Kids Layouts - New Members?

Joe:

 

I think this is a really hard question to answer. My take is what your club is doing is planting seeds that may take years to produce any results, if ever. There is no question that there is a significant amount of time and resources invested into any public layout.

 

Many shopping Malls will invest during the Christmas season in a train layout with Santa just to draw families into their facility.

 

Your club will have to weight just how important it is to continue to invest in this type of display.

The D.A.R.E. Model Railroad Club in Venitia, Pa. has a membership that's 80% kids ranging from 6th grade to college sophomores, primarily due to it's affiliation with the D.A.R.E. program, and the subsequent publicity in local press. The club has one 8x8 Lionel traditional layout that is displayed at a local library. I admit, though, that most of the new members we occasionally get come from local news and the D.A.R.E. connection than our once a year open house.

Some of the most vivid memories of my childhood are train layouts I saw at an early age. In my case it was the Lionel showroom layout, the Gilbert Hall of Science, and Macy's and Gimbel's in New York City. Those memories are an important part of what led me to a lifelong hobby in model trains.

 

You never know when you will be creating a memory for a kid that will last a lifetime. That is why I like to run trains for kids. I may be planting a seed.

 

Jim

 

I don't think its a hard question to answer unless you are obsessed with being politically correct or trying to avoid offending everybody in america.Thats the trouble these days.EVERYTHING is done for children.It's time to let them create things with their own physical energy,drive and imagination.Thats how us guys that build these layouts got here.To many parents want to take them to a professionally built layout hand them a remote and let them enjoy the benefit of somebody else's months or years of work.They need to be brought up in the hobby from the ground up.Nick

I'd love to be part of a club (That's growing their layout.) with my family, but there aren't hardly any clubs where I live and the couple I know of see more like old geezer clubs that have finished layouts, even though they do have kid displays.  So I join none and instead just play with my trains at home with my sons.  And the money I save on gas and dues by not going to a club I spend on trains.

The National Capital Trackers require junior member's parents to supervise them closely at all events. All junior members must have a sponsor/parent/guardian/etc until age 12. I can't seem to think of any instance where a 12-18 year old tried to join without a parent/guardian. The complete bylaws can be found on our website

Why not attempt to start your own club, so you don't have to attend "old geezer" clubs, and benefit from their particular brand of expertise.   

I agree 100%. We have a child, around 9 years old I think,  who joined our club. His mother drops him off and leaves him for hours. He's not shy about asking for what he wants, and what he wants is often the best track, and to date, neither he nor his mother has contributed anything to the club or the layout other than paying their club dues.

 

 

I suppose it is OK to plant seeds for the future.  However, our club and other organizations need to recruit members now.  This is the challenge.

 

The premise that if you build a children's layout then parents will be inspired to join doesn't appear to be valid.  This means that our club and organizations such as the TCA should probably target recruiting efforts toward people in their 50s - 60s instead of young families.  I am not sure how you do that.   Your thoughts?

 

Joe

When we do shows that are family friendly with a lot of children we get a chance to talk to the parents. While the kids look at the trains we work on recruiting the parents to join the club, especially if there is an interest from the parents having had trains in their youth. We then tell them it is still okay to like trains and that the parents can stay in the hobby as their children grow. We have been growing our club this way and we see a lot of the parents coming in and joining our club. They have been good with their kids but then we have a kids corner where they can have their kids play while they talk to the club members. I just get really annoyed with the parents that have the entitlement mentality with their kids and the train displays. They are usually the ones that walk away when we start talking about our club at shows.

I don't have high expectations for anybody being able to recruit children to join a model railroading club.

According to the US Dept of Labor, 59.1 percent of families with children have both parents working. Most of them probably have precious little time to do things with their children, and are probably going to choose activities that they believe to have higher value.
While I think the lessons learned playing with trains are valuable, I don't think much of the general public would agree. I also wonder whether some of those lessons are vanishing with electronic control (no more blocks) and Plug N Play wiring.
(Are new lessons taking their place?)

PLANT THE SEED Joe Barker……..  one day it may grow, but you will never,never know.

I'll throw in 2 suggestions.

 

1. Run Thomas. It's something the kids can relate to.

2. Make the layout interactive. Have crossing gates and a gate man

    that can be operated by a button. Let the kids push the button.

