Toy train operating and collecting

Thanks for the welcome 57. The hard part right now is pretending the 2 year old is the really interested one!

Hi Serows: Thanks for the advice. Is the Lionel stuff O or HO? A local shop owner (not too many in this immediate area) was steering me away from O, saying is was very expensive. I had my son with me 2 and screaming, so I didn't have time to ask too many questions that visit, but I am wondering about it now, before I go back again.

Bluebottle - I just love shop owners who claim O is too expensive. You can buy an entire starter set, loco, cars, track, transformer for < $300 and yet there are some HO engines that will run you > $500. The point I am making is you have different price points in all gauges. It just depends on how much you want to spend. As for a 2 yo? Most likely he will not be able to control the trains himself and therefore you will need to be there to run them. I have some Lionel Thomas the Tank Engine stuff that is very inexpensive and the detailing is not that great (can't be broken by little hands). I am planning to build a small layout with just the Thomas stuff so the kids will have something to run themselves. If they want to see the big trains then I will help them.

Buy what YOU like, not what some shop owner THINKS you should buy. Most likely he has some stuff laying around that he has had for a while and he is looking for someone to unload it on.

My two boys are now 10 and 12 but they were 2 and 4 when I got back into the MRR hobby.  I am of the opinion that young lads can learn at an early age, with proper supervision, that things should be cared for and not abused.  Bearing in mind that our entry into O is very recent so all the early days, when the boys were at their youngest, they were handing my HO stuff.  Certainly not my prize possessions, but by the time they were 5 they were quite happily getting locos and cars on the track without any help.  Today, I am totally at ease with them "playing" together in the train room, running the DCC system and using anything that I own without any supervision.  I am a lot more nervous when their friends are around mind you!

I really do think that kids can learn the respect and care necessary to treat delicate things well.  Perhaps I have been lucky, but I think it comes from teaching them early.

lionroar88:

Buy what YOU like, not what some shop owner THINKS you should buy. Most likely he has some stuff laying around that he has had for a while and he is looking for someone to unload it on.

 As I am reading this thread, I was thinking the same thing. Regardless of brand, buy something that really excites you and the rest will be fine.

Bluebottle:

Hi Serows: Thanks for the advice. Is the Lionel stuff O or HO? A local shop owner (not too many in this immediate area) was steering me away from O, saying is was very expensive. I had my son with me 2 and screaming, so I didn't have time to ask too many questions that visit, but I am wondering about it now, before I go back again.

Blue, the sets I bought for my kids are O gauge Lionel.  As far as the owner trying to sell you what he has versus what you want, I would stop in again and if it continues I would go elsewhere.  If you don't have another shop locally then I would shop on-line, it will be probably much cheaper anyway.  If you decide to go that way you can go to CTT product section and Trainz.com and watch product videos of the sets before you buy them so you can see them in action.  Just a thought, good luck!!

Paul

Hi BF: So far i have been finding it hard to find O gauge here in Canada. I have been to three local shops and none carry Lionel or any O gauge - all HO or N, and of course all 2 rail.

And good eye; I am in fact an entomologist by training and did my fourth year project on the taxonomy of the Calliphoridae - the Blue and Greenbottle flies! And I think perhaps your name also says something about you, bf skinner?? lol!

Thnaks for the advice Jim, much appreciated.

Hi Simon: I think that thinking long term is a very good idea. As I was saying in another posting, in the 3 local shops so far I haven't found any Lionel or O gauge; all are HO - maybe the "British Effect"

I looked at your setup - looks absolutely great to me - and I love the Mallard as I am a fan of Art Deco. I have also been trying to find out more about a British train from the mid 1800's in the Iron Duke class - the "Lord of the Isles", but so far have found out very little.

Canada covers a lot of ground; where in Canada are you?  If you happen to be close to Toronto, there's a train show coming up there in a couple of weeks:  http://www.antiquetoys.ca/ 

Here's one soon in London (Ontario):  http://trainshows.blogspot.com/

 B-Bottle, Come on over to the Coffee Pot, get to know us, and join in we will welcome you !!!

Bluebottle:

Hi BF: So far i have been finding it hard to find O gauge here in Canada. I have been to three local shops and none carry Lionel or any O gauge - all HO or N, and of course all 2 rail.

And good eye; I am in fact an entomologist by training and did my fourth year project on the taxonomy of the Calliphoridae - the Blue and Greenbottle flies! And I think perhaps your name also says something about you, bf skinner?? lol!

Just a little, perhaps. You may be the first member to have noticed. Glad to meet you.

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Bluebottle

While there are now many companies that make model trains is O gauge, Williams by Bachmann is one to be considered as well. Williams now has complete sets that come with track & transformer for a few dollars less than most other companies, only drawback is that you don't get all the remote control features in the locomotives and you don't need to buy a command control system to get all the features from a Williams engine. The quality is there as well with Williams.

Lee F.

Blue Bottle Welcome.

I have both TMCC and Conventional. I enjoy both. Williams has some nice sets as does Lionel,MTH/Rail-king, Atlas, Industrial Rail, & K-Line By Lionel. They all have bottom price sets and you can get even better prices normally on line as stated I can give you a few places to check but theres a lot more but some of the best prices would be www.trainz.com , www.hobbystation.net , www.charlesro.com (this one I find a little hard to navigate if you use there search but is still good) www.trainworld.com , & www.nstrains.com

just to list a few. I enjoy conventional operation almost as much as command. I use to have a layout set up with pressure switches and isolation pins that I would stop one train and start another automatically and its not hard at all.

Not to berate the previous post but I was not aware of Bachmann having O gauge sets with track and transformer I went to there site to check and couldn't find any. I might be looking wrong or they may not have them listed for some reason.

Which ever you do theres tons of info on this site to help you

Its all really about what you want.

Bluebottle,

Here's a link to an amazingly large website with many sub-links. Take your time with it and enjoy. If you are interested in beginning a lifelong foray into American toy trains and railroad modeling, it's a keeper, Perhaps the first step in browsing the site is to make a few notes on its organization so you can get back to things that interest you.

A site such as this was not built overnight, and some of it is dated, but I think it's a useful place to visit overall.

http://www.thortrains.net/

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