anyone under 30?

[Anonymous]

hey how is everyone doing, i'm 26 years old and like the majority O guage collectors i was bitten by the lionel bug when i was very young and stuck with it. i am now finding as my friends come to my house and see my 8x16 ft layout that they are all saying "yea i used to have trains when i was little..... i didn't know people were still into this stuff!"
i always reply to them the same way that yes theres a ton of people that are still into this, but just about everybody that i know that is as into this hobby as I am are at least twice my age. now don't get me wrong, i love when i meet people that have been operating trains since the 50's, they always have the best tips for getting stuff to work. but i am just curious if there is anyone on this mesage board who is in my age group?

-greg-

[Sturgeon-Phish]

No offense, but my trains are over 30! :)

[Anonymous]

i'm 20

[Anonymous]

Ummm... I have 3 kids under 30!
[#welcome] to the Forum Greg

[Dave Farquhar]

I'm 31, just past your cutoff.

[Anonymous]

25 here in NJ

[Demon09]

i dunno if im too far to the other end of the spectrum at 18.............

[Anonymous]

30 here in NJ also.

[Anonymous]

"don't trust anybody over 30"

"come the great day of the rope, they'll be dancing on air"

it's hard sometimes not to think like a bumpersticker. welcome!

[JamesPH1966]

Honestly, I'm suprised when I encounter anyone my age (40 this year) or younger in this hobby, and I've been in the TCA since 1984 (and actually before that as a "family member") and going to Greenburg's shows since 1979 or so...

[Anonymous]

My wife says mentally Im im under 30!!!,,,,sometimes under 1[:O]
Birth certificate says Im 43......[^]

[Anonymous]

34 here. I never touched a toy train until a less than a month ago when I found a train set in my parent's attic. I took on the challenge of getting it to work for under the Christmas tree.

Prewar 204 loco (gunmetal), 1689W tender (gunmetal), 609 Pullman (x2), 611 Observation. Tore it apart and cleaned it. Got it to work!!! My seventy-year-old father ran into the room and his face lit up like a little kid--he hadn't heard that whistle since he was 12. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Bought a prewar Lionel book and I Just got my first Lionel piece (prewar loco) yesterday. Getting a new starter set this week.

So, as far as the O gauge addiction goes, I'm three weeks old!

[Anonymous]

I am 28. For that matter, I was a promoted locomotive engineer when I was 22.

This generation (under 30) will be the real test for the survival of the hobby as we are the Nintendo generation that has had to overcome the temptation of electronic video games over electric trains.

[Anonymous]

I'm 19 and have loved trains all my life. I'm definitely unique for someone my age as when I was a kid I was totally into trains and never had even the slightest interest in video games or the various fad toys that the other kids were into. I started out with HO and, while I still have HO, vintage collectable toy trains are my main passion today. I'm almost strictly into prewar and postwar and am very much of the collector mindset, which is even more unusual for someone my age considering that the MPC era had just ended when I was born. I can't cite childhood nostalgia as a reason for my collecting interests. Like you, I have many friends in the hobby (not counting all of my great friends online here on the forums), but they are all older than me. There are two guys who are in their 30's, but the others are all middle-aged or senior citizens. I've yet to personally encounter anyone my age who is involved in the hobby. Most of my friends my own age respond quite positively to it, though. When I was in high school, I lived right next to the school and twice gave tours of my layout and collection (to my French class as a year-end fun thing and to my Psychology class as we were studying the effects of toys on childhood development). In both cases, the students (who were mainly girls on both occaisions) were absolutely fascinated by the trains.

[Anonymous]

I am 33 years old. I started collecting trains when I was 27 years old. Before that I had a train set when I was 8 and 10 years old.

[Jumijo]

I'm well past 30, but very immature for my age.

Jim

[Anonymous]

I Just turned 35 this January and purchase a Lionel set for my kids (we sort of, they are 2 and 4). I just got the bug a year ago when I found my grandfathers American Flyer set. Really did not have any model train exposure before. I hope this will be a lifetime hobby for me.

