Dave, (hon30critter) had suggested starting with a diorama, that sounded good to me so that’s where I began. I guess I’m not a very good mentor; it only kept his attention for a few hours. He was wound up when we started but his spring didn’t respond to rewinding.
The diorama is 18" wide by 48" long. The messy workbench is mine.
He did well laying the cork roadbed and I did most of the work installing two turnouts. He did good laying the straight track (Atlas code 100 flex). In attempting to add a switch machine (new old stock, Lambert Associates) he got discouraged. I fiddled with the switch machine for two hours before I finally tried a second one only to find out the first one was defective. That dinged him, my fault!
I had him install (glue) a Kadee uncoupling magnet between the rails so that he could learn slow switching with his locomotive. That helped.
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Gee Mel, I reckon you’re being a bit hard on both you and young Eli.
“I guess I’m not a very good mentor; it only kept his attention for a few hours”.
Heck, I know grown men that have the attention span of a gnat and are wandering off or wanting a coffee break after an hour!!
“Presently he is only coming over to grandpa’s house to work on his trains twice a week at this point.”
The sessions have been running about two hours, the dinged switch machine went a little over 3 hours and that was too long. I sent him a picture of the buildings today and got a quick phone call back from Eli saying that was ”cool”. He sounded excited.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
I began with my two grandsons on my knee watching youtube steam locomotive videos. They couldn’t get enough. Parents bought them a used Thomas table and a lot of ‘stuff’, and they played with it for hours. I also had a working layout when they were upwards of three years of age, so that helped. At present they’re across the country, so their current interest is beyond me. They’ve both started school. I’m pretty confident that if they were on the left coast with us they’d be right into it.
This began early on when Eli (about 4) and his Mom would drop by, he would always head to the garage and my layout. I setup my control panel so that it is super easy to run trains. I would let Eli do his thing.
Almost everything I have is flying the Southern Pacific flag. A couple of years ago when I was buying Athearn SD40s to power my E7 Cary bodies I inadvertently bought a Athearn GP40 off eBay. Thinking ahead I decided to save it for Eli. The GP40 is a very clean with little run time. Many years ago I bought two Roundhouse RS3s then found out the SP never owned any RS3 so they remained in their boxes until now. Eli has the Burlington Northern GP40 and two SP RS3s. I have a fairly large collection of like new freight cars from the 70s. I changed all the couplers to Kadee #5s.
I gave him my spare RMC Tech II 2500. I made a linkage between the two Atlas Custom Line Code 100 #6 turnouts under the diorama and Installed a new unused Lambert Associates switch machine to control both turnouts.
I have hesitated to respond here because I was afraid what I have to say would be taken as criticism. It is not my intent to do that. First of all, does Eli still enjoy running your trains? If so then I would say he is still interested in trains. If he is, then the diorama isn’t really doing much for him. It holds one loco and three cars. only the loco and one car can be run back and forth a couple of feet between the two tracks. That isn’t going to keep his attention very long. For learning to lay track and add scenery it is a good idea, but most 9 year olds aren’t really interested in that. They want to play with their trains. Maybe together build a small layout on a 4x8 sheet of plywood where he can run “his” trains and let him learn as it progresses. Whatever the outcome, just don’t let it hurt you if he isn’t interesred in model railroading. Back in the forties it was trains and airplanes that most kids were interested in and I never grew out of that as I model both trains and planes. Today’s kids have their X-boxes and computer games. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and commend you on wanting to share things with your grandson.
First question that needs answering what does he want to do go against that
and your going to have a tough time with him.
Followed by he is nine so is going to need a nine year olds train set
Remember them with things that happen operate and amuse try and lower your self to his level and get the answers.
With me it was easy Dad worked for the railways all his life made the terrible mistake when I was four got my first train set.
I got to go to real railway places with Dad during school holidays, I think modern OH&S might have something to say about that so might the FBI in this day and age.
I also had the operating things for my set giraffe car and operating mail coach
ore car to.
So as well as trying to emulate the world I saw from around about knee hight I also had play value in the trains I had.
that’s an answer with some though that will be $1 please[:D]
When my son was a wee lad he would set on my knee and ran trains by the time he was eight he lost interest.
