I while ago, I wrote a post about attracting new blood to the hobby and how we can do that. Well, over the past few weeks I've been working on doing just that. Last month, my daughter's Pre-K class was doing themed days for each letter of the alphabet. T was Transportation, sensing an opening, I offered to bring in my O-Gauge equipment for the kids.
The day went well, the kids loved running the trains. The day was so successful, I set the trains up for my son's first grade class. Once again, the kids ate it up. Emboldened, I pitched the idea of a model railroad club to the principal. She liked the idea as it dovetails nicely with the school's STEM/STEAM curriculum. However, she said we would need to gauge interest before we moved ahead.
The second to last day of school was sort of a do-nothing day for certain grades and teachers would have a bunch of rambunctious kiddos. I volunteered to set trains up again and the principal loved the idea. One class at a time came in to run the trans. I counted the number of students interested and it was 88. That's 88 potential young railroaders! The principal came into the room and saw engaged the kids were and told me to start planning my club!
So I was excited. Now the excitement has turned to "Holy Moses, what did I just get myself into?" I started mulling which scale. I think I've settled on HO. It gives you the most bang for the buck. It's small enough to fit in a small space but also robust enough for kids.
Right now, I'm thinking of having the kids start off the way all of us start off, with a 4'x8'. We can design and build the layout and hopefully operate it.
My goal here is to get kids into the hobby. I'm tired seeing forum posts by grumpy old men lamenting the death of the hobby. Why don't you do something about it? Make YouTube video about scratch building! Welcome the younger members into the club instead complaining about them. Invite the local scout troop to see your layout. Be part of the solution.
