01-29-2012, 02:42 PM
Green_Elite_Cab Wrote:Too Long; Didn't Read- Young people's lives are chaotic and they don't have enough monetary resources for much of anything, let alone expensive trains. Today's 40 year olds were the 16 yeards who couldn't afford it when they were young. The interest hasn't really went away.
While I Absolutely agree with the above quote, I get the feeling the that its not so much that the hobby is alienating young people, or that there is any lack of interest in the hobby. I think its more that the overwelming number of people who can afford the time and money investment in model trains are the 40 somethings.
This is not because the prices are alienating young people, but because it makes sense to cater to the demographic who is spending the most on your product.
I do think that eventually these hyper exoensive models are going to start alienating people from the hobby regardless of who they are. Unless you can drop a few hundred every month for every "limited run" announcement, it can get very frustrating.
Again, I'm not sure that the lack of "young people" is implying the death of the hobby. There are plenty of practical problems involved. Lets just assume for instance, that "Jimmy" is interested in model trains. He remember's Grandpa's set, read a few books, and he is looking to get started.
If Jimmy is younger (13-16), he needs parental support and money. Parental support is a big one. Jimmy likely may not be content with an EZ track oval on the floor for long, and just displaying stuff on a shelf can get old just as quickly. Jimmy needs permission from parents to get the space to construct any sort of layout (being a module or 4x8). Even if Jimmy's parents have the necessary tools to construct a layout (and not every home has this equipment), he'll still need them to either show him how to use it, or build it themselves if they don't trust little Jimmy with power tools. Its entirely possible Jimmy's parents will say "No, you're not building a model railroad", and then thats the end of the line right there.
Jimmy then needs to contend with the money issue. the basic wood and track required for even a 4x8 can get very expensive VERY quickly, before its even built. Does Jimmy get an allowance? Is he working (not many kids under 16 appear to be able to get jobs, at least in my expirience)? If not, he's going to have convince his parents to give him some (i don't know how many parents pay for their childs every whim), or use up some reserve money perhaps from christmas or his birthday. Lets not forget there may be other things on Jimmy's plate. Suppose his girlfriend Jenny wants to go out (and her birthday is coming), or there is some sort of activity Jimmy wants to participate in? Jimmy already only gets a little bit of money, and if he uses it all on model trains, there won't be anything left for anything else.
I don't think its really fair to accuse Jimmy of a short attention span and desiring of instant gratification when limited time and money don't necessarily make it easy for a kid to walk into a hobby shop every month and pick something up. A young person also has little expirence, and not the benefit of our 20:20 hindsight.
Even when Jimmy gets older and graduates highschool, he is looking at car payments, insurance, college, and a job. He may be making more than he did, but he is paying more than he was before. College coursework is more intense than it was in highschool, and then he needs to work between in order to pay the bills. Jimmy is going to be tired after the day is done, and he still has to study for some midterm and write a report. Even if he has managed to move out, most people's inital homes and apartments are small. If he is in college dorm, there may be no space for Jimmy's hobby. Jimmy knows this isn't a permanent place, so why build something he can't take with him? Perhaps he is still with Jenny, who now likes to go out every week. Again, its becoming very unrealistic to maintain the hobby. There is to much going on, and not enough time, and still not enough money.
Jimmy may well be able to pull off buying some nice locomotive every once in a while without his girlfriend asking him "why aren't you spending that on a date with me?", but thats going to be a rare moment.
I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons that I cannot even think of. I know i'm in the latter situation, There is no time or money for anything anymore, its all school and work. I'm not complaining, I love my major and I enjoy where I work, but there is often no money left for the hobby budget, and not a whole lot of free time I can devote to the trains. While I don't expect to have projects done instantly, there are many projects i've started a year ago that have made little progress, simply because I just could not get to it.
Ultimately, when Jimmy is growing older and more stable, with a larger apartment or a home, and a steady job someplace with a higher income. He has more freedom in his environment, and can now safely invest the money into a model railroad, and likely can set aside the time to do it.
40 y/o's are old in terms of developing an interest in a hobby, and most people go into hobbies that associate with interests they had as young people. Maybe we need another poll asking at what age we started building models of any sort. I imagine we will find that we started as kids or perhaps high schoolers, and kept on building stuff until we got into MRR.
By the time most people reach forty they have the obligatory large mortgage, the mandatory two cars and 2.5 kids, credit card debts, medical and other insurance and numerous obligations to family, and haven't got the disposable space and income associated with this hobby. That comes for most of us when we become empty nesters and/retired, with time, space and money on our hands.
The recent increase in ISL's is telling, because those are small and inexpensive layouts, not layouts that bring in large profits to the LHS, without which the LHS's begin to go the way of the mom-and-pop grocery stores, first consolidating into fewer and larger markets, and finally succumbing to the big box stores that decide where they will go to make the most money, rather than where they might be most needed. None of this is beneficial to the future of the hobby.
For a stark, concrete lesson in what is happening to this hobby, go back to the model railroading magazines of the 60's, 70's and even the 80's and look at the proliferation of ads from a plethora of manufacturers and suppliers, most all of whom no longer exist. We don't even make trains in America anymore, except possibly Lionel.
I'm currently stocking up on rolling stock and locos and structures on the assumption that I will need my own resources to continue, and perhaps eventually tear down and rebuild something else based solely on what I have already. I can always make trees and ground cover, and even scratch build structures and bridges, but I cannot count on a steady source of supply for anything. Even stuff that was on the shelves a few short years ago is no gone for good, never to return, and the rolling stock bought a few years ago has doubled in price in the meantime without gaining that much in quality. At the risk of sounding patronizing, "ready-to-roll" means just that; this stuff should not need to be checked and gauged and tested by us to see if it is assembled properly, when it is supposed to come from the factory that way in the first place.
In order for this hobby to survive and prosper, it MUST become attractive to young people, and by that I mean kids, who grow up with model trains and ISL's and go one to bigger and bigger layouts until they, too, can start their final and ultimate retirement layout. And frankly, I think the hobby can use a constant supply of fresh, new ideas as part of that process.