are common patterns.
As a teen I was frustrated that there weren't more of us in the hobby, and that the non-train-fan kids were not very nice about my hobby. Generally I kept quiet about it, and that made it even harder to find other "train guys". Frankly, I wish the model railroading demographic were more evenly populated both age-wise and gender-wise (wouldn't it be fun to have more women in the hobby?), but it is what it is - we don't intentionally discourage folks of certain ages or gender; the hobby just doesn't fit them, is my guess.
Now that I'm an old timer I find it interesting how many people I find who are also in the hobby and are happy to talk about it (many of them were "closet" model railroaders as teens, too). I also find the non-model railroaders still don't "get it," but at least they are nice about it.
My dad is old enough to kill me if I gave his age, so I will simply say this: He told me stories about when he was a kid, he had an HO scale layout on a 4X8, and he would strap firecrackers to the bottom of his cars with silly putty. Needless to say, KaBOOM would ensue. When I came around, he got back into trains because I was fanatic for them. He still has a lot to learn about trains, but I think that should go by layout No. 2 (assuming I can do so at college according to the current plans). Anyway, to the point, do you guys think this follows Shayfans analysis? Do you think my dad will be joining our ranks when my sister and I grow up? Assuming I wasnt born, would he ever join our ranks? What do you think...
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
70
I have been off and on since I was 12.
Been at it steadily for the past 30 years.
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
64
... and still playing with trains
I call it operation
Wolfgang
Pueblo & Salt Lake RR
Come to us http://www.westportterminal.de my videos my blog
As I stated earlier in this thread, model railroaders don´t age.
I am turning 54 pretty soon, and I am crazy about "trains" since I was given my first train set 47 years ago. With the exception of a longer pause (in fact, too long a pause) during my university days and the first steps into work life, model railrading has accompanied me ever since, however with some changes of directions.
I am fortunate, that model railroading enjoys a much greater social acceptance at this side of the Big Pond, maybe because trains are a lot more apparent in our every day life.
--Zak Gardner
My Layout Blog: http://mrl369dude.blogspot.com
http://zgardner18.rrpicturearchives.net
VIEW SLIDE SHOW: CLICK ON PHOTO BELOW
BamaCSX83I'm 26, I had a plywood empire (read 4x8 double oval) consisting from my dad's Tyco and my LifeLike trainsets. From there I graduated up to building Athearn BB's and some Walthers kits. Put all the trains away when I hit driving age. Just got back into the hobby almost 3 years ago with the birth of my first daughter. She's a train nut just like her daddy and its something that a) allows me to spend time with her doing something other than tea parties and such, b) is something that I enjoyed as a kid and always challenged me as a modeller (built model cars/ships/planes, still do), and c) its something that I can always work on slowly, its one of the few hobbies that as everyone on here has said, you can always work on it. I'm planning a large double deck layout modelling the tracks that run through my local area, the setting is "today" (within the last 5 years), and while I don't have the first stick of track laid yet, I do have a plan and my list of givens and druthers. Heck, it may take 20 years to build it, but I'm going to build it!
That sounds a lot like me. Loved trains too much up until my junior year in highschool. Had the 4X8 running the Blueboxes and Walther's kits. Moved back to San Diego, got a truck and a surfboard and the trains stayed in boxes. It wasn't until I was around 26 and my son on the way when I found out about a local HO club. Next thing I knew I was hooked again and have been going nuts ever since. Two sons later and a wife that can't figure out where there love of trains came from. Now I too am planning for a layout to call my own.
I'm now 33 and I am very thankful that I have a lot of time ahead of me for model railroading with my two young boys by my side. Heck give the wife a controller!
I'm only 68 shooting for 69 next month.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Well I am 62 and now that I am retired I have the time for building a model railroad. I have been interested since my first American Flyer 4x8 layout with the 1x3 sides which were painted bright green enamel. Ah yes, memories....
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
I'm 15, but I'll be 16 in June (which means I get my permit! ).
I know no one my age into trains. None in my school (so that means that 1/500 of my school likes trains), at least that I know of, and I'm pretty sure.
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