16, been interested in model and toy trains since my grandpa showed me his old HO's from the 50's/60's, then my cousin got me into O-scale by showing me his massive layout with all the bells and whistles and smoke. All of a sudden my little loop of HO didn't seem so cool anymore, so I got into O-scale, and that's where I am today
I just turned 52 and love to run trains... ever since I can remember. Does that make me old?
Sure makes me feel young! 
21 years and have been into O scale in general since I first got my MTH Christmas Trolley on a circle loop of track on Christmas morning of 2002. My collection/roster is mostly MTH Railking and Premier. I've gotten more toward trying to be as close to scale as I can on a 13 x 13 foot 0-31 curve dominated layout. Even though I have grown up with MTH I do have a soft spot for Lionel.
If we're talking about trying to be more scale and realistic I have been focusing my layout and collection more on a certain era, certain road names, etc. The possibilities for this hobby are endless and you can do so much with it which is what I love about it.
Almost 65, got my first Set for Christmas 1957 when I was 4.
69 in a few months but only into trains for 16 years.
Steve
Will be 49 on July 4th. Been a model railroader for 43 years this coming fall. Been a real railroader for 27 years. I have never really liked the hi-tech modern trains,sure their nice,more prototypical than Marx,MPC or pre and postwar trains, but their just not my cup of tea and their expensive. I have amassed a collection of tinplate and postwar,MPC,Marx and 027 as well as O track and switches but have yet to start on a permanent layout. I currently enjoy searching around for good deals or beaters to work on. But I do have a plan drawn up for a layout, but God willing towards the end of my career start on it.
"GUYS!!!"? What's with the "guys", guys? 
I'm a lady and a lady never tells her age. Or, so I hear.
Regardless, I just offered a "Grownups Play with Trains" activity for three lucky bidders (1 youngish guy and two ladies of a "certain age") at my church's auction. The lucky bidders and I will be putting a trolley, a stream engine, and a contemporary diesel through their paces on my floor-based track -- while I share my thimble-full knowledge of electronics and control systems with them.
We'll also perform some basic operations using the three side tracks -- operations like coal pickup and figuring out the shortest route/direction for picking up and dropping off tank cars so that they follow a specific order. Afterward, if they don't wreck my stuff, I'll award engineer certificates and feed them PRR dining car-inspired food. Should be fun. 
Great to see so many young folks here.
Tomlinson Run Railroad
66, never felt better in my life, love postwar, including what my parents gave me as Christmas gifts starting when I was 2 years old when I got a Lionel freight train set that included the 2065 steamer, and a ZW.
Also love MTH Railking, and am a absolutely thrilled with Lionchief Plus.
This is an ideal time for a young person to join this great hobby. If you don't need the state-of-the-art stuff, the secondary market is flooded with trains at excellent prices. I've seen this hobby transform from mainly collector to operator and if you are just looking for an artful and/or nostalgic presentation of a layout this hobby can be relaxing and LOADS of fun. If only other young people would put down their smartphones for a minute, they will find something great in model trains. That's why I've been with it in my youth and since 1980 as an adult.
TomlinsonRunRR posted:"GUYS!!!"? What's with the "guys", guys?
I'm a lady and a lady never tells her age. Or, so I hear.
Regardless, I just offered a "Grownups Play with Trains" activity for three lucky bidders (1 youngish guy and two ladies of a "certain age") at my church's auction. The lucky bidders and I will be putting a trolley, a stream engine, and a contemporary diesel through their paces on my floor-based track -- while I share my thimble-full knowledge of electronics and control systems with them.
We'll also perform some basic operations using the three side tracks -- operations like coal pickup and figuring out the shortest route/direction for picking up and dropping off tank cars so that they follow a specific order. Afterward, if they don't wreck my stuff, I'll award engineer certificates and feed them PRR dining car-inspired food. Should be fun.
Great to see so many young folks here.
Tomlinson Run Railroad
Sounds like a great idea, TRR!
Dennis LaGrua posted:This is an ideal time for a young person to join this great hobby. If you don't need the state-of-the-art stuff, the secondary market is flooded with trains at excellent prices. I've seen this hobby transform from mainly collector to operator and if you are just looking for an artful and/or nostalgic presentation of a layout this hobby can be relaxing and LOADS of fun. If only other young people would put down their smartphones for a minute, they will find something great in model trains. That's why I've been with it in my youth and since 1980 as an adult.
I'm 21 and this is exactly my philosophy and the reason I model traditional Lionel between 1950 and 2000, with an emphasis on Postwar. I like it because it was and is a benchmark for O gauge trains, the stuff is cheap right now, and it's a collection that could one day be finished. The colors are whimsical yet somewhat realistic, and all around, I love the feeling of working on something physical rather than virtual; the stuff is extremely well built!
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I’ll be 59 in 2 weeks. I started in HO when I was 15. I also played with a Lionel set when I was 7 or 8 and ended up finding that stuff boxed up in my later teens. It ran so much better than HO but I didn’t think it was even being made anymore. In my late 20’s I rediscovered that box again and started buying some new cars. Been collecting and operating ever since. Best hobby ever.
16 here, been in the hobby since I was 5 years old, which incidentally got me my first job. I work at Milepost 38 Toy Trains and it's been a lot of fun so far. It definitely is a great time to be in the hobby with all of the scale models available. I model Amtrak from 2010 to present in O and HO.
