Trains For Kids Mission

[Anonymous]

Greetings all,

I was reading on the Trains forum that Toys R Us no longer sells trains and accessories. Nor does Michaels here in Texas.

I remember they both did when I was younger.

Thats sad for the Greatest Hobby On Earth.

Thats a sad thing for the youger generation too.

Lets make our voice heard.

Mark in Texas

[ndbprr]

If you want them to sell trains then buy from them or buy their stock and raise your issue at a stockholders meeting. Perhaps the fact that they carried cheap trainsets that nobody in their right mind should buy is why they no longer sell trainsets. Neither store is a government run not for profit operation. They have every right to carry what they think will sell. That is why they spend literally millions on marketing, inventory control and past history records. I am sorry but you are way off base on this. What you are seeing is private enterprise in action and I for one am in their corner.

[Anonymous]

Toys R Us used to carry junk and Michaels stock here in Vancouver, BC was very limited. I use Michaels to buy modeling goodies, but more scenery type things than rolling stock.

[Anonymous]

Further evidence of the decline of hobby marketability is the demise of the Great Train Store, at least here in Cincinnati. It opened up in a local mall, and of course it primarily carried Thomas the Tank Engine as well as the lowest-quality brand names, and what little they did have for me was usually too pricey, but it was a friggin toy store in a mall and that means EXPOSURE to the youngsters. They scored points in my book for having an operational N-scale layout that was reasonably well-modeled, showing the public what the hobby strives toward, and they also had lots of paraphenalia like movies, books, and stenciled coffee mugs.

They lasted about two years here, and I think the same story happened in several other cities where the franchise started. I don't know if there are any of them left.

Personally, I prefer to buy from a retailer, personally handing a check to a friendly face. Somehow, it makes me enjoy my purchase more. Sometimes I get to chat about what I'm gonna kitbash out of the stuff I'm buying, which adds meaning to the purchase. I tried to frequent that mall train store, but I'm only one lousy customer. We need to come up with a different business strategy; perhaps a club could operate a storefront, the club paying for the roof and the sales profits paying for the layout. Wonder if it could work.

[Anonymous]

I noticed that with the local toy store (a K. B. Toy works) a couple of years back they had some bachmann eztrack and ho stuff, like some box cars and such... that seemed to faid away until it's a little shotgun approach with some mostly junker battery powered train sets.

maybe it's in what the market will bear. I'm trying to support my local area model train stores more as I can't help but wonder if all the internet and mail order stuff with it's allure of rock bottom prices has really driven the brick and morter stuff out of business.

It's funny that the poster mentions store being run by clubs, because two of the three places I go have incredible layouts with clubs and tours and such. It seems to make sence to me in the end that you'd want people doing this. It's like the local gaming store running games, it gets folks in their doors and active in the games... and it should mean people will end up supporting the place with more purchuses.

[eastcoast]

The best thing I feel to do is forget WE-B-TOYS . All junk at cheap prices.
Get these kids something that can last and grow with them well into the
adult years. If you are worried about them getting messed up, well then,
educate the kids about how to take care of the trains and show them the
love you have for the hobby. It will rub off and make a nice impression on
those kids. Stick to a REAL Hobby shop when getting a trainset. And now,
in this "era" , easy track even looks good. The kids will thank you if you take
the time to give them the best you can. And I am sure you already know that.
ken_ecr

[Anonymous]

I'm 17 right now, so I'm one of the young people in the hobby. It angers me that these places don't sell more trains. When I was young the Sears Wishbook would always have 2 or 3 HO sets and a cheap G scale set. The most recent one only has a Harry Potter HO train, a G scale Christmas set and a battery powered set for use with Christmas villiages (which isn't listed in the toy section). Come on, at least have a regular HO set! The trouble is that most stores only carry trains around Christmas and yet they carry all other toys year round. Why should a kid want a train for Christmas when they see so many other toys the rest of the year and can think about them? Also the fact that half the trains out at most places are Christmas trains. Only a total idiot buys one of these for their kids. They may be nice, but they can't be used year round. If we want kids to get interested in model trains we have to let them see them in the stores.

[vw-bug]

Times change. We can remember when most stores carried 2-3 train sets of fair quality. My parents bought my first HO set when I was just three. And now I'm a train nut. Of coarse these days you would by them wooden train puzzle at 3 and a brio set at 5 or 6. I think as a group we have pushed the idea further up the age scale. Most children don't view scale trains as toys they are models and most kids don't appreciate them the same way, I know I didn't. My thought is that we need to support products like Lego's trains, brio, etc. These are toys but really get the concepts home to kids.

Lets take my nephew for example:
I tried to get him an HO loco at the age of 4. He hand drove it over the carpet and had stripped most of the details off in an hour or so.

At 7, I gave him 4x8 layout and his mother bought him an train to run on it. Well that last about a month as he really enjoyed running the trains at full throttle and would try to ram them into one another.

at 10, He still really enjoys running trains but takes a little more caution. Turn your back and he is back at full speed again.

Now I'm not saying all children are this rambuncous but many are. I think we need to target scale modeling at the age group of 10-14 year kids. This is when I remember putting together and enjoying making my models. But couple that with earlier age toys as well. Get them train stuff. Take them on train rides and obviously get tthem age appropriate train toys. That wayyou plant the bug early and they will remember it as part of their childhood.

So cheap trains are no longer readily dumped out to the public at every old vendor our there. But train related stuff still is readily available to our youth, whitch is important.

[CBQ_Guy]

Well on the positive (hopefully) side of all this, I seem to recall reading not too long ago, in fact possibly within g the last few weeks, that Athearn(?) has entered into some sort of agreement with Wal-Mart to carry some of their train sets. Don't recall all the details now . . . sorry.