Where have the young model railroaders gone - RC Cars, RC Airplanes

[mlehman]

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

Mike, feel free to try to direct the sheeple any way you like, I'm not interested in such exercises. I'm interested in disccussions of thoughts and ideas with people who actually have their own thoughts and ideas - maybe this is not he place for that? Sheldon

I dunno Sheldon,

I tried 4 ways to Sunday to try to get people to talk about how RC could be applied, but moderation seemed to be more popular with the crowd today. I think Don put a little tease in the title in good faith of talking about maybe how we could get some of the sort of excitement that RC has going on these days.

Not to go on endlessly about that, but I've noted the same thing in our LHS. RC had gotten very hot the last few years. But here there's the special case of being the home of Great Planes, Horizon, and I can't keep track of what else RC-wise, plus the Big U with it's Engineering and CS schools, open houses, research institutes, and a virtual gaming node, also. And Horizon sponsors a big electric fly-in at the Armory building on campus. Don may be right, though, and it's not just the unique location here.

I do know that RC is accessible technology for kids. Putting it into trains seems like low-hanging fruit to me to work at building a future for model railroading as a hobby. In fact, it's one of those things that changes with every generation simply because the technology changes. Before robotics (which may be a better, less-laden term for it) it was DCC, before that plastic, before that 12 VDC (because HO was pretty much 6 volt until after the War). Whatever our personal choice in RR tech may be, I think it's worth considering the future may not be the way we dream it, but the way some kid does.

And the whole deadrail thing is attracting attention. I remmeber first hearing about such goings on 10 years ago and the batteries weren't there yet. Now, they are, maybe. Batteries don't grow better, faster like circuits do, as I'm sure you know. But I think kids will see that future. RC is a part of model railroading, has been for years in the large scales and some of them ARE serious model railroaders. 

[Schuylkill and Susquehanna]

Part of the issue might be that RC planes are Ready-To-Fly, RC cars are Ready-To-Run, but you can't have a fully wired, sceniced, weathered Ready-To-Operate train layout (some exceptions may apply).  Most young people (exception right here!) are not willing to spend the time or make the effort in a hobby that requires a lot of work to end up with a good product.

Now if someone would introduce a complete 11x22 layout complete with trains that you could unwrap and run... 

[rrebell]

I love the fact that people are putting RC in N scale now, means it will get easier for HO!

[BRAKIE]

Schuylkill and Susquehanna

Most young people (exception right here!) are not willing to spend the time or make the effort in a hobby that requires a lot of work to end up with a good product.

I went with my son and youngest grandson to a board gamers meet and I notice the scenery on those club/group game tables was top notch.I had no real clue what  was really going on but,was fascinated with their  highly detailed figures,dragons and other monsters they was using..

If any of those gamers became model railroaders I suspect they would have a top notch layout.

[sandusky]

Get off my lawn!

[ACY Tom]

Schuylkill & Susquehanna:

How about a dehydrated layout?  Comes in a box, something like breakfast cereal. Just add water............

Tom

[zstripe]

Someone mention WarGaming figure's?

Some I put together and painted for My 40 yr.old Wargaming nut Son:

Take Care! 

Frank

[Steven Otte]

This thread may have started out talking about the impact other hobbies are having on the decision whether to join the model railroading hobby, but now, it's gone completely off the rails. Please discuss your R/C planes, R/C cars, slot cars, wargaming, and other non-railroading hobbies on a more appropriate forum. Thanks.