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Problem for the future of model railroading?

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I too buy a great deal of stuff used. Not only can you find deals, but it's also quite interesting because you never know what you will find next. I once bought a lot of about 10 HO engines with close to 50 cars as well as other items from an antique shop for $50 (Canadian money). It had come to the antique store from someone who's grandfather had been a model railroader and had died recently. No one else in the family had any interest in it. I of course have always been thrilled at what a great deal I found, but the story behind it does sadden me. These trains had probably been this man's pride and joy and after he passed on his family was only concerned about getting rid of them. At least though, they're in the hands of someone who truly appreciates them. <br /> <br />I'll be 17 in less than a week, so I'm quite young when compared to most others in this hobby. I myself have never had any interest in video games and am very concerned about how many of today's kids are getting their minds warped because of them. On this website under the section Trains For The Young there's a very excellent article about kids, video games and model trains. I found it to have a lot of very profound thoughts on this issue. I don't have a train simulator on my computer, but I do beieve that they are quite fun and think that the things you can do with them are quite amazing. I however would never ever consider giving up my model trains in favour of one! There's so much virtual reality in this world. I don't know about the others out there, but I would much rather have reality. There's a certain feeling of pride one gets in having a layout, whether it's a very basic 4x8 or an enormous scale detailed masterpiece. Imagine how scary it would be if railfanning and model railroading were replaced by computers. <br /> <br />I'm not a rivet counter, but there are a lot of them out there. You don't have to be a scale freak to enjoy this hobby. I can recall as a kid seeing a cartoon where Donald Duck had a garden railroad. He had a ruler and walked around measuring everything to see if it was to scale. When he discovered Chip and Dale and the tree they lived in in his yard he wanted to get rid of them because they were out of scale. This isn't too far off from some modelers (no offence to anyone intended). An important part of this hobby is that there are many different aspects of it and you can build a layout any way you want to. If you want it to be an exact model of a real railroad operation you can and if you want to be creative and make up somethng all on your own you can too. There's been talk of too much RTR stuff on this thread. I don't have a problem with. If you don't like it-don't buy it. There should be a good variety of RTR and kits of various difficulty available so everybody can buy what they want for their own railroad to suit their tastes. But I do think that the prices are getting a bit out of hand. I don't think we have anything to worry about concerning current hobbyists quitting, the real problem is getting the younger generation interested and that's what this thread was supposed to be about. We all need to make an extra special effort to get kids interested, they're the future of this hobby.
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