We have gone over this before several times, but it is always worth bringing up again as it is such an important part of the hobby for many of us.
My Wife has a huge family. As of yesterday (another was born!) there are 19 cousins produced by her various sisters and brother. Uncle Simon’s train layout is a big hit with the kids. Every now and then, one will come and stay for a few days. I let each kid, pick an Athearn BB from my stash (we all have a stash of unmade kits don’t we[:D] ) and then let them go to town with ink washes, powders and dull coat. The photo below is of a pair of frieghts deocrated by my son Christoper (5) on the left and cousin Adam (10) in the center. They then keep “their” fright car in the yard, ready for them to run whenever they visit.
Yes i Agree ,we need to pass this passion along, or it wont survive, im showing my 10 yrd son how to do what ive lerned at his age from my dad ,i agree
Two variations of the same idea. Each of my nephews have a Vriginia & Truckee 4-4-0 type locomotive that is their name sake. We removed the normal “Reno” and “Genoa” and replace it with their names. They get their own locomotives out to run when they come to visit.
For several years each Christmas we had a Christmas Village building raising painting party. Unfortunately with four children of my own, and twice that many cousins the “village” became a city too quickly and we were had more buildings than the realestate could handle.
My situation is somewhat reversed being that my son who is also 5 got the parent involved. His affinity for trains was the precurser to my purchasing a Lionel set for him a few years back. A month or so ago he and I ( primarily me) decided to shift to HO and build a layout because of the items available. Our log on name, “JnM” was intended to be Jake n Miles. I have, as you may recall, been struggling through this new interest with a bit of obsessive ferver. He on the other hand has become aloof to the construction which has been going on in our garage.
I am nearing completion on the benchwork --read, the benchwork is built but, I am prone to alter things in my zeal of it being perfect-- and he has ventured back into the garage and is pressuring me to run the train. I want to run them too but, I am learning that I am nowhere close to running trains yet. I think I will let him go to town on a box car for a while as you suggest. Hopefully this will sustain his interest and buy me some learning time.
Anyway, I thought yours a good idea.
Respectfully,
Jacob
My two children enjoy the trains and the diorama. Although they will not realize it till later in life, it is now in their blood. One day they will build their own layout and with the basic skills learned in their youth, they should be able to build a nice one at that.
Not knowing how your benchwork is set up, is there a way you can at least set up a temporary loop (doesn’t really need to bear any resemblance to the final trackplan) so that you can strike while the fire is hot and maintain his interest? This would allow you to continue perfecting the benchwork while taking advantage of his renewed interest.
My two boys (3 and 5) have there own railway under mine, it’s a loop with a siding that goes back over the loop up a hill to a small town where they drive there cars and switch the trains, they love it. My 18 month old daughter likes to watch the trains going round my layout and get’s very excited by it all, these are my boys playing with some BB stuff in the yard, i have a short track that goes outside to take pictures on for Ebay
I belong to a club that is located in a Mall and we have three layouts running, an HO a three rail and an S(American Flyer). Since we are open to the public when we are there we tend to get a lot of families with kids or dads with kids while mom’s shopping and always noticed the interest but also the frustration with not being able to touch. I mean you can’t blame the guys who own the Broadway Limiteds with DCC and sound or the post war Lionel owners or the guy who spent months scratchbuilding for not wanting little hands or for that matter big hands all over them so we decided to build a layout that is a hands on experience for kids of all ages. Looking back to the golden age of toy trains, which were meant to be played with, we had the club members dig through their old stuff and managed to get enough old Marx equipment to run, a used table and a couple of plastic buildings, a whistling station and some various odds and ends in no particular scale sizes and built our U-Run-It layout. The layout is 30"x 8’ with a single loop of track and it has been a real hit with the kids, parents and grandparents and there’s not a "do no touch "sign in sight. We added a couple of chairs by the layout and the last Saturday we were open I noticed a lady sitting in the rocker feeding her baby while the older two kids were running the train. The only modification we’ve made so far is a limiting block on the transformer so we can keep the train just below warp speed. Ole
Personal experience: When my dad (a Penn Central employee) put up a train table for me and my immediately-younger brother to play with, my youngest brother (age 3) liked to climb up on a chair and watch the train go by the close end of the table, listen as it went on around the loop, watch as the train came back past him, &c. Dad had to take the train table down when the basement got too full of other toys.
Now Dad is about to retire. I found out from Mom that all the kids have asked if Grandpa would like a new train table so he and the grandkids can play with the trains again. We ought to get together and come up with a plan…
I envy you modelers with younger kids. My 14 year old won’t have a thing to do with modeling, but constantly complains of being “bored”. I may try the ‘build a car’ trick myself. Maybe he’ll get a “little” interested.
I loved trains (real and model) when I was a kid but “outgrew” them later on. One day my boy and I were riding bikes and heard a train coming thru town. He was olny about 4 1/2 but we raced over and saw the train. It was a BNSF freight and just blew him away. Seeing his interest rekindled my own and that Christmas I built him a 4x8 in HO. We’ve got video of him running trains that Christmas at somewhere around Mach 2! I wouldn’t take anything for that footage! It’s been railfanning and modeling together for the past 5 years. His interest has really grown with our new D&RGW layout and it’s operational potential. Spending time with him has been a true priveledge. Guy’s, start them young and keep it fun. Remember, they aren’t perfectionists like we tend to be so get some trains running and then go back and fini***he rest. Read MR and the Walthers catalog with them. The planning and dreaming are some of the best parts of the hobby. Go to train shows and hobby shops. They will remember it their whole lives and it will be a bright spot in a crazy world. It’s been a bright spot in my life.
