Hey Mel!!!!
Congratulations on getting Eli involved. Sounds like you are off to a good start.
I'll warn you that I'm going to take notes on how well you make out with Eli! The reason I'm going to do that is because I want to do as well with my own grandchildren as you are doing with yours. Its likely going to be about 12 - 15 years before I am in your position. I am looking forward to it. My kids' grandfathers had precious little involvement with their lives. That disappointed me greatly.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Mel,
you´ve got a good thing started there. I bet you will be surprised to see what a 9 year old can accomplish with just a tiny bit of nudging!
I built my first layout when I was in that age and it wasn´t just a Plywood Central RR!
RR_MelI’m kicking around attempting to teach my almost 9 year grandson old how to do the finish up work on my out of reach scenery. My grandson is super hyper but he loves my trains.
Good Evening Mel,
When my son was about nine I let him "build" his own railroad on w 4x8 sheet. He go a kick out of "bossing" me around while laying track the way he wanted. When we ran into a problem, I asked him how we would get out of it and 8-10 time he'd work it out. I let him pick the cars we bought at yard sales etc and let him use a diesel I wasn't too worried about getting beat up.
At first it was a gastly mix of colours and textures and awfully painted rolling stock, but after a while he started getting interested in the right way. I took him to Steam Town national park in Scranton P.A a few weekend steam train rides and so. He is now 25 and has no interest at all in model railroading, right now? I guess what I am trying to say by way of Burma, is let him have at it and see what sticks and sneek in a lesson or two when you can, my boy went that way until girls became more interesting :-)
Regard Angelo
Freelancing MCRR/NYC Northern Division - Angelo
Ii agree that work on a diorama first would give him a chance to do some praticing with you close at hand to supervise.
I would vary from Dave in that after the track is layed, put a base coat of paint down and add some scenery. Ballasting came after nature and if you paint the cork or whatever you use for roadbed a ballast color (textured paint works great), then ballasting doesn't have to be perfect to look good. It really helps near turnouts. Additional layers of texture, as Dave Frary calls it, can be added to the scenery between ballasting bouts.
I had good luck sprinkling my first layer of WS ground foam onto my earth color paint, but some folks have had a problem with the foam soaking up the paint. A little experimenting is a little learning.
Nice to hear that you have an interested young person. Have him do a little reading on a scenery book. Might help his reading skills, mine improved when I started reading "interesting" things, not a text book.
Good luck,
Richard
Mel:
I think you should go for it! Maybe start by letting him do a small diorama so he can get a sense of accomplishment. You could do the diorama in stages. Let him install the road bed and track, then do some ballasting on the diorama and, if he is able to do an acceptable job, let him do some ballast on the layout. Once some of the layout is ballasted then let him do some basic scenery on the diorama, and if that works out, have him do some on the layout. Etc. Etc.
I think the key will be avoiding having this turn into a task which will become onerous. Do some work, then run some trains. Perhaps get him a locomotive or two that he can call his own so he feels it is his layout too.
This could be an opportunity to teach him so many things, from longer term project planning to focusing on a task for more than a few minutes. It will be a totally different experience from the instant gratification that kids seem to be hooked on these days. Best of all it will give you some quality time with your grandson if things work out, which I'm sure they will.
I'm a bit envious of you having a grandson who is at that age. For me, that is still a ways down the road, if it ever happens at all.
Good luck! Be patient! Take a break when it is no longer fun! Be a cheer leader!
I would keep the training to very short lessons. Let him dictate the the speed of the lessons. He might surprise you.