Hello Jaddie,
Your circumstances sound very similar to mine, except that my son has just turned 5. He is a train freak.. who gets it from Dad. Anything and everything Thomas. We've got tons of wooden trains, we've got plenty plenty plenty of the Trackmaster Thomas sets, we've got a Lionel set... and even a G-Scale set for the Christmas Tree. I bought him the Bachmann HO Deluxe Thomas/Annie/Clarabel set last year for his birthday to see how that would go. He did very well with the small nature of HO, for a then 4 year old. So, having seen a Sodor Island HO 4x8 layout that Bachmann built for show purposes I decided that was the route I was going to take. I studied the layout they built here:
Bachmann Trains - Sodor Island Layout
...and started on the journey of building our own Sodor Island.
Long story short is this... The layout is for him (and my daughter), but it is also to help satisfy my model railroading desire. This particular layout and theme was perfect for me because of there reasons:
1. It was Thomas themed.
2. It was a relatively small layout in terms of space.
3. Not too incredibly expensive.
4. It's relatively easy to build, but great because you can adapt it to suit what you want to have.
5. And the really big thing for me is that there are 4 independent loops, which means 4 trains can run at once... meaning less fighting over who gets to drive a train. The Bachmann layout has 3 levels, or 5 loops, but I only went with two, and I changed it some to fit my desires.. and budget.
My Sodor Island Thomas HO Layout
The link above is to my web album which shows my progress on this layout since I started. We're pretty much at the same point now as the last picture, except that I just bought him the Bachmann Salty and Spencer for his birthday. We are very soon going to start adding our scenery details and the exciting thing about that is we get to do that together. I'm going to let them do a good bit of the tree planting and stuff themselves (with supervision). And, it's all hands on. It's also small enough to hold attention for semi-extended periods of time.
I'd be happy to share more details or information if you desire, including track plans and what track (kind and quantities) were used. Just send me a PM on here.
Happy railroading.
Chuck
Dear polob
The GeoTrax stuff looks like a lot of fun. We might get him a GeoTrax set for his birthday.
Thanks for responding. I sent you a message.
'Tis difficult to become educated in trains, isn't it? Without forums such as these, it'd be a total shot in the dark for me.
--Jaddie
Actually, the LEGO trains might be just the ticket. My kids have one of those, too. They've got a lot of stuff, and it's all in the same scale (obviously). Even at 3, my kids had no trouble assembling basic LEGO kits, and while they will come apart, permanent damage is very difficult to inflict.
The only issue you might have is that size wise, it's pretty close to O scale. The trains will take much sharper corners than prototype, though.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Jaddie,
Another thought if you decide to go with something less fragile and sophisticated for your son: Lego trains. At shows I have seen layouts by adult clubs; they do attract the attention of kids.
Dante
Jaddie
I once started building a layout for my son (40 Years ago). I found that I was really building it for myself. From experience I found that HO is too small for a three year old because he will want to touch the cars and engines. Derailment after derailment will be frustrating for him and yourself. My suggestion would be to build the HO railroad for yourself and he can grow into it later. Get you son a cheap large scale plastic model set that runs on batteries so he can start running his trains right out of the box.
Just Saying!
I have 3 boys (the youngest born 5 months before my 40th birthday), and only one of them is interested in trains. He doesn't like anything to do with fantasy / medieval stuff; that's all his brothers want to play with.
Here's what I did. I have my own layout, which he is allowed to operate under my supervision. Even from the age of 4, he was capable of running trains at prototypical speeds and using them to serve industries, even telling me how to line switches. I developed a little card game, in which he would draw a card to determine which locomotive he needed to use, and a second to tell him where he needed to pick up cargo. Then he would pick a third card to determine the length of the trip (1-3 laps around), with the destination determined by the cargo. He could do this for a long time (more than an hour -- an eternity for a small child) without getting bored.
I also built him his very own layout -- basically 4 x 8 loop of Powerloc track (w/ the molded-on roadbed), a passing track, and two sidings. I bought him the Bachmann Thomas train stuff to use. It's HO, and pretty rugged, so he won't break it (too badly). For a while, this layout was a mess -- trees knocked over, loose gravel and lumber loads strewn everywhere, matchbox cars in ponds, and structures knocked over like a tornado had been through. Now that he's older, we've ditched the Thomas stuff for some better equipment, vacuumed the crud off the layout, and repaired the damage. He operates it all on his own (with a sound system and everything).
So, if the layout REALLY IS for your son, a similar approach might work for you; although I think the track plan you have is too complicated for a small child and too simplistic for an adult.
steinjr H0 scale electric model trains are the wrong toys for a 3 year old, no matter how fascinated he is about trains.If you build a layout, you will end up spending much time on the layout and little time with the kid, and you will be spending a lot of time telling him to not touch and not break things. Get him some battery powered engines for his Thomas wooden tracks, and some more powered accessories. And maybe get a few videos or DVDs showing model trains or real trains that you guys can watch together.