Brett

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Sask_Tinplater

I'm 19 and have loved trains all my life.
In both cases, the students (who were mainly girls on both occaisions) were absolutely fascinated by the trains.

Ahhh, the best of both worlds! Enjoy! Joe(64)

[Anonymous]

wow, i am so glad to see that there are other people close to me in age that are into this hobby the same way i am!
i look foward to becoming friends with all of you!

[tmcc man]

I am 15 years young. I have been in this hobby since I was 6 years old, and I am now starting outside with my garden railway. But O gauge will always be my favorite.

[Buckeye Riveter]

4 1/2
See my photo below for proof.

[prewardude]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Buckeye Riveter

4 1/2
See my photo below for proof.

LOL! [:D]

I'm 37, but I've been into trains all my life (both real and model). When I was younger, everybody else my age was into cars and chasin' babes. Not me. I was into trains and music. Now I'm into chasin' babes, music, and trains. And no, I've never been married (thankfully). [;)]

[Anonymous]

I'm 30.

I am hoping to wait out the majority in here before I can afford what I really want in this hobby. As I see it the prices have to come down in a couple years when alot fewer people are in the hobby or "age out". "You can't take it with you" is how the saying goes. Sure there will be less or even no new product but there is enough mint in box to last a lifetime thanks to todays collection habits. Every collecter seems like they are intending to start a private museum.

The first of the baby boom generation is beginning to retire and with the new changes in medicare happening simutainously it is already apparent that there will be tremendous stress on the medical and care systems. They were so big they were able to draw all of the attention to themselves. They even named thier parents the "Greatest Generation". That takes some hubrus. I wonder what the boomers will call thier own kids when they realize that they will never be able to retire because the boomers will no doubt live longer than thier parents yet they retire at the same age.

Sure people who "invest " in trains thinking the price will only go up will lose out but that is just how this artificial leasure market is going to be. The much forcasted "end of the hobby" will have an upside to the younger people involved. Finally the few left will be able to sit down and figure out exactly what did happen when the boomer's hobby of flamed out in the years around the turn of the 21st century. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

[Anonymous]

I'm 14, turning 15 this year.

[kopeck]

I'm 24, I don't really have a layout but I was brought back into the hobby this past christmas.

[BlackJack]

28 here. The median age of ogauge fans is in the 50s. I'm sure most young people have rarely seen o gauge layouts in the home. If they had trains at all they were probably those tyco or bachmann circle of track and a diesel F3 with 3 cars in tow. I've only "barely" been able to get into ogauge financially. When I was younger few hobby shops carried modern Lionel, the post war stuff that was used was pricey and in poor condition. Fortunately, my dad still had his 675 loco and freight set, otherwise I would have missed out on the Lionel magic. Now is a great time to be in this hobby-lots of product, scale items, command control and good transformers. I'd like to share the hobby with others, but I don't know if they'd "get it"?

[thatboy37]

hey im only 26 and i've been into trains every since i was 4. i can remember when my family use to take trips we would always stop on this particular train track and they would let me get out and touch the tracks and gather a few rocks to play with. also i got a train every year from the age of 4 to i was 15 for christmas and my birthday. to this day i cant remember where all those trains are or disappeared to but whoever got them or my mom gave them to they sure have a nice collection of trains if one of you guys are some of those people who got lucky and got some of them could you please give them back to me that way i want have to spend anymore money on trains.

[Anonymous]

Suprised that I missed this thread somehow....next week I will be 29....my last year of being in my 20's. Usually the majority of those that are regulars here are way older than I am, which is why alot of the awesome layouts I have seen on this forum are made from these guys. Most of us younger people are trying to get established careers, saving up money and such and don't always have the disposable income to just spend on trains, or in very limited quantities, so it could take us quite a long time to get where the older guys are in comparison to permanent layouts.

But I am glad to see that there are younger people here within the under-30 median that are into the hobby. Always a good thing. [:)]

Chris

[njalb1]

I started my granddaughter and pet at an early age!
Bella 9 months
Rusty 1 1/2 years old!
[:D][:D][:D]

[underworld]

Under 30...............................feet??????? [:p]

underworld

aka The Violet

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]