PVMR's largest layout is "S" at 8' X 18', it adjoins an 8' X 16' THREE rail layout. A 4 X 7 THOMAS and PERCY layout is at "kids level" nearby. We also give away AMTRAK Conductor hats, and have a "play table" for the kids and a "RIDE 'EM CASEY" train all in the same room from late November thru mid January. We also have 2 smaller "S" layouts we take to other venues, one weekend we have 5 layouts running for several hours, at one time. . We have Plexiglass around the layouts because it keeps "little fingers from getting little people in trouble", plus it means we can run with fewer people, a REAL issue now. LOTS of pushbuttons on all three layouts, BTW. Six people is the most we have at any one time, building or running; one is a recent college grad who got her father involved. _http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD9IuQthNKU_ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD9IuQthNKU)
Nominal admission of $ 2.00 for Adults, split with local LIONS Club, who run the door and sell refreshments. Because our area is agrarian in nature, with mostly plain farmers, we have a 49% poverty rate, hence the low admission price. We still maintain and change the big layouts every year, we will start next week, hopefully temps will finally climb above 50 degrees. Jim Lyle In a message dated 3/25/2013 3:17:50 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: First, I think we need to define the various venues that any club might d isplay at. We do mall shows (we have an annual Father's Day show), a large WGH show and then a more focused show (we have a small museum show coming up). Each one will have some kids, but the chances of snagging anyone totally new at a mall event is pretty small, while a smaller trainshow aimed at modelers will normally bring in slightly more serious viewers, with somewhat better odds. However, when I have my layout open for our NMRA Fall tour, the number of kids drop off considerably. Several years back, I had a teen with his parents come by (BTW his layout was also on the tour). Recently I got a call from his mother, their son was now in the Navy and the layout was being scrapped--equiptment was being saved for his return but the benchwork had to go. I helped dismantle it, so some of the Celotex will be part of a yard I plan on improving. So I feel he'll be back eventually. I wasn't open this last year, but just before that, I had a dad with two kids. Each one had an I-pad and they walked around the room capturing digital movies of the layout--they'll stay with the hobby too! They were very knowledgeable regarding the prototype and models. I've been to a friends HO/HOn3 layout a few times and there is also one high school senior who will stay with things too. I'm certain there are a few more around, but Houston is the country's fifth largest city with very little to show for it's future model RR community. I was chatting with a former HS owner last week, he thinks the people with modular layouts are discouraging to the young. He says we don't let the kids touch the trains and run them. Of course, that's a double edged sword, but yes we discourage touching our stuff and some shows we have a crowd line to keep them away. None of us want to see even our crudest models on the floor, but he did have a point to some degree. Of course, his hobby shop sold mostly Lionel and the more trains that hit the floor, the more he sold too! So I don't know what the answer is either, but the future ain't looking to swift! Bob Werre PhotoTraxx Good twin EdL: i think you may have hit the head of the nail, with the next to last paragraph, parents take their kids to train shows, for what ever reason, but after the initial exposure, the novelty wears off, because there is no further experience, i think that if a club set up a small layout, for kids, to play with, (non connecting loops, built in restricted speed, but with all the bell and whistles, that they could operate, that experience might re-enforce their desire, of course not too many scalers would consider this, especially with the cost of their equipment involved, but it might serve both flyers and scalers, if the flyers could provide the initial exposure, less overhead, and then gradually expose the kids to scale, and over time let them make their own decision, after all we are talking "s" mel perry On Mar 23, 2013, at 3:50 PM, Ed wrote:
