When does a toy train cease to be a toy train?

[crip]

When I no longer have fun playing with them

[FJ and G]

Paul,

I've got some solar lights that charge in day and come on at night, but at night, I kinda like the train itself to light up the track. Some of my industries have lighting as well and I can extend that along the track to signals and stuff.

Odd-d.

Eventually, I may change out the trucks and body-mount kadees as my min radius is 6' (12' diam). However, my modeling skills do not nearly approach those of the vast majority of 2-rail scale guys and probably never will. I'm a toy train guy at heart and can live with some non-prototypical blemishes (we all have our comfort levels). I'm not trying to create 100% scale but rather an impression.

Besides, outside in the garden, try as we might, even miniature trees will never scale out to true size leaves. Also, I never had a real problem with the look of the 3rd rail. The only reason I'm pulling it is b/c I can now extend the track by 1/3 and do lots less spiking and work since R/C will control operations and since I'm too lazy to clean the track after each session.

I'm staying on this forum b/c I enjoy all aspects of toy trains; even the tin-platish 3-rail stuff that has green painted boards and I even get a kick out of Chiefi'es floor running and Duda's ("****-ant") layout. I think we have more fun here and don't take ourselves or our modeling skills too seriously.

[palallin]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Odd-d

Dave---I still say that no matter what you do to your three rail toy trains it will never be as realistic as two rail scale O. As good and imaginative a modeller as you are even you can't make a realistic train out of a converted three rail toy. Odd-d

2-rail O-scalers do it all the time and have for the life of O gauge.

[Anonymous]

Their not toys when they become work

[Odd-d]

Dave---I still say that no matter what you do to your three rail toy trains it will never be as realistic as two rail scale O. As good and imaginative a modeller as you are even you can't make a realistic train out of a converted three rail toy. Odd-d

[pbjwilson]

Dave,
How are you going to light up your layout for night running? Solar would be an option. How about propane. Could you make little gas lamps and run brass tubing to them? Little lamps with wicks and lamp oil?

[FJ and G]

Thanks, Paul; that's exactly what I'm looking for!

Odd-d,

Surgery not quite as radical as you suggest since I already handlayed my toy train tracks. Of course I could always foul up and butcher it by accident; but that would chalk it up to learning[:D]

[pbjwilson]

Dave,
Only two rails required for one of these.

http://cgi.ebay.com/MSS-Maroon-Steam-O-Gauge-Locomotive-England-NIB_W0QQitemZ6038036378QQcategoryZ485QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[lionelsoni]

"MUTILATED", "ruining", "make a mess", "butcher", "chopping up"? I think this is a little over the top.

[Anonymous]

I'll throw one more thing into the soup. Some of us are 'reformed' scale guys who deliberately need a third rail to make sure we don't go off the prototypical mental deep end (and some of you scale guys probably know what I mean). Frankly, I need to remember that its ONLY a toy!

[pbjwilson]

Dave,
How are you going to illuminate your layout? Solar power? My little LGB set-up has some solar powered items on it. Fun going out at night and seeing everything lit up.

On another topic. How does Laz get away with saying "hard on" and "beaver" in the same post? Way to go Laz.

[Odd-d]

Dave---In all seriousness I think you have to use scale two rail if you are seekig realism. IMO your track won't look any more realistic with one rail torn out than it does with the third rail. I think you are only ruining your toy train for nothing. If you want to do it do it right and go scale two rail O because that's where you will logically end up so you might as well save yourself the trouble and expense of chopping up your trains and just start out right. Odd-d

[andregg1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

Andre,

I BELIEVE. I BELIEVE!!! [:D][:D]

I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky

I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away

I believe I can soar
I see me running through that open door

I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly
(Oh) I believe I can fly

ME TOO!!!!!!

