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[Anonymous]

to all that may answer... i had a recent talk with an owner of a train store here in nj, and to my surprise i agreed with him, that there seems to be a down ward trend in the hobbie as far as getting new and young people in to it. he said that in the last year or two that almost 50% of the train stores have closed. if that is true its shame. i told him that what i have noticed in the model railroader magazine is that the ones that are shown, the laylouts are done by "older" gentlemen, there does not seem to be many young ones meaning in their 20's that are into it. maybe i am wrong, but even when i go to the rain shows its mostly older people.sure some have kids with them but it still is mostly older folks. here in nj the train stores are far and few in between. maybe i am totally wrong on this but its a true feeling i have. what are your honest thoughts on this.

[Anonymous]

Bruce,I have to say I mostly agree with you.At our local train shop on any given Saturday,you can be assured of two basic groups.The younger "Thomas "crowd,and then it jumps to the around 30 and over crowd.Sad to say kids would rather play video games.Also even there are some cheap starter sets,model railroading like all else is becomming more costly.Not too many kids working for minimum wage can put down 100.00-plus for a DCC equiped loco.My grandson loves trains.He has the Brio type wooden railway,and loves to help with my N and HO layouts.He also goes railfanning on weekends,and loves to tell you about Dash 9's and GP-38's.Pretty good for a five year old.Hopefully he will carry on the tradition,and I will help all I can.