Fast forward…My oldest grandson sit on my knee and ran trains.Today as a young adult he is becoming quite the modeler with a keen eye toward scenery details and is quite knowledgeable in locomotive and freight car details…Far better then I ever did. The real embarrassment is he can almost out switch me.
My youngest Grandson sit on my knees and ran trains and never was interested.
I feel the same way, but I will offer my thoughts on the subject.
I am a great believer in letting young kids find their own way and develop their own interests. What interests me does not necessarily interest my kids or grandkids. That is fine with me.
My two passions are golf (summer) and model railroading (winter). I totally enjoy these two pasttimes. But, none of my kids play golf and none of my grandkids show any interest in model railroading except my 7 year old grandson. But that interest showed up on its own. I never once encouraged, let alone pushed, him to enter the hobby. Will it go anywhere? Who cares. I don’t.
The fact that I play golf and mess with model railroading are two things that I developed an interest in myself. Nobody led me into either pursuit. I see parents pushing their kids into sports and intellectual and artistic pursuits, and I just shake my head. Now, don’t get me wrong. Kids need to be exposed to choices, so there is no cause to shelter them from anything.
I have taken my grandkids to the golf course with me. I am fortunate to belong to a private club where it is easier to take kids out on the course and mess around on the driving range and putting green. It becomes a form of play for them. I have let my grandkids follow me down into the basement as I do maintenance on and around the layout. If they show interest, great. If not, so be it.
I guess what I am saying is, don’t lose any sleep if your children or grandchildren show no interest in model railroading. Let them be what they want to be.
A bit of background, we raised 7 of our own and after his Mom died at 20 we raised her son Steven (5). At about 8 he took interest in my trains. At 10 we built him his own layout early one summer, by fall he struggled to enter his layout in the craft & hobby show at our County fair (Blue Ribbon). By winter he was no longer interested in trains. I never pushed him, he always ask. Occasionally I need help on my layout and he is there quickly to help but he has no interest in trains now.
Besides our 7 they have expanded to 24 grand & great kids. Something must have been missing in my genes because there are only three males out of 27 (three more females in the hanger), Steven at 30, Eli at 9 and Matthew at 20. Matthew was into trains at about 12 and it lasted until girls hit. He is majoring in Computer Science and already has job offers, he never mentions trains. He is a wiz with 3D CAD.
I have never pushed Eli, he is really into trains but it’s off and on with him. The Diorama idea sounded good to me. I think learning how trains go together is a good starting point. He is a very fast learner and absorbs everything. He is thrilled with his tools, I set him up with a toolbox full of MR needed tools.
Mel, with all due respect, I think you need to ask yourself what you want to accomplish with regard to your grandchildren.
Is it you objective to get them to enter and remain in the hobby of model railroading? If it is, and if you will be disappointed if they don’t, then you may have a serious challenge on your hands.
Let’s face it. How do you get a child or grandchild to do what you want that child or grandchild to do, especially if the child or grandchild doesn’t want to do it. Not only with regard to a hobby, but also with regard to pretty much anything.
I don’t have an answer for you, but my advice is that, if you can bring yourself to this point of view, let it go and just enjoy the hobby for yourself.
my father took me to the train station to watch trains when I was a little lad. He had a strong interest in trains, but as he had to do some of these father and son things, he had to take me along [(-D]. Unintentionally, I developed an interest in trains through this which was followed by a love for model railroading when I was given my first own Marklin train set at the age of 7.
My Dad never took the time to play with my trains, together with me. I developed that liking all by myself. He did not lend me a helping hand when I started to build my own layout - I did it all by myself! OK, he took me to the lumber yard so I could buy the necessary lumber to build the table. I was at the same age as your grandson is.
Ask him whether he would like to build his own layout - at his place! If so, help him acquire all the materials he needs for that enterprise. Then step back a liitle - let him do the job, let him make the mistakes and help him if he wants your help. You´d be surprised how handy a 9-year old can be!
But before that, get his parents to approve to all of it!
I am no expert on children and I have never had the privilege of having my own so you can take this with a grain of salt. From what you have stated above, I believe THAT’S the area you need to major on with Eli - i.e. allowing him to run trains.