[FJ and G]

Andre,

I BELIEVE. I BELIEVE!!! [:D][:D]

I believe I can fly
I believe I can touch the sky

I think about it every night and day
Spread my wings and fly away

I believe I can soar
I see me running through that open door

I believe I can fly
I believe I can fly
(Oh) I believe I can fly

[andregg1]

Hi to All
The toy trains sotp to be a toy train, when you stop to belive.....
Is the same like "the polar express bell". Just belive............
Andre.

[Odd-d]

If you had a four legged horse and you wanted a three legged horse and so cut off one leg you would have a MUTILATED four legged horse. If your track is just three rail with one rail torn out you just have mutilated toys. If you want realistic trains you have to use scale two rail O gauge and not tubular track with the third rail torn out. It sounds to me like you are uselessly ruining your trains just to make a mess. There is more to toyishness than an inside third rail. The trains themselves regardless of how many rails are under it still look like kiddie toys. But go ahead...don't let me stop you. They are your trains and you have every right to butcher them. IT'S NONE OF MY BUSINESS. Good luck. Odd-d

[Anonymous]

When they are bought or sold they briefly become commodities. Otherwise, never.

Dave, why worry? Have fun with your RC remote. Sounds like fun to me. Consider battery power, too!

[mitchelr]

IF I had known my "toys" would now be collectable and worth big $$$ I might have looked in the trash bin before my Mom threw them in the garbage. [;)][;)]


Mitch[:(]

[laz 57]

BILL,
$1 at a time?
laz57

[Anonymous]

?????????? TOY OR NOT ?????????????????
I agree if it is not 1: 1 it is a toy. Unless you own say Norfolk Southern.
Jim D.
a.k.a. SOCKO

[wrmcclellan]

[:-^]

[Anonymous]

laz,

Sure, after they've spent your paycheck. [:)]

[laz 57]

Hey BILL those women call us GIZ, "Boy toys".
laz57

[cnw1995]

Sacriledge! Burn him - burn him! (Inspired by watching Monty Python last night.)

[DCmontana]

Correct, they are all toys! "The differance between men and boys, is the size and price of their toys!"

A pal I grew up with had more toy trucks than the rest of the neighborhood put together. He played with my train, but only wanted trucks and tractors for his own toys. Today he and his sons have their own transportation company. I call them semi-trucks are us!

[Anonymous]

adix,
Some wives might take offense to that.[:)]

[Anonymous]

No no no, you guys have it all wrong, THERE ALL TOYS, the 1:1 scale all the way down the spectrum. I dont know if you realize it, but there are the scenic railroads, and those are toys too... Just harder to pick up and set on the track when it derails, they havent invented the big hand yet... I say, if your having fun with anything, then its considered a toy...

[Anonymous]

This is interesting. My Lionel Acela is a model of the real Acela. And where does it say that models can't be played with?

[palallin]

Jim, just because it's a toy doesn't mean the kids shouldn't take care of it. Respect for their property (AND others' property!!) and good stewardship of their blessings is one of the primary lessons I try to impart to my boys. It's a long, tedious job, but the results are worth it, especially to them (they just don't know that yet).

That said, they don't have to handle their trains (or GI Joes or LEGOs or action figures) as if the toys were made of fine china (another kind of toy--not all toys are meant to be handled, for play takes many forms). I don't mind the 300 mph curves which dump the trains on the carpet. A friend and I used to play Gomez Addams with our Marx sets. But I still have my set, and the engine runs as well as it did in 1964. But I do not permit the boys to deliberately tra***heir trains (or other toys), and they have to learn to put them away properly. When repairs are necessary--as they are despite the best care--the boys not only finance the repairs (in some manner) but also get involved in them, so far as they can given their ages and skill levels.

Trains really are great toys, and it matters not one whit whether they be tin Marx or Kohs brass: they are all toys (if less than 1:1 scale and not generating revenue).

FOOTNOTE: A while back, there was a discussion on the MR forum about Northlands, a huge, stylized HO layout that most of the "serious" modelers over there disparage because it's so "toy-like" and unprototypical (duh!). I pointed out that Northlands was at least generating revenue, which made it 50% closer to being prototype than the layouts of the vast majority of its detractors.