Model Railroaders need to get and keep kids interested in the hobby, whatever it takes. They are the future model railroaders that will keep the hobby alive. It's too bad we don't have a way to track the average age of model railroaders. It would tell us how we're doing.
For those of us who get upset when they see a Thomas related train circling a layout (and we know who we are, don't we) before you loudly complain about it, look at the eyes of the kids that also see it. Do they light up? You bet they do! They relate to that engine and everything associated with it. Adults relate more to the trains we normally run. Kids do not. Yes they do like to see them run and the sounds they make but the moment Thomas shows up all eyes are on him! To them he is a train and one they know about and if your wizzbang SD-XX muckity-muck goes by him and blows it's air horn their eyes will follow Thomas. My point here is that:
If you want to keep this hobby alive and thriving in the future, you need to get and keep kids interested in the hobby whatever it takes.
So if you made it this far I thank you for putting up with me. It's an important topic and needed to be mentioned. Please comment on this regardless of whether you agree/disagree or even have a idea on this. Maybe even rant a little.
Another way I thought of was to track subscriber count to Model Railroader Magazine. The last time I checked the current subscriber count to Model Railroader Magazine was about 140,000+. Sorry I do not have the exact count but the Model Railroader web site is currently down. WHAT!?!? (25 SEP 2018 11:20AM)
<Author's Note> - not necessarily the author's view, just what I was able to find
Here are some interesting numbers I was able to dig up concerning Model Railroader Magazine:
Model Railroader Magazine's circulation figures for 2017 were out in the January 2018 issue and indicate that MR took perhaps the most dramatic hit in readership numbers, percentage-wise, during 2017 in quite some years. Average readership dropped to 100,313 (it peaked at 224,000 twenty years back), a nearly 15,000 drop from 2016! At the same time, the year's final issue garnered a reported circulation figure that fell below 100,000 for the first time in perhaps 35 or 40 years! Similarly, during 2017 the magazine's Video Plus arm's saw subscription numbers show only weak growth. After nearly 15 years of what many think is very weak content MR has attempted to turn itself around and return to the sort of superior modeling material that kept it the hobby's premier publication decade after decade. However, after two decades drifting that saw a steadily declining readership, is this effort, initiated back in 2015-16, too little coming too late?
Model Railroader Magazine's circulation figures for 2017 were out in the January 2018 issue and indicate that MR took perhaps the most dramatic hit in readership numbers, percentage-wise, during 2017 in quite some years. Average readership dropped to 100,313 (it peaked at 224,000 twenty years back), a nearly 15,000 drop from 2016! At the same time, the year's final issue garnered a reported circulation figure that fell below 100,000 for the first time in perhaps 35 or 40 years! Similarly, during 2017 the magazine's Video Plus arm's saw subscription numbers show only weak growth. After nearly 15 years of what many think is very weak content MR has attempted to turn itself around and return to the sort of superior modeling material that kept it the hobby's premier publication decade after decade. However, after two decades drifting that saw a steadily declining readership, is this effort, initiated back in 2015-16, too little coming too late?
If you have an idea for a blog post here, let me know. If I can comment on it, I will or I'll see if someone else can and post it.