When I was 2 & 3 I LOVED pushing passenger cars around my brother’s American Flyer layout. When I got old enough to operate the layout, I LOVED running trains. The “scenery” was already set up with animated cattle, logging, mail chute, and crossings. The best part? Assembling cars into a train and running them. Now I enjoy building my layout AND operating trains. [:D]
So, use the diarama as a learning tool for each “session” you and Eli have together but make sure you allow enough of time to run trains. I think that’s what will maintain his interest the most - even if he “outgrows” it later.
Having said that, I think what will stay with Eli the most is the time he spent with his grandpa; something that I never experienced because neither of mine were living by the time I was born. Cherish the time with Eli, Mel - even if his interests eventually gravitate towards other things.
My goal is to hopefully get him interested in a hobby, any hobby. If I don’t succeed I tried. Kids need something to keep their interest from all the bad stuff out there and the high tech stuff promotes it.
I spent my 50 year career in Public Safety Communications and every year I saw the youth get a little worse. Every summer I open my garage door to work on my layout and invite the neighborhood kids in to try to get them involved. They need our help!
I won’t feel bad if Eli doesn’t latch on to model railroading, everyone has his own thing. He does show some interest so I’m promoting it the best I can without pushing it. I have the resources and I’m making them available to him, if it takes that’s GREAT.
EDIT:
Eli has full access to my layout and he loves to run “His” trains on my layout. As I sa
Simply put you can’t its that old horse/water thing. They must have a interest. I have a nephew that is a “serious” railfan but,no model railroading interest he will look at my layout and ask polite questions-hows that work etc or give a polite You did a good job on the factory. I did see him highly interested in how DCC/Sound worked and he actually ran a engine back and forth blowing the horn and ringing the bell and thought that was neat.
I think that’s the key - his layout that he builds. I know that my 3 sons loved building things. I was also a cubscout den leader for 4 years and the building part was always a favorite. Plus with trains you get to run them after building them.
My 5 year old grandson in heavy into Thomas the Tank wooden railway. A big part of the attraction is building his own layouts on the floor. I also have let him help lay roadbed and track on my layout. I also have a 6’x12’ table with Lionels that he can run and handle.
If you have the room, make that diorama part of a loop of track.
Years ago with the best of intentions I prepared a series of fundamental modeling/model railroad exercises for my teenage grandson’s annual summer visit. Inadvertantly I had devised a modeling classroom of sorts and the last thing those guys wanted to do during summer vacation was attend a school.
Being thoughtful they endured gramps’s “modeling bootcamp” for a day or so before pulling out their smart-phones and showing me what they really wanted to do. At first I was disappointed and resistant, but soon I was immersed in their project, even grandma joined in. It turned out to be an epic, fun and creative adventure that we all shared in and is talked about fondly to this day.
Finding common ground and learning crossover skills thru the cohesiveness of spending time together is what it’s all about.
I guess I’d better offer my [2c] here since I am the one who suggested a diorama in the first place.
I am no child psychologist and heaven knows I didn’t get things perfectly correct with my own kids, so these are only suggestions:
IIRC your goal was to get your grandson to help with finishing the scenery on your layout. My idea behind the diorama was to help your grandson learn scenery techniques that would be required in order for him to work on the actual layout. I didn’t intend that the diorama be used for running trains, other than for testing the quality of the track laying perhaps.
From what you have said, so far you have been working on things on the diorama that are already done on the main layout. Therefore, your grandson may not see the value in learning to lay track. It’s already done! I think he has given you a clear hint that he wants to move forward by his interest in the structures that you have offered to him for him to install on his diorama. He wants to get into scenery!
Get your grandson involved in the planning for the scenery that needs to be completed on your layout. If you already have everything planned out, give him an idea of what those plans are and get his input on how to execute those plans. Make it clear that your plans are not set in stone. Ask him how he would do things like positioning a building to make it work with your track. He may suggest some adjustments to the track plan. Heck, he may come up with some brilliant ideas on how improve your layout. If you agree that’s great! He already has a good understanding of how to lay track. Let him make the changes to the track, with your guidance of course.
Most importantly, agree with him to do a little work and then run trains. Don’t schedule two hours of scenicking in one session. Set some small goals, and if he wants to do more scenicking in that session then by all means do so. Likewise, if he is getting frustated or bored, quit the scenicking
