Frequently the OGR staff has mentioned it's up to us to help keep our LHS (providing there is a hobby shop in your vicinity that you'd say is your LHS) from packing it up and closing doewn. They've even suggested specific ways to do this such as us railroaders making our train purchases from our LHS and also one to one mentoring by us with folks outside the hobby to encourage them to join our ranks.
While I agree wholeheartedly with these suggestions, I'm asking what responsibility should the LHS have to keep itself alive, prosperous and functioning? Is seems like more than a few of the LHS owners who post here moan and bemoan their fate as being beyond their control - that they're victims of today's weakened economy, internet stores with low overhead, the declining number of people involved in our hobby and other factors beyond their control. They seldom mention however what, if anything, they're doing themselves to improve the situation by raising the awareness of the fun of toy trains thereby potentionally increasing the number of children and parents who might take a further interest in our hobby.
So for those in the SE PA/Phiily vicinity I'd like to share what Doug Wolff, the "new" owner of Joe's Train Station in Feasterville PA is doing to help both the hobby and of course his business. A once vacant store front in the same shopping center as Joe's and only a few doors down from it is now being utilized under the direction of Doug's wife Paula as a place where parents, child oriented groups and even day care centers can visit/and or arrange train parties for small groups of children. It's called The Party Train and for a nominal charge per child they can rent the area by the hour and have supervised train themed parties complete with food, train related games, activities and contests, view age appropriate train videos and actively engage in running a very large 3 rail train layout with many operating accessories and cars. Doug's even set up a wooden train layout for the much younger participants. Upon request, train engineer overalls and caps ae also available for the children to wear. Also, a few mornings and early evenings each month, Doug has open train dates when moms and dads can leave their children or stay with them for a few hours to run trains for no other occasion or reason than it's fun!
Doug and his wife sponsor activities at a local Chick-Fil-A Restaurant to spread interest in model railroading for kids.
I am not a relative of Doug's but commend him for initiating such an endeavor and wish him the best of luck and success. Youngsters seem to have a natural interest in and kinship to trains as many preschool teachers will attest to. Notice the enormous ongoing popularity of Thomas the Train. So kuddos to all who do what they can to keep that interest in and fire and love for trains alive and burning as our youngsters get older.
So what is your LHS doing to promote and foster interest in trains by younsters and adults alike???
P.S. Doug has also made it a practice of making charitable donations via a percentage of his profits from special sale events.
Here's a link to Doug's store and pictures of The Party Trainin action- http://www.joestrainstation.com/