H0 scale electric model trains are the wrong toys for a 3 year old, no matter how fascinated he is about trains.If you build a layout, you will end up spending much time on the layout and little time with the kid, and you will be spending a lot of time telling him to not touch and not break things.
Get him some battery powered engines for his Thomas wooden tracks, and some more powered accessories. And maybe get a few videos or DVDs showing model trains or real trains that you guys can watch together.
I have lots of kids and in my opinion this is the best advice you're going to get, and if you ignore it (as I have seen several dads do) you run the risk of killing off his interest in trains.
I might add one note: kids being kids, don't be surprised if he wakes up one day and suddenly has no interest at all in trains! Kids change and it can be quick.
The St. Francis Consolidated Railroad of the Colorado Rockies
Denver, Colorado
Well, North Platte Nebraska has the largest yard I know of. It's absolutely huge!
Check it out HERE
And here is some interesting trackwork HERE
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
Dear Stein & Motley
Yes, Max is our first child, and given our ages, 41 and 39, probably our last. We were married for 17 years before having Max. We've blogged about him every day since he was born.
Motley, maybe you could share a couple of your Google Earth links so I can see a big yard.
Max has the five-DVD I Love Toy Trains set and the four-DVD set O-Gauge Layout Adventures. He has more than two dozen Thomas & Friends DVDs on his iPad. Believe it or not, he can operate his iPad very well.
We ordered him a new train table with a wooden railway on it today. We'll probably give it to him for his birthday in August. Then we'll have two train tables in our living room. Right now we have a train table with wooden railway, a bench for his fold-up train sets, and the Zip Zoom Logging Adventure set on the floor. His Race Down the Rails wooden railway is on the coffee table in the room next to our living room. His O-gauge Thomas normally is on our dining room table, but it's not set up now because we had a family dinner on Monday.
The boy loves trains.
Another idea for researching industries served by rails, is using Google Earth satellite images. That's a wonderful way of seeing how the railroads layout their trackwork. The satellite images is an amazing tool for us modelers.
My favorite thing to look at, is big rail yards, big huge yards!
Jaddie He plays with them all, nearly every waking minute, which is why I thought he might enjoy an electric train.
He plays with them all, nearly every waking minute, which is why I thought he might enjoy an electric train.
First kid?
Then try to introduce electric model trains at about age 6 or 7 or so.Or maybe slightly later - say age 8 or 9 or so, depending on his interests at that time.
Smile, Stein
Hi Jaddie,
HO trains are too delicate for a toddler... he will bust stuff up, guaranteed. Heck, I'm an adult and I do it, lol.
Being a parent myself, IMHO, his attention span, at three years old, will not go well with a oval, even with scenery and industries on it. As adults, we can push aside the compression that's built into every layout and see a bigger picture. But a toddler's eventually going to see an oval. Again, this is my opinion.
I bought my oldest grandson Brio trains, several sets, and he just loves them. He can make any shape he wants, which is huge for any kid that age. His trains can go to Africa or simply down the street. There are no limits and he's not boxed in by permanent tracks and scenery. They also sell battery powered engines for them and I think they even make remote controlled loco's, too.
-Ed
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." -Aristotle
Jaddie Dear Hamltn I had planned for the inner oval to be the area where an industry could be developed. I don't understand switching and operations, so maybe an oval won't work for dropping off and picking up freight cars. I thought my son might have some cars on one side of the oval and a different set of cars on another portion of the oval. He might have to push some out of the way, get to an outer loop, and come in another way to hook up to the rear coupler. Will the oval not work for light operations? I wish I could develop a purpose for the railroad, but I'm so uneducated about railroading in general that I don't know how to devise a purpose. Thanks for responding. --Jaddie
Dear Hamltn
I had planned for the inner oval to be the area where an industry could be developed. I don't understand switching and operations, so maybe an oval won't work for dropping off and picking up freight cars. I thought my son might have some cars on one side of the oval and a different set of cars on another portion of the oval. He might have to push some out of the way, get to an outer loop, and come in another way to hook up to the rear coupler.
Will the oval not work for light operations?
I wish I could develop a purpose for the railroad, but I'm so uneducated about railroading in general that I don't know how to devise a purpose.
Thanks for responding.
Basically industries don't run off of a main track. Think of a building with a loading dock that the train is parked next to. You could take a ride to look at local companies that are serviced by the rails. They will always have a spur that feeds them off of the main or service track. It also adds a lot more fun to the layout. As someone else has noted, a 3 year old won't be interested in sidings and switching but I can tell you from experience, time flies. Kids don't wait around. They grow faster than you can imagine and before you know it, are in their teens.
