At 79 my get up and go has gone! I have a sizable amount of ballasting and scenery to do on my layout, about five square feet. Old age has pretty well dinged me to the point that it’s extremely painful to work at arms length for long periods of time from my Topside Creeper.
I’m kicking around attempting to teach my almost 9 year grandson old how to do the finish up work on my out of reach scenery. My grandson is super hyper but he loves my trains.
Anyone out there ever attempted what I’m thinking of doing? I was thinking of starting him out with a section of Atlas flex track on a board at my workbench where I can oversee how he’s doing. I think he has the potential of becoming a model railroader but he really gets wound up and he is somewhat immature for his age. He does well in sports and handles loosing very good, much better than I did at his age.
I think you should go for it! Maybe start by letting him do a small diorama so he can get a sense of accomplishment. You could do the diorama in stages. Let him install the road bed and track, then do some ballasting on the diorama and, if he is able to do an acceptable job, let him do some ballast on the layout. Once some of the layout is ballasted then let him do some basic scenery on the diorama, and if that works out, have him do some on the layout. Etc. Etc.
I think the key will be avoiding having this turn into a task which will become onerous. Do some work, then run some trains. Perhaps get him a locomotive or two that he can call his own so he feels it is his layout too.
This could be an opportunity to teach him so many things, from longer term project planning to focusing on a task for more than a few minutes. It will be a totally different experience from the instant gratification that kids seem to be hooked on these days. Best of all it will give you some quality time with your grandson if things work out, which I’m sure they will.
I’m a bit envious of you having a grandson who is at that age. For me, that is still a ways down the road, if it ever happens at all.
Good luck! Be patient! Take a break when it is no longer fun! Be a cheer leader!
I didn’t think about the diorama thing, Great idea! I have some plywood just aching to have a 9 year old to dress it up. I think doing what you suggest will work. I gave him a couple of modern diesels that I had been given (1956 is my limit) and he really gets turned on running them on my layout.
The whole scenery thing sounds really good, got lots of WS stuff in stock. I have plenty of cork, track and turnouts he can use.
South Penn, I like your idea of letting him set his own pace! I never liked a pushy situation myself.
Actually this is sounding much better than I expected. At 79 I have more then a box full of grand and great grand kids and Eli is the only one interested in trains out of a total of my off spring currently at 26 with two in the hanger.
Ii agree that work on a diorama first would give him a chance to do some praticing with you close at hand to supervise.
I would vary from Dave in that after the track is layed, put a base coat of paint down and add some scenery. Ballasting came after nature and if you paint the cork or whatever you use for roadbed a ballast color (textured paint works great), then ballasting doesn’t have to be perfect to look good. It really helps near turnouts. Additional layers of texture, as Dave Frary calls it, can be added to the scenery between ballasting bouts.
I had good luck sprinkling my first layer of WS ground foam onto my earth color paint, but some folks have had a problem with the foam soaking up the paint. A little experimenting is a little learning.
Nice to hear that you have an interested young person. Have him do a little reading on a scenery book. Might help his reading skills, mine improved when I started reading “interesting” things, not a text book.
When my son was about nine I let him “build” his own railroad on w 4x8 sheet. He go a kick out of “bossing” me around while laying track the way he wanted. When we ran into a problem, I asked him how we would get out of it and 8-10 time he’d work it out. I let him pick the cars we bought at yard sales etc and let him use a diesel I wasn’t too worried about getting beat up.
At first it was a gastly mix of colours and textures and awfully painted rolling stock, but after a while he started getting interested in the right way. I took him to Steam Town national park in Scranton P.A a few weekend steam train rides and so. He is now 25 and has no interest at all in model railroading, right now? I guess what I am trying to say by way of Burma, is let him have at it and see what sticks and sneek in a lesson or two when you can, my boy went that way until girls became more interesting
You brought up something I didn’t do on my layout, applying earth colored paint first. I did go with WS Undercoat before my scenery over Paper Machẽ, using Paper Machẽ was a mistake. I now use Sculptamold thanks to this Forum.
I’m really getting into this, I hope he doesn’t disappoint me. I think I’ll just sorta look over his shoulder and offer ideas when he needs help and let him do his thing. When I’m working at my hobby workbench he will drag up a chair and watch, he’s full of questions.
I spent several hours with my 9 year old grandson Eli today and he is really into becoming a model railroader. Today we mostly talked about what I have in mind. I started him off explaining his new tools and how to take care of them. We got a 2’x4’ piece of plywood out for his diorama and we decided it would fit on my work bench better if it was a bit narrower so I’m going to trim it down to 18”x 48”.
I gave him a CAD printout of a dual track mainline with the single crossover and he really lit up. I quizzed him about what he was going to do and what was on the drawing. He surprised me by being able to explain how the turnouts work.
Before he left I started a member login to the forum that his mother said she would finish up when they get home. I already have him setup the follow the forum.
Congratulations on getting Eli involved. Sounds like you are off to a good start.
I’ll warn you that I’m going to take notes on how well you make out with Eli! The reason I’m going to do that is because I want to do as well with my own grandchildren as you are doing with yours. Its likely going to be about 12 - 15 years before I am in your position. I am looking forward to it. My kids’ grandfathers had precious little involvement with their lives. That disappointed me greatly.
