Why it's okay that most kids don't get into trains

Many things get in the way of kids becoming interested and staying interested in trains. The model railroad industry clearly has a vested interest in getting more kids into the hobby, hence the ‘World’s Greatest Hobby’ campaign. Alas, I think they are mostly preaching to the choir and don’t think it will be enough.

You can’t make someone love trains, any more than you can make them love sewing or motorcross or painting or a particular type of music. A love of trains starts when kids are very young and by the time you can read, the advertising is almost too late to make a definitive difference. Doesn’t hurt to try though.

Nature or Nurture? Yes, absolutely!

Like most nature/nurture debates, it is pretty meaningless to dissect which matters more. The nature part speaks to potential and the nurture part speaks to how the potential is cared for and developed. When it comes to rail fanning, I think you at least have to have the potential in you (nature). It’s basically a boy thing, so I’m pretty convinced that there has to be something at the genetic level to start you off. But there’s a lot of environmental factors that matter too

(Lucky) Exposure to trains at an early age

I don’t believe that anyone ever became a train aficionado having never seen a train. Early contact with some aspect of railroading somehow resonates with that particular locus on a kid’s DNA and gets the ball rolling. The sheer physical impressiveness of trains probably has a lot to do with it. Unfortunately these days, most kids rarely encounter trains.

In my own case, as a two-year-old I could see steam trains occasionally working a cement plant branch line at the end of our street. This was one of the few rail lines in my home town and we just happened to live near it. I’d see them from my school too. They were always there, not prominent, but there. Plenty of other kids saw the same trains but they didn’t become rail fans. You need more than just seeing trains from time to time to make you a train nut.

Parental support

A little parental support is necessary to keep the train bug growing. This shows up in many ways. It can be as simple as a parent that is encouraging toward an interest in trains, or perhaps a connection to railroading via employment though this is a rarity these days. Gifts of trains, videos or DVD’s, or other toys that reference trains in one way or another all serve to reinforce and encourage the kid’s growing interest. Without a guiding hand, kids will mostly drift away from trains toward toys that pay off more immediately than track and trains.

Trains hold their own with toddlers when all that is required is to pull a wooden locomotive along. But the situation changes once kids are only three or four. Grab a Thomas train and now it needs track and freight cars. Grab a matchbox car in each hand and you have all you need to be racing! Trains have a hard time competing with that.

Parents play a key role in terms of allowing space to be given over to the trains. Even at the Thomas the train level it matters if the track stays set up or is packed away. Later a the kid grows up, is space granted for a layout? Can someone help with the woodwork and wiring? Can most kids keep the scenery mess under control? I know I was very lucky in terms of how supportive my folks were in terms of space, money, time and understanding as I naively and vainly attempted to match the best of them in Model Railroader. I really like MR, but what a tease MR is! When was the last time they ran an layout article that included a good breakdown on the total cost of the layout? But I digress…

Now that the railroads are not very visible how many parents are driving their kids to see the trains? Not many of course and I’m not saying they should. When I drive with my kids, I’ll usually take routes that take me near the BNSF or UP tracks - get the groceries, see a train or two. But the key thing is that detouring is primarily for me not for my boy. It does have the effect of increasing Mitchel’s exposure to trains which he seems to like, and at the same time, Natalie is getting more vocal about ‘taking the long way again’ . Darn, I’ve been found out! Bottom line is most kids are not exposed to railroads and parents aren’t going to change that.

Railroad buddies

Unless you just really like doing stuff on your own, it is usually better to enjoy your interests with someone. With few you meet in normal life in the hobby, it can be frustrating going through all the difficulties of railroading without people who understand what you’re going through and why. Had the internet not come along, I would have predicted the end of railroading as a pastime in pretty finite terms in the not too distant future.

In the course of 40 years everyday life, I have met fewer than five railfans that I really enjoyed railroading with. Of course the internet flips all that on it’s head and it may be one of the key things that keeps railroading alive going forward. Here’s hoping!

Model railroading is hard!

Sorry! It’s true. If it wasn’t, every train fan you meet would have a museum quality layout. Railroading in model form is about levels of precision that stop most potential rail fans in their tracks, literally. Model railroading takes planning, care, skills, some artistic talent (despite what they say) and a lot of patience. A pretty tall order for most people.

I actually like that model railroading can be hard because of the satisfaction that comes with it. But for many, the difficulty is a hurdle that stops them. Quite frankly, there are a lot of us lifetime modlers who are also thwarted by the demands of a good layout and we restrict our practical application to buying more stuff and leaving the layout building for later! And we’re the motivated ones!

The payoff is often a long time coming

So for most people with average skills, they will have a hard time getting better than moderate results in model railroading after investing their time, money and effort. Sad but true. When your first attempts are disappointing, it takes staying power to keep trying, especially over a period of decades.

These days, kids have a lot of entertainment choices that are more satisfying to them more quickly that their layout could be. Model Railroader can keep publishing those beginner  4x8 layouts, but even that is to much for most people. MR would do better to emphasize small switching layouts rather than offering up more loop track plans.

For many too, there is also the inevitable break in railroading when we go off to get a life and a profession that will help pay for our habit. You have to be patient to wait all those years to get to your empire, big or small.

Most kids wont be into trains

Adding it up, limited exposure to trains, busy parents and plenty of hobby and entertainment choices to compete with railroad projects, for me, explain pretty well why few kids get in to trains and also why the percentage of railroad fans in the population is unlikely to increase.

So what if kids don’t all rush to get into trains?

Well in the scheme of things, what happens is less important than global warming. From a selfish train addict perspective though, I should care about fewer kids getting into trains. Fewer new train fans could mean a declining market and shrinkage in the range of products available.

The companies that make the stuff I like, can only exist as long as there’s enough people like me buying stuff and handing over substantial amounts of cash on a regular basis. A declining market would also drive prices higher, putting further pressure on the hardy rail fans sticking with the hobby. It’s not like they’ll all go out of business tomorrow, but over the next few decades, things will change in the hobby industry.

The good news, at least for some

On the plus side, the average age of rail fans will likely lower over time as boomers age out of the hobby. That should mean good things for us followers of modern outline prototypes since people often model what they see or have seen. Amen to that.

And the best news for the railroading hobby is of course the internet, where like-minded people have connected no matter how physically isolated they are. I expect that there will still be very few people that get into the hobby. But those that do get into trains will be passionate about their interests and at the present time will have the best products ever available, the most accessible information and can easily connect with like minded hobbyists like never before.

You can relax now model railroad industry. You’ll have plenty of customers, but you’ll find them on the internet, mostly.

Now if we can just get DCC to be user friendly, model railroading has got it made!