I was watching this video of the 2102 test runs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC7LG9zrpH4

While it was cool seeing the old girl running again, the thing that I thought was MOST exciting in that video was the average age of the fans recording it and the folks working on it.

How many of them are under 40? It sure looked like the majority to me.

Later today, I was doing research to develop a professional understanding of the technologies around "Web 3". It made me realize that there may easily be a future where railfans are trading blockchain verified heritage unit sighting NFTs as part of a DAO that they participate in. This would be akin to modern day slide trading where there actually IS scarcity again.

So now here's the question. With that many younger folks engaged in the hobby, and these technologies emerging, what are your organizations doing to attract their attention, support and participation with them?

The hobby is absolutely thriving. Spend 15 minutes on YouTube and you will find that out.

I saw photos from the Center for Railroad Photography & Art conference last week. It looked like there were less then 5? people under the age of 60.

From my viewpoint it looks like the "hobby" is doing fine but "organized railfanning" has taken a hit, at least certain groups. But some of them were in decline long before the recent Covid-influenced problems.

PC

For the love of God - can we please keep this NFT stupidity off of RYPN?

"Non Fungible Tokens" are a grift and ponzi scheme. "Non Fungible Tokens" are just pointers to content on the web --nothing more-- and if you do not understand that, then you are the bigger sucker.

I can sell you an NFT of this post, but when the RYPN team stops paying the hosting bill, the post just disappears (along with every other part of RYPN.) You are left with a NFT that is just a pointer to a post on a non-existent website. What do you think your NFT is worth when that happens?

Maybe it's just me, but I don't at all understand the constant "revelation" people have that the hobby is not dying. If you're just now realizing and seeing the amount of young people involved, where have you been since, well, the construction of the first railway? Why is seeing kids and teenagers trackside or as volunteers treated as such an anomaly? I understand it's a problem for many groups, and I suspect that these groups usually have issues (that they don't see) with their culture that affect both recruitment and retention of younger members. If your group doesn't have new blood, there's probably a reason why...

-Sam

I live very close to the Black River & Western RR in Ringoes, NJ and I know a number of the volunteers there. I am very pleased that they have developed a very strong core of younger people who are moving up in the ranks and taking more responsibility for running the organization. I have seen this at some of their open houses and it is very refreshing to see!!

Yes I sure hope NFT's don't become a significant part of this hobby.

But that aside I do agree with OP - there are plenty of younger folks getting involved.

I personally think that some of the appeal of our hobby is as an alternative to the fakeness of the modern world. NFTs are an example of that fakeness. I think a good selling point that we have is that our facilities are not the identical, cookie cutter, franchised big box experience that exists seemingly everywhere nowadays, where nothing is truly real. Trains are real. In a world of simulations and fakery, people will seek out real experiences that have meaning beyond what is provided by electrons on a screen.

WTF is NFT and DAO?

It'd still be worth whatever the next person will pay for it.

That said, I think you don't fully understand the technology and implications of that technology.

Yes, an NFT of a bored ape jpeg is pretty frivolous (unless you're the one who made all the money off of selling it), but what if that NFT is actually video of a Russian army unit committing a war crime? The fact that it's non-fungible and its provenance is fully verifiable, it'd be tough to argue that it's fake.

And in a world where tools like Wombo.ai bring the ability to create "deep fakes" into everyone's pocket, there is real value in having something "verifiable".

I'm here telling you, as someone who's job it is to consult on the future of technology, this stuff is going to be part of the world going forward, and as I've said repeatedly, organizations that fail to embrace the future will not be part of it.

NFT technology is all about bridging the gap between "real" and "fake". They are a technological concept that enables digital scarcity by ensuring that some digital object (generally a file) is the original one.

I know you're talking about it differently, but if that's your take on it, I think you should do a bit more research on the topic.

Here's a practical example: A contractor can show you a digital file that indicates a credential (like a boiler certification).

But what if that contractor is a bad actor and is really just giving you a photoshopped version indicating that their expired credential is still valid?

Sure, you can do a ton of due diligence to check that certification with whatever certifying organization supposedly issued but that takes time (which means it has a cost).

When NFT technology is ubiquitous it will be easy to verify that the certification you are shown is indeed the one issued by the certifying authority (because there is only one copy). Think about the way that the ubiquity of trust like that will streamline all sorts of processes.

THAT is why it's important. Not because some crypto bros are buying Ferraris.

Good point.
If you go to, say, a railroad museum or a NRHS chapter, then you will see a lot of folks past retirement age.
But the hobby isn't about organized groups as it used to be.
Therefore, anything you have to say about any average age in the hobby is anecdotal to your personal experience and impossible to prove either way.
It's too easy to fall into the trap of suing motivated reasoning this way...

