My son is just about two years old. I have let him watch some rolling stock free roll down the tracks on the helix on the layout. He would just giggle and want to see it again. He also has some Thomas the Tank trains and is getting good at building the track. He likes pushing the trains down the hill parts because thet will then travel on their own.
A couple of years ago I bought an enexpensive G scale Christmas train for around the tree. It has animated cars and sounds. Well, this year when I got the box out my son had large eyes when he saw the track and then the cars. He tried to help put the track together and I was afraid he was going to try and play with the cars. He did not. He let me put the train together and get it running. He will now sit and watch that train go round and round that loop of track many, many, many, many, many, many, many times.
I could not help to think that the look on his face and the pure joy of watching that train must be something like what the children of the very early days of model trains must have been like as they watched the trains during Christmas.
I have a picture I will post once I get it downloaded from the camera.
I can honestly say I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. I have 3 pairs of little feet running about. We had them all close together, by design, and they are 3 1/4, 2, and 4 months. Boy, girl, boy respectfully, and oddly enough, the GeoTrax system gets more playtime by my Daughter! My oldest was all in awe when i opened up my packed box of HO equipment to do the annual maintenance on it.
I would love to see pictures of your event. Could end up as classic as a Rockwell!
Interestingly enough, all three of my kids have gone through the Thomas stage, and all enjoyed it. I still have a pile of Thomas die cast stuff, VHS tapes and soct-cover books. Whenever I see them, i think about those wonderful days when they first saw them and started to play with them. Good memories there.
Now, the young’n has out grown them, sort of. She’s 8 going on 27 and wants more “girl” stuff, but every now and then she talks about trains, and lately has hinted she’d like to go on Amtrak when we travel this summer for vacation.
Personally, I’m considering building a small Thomas layout in HO scale. Yeah, I’ve also got a LOT of other projects on the burner, but I would find it a very interesting project to recreate the look of the TV show on a home layout. Instead of ground foam turf, I’d use dry-brushed texture material. Plastic trees and structures, either store-bought or fabricated, etc. With all the effort I do trying to make realistic looking items in miniature, it might indeed be useful to try another medium and see what I could learn.
I recently installed a sound decoder in an Alco RS. You should see the smile on that little kid’s face as he watches the train go round and round the track, blowing the whistle and ringing the bell.
This particular little kid is 59 years old. Some things just never change.
Looks like you are doing right by that little man!
As a side note, my living room looks very similar except for the fact that in MY house all the toys in the Pampers box sould be on the floor and the kids would be in the BOX.
Guess thats the good part about mail ordering large things, 2x the toys:)
I hear you all talk about having the children around for Christmas and can’t help but feel a little sad. All of the young ones are all grown up now and living on there own. I have one great nephew that may or may not be here for Christmas and one great neice on the way, and no children of my own.
I guess what I am trying to say is Enjoy them to the fullest, because someday all too soon they will be grown up and not around as much as you would like. Mike
Most of us “old timers” start the story of their involvement with the hobby with words like, “Dad got me a Lionel train set when I was 5…” etc.
The next generation of model railroaders will undoubtable say something like, “Dad got me a Thomas the Tank engine video…” or “There was a G scale train running 'round our Christmas tree…”
a story i have that will live until i die…i had to be about 5 or 6 at the time…well…i found out that if i sat up on the stairs that went upstairs…and stayed out of view…i could look into the mirror at the stairs landing and completely see the living room in the reflection…this worked out pretty good one christmas eve…i remember vividly watching my father assemble a lionel train set and kneeling on the floor watching it go around and around…it was like he was a kid again…and i remember the next morning finding a tag on it from santa…i never to this day have had the heart to tell him i watched that happen…or even that the transformer was still glowing hot from him running it all night…his look on his face told the story…my father has been a part of my modeling hobby from that day…and i still have that set thanks to him teaching me the value of a toy train…i now have a five year old daughter that shows a pretty good interest in the hobby…she now has her “own” train set that is still in one piece thanks to the values my own father has taught me…this is a wonderful hobby to pass down to our children and creates lasting memories for myself and anyone that can share this type of story…thanks for the memories dad…
His reaction isounds like the exact same as I had when I saw my first train, the Royal Blue going around the tree. It was American Flyer and the headlight just made the whole thing light up for me.
That’s what Christmas and MRR are all about. Thanks for the smiles and memories. G-man, my 6 year old son, loves to run the trains on our little 4x8 HO layout. He is a lot of help and watching the joy in his eyes each time he switches a car from the main to the siding is the most wonderful thing in the world.
The oldest grandson here got started by watching “Kids Love Toy Trains #1” at age 1 1/2. Now 10, he & his brother can’t wait to come to grandpa’s for Christmas vacation to play with the trains[:D][:D]
I didn’t have any train when our kids were little. The trains come later on, but know we have 22 grandkids and they bout all love grandpa’s trains, even the babys. 4 of them have Thomas and some of the bigger ones are wanting layouts of their own now.
If your youngster is ready for some “hands on” train play, a good gift might be the (I believe) Lego wooden train and track sets. These are made to be pushed around and handled by youngsters in your son’s age group.
It was a sad day when it was time to put the train away. Michael did not cry but I could tell he was not happy. One of the extra cars in this set has its own box and Michael carried that as I carried the big box to put them away forthe year.
Afterward we got out his Thomas wooden trains and started playing with those. For his Birthday he got more Thomas stuff while at a train show.
I hope next year he has the same joy and excitment on his face as he did this year.
