Yes, i know this is a rather odd post, but these days i am finding it harder and harder to find other teens who share the railroading hobby. I guess in these days of gaming (which i have nothing bias against as i am a gamer too) and instant gratification, building someting with your hands has sadly become endangered. If you are a teen railroader, please share your thoughts here, and how you got your start.
Keep the railroad dream alive!
-Zach
wait, what?
My Father had O gauge trains from his Father and so on. This was way back in the 60's and 70's where Pool Halls, Pinball and Bowling Alleys (Skating rinks too) were the places to go as a Teen. At home the best you could hope for was a AM/FM Stimul-cast to go with the color TV which has not really improved the sound yet in those days of vacuum tubes in baseball down town.
We had electro mechanical games like Pinball and other types of games that used some form of science and physics to give you a entertainment. Trains was a popular part of that. Space Invaders and later Coin Op Arcades in the 80's taught us how to be Truants and avoid the local county truant officer while hanging out.
With that in mind bear with me here.
PC Computing and the advancing technology of idiot proof Console gaming for TV's have gained SUCH a large market share. Most children today grow up and they are exposed to the hype of video gaming in some form everywhere.
Yes you had train video games, but market share does not match the online fighting games or those involving magic or escapist realistic worlds.
Consider the following.
I built a PC Computer, my 6th rebuild/new build which essentially means throwing out obselete burned up parts and replacing them with brand new top of line cheap parts. The kind that cost 300 dollars for a motherboard 18 months prior but gets sold on discount for 80 dollars just prior to being discontinued.
I bottom feed this way and build powerful computers capable of gaming train games or any other games on the planet. But I am a old man.
Brass Engines in O Gauge are cheap now when you consider the cost of the console, accessories, computers, parts, games, house to put it in and the electricity to feed it along with the junk food to consume, beer and smokes etc etc etc.
No wonder today's children are obese.
I can go on but I think to remain on topic and answer your question how I got started, it was very simple.
My brother bought me a Hellcat Model Kit, a World War Two Airplane. A bit of paint (Spray kind) and the small bottles ... remember, huffing and drug use was not invented in those days and graffiti was not the problem it is now. And a big fat brain smoking orange tube of testors plastic glue.
He sat me down, spread open the instruction sheet, handed me a sharp knife and told me to cut out the parts needed for step one. Then step two to paint, trim the parts etc.
At the time I was told that it will keep me off the streets, out of trouble and home where everyone knew I am doing something good.
That was like near 40 years ago. Today? Instant gratification is the rule. Not the slow patient process of building. Painting "Look Ma! No-Fuse!" on a model bomb with a tiny brush took a few days.
Now? hah. Try keeping a kid still long enough to do anything.
The last best hope of model railroading will be and always will be Daddies and Mommies who bring in Thomas the Train Stuff into the wee one's while they are growing up. Even wooden toys trains with magnetic couplers is good. Nothing computer in the home anywhere. Slow living with daily activities as the child gets older is your best defense against a world that will corrupt your kid with 13 going on 30 behavior and attitude to match and no time for silly things like playing with trains.
But I take heart in one thing.
There is ALWAYS.... some kid out there somewhere in this world always ready to run a train set.
Someday they will be engineers, conductors and bosses who run real railroads.
But it is up to Mommy and Daddies to make it happen. And we dont seem to have too many left the way things are going in the USA.
However in the local hobby shops there are a few teens who come down and be around train stuff. And that is a good thing.
Zach,
My 17yr. old son, John, is into it like me. He doesn't post here, but he realy gets into it. He got his first train set for his second Christmas and has been hooked like me since. He looks forward to shows and he tells me if he sees any first. We take a trip every year to the National toy Train Museum in Lancaster, Pa. and stay at the Red Caboose Motel next door. I started my daughter the same way. She is 25 and married and sets up her set around the Christmas tree each year. I have a friend at work who's son is into it also, mostly HO, but he has an ogauge set also.
