What's your age?

[Tecchan]

Hi there,

After seeing some pictures on the member's pictures topic, I started to wonder about the average age on the forum.

 

No offense, but I felt... awfully young. Maybe because it's a more mature hobby or it requires more money than "younger" hobbies or maybe I'm wrong and we're all teenagers there! ;-)

 

Anyway...

I'm 25 (well in four days I'll be...) and it's true that I'm used to see older people (mostly men) on train expositions or hobby shops (in Europe).

And you? :-)

[KenS]

Heh, older than I like to be reminded.  I'm one of the 51-55 bracket.

 

But I've been doing model railroading as an adult since I was 29, and might have done it earlier if I'd had room.  My first model train set was a Christmas present when I was around 10-12 (I don't actually remember).  It was a simple HO layout, built in the usual flat 4x8 plywood table form, with paint on the table as the main scenery (you can see I haven't improved my skills much since then  ).  It went into storage when I went off to college, but hadn't been used much for several years before that. When I got back into railroading at 29, a friend and I started building a layout in a spare room of the apartment we shared.  We eventually went our separate ways, and the layout followed me although he continued to work on it for several years.

 

I think in the U.S. the hobby has been aging, as much of the original population were people who turned to it in the 60s and 70s to recapture the now-vanished trains they grew up with.  Others, like me, became interested through exposure to train sets in stores (I remember standing in front of the display cases at my local hobby store; they were much more common back then). But as trains became a more distant memory, the stores gradually vanished, and fewer new people entered the hobby.

 

I've heard from one LHS that they're seeing more new hobbyists who are interested in "modern" trains.  I'm not sure if that signals a resurgence, although the Internet has certainly made it easier for people who don't have a store nearby to get into the hobby, and for those who do to actually find it (hobby stores don't tend to advertise very well).

[bill937ca]

No batting around the bush. I'm 59.  One of my first exposures to model trains was a visit to Lionel's trade showroom in New York City during a family vacation in the late 1950s. My model railroading didn't start until after 2004 when I sold my condo in the big city, moved to a smaller city and had more space and money to spare. I'm a big fan of traction and Japanese trains are a perfect fit.  The interest in traction is probably a side effect of family vacations to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston along with growing up in Toronto.

[Kamiyacho]

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw

 

I'm in 51 - 55.

[bikkuri bahn]

40.  I can't comment much about model railroading, I figure it's an old man's hobby in Anglo countries, here in Japan HO scale is for well off oyajis, I guess N scale is a more diverse hobby segment demographically and thus has a pretty good future.  Anyway, my first love is watching trains, and as I got into my college years, photographing them.  As I have family connections with Japan, the origins of my interest in Japanese railways differs from most (all?) here- some of my earliest recollections of riding trains are around 3~4 years of age, in Yamagata Prefecture, while visiting relations- cream and pink 451's and the Shonai Railway.  As a youngster used to the fast suburban services of JNR emus I remember complaining to my mother that the Shonai's trains were too slow (maybe moving around 25mph), and her (or my Grandma) telling me to be patient as that's just the way these country trains are like.  Later my Grandma would send me copies of Japan Railfan magazine, which kept the interest intact, even when it faded in my teenage years.  The annual or biennial visit to Japan, however, would re-ignite my passion (Yokohama Station in rush hour can have that effect...), at least until I returned to the passenger-train free motorized wasteland of Southern California.

 

Anyway, as Bill mentioned, it seems alot of people get into Japanese trains because of their interest in traction- Wally Higgins of JTB color books fame is such a person, I believe, as is forumer DickH.  Given that it takes some monetary wherewithal to travel to Japan, you can't expect too many young people to be involved, though the internet and popularity of Japanese subculture (manga/anime/etc.) can lead some here, maybe.  And don't get me started on North American parochialism, however, that's more of an old geezer problem.

[keiman]

Old git bracket   55-60

feel older at the moment due hassle at work

Got into Japanese trains/trams because I did not want to do British,and did not like the price of the European stuff.

Only other country I would consider modeling in N would be Swiss.

[ShinCanadaSen]

36, but my wife often accuses me of acting like I'm 12 ! :) As Ken stated, the hooby seems to be aging (at least in North America), I usualy feel like a Kid when going to the Train oriented hobby stores in my area, as I'm ususaly the youngster in the building.

 

Kai

[westfalen]

I'm in the 46-50 bracket for another couple of months yet, I got a letter from my doctor about my medication to take with me to Japan last year and he wrote "This 50 year old man is my patient...", I thought who is he talking about, oh right, me. I've been a model railroader/railfan practically since I was born.

