I've been working on getting my kids into trains pretty much since they can remember. They've enjoyed railfanning and going to ride trains for a long time, but I think the added level of abstraction needed for model railroading was a bit lost on them for a while. Well, my daughter Lucy (age 7) has been slowly getting more and more interested in running stuff and just today I had her at an open house of our club when she asked me for the throttle. I had a little short freight consist led by a Kato N scale NW2 in Southern Pacific tiger stripe livery, and she just loved it. She now considers that train as "hers" and is getting more interested in learning about "the black ones with the orange stripes" of Southern Pacific. Could I have brought up a train buddy for life? :thumbs_up::thumbs_up::thumbs_up::thumbs_up:
I think she's hooked. Now to keep that interest piqued. There are many distractions to come in the next few years.
Now you just have to teach her (trick her into thinking) that it's much more fun to see how sloooow the trains can go rather than how fast. My Father-in-law has little stickers on his throttles at about 40% they mark the spot where the grand kids can't go past. Dan
I should do that for my other girl who is starting to get interested. Lucy's "problem" is that she often tries to run things too slowly. A train out on the mainline looks goofy going only 10 scale MPH, and a switcher on a branch needs to be going faster than speed step 1, in general, to really stay going.
I know. Isn't that great? Now I just have to get Noor (my other daughter) into Milwaukee Road or SP&S.
My two daughters (5 and 8) have kept an interest in the trains. I let them run them . on thier own and put their own cars on the tracks. They both have two small areas that they have done some scenery ( a playground and a "zoo"). They have both painted buildings as well have helped decide what some businesses are called. They may not be into them as I am, but a little is better than none at all. Also, they are willing to go to the train shows and even go rail fanning in Palmer MA.
Now you need to take them out "fanning" Granted it's best to wait till it's a bit dryer, but I'd like to recommend chassis the Harbor turn, if you're willing to drive at the edge of "safe" on country roads.
Oh, yes, they've been out railfanning with me since they were tiny babies (when they mostly just slept in their carseats. In my RailImages I have a photo of them when they were about three or so watching trains. I definitely don't do anything inadvisable when taking them out railfanning. Focus is first and foremost on not getting hurt or worse, and often I miss a shot because I am paying more attention to them than the camera, but it's all for the best in the end, I think.