John
I feel the same way. Im a tee nrailroader myself. aside from the internet, I have not met antoher like me. one thing ive noticed is thgat even if you do find another teen railroader, they are usually a little too obsessed and have no other interests or freinds Its hard to find a teen railroader who has a great interest but still cares about other things...
"No childhood should be without a train!"
billbarmanI feel the same way. Im a tee nrailroader myself. aside from the internet, I have not met antoher like me. one thing ive noticed is thgat even if you do find another teen railroader, they are usually a little too obsessed and have no other interests or freinds Its hard to find a teen railroader who has a great interest but still cares about other things...
Funny guys.
You mean we are supposed to have other interests and friends too! Sounds to much like work to me. LOL. That is what my teenager would say.
Just kidding with ya. Have fun.
Last ChanceSlow living with daily activities as the child gets older is your best defense against a world that will corrupt your kid with 13 going on 30 behavior and attitude to match and no time for silly things like playing with trains.
Slow living with daily activities as the child gets older is your best defense against a world that will corrupt your kid with 13 going on 30 behavior and attitude to match and no time for silly things like playing with trains.
Unfortunately, these days it's more likely to be "30 going on 13."
In my opinion, in addition to the other factors you mention, a huge problem is lack of exposure to the prototype. When I was a kid, the 4-track PRR mainline ran through my town, and those tracks were very seldom empty for more than a few minutes. Several of the town lumber yards had their own sidings for pickup and delivery, and even by the Fifties, an experimental passenger special like the Aerotrain could get a lot of people down to the station to take pictures. Trainwatching was a common activity with family and/or friends
Almost all small towns had a railroad through or near them and any industry of any size always had its dedicated spur. The freights were variegated, with brightly-painted boxcars from a dozen different roads, coal hoppers, reefers gondolas, tank cars. Passenger cars, passing through at night, always had an air of the exotic, with their fleeting passenger silhouettes flashing by on their way to exotic places.
Today we have anonymous, cabooseless unit trains and Amtrak passenger service that comes and goes on an indifferent schedule. Once, railroads were an integrated part of peoples' daily lives, but now many Americans -- maybe most -- rarely see trains at all, and when they do, they pay them little attention.
Yeah, I know -- some people who live in the right places actually do see trains frequently, and that's good. But they're not in the majority any more. And some will object that "railroads are doing better than ever" by one standard or another. All the same, they're not as visible as ever, and that's a major impediment to getting new members into the hobby.
Railroading just doesn't occupy the central place in most Americans' hearts that it once did. So when you find a young hobbyist with the imagination to take up railroad modeling, give it all the encouragement you can.
DJSpankyTeenage railroading I would think would be almost non-existent. Most teenagers have a myriad of other interests which draw their attention, not to mention their pursuit of the fairer sex. I know I had no interest in trains while I was a teenager - it wasn't until I got my first apartment out of school and wanted to both display my trains on the mantle and run 'em around my Xmas tree that my interest came back.
Teenage railroading I would think would be almost non-existent. Most teenagers have a myriad of other interests which draw their attention, not to mention their pursuit of the fairer sex. I know I had no interest in trains while I was a teenager - it wasn't until I got my first apartment out of school and wanted to both display my trains on the mantle and run 'em around my Xmas tree that my interest came back.
You may well be on to something there. I lost interest when I was about 14, and didn't pick up the hobby again till after I was married at 20.
Think the bottom line really is the scale. The model railroader side use to have a post that was basically just teens and it carried a good following not sure if it still does but last time I was over there about 6 months ago it was there and had quite a few pages to it. it was just for teens. So there your looking basically HO and n scale. now with summer you also get a cut back in interest. Summer activities and once you get about 15 or so theres that other terrible interest called girls/women so there seems to be a down play there till at least collage is over. but there are teens out there I need to check on one that use to be in train club I was in in VA befor I moved. but last I heard he was still a strong member there and he was in O gauge.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
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