Kids and model railroading

Every chance he gets, Kevin lines up his toy cars, trucks, and whatever he has that has wheels, into a train.  If I go to the basement, both boys follow and insist that I run the train.  The poor old Marx engine has had more miles put on it this year than in it's prior history.  If they wander off to do other things, I'm still not allowed to shut off the train or they throw a fit.  At the LHS they have 3 Thomas tables near the back of the store.  In the front window there's an HO display layout.  Kevin looked in the window, locked onto the scene and resisted going around to the door to go inside.  When inside, he gave us a hard time getting him away from the layout.  finally, we pried him away and took he and Eddie to the Thomas displays.  After twenty minutes while Mommy sat with them, Daddy was done shopping and it was time to go.  One would think we were torturing a dozen babies with the noise they made.  Back at the car, I let go of Kevin's hand for a second to open the door and he immediatly turned his attention to heading back to the store.  Good thing I've got long arms. 

Wow, so your telling us that you have passed on your addiction too trains to your boys, thats just great...no really, Thats Great, sorry that they give you such a hard time about leaving the trains when it's time to go.

I'd be curious to see what their reaction would be to the real thing???

I would bet it has a lot to do with the movement, colors and size of the trains and layouts, kids love that stuff.

Keep up the good work with those two and you better start saving for their own layouts because by time they hit the age they can run their own everything is going to cost a whole lot more than it does today.

You sound like an excellent Dad and we all know the world can use more like you.

Enjoy those children, time goes by too fast for us to enjoy the small things in life sometimes.

I always get a kick out of your twins stories.

Jess Red Horse.

  Been that two year old. When I was a wee lad my uncle Darren would take me out to watch the trains passing by my grandparents house in Orion Illinois.I grew up with Cascade green on one side of town, and multicolor Rock Island going through to the coal mine and Lafayette on the other.My grandparents aunts and uncles bought me every kids train book you can imagine,drove my mom kinda nuts lol. There was one called "here comes joe!" if anyone can find that for me I would be greatly obliged.

  I had an engineers hat and would tell my mom "Im going to run trains someday"I had HO scale layouts from age 7 on.A subscription to trains at 12.

  I am now a locomotive engineer ( only tok me 34 years lol)and I LOVE to see kids just going nuts like I used too. Keep that spark alive in them ( sounds like actually you wont have too lol) cause I have to say my love of trains has been one of the best things in my life.

Wow what an amazing story, that is really wild!

 

  Let me tell you looking back it sure is a wild ride!1 Like the GD said in truckin, What a loooooooooong strange trip its been!

  Only thing i have to say is its about to get wilder!

We've gone to Strassburg once a year since they were born.  Trip planned for August 16th this year.  We might even ride the train this year.  Last year they were kept in the stroller when the train pulled in, but they both were asleep.  They've been to Turtleback Zoo in Joisey and the train ride is their favorite thing even more than the snake/reptile house.  Right now, Kevin is playing with Diesel and the Caboose with sound from the Brio Thomas collection.  They're both upset that the O scale train is worn out.  Oh well.

Been there, done that - except that I wasn't a twin and the O-27 train was MINE!!!

Fast forward (actually not that fast when lived through) an improper number of years.  That two year old is now retired, and the double garage is slowly filling with the final-in-this-lifetime layout.  The wheels still roll, the siderods still churn and I still love it!

What you have to look forward to is the adolescent years, when the train addiction will probably keep him well clear of other, less socially acceptable, activities.

What he has to look forward to is one solid anchor in a world of change.

Good luck to all three of you.

Chuck

matt had his first cab tour at 2 years old.for his third birthday we waited and the CP 2816 came to town.Now at 7 he likes to camp out at deshler and go see trains everywhere.lots of miles on the mattmobile.More trips to come.

stay safe

joe

Kid up the street turned two today.  Also a severe Thomas and Cars(the Pixar film) addict. 

Half the people at this party were talking about Strassburg.  Thank God for trains and kids.  Otherwise some of these nice people would have had to discuss their totally wrong political views.

Now why is my father-in-law still thinking that I'm planning a garden railway?  The boys need the yard to be KIDS right now. 

Happy to see this addiction is mostly benign.  Lifetime condition too.  Love reading your stories guys.  Thanks.

im afraid to take my 2yr old cusin into a swapmeet because i would have to put ducktape on his moth so he dont get in trouble for distubing the peace. or i could try using

I went outside and found their (Flintstone type)ride on cars, bubble mowers and a red wagon lined up in the driveway.  It's either another train or a toddler parade on lunch break! 

In Pueblo Colorado there were three major bridges over the D&RGW, MP, Santa Fe, & Union Station tracks.  We would drive over, I would see there were interesting trains down there but my parents wouldn't stop to let me look at them.  So I would cry and cry.  

If only they would have stopped.  If I would have had a digital camera and a video camera!  Green Frog Productions would be jealous.   There was really good stuff back then.

I'm almost 15 and still like trains. But now I hope to join the Air Force.(and fly B-52s, my current sight prevents me from flying fighters)

It's currently the day AFTER Halloween. So far my 6 year old is on his fourth day in a row of wearing his B&M hat, striped overalls and red bib. Yeah he's a train engineer. And a mighty fine one too. At this rate he may be looking for a job at Guilford soon!!! This is TOO FUN!

This morning, cups, cereal bowls, spoons, napkins....a breakfast train?  NO!  TWO breakfast trains.  One from each of them.