how old are model railroaders

[willy6]

doing survey for seminars

[eastcoast]

A modeller can be ANY AGE.
Age is not the important issue.
The main issue is skill level and
does your audience understand the
terminology you will use.
I AM AN W G H AMBASSADOR ALSO,
and am listed as one in the official book.
Advice, keep the lingo to elementary level.

[Hawks05]

i'm 17 years old so i fall in the 11-20 area.

[Anonymous]

21 Years old and In College. Been a life long model railroader since the age of 4.

[Anonymous]

I'm 17, so I'm one of the younger people involved. I don't think that the precentages of certain ages here on the forums necessarily reflect the hobby in general. There's a lot of young people on here and they make up a good percentage of the people on here, but they're probably much more of a miniority when you look at the hobby as a whole. Young people tend to be more knowledgeable about computers compared to the older generation, so more are on the internet.

[michaelstevens]

As old as my nose but a little bit older than my teeth (what's left of them !).

[dehusman]

Compare the age range to the overall population range. That may help you get a better statistical spread. For example if 20% of the polled are 51-60 and 10% of the population is 51-60 and 10% of the polled are 21-30 and 25% of the population is 21-30, then there is a higher percentage of the poopulation that are model railroaders in the 51-60 age group, meaning if you are 51-60 you are more likely to be a model railroader than if you are 21-30. You also probably need a hundred or two responses to be statistically representative.

Dave H.

[AggroJones]

Age 21 and not in college.

[Anonymous]

I started when I was about 6. I was only allowed to play with the caboose. At 12 totalled my first Engine, a "Berkshire", sorry Dad. At 16 I bought my very own "Big Boy". Cost me a whopping $95 U.S. At 19 went to College and left the trains at at home. At thirty had kids, At 35 brought the trains out of the closet to bond with the kids, Nintendo won. Now in my early forties am having my second child hood, 20 engines, 300+ pieces of rolling stock and Nintendo. Life is good!

[Anonymous]

13, just planning layout though I've been collecting HO all my life.

[Anonymous]

I'm old enough to know better,but I still have room on my credit cards....Oh,by the way I'm 50ish.

[Anonymous]

P.S. What's a seminar or whatever you called it?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 4884bigboy

P.S. What's a seminar or whatever you called it?

It's french for "really boring lecture", I know, because I've tortured others by giving them.

[locomutt]

How "OLD" do you need to be[?]
I'm 53 and have done it for years[:D]
I wouldn't give it up for anything[8D] [:p]
locomutt[:D]




















?]

[Anonymous]

I am 40 years old(Be 41 on 2-15-04). I have a life long interest in trains that was started by the Lionel my dad put up at Christmas( a 2056 steam engine which I still run). Model trains and the other World Greatest Hobby, Model Rocketry, I am involved in.

John W. Sarosi
North Huntingdon, PA

[Anonymous]

I assume that the poll will only take one vote from each member. I fall into the 41-50 year group (as does my wife). My son is also a model railroader and baseball player in High School. He would fall into the 11-20 year age group. All of us are also interested in auto racing, particuarly NHRA drag racing. I only state this to give you a little more information on who, where from and what other interests some model railroaders have.
[8D]

[Anonymous]

I'm 26 and have been doing it my whole life, mostly with my father (age 63). Since we live so far apart, we have our own separate layouts now.

Warren

[Anonymous]

I first got into the hobby when I returned from overseas during world war #2 in 1942.
I have had several layouts over this period, but am now just an armchair model railroader. I'm a life member of the NMRA and still love to read about the hobby. Go! you young ones. You will meet some of your best friends during the years ahead.
Jerry Rahiser 86 years old.

[Anonymous]

i'm 20 and in college

[TrainFreak409]

I am only 14. It's just my personal belief that model railroading is one hobby that can reach out to everyone. Whether you watch layouts, build layouts, or operate layouts, the model railroading bug can bite anyone at anytime.

[cprted]

Keep in mind that this poll has a bias built in to it. It requies the participants to be computer users as well as modelers. So what you are actually polling is the comparitive ages of modelers who also use computers and the internet. Though I don't have any statisical data on hand, I think it is safe to say that their is higher percentage of the population under the age of 50 that uses computers than over 50.

