When a 14 year old discovers that Athearn Intermodal will hook to a Hornby Eurostar you get an interesting view of what a high speed freight train might look like!
Just kids having fun at the March 2011 open running session at the K-10 Model Trains layout in Maryville Illinois. Actually it was a total zoo this weekend. There were more kids running than I have seem in a long time. What was really neat was that many had never been their before. There were a few that were struggling a bit with following direction from the dispatchers. Several rear end events where trains were not stopped in time, and several bottle necks when everyone seemed to end up down the same end of the layout at the same time. So it was a bit frustrating to the old hands like my two, but rather heart warming to see so many kids and adults having a great time.
This is really not operating, just open running. The kids are handed a throttle and let loose!
Maybe not as improbable as it might seem! The high speed rail feature in the latest Trains magazine does indeed mention a limited sort of freight operation, during off hours, on some high speed lines – more like a FedEx or UPS service than dead freight sort of thing, but still not unlike what these youngsters were doing on the vid. Minus presumably the guitar shredding sound track.
Dave, I don’t subscribe to Trains Magazine and have been meaning to pick up a copy of this latest edition. I’ll make a point of looking out for it in the stores.
My wife and I had a couple of teenage boys (16 &14) this past weekend at our house. (Some good friends of ours were needing to travel to the east coast but the boys needed to stay in town.) On Saturday, after visiting the car and aviation museum here in town, we headed back home then eventually down to the basement. Andrew and Rob were quite intrigued and had a good time running trains. (Under the watchful eye of the management to keep things “on track”.)
Both Andrew and Rob model planes and cars at home so they aren’t complete neophytes to modeling. It was funny to hear them talking amongst themselves afterward about where Mom & Dad might “alllow” them to put a layout. At one point, while watching a movie, Andrew - the oldest - repeatedly got up and walked over to the layout to look at the various details.
Well, I hope I haven’t created a monster - at least in Mom & Dad’s eyes. LOL!
Tom
P.S. Just a word of advice, Simon. If you really want this thread to stay on pg. 1, you need to complain how annoying all the kids were at the open house and how they are ruining the hobby. [;)]