Here are some points to consider:

*Since the technology evolved to the point where you can literally shoot and edit an entire big-screen movie on a smartphone, it's now all but impossible to tell the "hardcore railfans" from the person down the street shooting a Facebook video or an Instagram shot. The railfans used to be able to be distinguished by 35mm cameras or more "professional" camcorders, camera bags, the engineers/baseball caps, the belt buckles, the radio scanners, DeLorme and rail atlases, etc., while the "daisy-pickers" and "townpeople" just stood and waved at the train, maybe having a point-and-shoot pocket camera. Now, EVERYONE has a cell phone out to record it, and the only way to tell the "dedicated" are their tripods and maybe "company issue" wear or safety vests--or maybe because they record in landscape while the others are holding the phone vertically.
You see lots of young people along the tracks in that video. But there's no way to confirm how many of them know the history behind even just the R&N having 2102, or anything more than a big, black smoke-belching thing. Dear God, the damned thing hasn't run for the last THIRTY-ONE YEARS!!!!! Locomotive models have come and gone in that time frame!

*The basic idea of railfanning hasn't changed.
What HAS changed, thanks to technology and communications, is the WAY people engage in the hobby. And that's true no matter what the hobby is.
People of any sort or avocation used to gather to socialize and exchange information. They would meet--at churches, at hobby shops, at lodges, at sewing circles, at bars, at fishing holes, at hunting cabins, at meetings, wherever. They would trade information, share photos, borrow rail books and atlases, share homebrews, show off their latest tunes or magic tricks or needlepoints.
How quaint and old-fashioned.
Ten or more years ago, instead of a nationally-known photographer showing up to give a show of his award-winning photography, he sent a DVD with his programs pre-loaded for show. We got to see two stupendous shows, but we didn't get the chance to talk to the photographer about his experiences. (He was always a bit too humble and modest.) Now: Zoom videos and back-and-forth with people across the land or globe.

In addition, the "terms of engagement" with railroading itself have vastly changed. Places where you can "interface" with railroading legally and safely have become fewer and further between. The "Super Seven" of railroading, soon to be the "Big Six," as well as more and more of the shortline operators/owners, are increasingly faceless multinational corporations. Never mind asking a short line about a possible excursion, there isn't even an office to ask for an update on the next local freight, never mind shooting the breeze with the RR's president or CMO as I used to do in the 1980s. The local freights where the crew might shoot the breeze with you as they stopped for coffee at the trackside convenience store are also mostly gone.

Decades ago, there were NRHS and RRE Chapters that seemed to exist solely as mailing lists for the next annual SR/UP/Chessie steam trip and/or "rare mileage special" excursions. Both of those concepts are mostly extinct. Others became de facto support groups for rail museums and preservation projects, until said places formed their own "Friends of..." groups and rendered that moot.

But all is not lost, as evidenced by the East Broad Top Foundation.
What the EBTF has bottled is a decades-long, pent-up demand to actually directly, constructively help support the future of a railroad as a non-profit preservation organization, in a way that wasn't permissible or feasible as long as the EBT was a for-profit private enterprise (or at least nowhere near the scope it is now).

The same things are at play with the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington in far-flung Maine: an opportunity to rebuild, restore and recreate in a manner that you couldn't do visiting Edaville or Boothbay.

Modern railroads in the 21st century in North America have repeatedly distanced themselves from public (read: enthusiast) engagement, with a few notable exceptions: UP's Big Boy, Operation Lifesaver, etc. UP sent a PR van and booth to the Arizona Railway Museum's recent open house, and Railroad Day events, and as usual arranged to park the branch's local power on the Museum's spur for the weekend.

There's one other tidbit I will leave for thought:
A conversation I KNOW (from firsthand experience!) has happened many, many times with many museums, NRHS chapters, and the like:

"Say, why don't we do a shop tour of the XY&Z Railroad/do a charter on the excursion line/run a special trip?"
"We've already done that."
"[checks the back issues of the newsletter]............... THAT WAS SIXTEEN YEARS AGO, you idiots!!!! Are you telling me you think NO ONE who missed it or wasn't even around back then wouldn't jump at the chance to do it NOW?!?!?!?"
[uncomfortable, awkward silences, shifting in chairs, harrumphs.....]

Fixed that for you.

One of my closest associates is a professional entertainer that is technically savvy and who, during COVID shutdowns that killed his ability to perform, branched out into consulting to other professionals and groups about transitioning to the "new reality," both temporarily and permanently. Everything from churches to magicians to sports teams to musicians to theatre groups, plus the venues that hosted (or formerly hosted) them.
He was appalled at one fact that he already knew, but confirmed:
"Except for the sports teams that are self-selected by athletic ability, the average age of the groups I'm dealing with is between 70 and death. Either they are unable or unwilling to get young people involved, or the young people will only get off their screens if a gun is pointed at their heads. Part of my job is figuring out which it is for each group, and why and how."
Knowing him, I'm fairly certain he was trying to be diplomatic about younger people unable to put down their smartphones............