Take a kid to a train show/event (challenge)

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Yes, I think that's a good idea as well -- to have layouts that are child-friendly where kids can have a go at running them. These could (but don't have to be) rough/basic layouts that can take a bit of a beating.

I was at one train show last January where my son (and others) were welcome to operate a switching layout. He enjoyed doing this for several minutes. At the same show, he was also allowed to operate some 0-gauges locos up & down a stretch of track.

Then, at another recent show this fall, a club had their layout and one of their members immediately came over to my son & gave him the DCC controls to him and talked him through a series of switching maneuvers. I thought this was great! and I think we need to do more of this.

The difference for us was that we let them run on the mainline with other trains. Most kids could handle it (some should have been nowhere near our layout), but the problem was that it can be tricky to figure where the train is going to be next, and it gets very crowded. I would always have a "cable" throttle, the junior engineer a Wireless. I would plug in as we went just to keep the train in check, but with so many people, it could be difficult to get to a plug in a moment's notice, and some people just wouldn't move for the kids. In those critical seconds we move to chase the train to the next plug-in point, disaster could occur.

Parents are also a nightmare. I often was the "junior engineer guy", and i'd be stuck at it for 5 hours straight. The two worst things with the parents was the INSISTENCE that i take their kid out on the main that instant. There were no break time. some parents would get real snippy if I left to even get a glass of water. Its as if they think I didn't see the line up of kids behind them.

The other problem is that once their kid had the train underway, they could not stop micromanaging them. For one thing, you paid for the kid to run the train, no let him do it! Probably the most infuriating thing was when the parent would repeatedly tell the kid to slow down, frequently going directly against what I instructed the child to do. The average speed on the layout is between 16 or 20 speed steps out of 28, depending on the locomotive. Parents would confuse the heck out of the kids, causing their train to CRAWL over the layout and hold up traffic, or worse. What i would usually end up doing was to position myself in such a way where the parent couldn't keep up with the kid, and pass it off as the place just being to crowded. The final ruling on that train is mine, not what mom or dad is safe with.

The bottom line, I'm not trying to be discouraging, but its a very risky thing to do. I realize that our incarnation of a junior engineer was probably riskier than most, but any time you let a kid run even robust Athearn Blue-box geeps, there is still added potential for madness. if you have the space for a small mini layout that they can run, fine, but just remember that the general public is clueless, lol.

I think if we all made a bit of effort to do this, we'd help to attract a whole new generation to our hobby. There are several reasons for doing this:

-- I think it's good for kids to get away from electronic toys & games and get into something more creative such as MRR, (or meccano, or model-building, etc.)

Ironically, I think computer games are where a lot of kids take their interest in trains. To many, Train simulators do a better job than a model railroad, since everything is rendered for you in game. There are huge online communities where people simply build computer models of the different trains and put them up for download. One magazine was all "excited" over a brand new GG1 interior for the Microsoft Train Simulator, which apparently had needed an upgrade.

I used to play flight simulators all the time, and I can relate to the preference to take take to the skies on the PC rather than trying to build a flightless model kit or go through a couple RC planes.

When it comes to trains, I love to build stuff so I can't say I'd ever want to go with the train sims. I tried one once anyway, I can't drive trains to save my life!

Ultimately though, you can operate whatever you want in your virtual world, and do it truly realistically.

-- if we "hoard" the hobby away to ourselves, and discourage kids from taking part or make our layouts off-limits, they will naturally not be interested.
-- there are too many things competing for kids' attention these days, so they don't come across model trains as often & easily as in the past. So maybe we have to go out of our way a little to show them our MRR stuff.

Most kids who come over to our house make a beeline to our layout -- it's set up prominently in the basement. This stresses me out a little, but I'm almost always happy to show it to them & let them try it out!

This last part I can agree with. I think to many people write it off as "playing with trains", and don't really see the value in the hobby itself. The only way to show the hobby for its all its benefits, is to give it exposure.


That said, a major issue with the hobby that won't be easily overcome is that everything costs to much. Its easy to forget that most of us make a reasonable amount of money. Most kids can't afford to build much of a train layout. You can only go so far finding "deals" and junk for sale at flea markets or on Ebay. They have to rely on their parents to forward them money, and most parents probably don't want to put in the bucks on a "delicate" train for a young kid.

Most locomotives worth their salt cost at least as much if not more than your average video game. Though it may sound outlandish to the older folks here, Halo, Portal and Call of Duty probably gives more enjoyment than a new GP38-2 or 4-6-2 Pacific. Even though the locomotive might last longer (if taken care of), The video game with online play is always a new experience.

The hobby is totally hostile towards younger people, and EVERYTHING is geared towards that older generation. If you don't believe me, I dare someone to find me a Model Railroader where less than 50% of the articles are Transition Era.

I'm NOT (fixed) trying to be negative either, I wish there were people I could converse with about model railroading and such without boring them to death or something. its lonely for anyone under the age of 50 out here when it comes to trains.