I was thinking as I replying to a post, that i was making assumtions about what interests and intertains kids about your layouts. So I’m asking the collective consciousness.
What makes it fun for your kids? What features do they like? What makes them giggle about your layout? Where does their attention always go? What kinds of things do they ask you to do?
Please give the ages of the kids when they were involved with trains.
My boys are 7 and 5. The youngest is quite content to pu***rains around the layout. I scares me that he will snap off trees and damage the scenery, but he is really careful and so far so good. Since you can not push a locomotive, my Walthers Dynanometer car and an Athearn work caboose are locomotives in his imaginary world. Since both boys are currently facinated by WW2 fighter planes, it is not unusual for a Spitfire to straaf the trains as they run around the layout.! When we “play Dad’s trains” properly, they love to control my DCC sound equipped loco’s. I give them really simple car lists for a consist and they make up the train in the yard with the switcher and then deliver the cars around the layout to various industries. However, what they really like to do is to weather freight cars. Both of then can fairly well assemble an Athearn BB kit. So we build kits together, insall Kaydee’s and metal wheels and then weather the cars with ink washes and powders. They love to do this and we have a slowly growing fleet of really weather beaten freight cars. They get a real kick out of running a train with their own cars on. Visiting cousins have got into the act and each of them now have their own cars on “Uncle Simon’s” layout. I am now installing lighting in all my structures and am placing individual swithches in the facia so there are lots of lights for kids to turn on and off. I think that this will provide some entertainment as well.
Thanks, That tells me that Hogwarts needs a spur so they can get their supplies [:)}
both of my kids are grown now and on their own…they never did take an interest in trains…my son did for awhile but lost interest in it …my daughter didn’t care at all about them…she still doesn’t …guess it’s just a different generation…they fell for the video games instead…Chuck
My daughter (now 7 years old) loves being in the basement with dad. She started picking out HO people at the hobby shop when I got tired of buying thomas stufff that only got played with a little bit. She had done a fantastic job using my real structures and cars and actually playing with them. A few of the axles and tires on the cars have needed repair and she occasionally loses a little person but I’m so glad to have her down there it’s a small price to pay. I also bought a Athearn BB Chessie engine she liked because of the cat and let her run that around with some old cars behind and a Chessie caboose of course. she plays alot like its one of her doll houses. It’s alot of fun because she doesn’t care if the new building is painted, she just wants it now so she can start playing.
Hopefully she keeps enjoying different parts of the hobby, I might have to set her up in the paint both soon as she loves working on crafts and painting.
My grandson, 8, loves to run the trains. He loves steam engines particularly. I have a couple with sound which he really enjoys. He has recently taken an interest in switching. We made a video of the BRVRR before Christmas. He was the Chief Engineer, he ran the trains, while I took the video. He has been after me to do it again with the new engines we got for Christmas. His main interest is that he will be called “The Chief Engineer” in the video, he gets to run the trains and do the switching.[:D]
So what I’m hearing is they like to do the same things the adults do.
Be careful…before long you will be suggesting that us adults are playing trains!! [;)]
I’m perfectly happy in a state of Denial–if they let me in. I’m stuck in a state of Ignorance and I can’f find where they issue the visas to get out. Next thing for sure, I’ll be in the state of Confusion.
My daughter is five and has a grand time with her wooden trains. We have BIG adventures moving freight and people and building new configurations of track. She has more track than will fit on her train table at one time. The best thing we can do is bring it ALL to the kitchen floor and build a HUGE city of track and building. Some of the best building are shoe boxes she has cut and colored.
She is becoming more interested in “Daddy’s trains” in the basement. She likes to build her own trains and run them. I like to model what I can see around, so we have fun getting caught at the RR crossing and seeing the prototypes that match the models.
Happy Modeling with the kids!
My daughter likes to see the train go round and round. But she is always interested in the people interacting with the train. As a result, I’ve given the responsibility of “populating” the layout over to her. If she thinks there should be people at a certain spot, then she puts people at that spot. What is cool is that she is thinking about the spots at which people should be looking very carefully. She is 9.
11-year-old son like to drive the trains. Switching is his thing now. This is a new development.
My three kids were the same way Chuck. Needless to say my layout languished for years before I got back to it.
But, Thank God for Grand Children! My Grand Son Matthew (14 months old) Already LOVES trains! Actually, ANYTHING with wheels. He loves Paw Paw’s JEEP, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Thomas site on the internet, the Lionel Trains Videos on the internet. The Lionel Catolog that I got him is one of the first things he grabs when he comes over. The Little guy is a book worm already.
I can’t wait to get my GP with sound. That is going to knock the diaper off this little boy!
Chris
We haven’t got kids but the nieces and nephews ages 4 to 11 all seem to like the people and the biuldings something about this small world seems to make their eyes light up the older ones enjoy running trains but they also like helping uncle rob paint his townsfolk. When I take them to the full size museum it all comes together for them it seems like trains are something thats instinctivly in a kids head as something that is good, so from what I’ve seen as long as we nurture this new gen of train heads the hooby seems to be in good hands for years to come.[8D]rob
My 2 year old son loves to watch my trains run. We have gotten a whole set of pushable Thomas engines from Target and he loves playing with them. He definatly has been bitten by the choo choo bug!
My (almost) 5 year old son likes running the passenger train, or directing someone else (when and where to stop). He likes the passenger station lighted, and enjoys the operating crossing gate (Bachmann ez-track) too. He likes the “bridge” (the layout main loop is an over/under figure eight currently) .
He also has a good time when he or others try to control two trains on the same loop (we are in DCC, with a single controller, the bachmann EZ-command).
Scott
Chip, I see the little guy is on the mend.[#oops] Hope he feels better. Our your kids over the damage shock [C):-)] My boy 6, loves Thomas the train, Percy, James, and Cranky the Crane. Santa brought the whole Thomas collection this Christmas. Also he likes pigs, and they are all over his desert storm train. The pigs are the engineer, the conducter, they run the searchlight, and stand by to launch the missle. My daughter 9,wants a pink engine, so the next purchase will be an engine I can paint pink. We are building some cardboard building this weekend, and I couldn’t be happier. They still play video games, but when we fire the trains up, we all have a blast. [8D]
Look at all the cool dads on this thread, also uncles (got you covered trolleyboy). Even if your kids are too old and not into trains, wait til the grandkids. Start them off young and watch them, and you grow.
This is what trains are all about. A FAMILY HOBBY
Tim (Proud Dad)
Same with me. My younger daughter seemed interested and so I would show her things on the layout and explain what I was doing, etc. One day my wife told me my daughter came to her and said, “I wish Dad had a little boy so I don’t have to pretend I’m interested in his trains.”(!)
Well, maybe grandkids someday . . .[:(]
My kids, both boys ( age 9 and 14) like any kind of train it seems. They especially like it when I put up the G scale Christmas Train loop under the tree every year! On the model layout HO is the guage and my younger son seems to like the military stuff too! Our last trip to the LHS he had to get two military tanks, first thing at home he was putting them onto one of my Southern flat cars, you gotta love it!
kids… kids… well I don’t have any kids… but when I was younger I loved trains… even just running them in circles… I guess living near trains also helps spark a childs interest as well.
Kids. I don’t have kids and am physically incapable of having kids. [:(] The closest thing I get is my 4 year old nephew. He is especially fond of steam locomtives. Particularly my N&W Y3 and SP AC-5. Probably cause there’re big, dirty, and have lots of exterior moving parts. Some of the same reasons I like 'em.