My 4 year old is facinated by trains, for his birthday I am building him an overhead track in his room where he can enjoy it but will not damage it. The room is 12’ x 10’ and I estimate about 44’ of track; my question is will the NCE Powercab be strong enough for that size track? will I need a booster? what are my alternatives?. This is my first attempt and it has helped me to read these forums, any advice will be appreciated.
[#welcome]
If this is HO scale or smaller than the NCE system will do fine. For one train running around in a circle than the old DC power pack will do also and cost a lot less.
Pete
Something to consider. If the track is high enough for a 4 year old on a chair not to reach - they are resourceful at that age - it’s not going to be close enough to appreciate the detail of HO. Also sight lines will likely be a problem unless you put the track too close to the edge of the shelf for comfort.
To go around the room, the easiest way is to be elevated above the top of the door frame. Normally, when high shelf layouts are built to be seen from below, O gauge or larger is generally used to give the train enough visual bulk from the distant viewing. G is obviously much better than O in this regard.
For a 4 year old, I would recommend O or G on the floor or a nice mat or platform on the floor. Even the wooden train sets he can physically play with is going to be much more of a hit than watching the train go round near the ceiling. He’s going to want to push and manually handle the trains - regardless of whether they are powered or not. Putting a load in the car, and removing it is as much fun to a 4 year old as remotely controlling and watching a train.
just my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
I agree with Fred W’s comments – a 4 year old is not going to appreciate something way up out of reach, and will quickly lose interest. Get him something that he can play with on the floor – a wooden set, Bachmann HO Thomas the Tank Engine, or Lionel O scale set. HO running around the top of the room is going to be too far away to be visually appreciated. G scale is big enough to be seen at that distance, but nothing smaller than O.
I’ll add another vote for the wooden trains. Notwithstanding the fact that I have home movie (film, not video) of me at 2 years old operating an HO train around the Christmas tree, 4 is a bit young for precision model trains. I did get my oldest a G scale Thomas set when he was 4, but like most younger kids he didn’t have much concept of variable speed, plus running around the circle of track quickly got boring for him. With the wooden trains and track he can build and play in unlimited configurations. If ‘dad’ wants a model train, by all means - I’d not allow a 4 year old unsupervised access, however allow him in to ‘help’ or watch, maybe let him pick out a car which you use when he comes in to help, even if it doesn’t fit your era, and allow a little throttle time.
Can’t say it will work - model railroading often skips a generation. As much as my older son was into Thomas and things, he really has no interest in my layout now. His younger brother is more willign to help but mainly from a benchwork buildign standpoint, since last year he had something called “builders” in school which I take to be sort of like the multiple shops rotation I had back in the day - some time in each of wood, metal, and print shops plus some drafting.
–Randy
[#welcome] To the Forums, and please let me pipe in with my [2c] worth here.
My 3 1/2 year old grandson is having a ball with his wooden “Thomas” set. In the past 1 1/2 years since his 2nd birthday, he has been looking forward to our visits since we always bring him an addition to his Thomas family. The latest at Christmas was “Rumbling Bridge” several new engines and track and some books. He and the little girl, (that’s right, a girl) that his mother looks after each day have a ball building up and tearing down their “Empires” only to build up a new one.
As for the train bug missing a generation, I got the train bug from my dad. My kid brother on the other hand could care less about “TOY TRAINS”. (His words, not mine.) My son on the other hand could take it or leave it. When he hit High School and University, (2 Degrees. He’s the smart one in the family) he lost the bug. So now it has skipped our son and hit our grandson. When he gets a little older, we will start him on a model train set and hopefully, it will turn into a lifelong enjoyment of all things TRAINS. In the meantime, he just loves all things related to “Thomas and his friends”.
As for daddy and his need for trains, you start your own “THOMAS” layout in the basement and hopefully your son will join you.
Good Luck.
Blue Flamer.
Back to the original post … It’s the number of running locomotives and powered accessories (like turnout controls) and not the length of the track that determines power needs. If you go DC or DCC, run a bus in both directions from the “center” of the layout so that the bus stays under 30ft of run in either direction. Drop feeders from track to the bus every 3 to 6 feet. I would apply this approach even to Atlas TruTrack or Kato UniTrack. Nickel/silver rail is not the best conductor of electricity and rail joiners can become rail insulators.
Alan
PS while I don’t have children or grandchildren I would agree with other posters on giving your son something non-fragile to play with. At 5 or 6 year of age I think supervised running your trains would work out.
If you decide to go the route of getting a toy for the kids to play with, I’ll recommend the GeoTraxx line. It’s available from Toys R Us (the stuff on Amazon is overpriced, btw) and has different components that can all be hooked together to make a small or quite large setup. There are also unpowered, hand-moved locomotives/cars and powered locomotives. My son is 2 1/2 years old and really love his set - he’s got 2 powered locomotives and a 2 or 3 unpowered locomotives.
The battery powered Thomas trains that run on plastic track sections are pretty good, the track is the same gauge as the wooden ones and the engines generally can navigate the wood track too. For operating a train alone, Lionel recommends age 8. I would say you’d be looking at 12-13 for HO probably. A 4 year old should be able to operate an electric train with adult supervision however. I’d lean towards wood or plastic trains for him to play with by himself, and maybe you could do a small Lionel layout with him, with the understanding that he has to have an adult around to play with it.