 

Talking about young people in the hobby the subject of attracting kids to model railroading is a regular one at the club and we have a junior layout for the kids, but recently someone brought up that in photographs taken at model railway clubs going back over the years most of the people in the photos seem to be old guys. I think that's always been the case and those of us that have been model railroaders since we were kids are the exception to the rule.

[keitaro]

so who's the ladies haha 28

[Sir Madog]

I am also in the 51 - 55 bracket, sigh!

 

I started at the age of 7, when a Marklin starter set was under the Christmas tree. A crude beginning, just an oval of Marklin´s infamous tin-plate track, a fantasy 0-6-0 tank loco and two tin-plate passenger cars. Each Christmas and Birthday saw an addition, until, finally, aged 10, I was able to build my first layout. I stayed in the hobby since, but with some down times, as life got in the way.

 

Over the years, I have experimented with Z scale, N scale, live steam in the garden, HO scale (Marklin again, just to test whether the bug has still bitten), HOe gauge, and now back to N scale, Japanese style. My "desktop" layout, using mini-modules, will actually be the smallest of them all. I am amazed at the wealth of detail N scale now offers, very much different than the beginnings.

 

It is a bit of challenge for my failing eye sight and trembling hands, though!

[Martijn Meerts]

34 here, started with trains the moment I was born I guess.. We already had a decent H0 layout on the attic when I was born :)

 

 

Madog, my father's turning 78 soon, he's still doing N-scale :)

[sedril]

27 Here.  I started back in October.

The older guys around here have been nice to show me how stuff works.... but they do get rather confused when I bring out my N700...

[rpierce000]

44, but how do I count the 10 and 7 year olds who are falling in love with the hobby? My wife who is starting to think that trams and steamers are "cute"? I guess I could total it to 105-110, but there was not a category for that.

[CaptOblivious]

36, but my wife often accuses me of acting like I'm 12 ! :) As Ken stated, the hooby seems to be aging (at least in North America), I usualy feel like a Kid when going to the Train oriented hobby stores in my area, as I'm ususaly the youngster in the building.

 

Kai

 

I often feel the same. It's a little weird. But it also makes me feel young, and that's not a bad feeling :D I'm 34.

[Mudkip Orange]

Yeah I think the American modelers who model Japanese prototypes are younger than American modelers overall.

[keiman]

If I add my grandaughter we have an under fifteen.

Nik&Dad, who do you vote?

[scott]

I'm 43, and the kid is 8.5. So we average 25.75. 

[grumbeast]

I like your method Scott!!, with my soon to be 4 yr old and my 42 years I get an average of 23! yay!

 

although if we go by the age I act.. its more likely an average of 8!

 

Graham

[Nick_Burman]

I'm 33. At times I feel like 66, at other times I feel like 18 or less...

 

 

Cheers NB

[bill937ca]

All you guys who act like 8, 12 or what ever just remember when went into train stores at 8 or 12 the credit card wasn't in our hands.    There's nothing like purchasing power! 

[ToniBabelony]

25 here. However, sometimes I feel like 16 (when on a buzzed rampage) or 60... Anyway, I consider myself a fully fledged model railroader. Almost graduated from university and onwards to having a job at Nintendo in Frankfurt *keeps fingers crossed*. Also, next to my interest in japanese N-gauge, I have future ambitions to make a freelance H0e/009 layout.

[rankodd]

I have to admit that I'm surprised at the relative youth of the crowd, here. I'm 35 and I felt like I was the youngest person (barring grand-children) at the train show last year.

[cteno4]

 

I'm 43, and the kid is 8.5. So we average 25.75. 

 

49 here, but my wife says she has a husband and a 7 year old but only lives with one person!

 

Hobby does seem to be aging in NA. I started when I was 14 and going off and on ever since.

 

Cheers jeff

[Nick_Burman]

25 here. However, sometimes I feel like 16 (when on a buzzed rampage) or 60... Anyway, I consider myself a fully fledged model railroader. Almost graduated from university and onwards to having a job at Nintendo in Frankfurt *keeps fingers crossed*. Also, next to my interest in japanese N-gauge, I have future ambitions to make a freelance H0e/009 layout.

 

Good luck with your application, however if you succeed you'll have to change your nickname to Mario or Luigi... :grin

 

 

Cheers NB

[quinntopia]

I'm impressed with the youth on this forum. It does fit my theory that if we make trains interesting, cool, and relevant, people will gravitate to this hobby.  Japanese trains certainly have that aspect going for it!

 

BTW...I just turned 46 and it makes me feel like a kid, except now I have the disposable income to pretty much get what I want!