I was loafing through the two rail section and I read the rite of passage comments. It got me to thinking, have any of us asked an interested person in O-gauge railroading to join a club? Or to join this website? or to subscribe to this or other model railroad magazines? We constantly see where stores are closing,club membership dropping due to various reasons. But what are we really doing to support the interest in the hobby. We all discuss the benefits and education of this hobby.

I have asked a couple of folks to join my RR club. Some did eventually join and some didn't. Clubs aren't for everyone and there are some folks who dislike socializing over internet.

I firmly believe the hobby is fine. There will always be a small percentage of the population who become model railroaders. Our hobby will always be here. There was a good editorial about this which essentially said what I said above in MR recently.

I don't have a specific CLUB. But I do have a group of about 12-15 who visit once a month. And I give tours of the layout at the drop of a hat.

Before I hooked up with the folks on this forum, I had only met a few model railroaders in hobby shops. I had not known anybody that actively ran trains whether models or toys since I was a preteen. I have shared this forum information with a few people. It was not tell the last 10 years or so that I even knew there was much happening in O scale 2 rail. The main mags act like we don't exist. I don't think our hobby is in trouble for the foreseeable future. When real railroads disappear from the surface of our planet, the hobby will start to slow down a bit.