TomlinsonRunRR posted:"GUYS!!!"? What's with the "guys", guys?
I'm a lady and a lady never tells her age. Or, so I hear.
Regardless, I just offered a "Grownups Play with Trains" activity for three lucky bidders (1 youngish guy and two ladies of a "certain age") at my church's auction. The lucky bidders and I will be putting a trolley, a stream engine, and a contemporary diesel through their paces on my floor-based track -- while I share my thimble-full knowledge of electronics and control systems with them.
We'll also perform some basic operations using the three side tracks -- operations like coal pickup and figuring out the shortest route/direction for picking up and dropping off tank cars so that they follow a specific order. Afterward, if they don't wreck my stuff, I'll award engineer certificates and feed them PRR dining car-inspired food. Should be fun.
Great to see so many young folks here.
Tomlinson Run Railroad
This is great. I would love to see more women and girls enthusiastic about our hobby, and I'm sure most of the men in this Forum agree with me. In fact, I hope that someday the women model railroaders outnumber the men.
Arnold
TomlinsonRunRR posted:"GUYS!!!"? What's with the "guys", guys?
I'm a lady and a lady never tells her age. Or, so I hear.
Regardless, I just offered a "Grownups Play with Trains" activity for three lucky bidders (1 youngish guy and two ladies of a "certain age") at my church's auction. The lucky bidders and I will be putting a trolley, a stream engine, and a contemporary diesel through their paces on my floor-based track -- while I share my thimble-full knowledge of electronics and control systems with them.
We'll also perform some basic operations using the three side tracks -- operations like coal pickup and figuring out the shortest route/direction for picking up and dropping off tank cars so that they follow a specific order. Afterward, if they don't wreck my stuff, I'll award engineer certificates and feed them PRR dining car-inspired food. Should be fun.
Great to see so many young folks here.
Tomlinson Run Railroad
One more thing. My daughter, now 31, still has very fond feelings for the trains even though she is not a hobbyist. As a little girl, she loved the trains. We made it so it was like playing with dolls, with all the O Gauge little people. I would put the little people in train cars and on station platforms and tell her stories about them. She helped me paint my baseball park bleachers made of popsicle sticks and helped me glue them together with Elmers Glue. We also painted the little fans sitting in the bleachers. This was a grand arts and crafts project. Great fun and very mentally stimulating for a little girl, her little brother and me. Now, she has a powerful, brilliant mind, very articulate, great sense of humor and imagination, and she is a great mother of my 7 year old and 8 month old granddaughters. I'm convinced the trains significantly helped her development.
Arnold
67. I havent noticed the train crowd getting younger, except those coming to shows with their parents.
The trend i noticed in the recent poll about conventional vs command control was an avg age in the sixties.
55 and like Mike G I feel it every day, especially after working on my basement, which when I started working on it didn't hurt afterwords......
I will likely build a hi rail layout but likely won't run only scale equipment, and I am not sure whether I will go conventional only to start or bite the bullet and set it up for DCS and Legacy. I suspect that the younger guys are getting into the hobby for the same reason most of us did, they like trains, I suspect some got into it because of the scale equipment and enjoy things that command control brings with sound and operation, others maybe because simply they are big and fun to run, not as fussy as HO. My thought (not backed by any particular evidence) is the younger guys into prototype realism will head for HO because of issues like being able to build more layout in the same space, cheaper cost (though not as much as it once was), and the obvious that the track is a lot more realistic and they have the eyesight and hand and eye coordination still to deal with the smaller trains. Key thing is, that they are actually joining a hobby where sometimes I feel like a young'un
Nicely said Bigkid!
Arnold D. Cribari posted:TomlinsonRunRR posted:"GUYS!!!"? What's with the "guys", guys?
I'm a lady and a lady never tells her age. Or, so I hear.
Regardless, I just offered a "Grownups Play with Trains" activity for three lucky bidders (1 youngish guy and two ladies of a "certain age") at my church's auction. The lucky bidders and I will be
=snip=
Great to see so many young folks here.
Tomlinson Run Railroad
One more thing. My daughter, now 31, still has very fond feelings for the trains even though she is not a hobbyist. As a little girl, she loved the trains. We made it so it was like playing with dolls, with all the O Gauge little people. I would put the little people in train cars and on station platforms and tell her stories about them. She helped me paint my baseball park bleachers made of popsicle sticks and helped me glue them together with Elmers Glue. We also painted the little fans sitting in the bleachers. This was a grand arts and crafts project. Great fun and very mentally stimulating for a little girl, her little brother and me. Now, she has a powerful, brilliant mind, very articulate, great sense of humor and imagination, and she is a great mother of my 7 year old and 8 month old granddaughters. I'm convinced the trains significantly helped her development.
Arnold
Arnold,
Thanks for your note and encouragement. And, what a wonderful testament to your daughter! She was lucky to have such an engaged and supportive father and you must be so proud of her.
As I've written elsewhere, it was nice to have a father teach me how to solder, use various tools, and open up an American Flyer engine and describe why it wasn't working and how to fix it. I couldn't agree more -- sharing such things with your daughter, and all children for that matter, opens up wonderful possibilities and builds skills for life.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful story. Now back to planning that train event for folks "of a certain age" :-).
Tomlinson Run Railroad