There's always a knitpicker in the crowd.

[Anonymous]

I'll be 29 in bout three weeks

[CBQ_Guy]

To heck with getting younger people into the hobby. They're already fairly well represented on this Forum. We need to work on the "blessed older ones" apparently!

Happy Holidays, all!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AggroJones

QUOTE: Originally posted by CBQ_Guy

To heck with getting younger people into the hobby. They're already fairly well represented on this Forum. We need to work on the "blessed older ones" apparently!

Happy Holidays, all!

When I go to train shows, I'm like the youngest serious person there. I see a lot of "old" people. Gray and white hair. Being 21 puts me in the relatively young catagory. This hobby is still dominated by the older dudes.

He's right, I'm 12 and hardly see any railfans or model railroaders my age, remember that people under 30 are usualy into computers more than people over 30.

[Anonymous]

Im 24...will be 25 on 4-18. Been into trains since i was about 3 or 4...my dad got me into them (he is now 59). Started seriously modeling when i was about 14. and im NOT in college LOL. Im a lowly trucker (railroad competition).

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AggroJones

QUOTE: Originally posted by CBQ_Guy

To heck with getting younger people into the hobby. They're already fairly well represented on this Forum. We need to work on the "blessed older ones" apparently!

Happy Holidays, all!

When I go to train shows, I'm like the youngest serious person there. I see a lot of "old" people. Gray and white hair. Being 21 puts me in the relatively young catagory. This hobby is still dominated by the older dudes.

This reminds me of when I went to a train show a few days ago. I was by far the youngest person there (if you don't count the todllers that stand by the layouts shouting HERE COMES ONE!). The people running the layouts there were, well, let's just say older than me[;)]. They were amazed at my RR knowledge[wow](and I know very little compared to most), such as seeing their 2-8-2 rolling down the line and me saying "that's a nice Mike". Just thought I'd share a story. It's fun to talk to experinced modelers[:)].

[RhB_HJ]

One thing's for sure: you can't be in the hobby for 51 years and be born "only yesterday".[:o)][:o)][:o)][oops][sigh]

[RhB_HJ]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 4884bigboy



This reminds me of when I went to a train show a few days ago. I was by far the youngest person there (if you don't count the todllers that stand by the layouts shouting HERE COMES ONE!). The people running the layouts there were, well, let's just say older than me[;)]. They were amazed at my RR knowledge[wow](and I know very little compared to most), such as seeing their 2-8-2 rolling down the line and me saying "that's a nice Mike". Just thought I'd share a story. It's fun to talk to experinced modelers[:)].

Generally speaking most of the young people I meet at shows (we're there as a mfg) are both keen and knowledgable. The guys and girls who are not interested don't show up, period.
I also used to teach "Basics of model railroading", the young participants were always very interested and came up with a lot of relevant questions. This in contrast to the "30 and up" who always seemed a bit more "reserved".

[Anonymous]

yeah........ started in to a N and HO and O trains at young age around 6 and up. long ago.. anyway I am 35 and working on my lay out for a HO.. I can not even remember where my old trains went [:(].. been moved 2 time so got lost..

[bluepuma]

QUOTE: Originally posted by steveii

yeah........ started in to a N and HO and O trains at young age around 6 and up. long ago.. anyway I am 35 and working on my lay out for a HO.. I can not even remember where my old trains went [:(].. been moved 2 time so got lost..

Hummm.... had many things disappear from the house while married to my first wife, many of those things wound up at the swap meet ...always figured my Lionel would have if I still had it then...

To her credit, she left my N scale alone so it was still waiting patiently for me to get back to it, build a layout. 1969 until 2000, it was on a shelf at the top of a closet. It was a space thing, money thing. Only that I lived alone from '76 to '99 in the same place saved it. Didn't have a house long enough in '75 to even think about a layout between work full time and school 3 nights a week. Used to think about a coffee table layout. When I could find an N scale boxcar kit, would buy it.

Without the Net, I might still have not gotten back into the hobby, it was a matter of not seeing stuff I liked, and locos, rolling stock.