 

It's more fun to play than it is to watch.

 

       
       

Good Suggestions, Stoshu..
I think the right scenery and well placed buildings would help to stimulate and entice young and old alike!

K.C.

We have had 8 members join because of their kids   Its pretty funny on  most of them because the father had no interest in trains whatsoever.   Then we reel them in and the father gets the bug just as much as the son.  All of them have been longtime members and an asset to the club

Our club, North Atlanta O Gauge Railroad Club, has a kids layout we set up at area shows and train related events.  The layout has four trains with a transformer on each corner and kids run the trains.

I don't have an exact number but, I would estimate at least a third to a half of our membership (about 90 members), myself included, learned about the club as a result of the kids layout.  While kids run the trains, we talk with the parents, give them catalogs and share business cards for area train stores.  And while the number fluctuates, we do have kids and grandkids at club meetings from time to time and especially at club functions such as our annual picnic or Christmas party.

So, in our case at least, the kids layout has been a valuable tool in recruiting adult members.

Curt

The G&O runs Thomas and Hogwarts a lot.  The Lionel Hogwarts is a good reliable engine.  The Lionel Thomas line isn't that reliable.  They have plastic gears, etc.  We have Thomas in O, G and HO gauges.  

 

We have many accessories where kids can push a button to make it operate.   We also run season specific trains - Christmas, Halloween, etc.  Our Halloween show is on Tuesday.  Lionel's Transylvania Express is lubed and ready to go.

 

I am trying to convince some club members to buy a Polar Express for the Christmas show.   

 

Some of the parents live within walking distance of the club.  We haven't been able to entice them to join.  They do buy their kids trains to run, however.  We have noticed that mothers are more likely to bring the kids to shows than fathers.  This may be just the result that there are many single parent families in our club's area.

 

I will be posting photos of our Halloween show next week.

 

Joe 

Building a modular layout for display at shows my be a good recruiting idea for our club.  I will need to think about it.  The project would probably fall in my lap to construct and staff at a show.   I am pretty busy with other things already.

 

Joe

We have "family memberships" which basically means the parent is the member of record but the kid(s) has full operating rights on the layout at any time. This got around the issue of junior memberships. What we've found is that the kids are actually less distracted when operating and tend not to run red signals as much as the adults do. We have four kids that operate regularly, sometimes with their parents as well. In addition to that, we frequently let visiting kids run our trains.

 

One problem with operating in a club context is that command control is almost mandatory. This makes the trains expensive for most families. We often tout the risks and rewards of eBay to get around that.

maybe you should have a kids clinic or kids club to teach kids about trains.

I guess I should clarify what I meant.  By "old geezer" club I mean a club of a bunch of typical old geezers, the kind that hate kids and show great disdain to those that try to bring "those brats" into their precious hobby.  Now tell me why I would be the slightly interested in their particular brand of expertise?

River City 3 Railers displays kid friendly displays especially during the holidays. For the past three years we have setup a Christmas tree with PE running on the platform underneath. The transformer is right there on the floor, and yes we let the children run the train. The absolute worst is an occasional derailment. No big deal.

 

For our main club layout, we run TMCC, DCS, and this year for the first time LionChief. We routinely put the remote in the hands of our guests and let them run the trains. IMHO, the best way to encourage folks in getting involved in the hobby is to actually let them run the trains!

 

My personal interest is scale command control N&W steam. That hasn't stopped me from buying, and running Harry Potter, Polar Express, and Thomas for running at our public displays.

 

Gilly

WE HAVE 7 MEMBERS WITH KIDS RANGING FROM 3 TO 18. WE HAVE A FAIR;LY COMPLEX LAYOUT TO OPERATE. HOWEVER WE ALSO HAVE A BRANCH LINE, SUBWAY LINE AND ONE OF THE SOPRANO LAYOUTS WHERE HAVE THE JUNIORS CUT THEIR TEETH. THE REAL IRONY IS ALL THE KIDS, EXCEPT FOR THE THREE YEAR OLD CAN OUT OPERATE THEIR DADS AND SOME OF OUR MORE TENURED MEMBERS.

 

WE TRY TO SPREAD THE JOY AND GET KIDS INVOLVED. LIKE SOME MENTIONED "PLANT THE SEED"