Do your kids have their own layout?

Not now, and not in past.

I wish..lol. My son hasn't been into trains since he was 6 or so. He's 17 now.   Luckily, we share some common interests and are close.  He busts on me for playing with children's toys and I bust on him for collecting dolls (he collects monster figurines from the Godzilla universe).   

I only know two kids who are into the hobby - Scott Smith's son, Joshua and a young teen at the club.  Always good to see kids involved.

-Greg

Greg Houser posted:

I wish..lol. My son hasn't been into trains since he was 6 or so. He's 17 now.   Luckily, we share some common interests and are close.  He busts on me for playing with children's toys and I bust on him for collecting dolls (he collects monster figurines from the Godzilla universe).   

I only know two kids who are into the hobby - Scott Smith's son, Joshua and a young teen at the club.  Always good to see kids involved.

-Greg

He would get along with my cousin jimmy.He been into godzilla since he was a kid.He has many figurines dvd movies.And he could draw godzilla pretty **** good.

My kids don't but I built a layout (2 trains and a hand car) in my daughter's garage for the Grand kids.

I don't think they've touched it for over a year.

We did, however, build a couple cars from scratch and old Lionel trucks, together last year. They liked that!

Both of my sons (30 and 35) have loved trains since they were little. 30 year-old lives in our old house with the big layout we put together over a period of 29 years. Older son is always moving across the country, but he has an oval of fasttrack upon which he runs his old MTH NYC alcos and a handful of cars.

Do cousins count?

This young man has never gotten over his first visit to our layout, so I just keep feeding his appetite....as you can see here....No completed layout, as yet, but I think he's getting ready to expand....

...except for the fact  that girls have taken strong notice of him...hhhhmmmmm…..and he of their notice. Good! Bravo! Life can be full of many joys.

FrankM

My older son did for a time; a door layout.  He has since disassembled it in order to rebuild it in L gauge.

In a sense, yes. My Great Granddaughter has usurped my lay out. Now all my engines sit on the shelves, and her Thomas Collection runs constantly. I have admit I am somewhat stressed when her engines constantly have to be repaired. You can not reason with a furious three and a half year old. 

Our son never really had an interest.  However, son, our grandson loves trains. We introduced them to him before he was 2yrs old...he's hooked.  While he doesn't have a 'layout' per se, he does have a big 'oblong' fastrack set up in his bedroom (Lorton Carpet Express) that he's modified.  He runs his LionChief and LionChief+ often, and my layout whenever he visits.  Introduce them when they're little and keep the fire alive!

My daughter had no interest as she was into horses. The boys got HO trains for Christmas and we set up a large layout in the basement, but that gave way to sports, minibikes, and then cars and girls. Later, I tried O gauge trains with my grandson, but electronic games and computers won out.

My Nieces got a Thomas set last Christmas and then we sent them a pari of Troublesome trucks and maybe Percy, can’t recall. But there Father got into it. He races motorcycles and me and my dad are trying to slowly convert him to do model trains.

I wish.  I have 1 son of my own and 4 step sons.  None of them have any interest in trains at all.    I have 1 daughter of my own and 1 step daughter, no interest from them either.   

Sad how so many kids these days don't appreciate hobbies like these anymore.   I'm referring to what I call mechanical hobbies, trains, slot cars, models, r/c cars/trucks/planes/etc excluding drones, and so on.  Drones seem like the only type of hobby that has anything past a glancing interest but I attribute that to the whole smart phone being used as the controller aspect.   

Sadly, it really seems like interest in slot cars and trains is on a downward spiral.  

That is why i love that picture above from Moonson's cousin!  I love the expression of joy on his face holding those streamliners.  You don't see that kind of joy from most younger people anymore when given lovely trains

I grew up in the NE and for me, passenger trains were the only types of trains we ever saw or went on so I have a huge interest in mainly passenger stuff.  

I still have the awful quality Tyco Amtrak set with the *******ized Amtrak "GG1" that Tyco sold in the mid to later seventies.  I remember I was about 9 or so and went to Caldors to purchase the set with my xmas money.   I was so excited and that is what started my love of passenger train stuff over freight train.   

bobotech posted:

... i love that picture above from Moonson's cousin!  I love the expression of joy on his face holding those streamliners.  You don't see that kind of joy from most younger people anymore when given lovely trains...  

