I am thinking of buying a starter train set for my son, 8yrs old, and I was wondering if anyone could recommend the scale I should start with. I don’t have alot of room in my house so the track would need to be put away or hoisted to ceiling.
Buy him Lionel with smoke and Railsounds, later add some action cars. He’ll love it and it’s pretty sturdy. Make sure you buy one with a diecast engine such as the NEW York Central Flyer set.
Enjoy
Paul
I would look into On30. HO track with O guage trains.
I think G would be pretty cool for a kid–indoors and out!
It really depends on what you want. An 8 year old with proper instruction can handle N scale. Without proper instruction, (how not to hurt the train) I’d personally recommed a HO scale diesel set made by Bachmann with the additional purchase of a MRC Tech II power pack. (Should be about $30-50.)
Those Bachmann diesels are tough little things. I had one fall 4 feet to a cold concrete basement floor, and put it on the track and it ran just like before. As he gets older, invest in Athearn freight cars and something like a Walthers Trainline GP9 (Mine is VERY SMOOTH and can handle most bad track.) Treat yourself to knuckle couplers (Kadees), trust me, it’s worth it.
Avoid a cheap HO or N-scale Christmas train set – the locomotives that come with them are fragile, junky plastic and don’t run well at all, so he will quickly lose interest. Lionel is a good recommendation, but can be very expensive. G-scale too is a good choice because the items are big and (usually) sturdy enough for a youngster. A lot, however, depends on how mature your son is and whether he realizes how to treat fragile items. We have had members as young as 7 in the Cochise & Western Model Railroad Club, which is HO-scale, with no problems because they were mature enough to know to keep their hands off of other peoples’ property and that HO-scale items are fragile. Interestingly, these young members were better at creating scenery than the adults. We currently have a 30-year-old club member who is more childish about grabbing other members’ rolling stock than the 7-year-old (sigh).
HL;
What are your and your sons interests? Scenery, and watching trains, being actively involved in the operation, present day, steam, diesel, electric… All of this, plus your budget will help determine the approriate scale.
Pesonally, I recommend that you get a set with Bachmann’s EZ track (Bachmann, Athearn and Walthers offer sets with this track), or a Life Like’s Power-Loc track. These are HO scale. The track has a rigid plastic roadbed attached that makes it more suitable for taking apart. Just play with it on the floor to start.
Later, you can make a layout suspended from the ceiling. Use 2" thick extruded insulation board, with a sheet of thin (3/16") luan plywood glued to the bottom, and all four sides. Attach the hardware for the hoist system to the bottom piece of plywood. Use counter wieghts, so that you are not lifting the whole wieght.
I recomend not using Power-Loc track.The Power-Loc track doesn’t seem to work that well and it breaks easily.
Why not try a lionel set with a little 0-4-0 steam loco? Steam engines are really intresting to watch, with the moving connecting rods and all. Unfortunetly the sets are quite expensive…
I would also reccoment an O gauge set, possibly Lionel, K-Line or MTH. They may be more pricey when cmpared to HO an N, but the extra money is definetly worth it. The cheapest set in Lionel catalog is an RS-3 diesel frieght set, with two cars and a caboose for $139.95. Other Lionel sets go up from there. They’re durable, big and can really be played with. Of course you may be able to find some items at discount some places or even find some used items. G scale is nice too, but it is very big and you need an awful lot of room for it.
(crazy idea) If you have a huge yard why not try some 1foot scale trains?! Ridingrailkits.com has a great starter set. But of course 1’ trains cost $2000.00 and up. For anyone with a big yard and a lot of cash, this’s the scale for you!
mail order from australia if your in america the stuff works out cheaper!