I have no problem in letting my 3 year old daughter handling any item I have for my layout, especially since I’ve taught her to handle stuff carefully.
Gordon
No little children of my own - they’re all grown up. I never had any problem with my two boys or our grandson (who is now 18!), its other people’s kids who have no respect, no control, no nothing that would bother me the most. Some adults seem to have no concern or control over the little buggers, and that irritates me. The don’t realise that model trains are not toys for their kids to mess with. The real problem is the parents for not teaching their offspring to behave.
Bob Boudreau
I see your point Bob!
That’s why any child young or old, coming into my train room is given an old Model Power boxcar to handle to see if they are capable of handling other stuff.
Gordon
really depends on their age and if I know them and know how they act. I mean yea I’ll let my friends daughter near them, but not her son (he’s hell on everything).
In my house, the kids are what the trains are all about.
I have a 6 year old who knows how precious his dad’s trains and layout is. He is allowed to touch,operate, and handle. Although he doesn’t really grasp the monetary value (but at what age does a kid?) he handles everything with kidgloves. After all…it will be his someday.
I have a cousin who turns three this year, she seems fairly harmless around trains. I passed the Brio collection that my brother and I built up as kids on to her, and there’s not a single day when it isn’t being played with! Considering some of those pieces are 20 years old I think it was a good investment. She’ll happily stand and watch my HO layout in action, though I’ve not let her drive it (yet) - think she’s a bit young to cope with the idea of “you have to stop or you’ll drive that train off the end of the layout”. She’s got past the phase of grabbing at models after a few gentle (verbal) explanations of why they need to be handled carefully (amazingly this seems to work - they understand a lot more than most realise!)
The tricky part is when they come into contact with larger-scale trains. LGB locos are very, very solid and will do more damage to anything they hit than to themselves. You have to keep a close eye for anything being “abandoned” on the rails, or feet too close to the line. On the other hand, seeing what it does to obstacles might be a good method of teaching them to be safe around the real thing - “It broke that pencil in half and isn’t even scratched”
I’ve tried letting my children play with an old Bachman set I have and they quickly proved that they arn’t ready!!!
yup…I even let my cats in the train room, but I have learned em to stay off the layout
YES !!!
How do you think this hobby will continue if you DON’T ???
Now … CATS … I’m not sure about THEM !
And, anyhoo, I thought that cats trained PEOPLE, not the other way 'round !!!
My kids I had no problems with at all. But then, my kids minded. Sadly, that seems to have become unfashionable.
well i had to go
“I do”
(it would be kind of hard if i didnt) well that is because i am ten and it is me and my dad doing this, i will work on it after school before he is home, so bottlom line
__________________(haha)
i do
My layout is built, with a large center area, for my grandchildren to be involved with the
layout. The first lesson they got was …this is NOT a toy, these are papa’s trains.
In fact with three Digitrax controlers I can have the older kids running up to 4 different
trains on the double main line.
At least one of the grandsons will have a layout when he reaches the 6th grade or so.
t-whistler
My kids and I share the trainroom
they have their toys and I have mine.
its been ok
but no oher kids are allowed to touch anything
and my layout is 50" off the ground
The knowledge level of the 10-14 year olds on this forum, would lead me to ask if they allow grown ups to be in their train room.
I set up an LGB G scale every Christmas, along with a HO, N and 027 in another room to make sure the kids have something to run. The bigger kids (15 to 80) gravitate to the smaller stuff and the little ones like the G scale.
After doing this foe the last 19 years, I finally had a teenager on the controls of the LGB and I wasn’t watching. I discovered he like to hit the direction switch at full throttle. So I will be re-gearing that loco.
You should have a few cheap pieces to run for the uneducated company and I think you’ll find it rewarding. Other than a few dings now and then, I’ve had good luck. If a piece is especially valuable, then I would keep it out of reach. But the overall enjoyment by “kids” is well worth a small risk.
Jon - Las Vegas
I do not let people under 7 touch my layout, but it was deffernt at one time.
I let them move the cheaper engines like my gp-38’s and some others and I trusted them. until one day when one of them reached up and grabed my 4-8-8-4 big boy and nearly droped it off the table now they can just watch until they gain the trust back. now I have to put all my loco’s away at night to protect them from our cats.
No kids arounds here. My baby nephew is the only in there, and he must keep his hands down. No touching what-so-ever.
I don’t because I have no small children living at home, my grandbaby was just born a couple of months ago, so he won’t be touching my trains for a long time…[8D][8D][8D]
WE have 10 grand-children and they are always welcome
i’m 12 and the reason my dad is in the hobby is because im there to help him
DRew