Hi Bobotech, I much appreciate that feedback from you. It is his unbridled enjoyment of his trains that keeps me involved in such continuing outreaches to him. He is enthusiastic about many interests and adventures in life, such as sports, his family, friends, and his education, and to have model trains among his interests is, of course, a personal joy for me, too.

Thank you, sir.

FrankM

I do recall seeing a few grand kids with a layout.And while in a train store a man came in.It was around christmas time.Brought 2 grand sons a lionel trainset one each.I thought to my self those kids are very blessed to have grand dad like that.

@Moonson one thing i have noticed over the years is that when a teen boy gets noticed and starts really noticing girls, their trains and stuff get put on the backburner.  However that isn't a permanent thing, they will get back to it eventually.    

My daughter used to have a circle of LGB and some postwar accessories (the gateman, whistle shed and animated newsstand) in her room when she was a kid.

No, they never were interested.  However our younger daughter confiscated the Hershey Chocolate trolley from under the Christmas tree that we burnt out the motor many years ago.  She now has it sitting on the mantle in her home music room where she gives some of her private lessons.  I was happy to see it there. 

Moonson posted:

bobotech posted:

... i love that picture above from Moonson's cousin!  I love the expression of joy on his face holding those streamliners.  You don't see that kind of joy from most younger people anymore when given lovely trains...  

Hi Bobotech, I much appreciate that feedback from you. It is his unbridled enjoyment of his trains that keeps me involved in such continuing outreaches to him. He is enthusiastic about many interests and adventures in life, such as sports, his family, friends, and his education, and to have model trains among his interests is, of course, a personal joy for me, too.

Thank you, sir.

FrankM

I absolutely agree with Bobotech!  That photograph of him is priceless!!

My oldest daughter did until she became a teenager. She liked trains when she was little and one year we bought her a HO Life like set I built her a 4x8 layout in the garage and it grew She always love to paint and do the landscape. She used to  love running a Athearn Blue Box pickle car which I still have. Then the teen years hit and I adopted it. She lost interest I Still have it and still run it sometimes I want to dismantle  it but I can’t because of the memories of her when she was so young watching that pickle car go around the layout and so excited. 

lee drennen posted:

My oldest daughter did until she became a teenager. She liked trains when she was little and one year we bought her a HO Life like set I built her a 4x8 layout in the garage and it grew She always love to paint and do the landscape. She used to  love running a Athearn Blue Box pickle car which I still have. Then the teen years hit and I adopted it. She lost interest I Still have it and still run it sometimes I want to dismantle  it but I can’t because of the memories of her when she was so young watching that pickle car go around the layout and so excited. 

How old is she now?   It seems like to me, a lot of people get their hobby interests when they are young, and the interest in it might have ebbs and flows but they might go back to it eventually.   If she is still a teen, I would keep the layout intact.   I would have loved to have been able to go back to my parents house as an adult and reclaim a layout that was built for me when I was a young one but alas, I never had any type of layout as a child/teen.   Maybe when she is older and comes over to visit you and discuss her getting married or something big like that, you guys can go out to the garage and you show her the pickle car that you still have and tell her about the happy memories you have of her running that car and i can totally imagine you and her quietly just running that car around the layout after she tells you she is planning on getting married.   Memories can be a very powerful emotion. 

I think that you would regret dismantling the layout if not now, someday.   I would love to have had memories of me and my step-dad running trains when I was a kid but that never was to happen.  Oddly enough, my step-father had zero interest in trains or other hobbies that I had interests in.   

My son Brian shares the same interest as I do with trains, .....he has his own train building, at his own place, he’s 23 and has overcome a lot of physical handicaps, it’s amazing to say the least what he’s accomplished on his own......he enjoys the modern diesels, double stacks and what not .....trains he remembers as a young kid (he still is to me) .....he knows what he’s doing and actively seeks out good deals on lots of train stuff and resales it to keep his hobby going.....just like some of us do.........Pat

Bob. Thanks Allee just turned 19 last week. We have another daughter that is 14 and she helps me video on the O scale layout and she likes the O scale better than the HO a couple years ago I was going to sell them both all of the trains ect. the youngest begged me not to sell the O scale so I went to work on it and became a regular here and because of her is one of the reasons I love O scale as well. You are right I will probably never dismantle or sell the rolling stock Allee once played with when she sees the pickle car on the layout it takes her back when I bought it and she remembers helping build the car. Maybe some day her children will play on her old layout that we built together think I will just leave it alone.