My boy has asked for a train of his own for Christmas. After sitting down and talking with him about it over the last few days one thing is apparent… He wants to be able to reconfigure track when he gets bored with the layout.
Mom want the layout off the floor and on a table.
He already likes to run my railroad and respects the fact that the trains are fragile. You can see my layout here: http://georgetownbranch.blogspot.com/ Maybe some day they will feature it in the Magazine!
We don’t have the space for another HO layout and I am not sure O Scale is the way to go. N Scale could be set up on his desk, on one of the many large tables in our playroom, or under my layout on a third lower level.
Anyway I am considering Kato Unitrack in N Scale. Have any of you had experience with younger children and N scale? Do you think it is to small for them?
I have a 6 years old nephew. His parents tried building an N scale model railroad for him. Luckly, they tried a small loop and some turnouts before building a “real” layout. It did not go well. The locomotive and cars were too small for him to handle. They eventually went with HO scale which worked out much better for all concerned. I guess your building an N scale layout depends on the maturity level of your son. It does not seem as if you have many options because of the layout space. I would run a continuous loop and go from there.
I think at seven he may well be able to handle the cars and locos, with some supervision and care. He probably isn’t going to be up to changing the configuration of things.
For fun and reconfiguration, it’s really hard to beat Lego trains. My kids enjoyed that well past 10, at least, even when they were capable of handling the littler stuff, and were starting to get involved with N scale.
As has been said, it all depends on his manual dexterity. OTOH, if he has been drawing inspiration from Dad’s HO trains I seriously doubt that Lego (or Thomas the Tank) would satisfy him.
If you stick with really short cars and small locomotives (B&O ‘Dockside’ 0-4-0T, GE 44 ton…) you could build a decent HO layout (albiet with really tight curves) on a flush door, possibly placed on one of those cheap folding-leg tables in use and stood on end behind his door between operating sessions. He might find that a more satisfying long-term solution - I rather suspect he’s angling toward joining you in building and operating your main layout.
When I was not much older (Harry Truman was president) I was building my own 1:196 scale 5DCC model railroad, including making ‘rolling’ (sliding) stock from balsa, painted with Testors model airplane paint. At your son’s age, my grandson is quite skillful with those snap-together ‘assemble your own monster truck’ kits.
What it really comes down to is, will his modeling mesh with what yours, or do you want to set him on a completely separate course? Only you can decide.
It is sometimes amazing, how mature 7 year olds can be when challenged properly…
Your son´s probably infected by the same bug as his dad. So why go a different way? Get him his own HO set to work on and play with, but make sure it is compatible to what your are doing. Let him run his train on your layout as well and don´t exclude him, even if it may sometimes require a bit stronger nerves.
If you go with HO, he can run his trains on your layout as well as his own track.
Lionel O27 fits in some really small spaces (the 27 is the diameter in inches of a circle of track). The bigger pieces may be easier for him to handle.
If he’s already gotten the concept that trains aren’t just toys to be dumped int he corner when not being played with, N scale will probbaly be fine. I was running both HO and N scale at that age (but not building the layout), and apart from an occasional burned out Atlas switch machine (on the N scale, never burned out an HO one) from the control box sticking, everythign ran smoothly. Unitrack is a good choice but I’d still assist in building. You may need to tweak joiners, if the track is frequently rearranged. Like any sectional track, the joiners will loosen up and there will be power problems, so be prepared to tweak when switching from one track arrangement to another to avoid the frustration of stalling locos.
In the end, only you can decide if he has the maturity and dexterity to handle N scale. It’s good that he’s interested, neither of my boys stayed interested in trains once they got past the Thomas stage.
Reflecting on my introduction to trains nearly 50 years ago. I had something called “Lone Star Treble O”. It was roughly the same size as “N Scale”. Looking back I was pretty anal about how well I looked after my toys, and that is reflected in the fact that I still have it and it all still works. I learned what friends of mine had respect for my stuff and that determined how much access they got to my toys and especially my MRR.
Take stock of how well your son deals with his possessions. If you think "N scale is robust enough for him, go for it. My kids and their friends at seven can keep a soccer ball in the air and shoot a Hockey Puck into the corner of the net with deadly accuracy. I don’t think dexterity is an issue with a seven year old.
N Scale will work since he been around your trains…
I would go with a Atlas locomotive,various manufacturer’s cars and since he would like to change things the Kato M2 Untitrack set with a added V3 yard set.
