Another reason young people are not in the hobby.

Dominic Mazoch posted:

Maybe this is another reason for fewer young people in the hobby.  How many children from a young age are in sports for hours at a time? Some of these places sound and run like the Eastern Block facilities before the Berlin Wall fell down.  Families in this trap have no time or money for trains.

Good point - and not just relative to this hobby. "Sport" in the US is now approaching 3rd World Country addiction status.

But - there's not much left, really. Well, there's the phones.

It'd make an interesting article if someone took the time to do the research...because I always wondered what the percentages of young folks throughout the decades who actually played with electric trains. We tend to think that all baby-boomers had and played with trains and that today's kids are different because of other interests but I wonder that is the case. Growing up in the 1970s I was the only kid on the block that had them, and that was a Marx starter set around the Christmas season only.

When it comes down to play value, kids tend to be attracted to toys that are economical and offer all-around play-value; toy soldiers, Matchbox, Hotwheels, etc. Of course in the last decade or so its electronic this and that, video and computer games. I suspect that electric toy trains are and have always been a niche.

I belong to the Jersey Shore Model Car Club and most of the members are over 50.  It doesn't help that Hobico, parent company of Revell Monogram went chapter 12.  Car model building takes time and patients, both missing in this instant gratification world .  Look at our own forum. Any incident involving a train accident seems to demand instant analysis, cause and blame placed before the victims are taken to the hospital. 

I wouldn't expect the youth of the 21st. century be interested in the past times of kids of the 1940's and 50's.  If kids today are not into trains, so be it. Besides, if kids were into it, there would be complaints here about the prices being too high due to the increasing demand for the stuff.

CSXJOE posted:

I belong to the Jersey Shore Model Car Club and most of the members are over 50.  It doesn't help that Hobico, parent company of Revell Monogram went chapter 12.  Car model building takes time and patients, both missing in this instant gratification world .  Look at our own forum. Any incident involving a train accident seems to demand instant analysis, cause and blame placed before the victims are taken to the hospital. 

 

 

Wow, did not realize that about Hobico, built quite a few revell cars in my day. But yes, patience is a virtue that seems lost on many these days.

I'm reminded of this commercial from about 30 years ago that seemed to see this coming......