BTW…When I was 7 I wanted my own locomotives instead of using my Dad’s.
1} sounds addressed already: his respect for trains. Sounds like you have trained him well.
2} his manual dexterity in ability to handle to smaller things- how is that going for him?
3}If you want to put a third lower level under your layout on which he can play, wouldn’t an HO set be easy to play with under your layout or is your layout a very narrow depth not allowing for curves under it for him?
4} if he can, as you say, play with N on his desk, on a play table in the play room, or under your layout perhaps it is the way to go. It gives him several choices in ways to play.
5th} DOes he understand wiring, current directions and such, or will a DCC “connect 2 wires to the track and off you go” work better for him? I’d hate to see him get disappointed because he put in a reversing loop that shorted out his loco and killed it, or some other electrical mishap. I had O guage as a kid and the wiring is “easier” as the 2 negatives and one positive rails allow for “mistakes” to be compesated without burning anything out. Perhaps it is worth considering?
6} does he have any younger brothers or sisters who might think the trains are neat toys to suck and chew on? Then perhaps only under your layout would be the better place to play where it can be kept an eye on by the parental units…
Just some food for thought…I am sure he will be happy with whatever you get him, as long as he can handle it and it is “his”.
I have been considering some of this same thing, as I have two 7 year olds.
One of them has very well-developed fine motor skills, and almost always had, meaning that she can make precise movements well. She is very attentive when I take her to my club’s layout and throw a train down on one of the tracks and hand her the throttle. She doesn’t go for super fast running. In fact, she runs trains almost TOO slow when you take into account scale speed.
My other kid may be just a little too restless for model trains, regardless of scale, at this point. She’s got a few minor disabilities that make it difficult for her to manipulate finer objects in a precise way, meaning that she’d have a hard time rerailing a car. She has run trains a couple of times, but her attention is not focused (another symptom of her minor disabilities).
I have been considering building them a small On30 layout and letting them create their own critter shells. If they want to make a princess fairy unicorn layout then that’ll be just fine. Eventually, I’ll get them into something like SP, Milwaukee, or SP&S
Collin does have a twin sister and an older sister of 9.
After the post about LEGO trains I did a little research and wow how cool is that! The new (as of 2009) rail system is all plastic. The control is via infrared hand held that can control 4 trains. The motors, IR units, and remotes are fairly inexpensive, the trains are about the size of O scale, and the best part is no wiring worries!
I showed Collin a couple of video’s on the net and he is hooked! He loves LEGO anyway and has a bunch of people, cars, trucks, cranes etc. Another great thing is the remotes, IR units, and motors can power anything if he gets bored with the trains.
We talked about it and he would like the LEGO train for himself and I think I will surprise him with a Loco and a few cars that he can run on my layout as well.
I dabbled in N when I was in my late 40s, and built a 4x6 layout that was pretty decent. But I just didn’t enjoy it as it was too darn small and finicky for me. So, I went back into HO…
My point is, N is - in my humble opinion - not suitable for a youngster. I would urge you to get him a Lionel set, which is how many of us “old timers” started out. Of course Lionel is a bit expensive (and it was back in the early '50s too), and if that is a problem then I would go with one of the better HO sets.
Athearn or Bachmann Spectrum (not plain Bachmann) has some pretty nice beginners sets, and of course Atlas makes some user friendly track sections and motorized turnouts.
I have 3 adult boys who never had any interest in trains, so I urge you to encourage him as best you can.
I think that’s a wise choice. I have 3 boys, ages 7, 9, and 14. The 14 year old never much took to the model trains, which is good, because he’s a bull in a china shop. He’d find a way to destroy a solid titanium layout (mostly because he’s convinced that he knows more about everything than anyone else and won’t listen to advice).
The younger two are much better, and can operate my layout – and even do scenery work – under my supervision. My supervision is only necessary because their little imaginations run wild. They’re just not content with the static nature of everything but the trains. They want the car to stall on the tracks, the train to hit it, the ambulance to respond, the helicopter to MEDEVAC the patient to the hospital, etc. They want the coal tipple to actually dump coal into the hopper cars, the forklift to actually put scale lumber on the flatcar, etc. And yes, they want to redesign the layout at regular
No, its not to small for the right 7 y/o… and it sounds like yours is doing just fine. My first, very own layout was in N scale at about that age back in the early 70’s
Think of it this way a child with N scale train is a selectively compressed adult in HO