Besides, do you think we believe it's only for the 3 year old. How about the other kid playing with the trains (You). There's a kid in all of us and I'm sure you'll be getting your hands in there as well.
Oh and I forgot last time. Welcome to the forums.
Springfield PA
My youngest used to play with Geo Trax non stop and still does when he feels like building a new layout. We had a good amount of track and structures from multiple sets. I bought him a Atlas HO Sante Fe set for X-mas about 1 month before my join date to the forums here. He ran the train on the tracks twice, he used the loco and rolling stock plenty, however most of the wheels and trucks are missing if you know what I mean.
Point is, you may find yourself telling him what he can't do more then running the trains. Have a look at Geo Trax, the have a wireless remote, they only go forward and stop but they have turnouts and "industrys" Over the years we collected almost 80' of track, could run more then 1 train at a time, for a much smaller budget. Build the expensive train set for yourself that he can run under your supervision.
Jon
Dear Stein & cacole
Thanks for responding. My son already has a large table-top Thomas wooden railway set, the Zip Zoom Logging Adventure set (large Trackmaster series), a smaller wooden railway set, the Shake-Shake Bridge set (small Trackmaster), yet another Trackmaster-series set at his grandparents', and two Thomas Take-a-Long mini sets.
Trains have been his main interest for about a year-and-a-half. We've been to Chattanooga for A Day Out With Thomas and to the stage show Thomas Saves the Day. We're throwing him a train-themed birthday party in August.
A layout of this size and complexity is not going to hold a 3-year-old's attention for more than a few scant minutes -- been there, done that -- at his age something along the line of a Brio wooden train would be more appropriate. By the time you get it built he will have probably totally lost interest.
Jaddie I decided on HO because of the cost and space savings over O. Now I'm reconsidering that decision based on the suggestions here. O-scale locomotives with remote control start at about US$320. Many are US$600-1200. In my limited catalog browsing, it seems that O-scale rolling stock costs US$50-90 for each piece. If we went with O-scale I think we'd make heavy use of O-36 curves to keep the layout within our space, and many of the nicer engines require wider curves. If I give up my photography studio in our basement, we could do an O-72+ layout, but I don't want to do that at this point. I have about US$2500 I can spend. I'd like to provide him with the layout (including foam risers, buildings, figures, and other accessories), track, a couple of engines, ten to twelve pieces of rolling stock, and remote control. As for me, I get a lot of satisfaction from making my son happy. Layout design has become an obsession for me, but because I don't understand railroading in general, I haven't progressed very far. My hobbies and vocations are computers and photography, which cost too much for me to have another hobby just for myself.
I decided on HO because of the cost and space savings over O. Now I'm reconsidering that decision based on the suggestions here.
O-scale locomotives with remote control start at about US$320. Many are US$600-1200. In my limited catalog browsing, it seems that O-scale rolling stock costs US$50-90 for each piece.
If we went with O-scale I think we'd make heavy use of O-36 curves to keep the layout within our space, and many of the nicer engines require wider curves. If I give up my photography studio in our basement, we could do an O-72+ layout, but I don't want to do that at this point.
I have about US$2500 I can spend. I'd like to provide him with the layout (including foam risers, buildings, figures, and other accessories), track, a couple of engines, ten to twelve pieces of rolling stock, and remote control.
As for me, I get a lot of satisfaction from making my son happy. Layout design has become an obsession for me, but because I don't understand railroading in general, I haven't progressed very far. My hobbies and vocations are computers and photography, which cost too much for me to have another hobby just for myself.
If you are making a layout for a 3 year old, he will not care about it being advanced or prototypical. He will want to touch stuff and move it with his own hands. For a three year old, the perfect layout is one of those wooden Brio-type train setups - where he can make changes and actively play without damaging anything expensive or easy to crush.
So if your goal actually is to amuse your son, either give him a wooden toy to play on the floor with. Or possibly take the O scale set you already have, and set it up on a shelf, where it can run back and forth, with a button the kid can press to reverse directions or sound the horn or stuff like that.
A three year old will not be switching cars with a H0 scale locomotive. When he is 7-8 years old, you can introduce him to running model trains on a real layout.
Likewise - a small kid will love Thomas the tank engine, but not give a hoot about whether you have a modern engine or an old fashioned engine or a wild mix of modern and old.
On the other hand, if the "it's for the kid" is what it normally is - mostly an excuse presented to the wife to allow the dad to do model trains, then that is a different story altogether.
So the first thing to be clear (to yourself, if not to your wife :-) about is whether you are actually building a layout for a small kid, or a layout for yourself.
Dear eaglescout
Even the conventional Bachmann Thomas-series engines run US$70 and up. I'm not sure there's an inexpensive way to get involved in model railroading.
I'll take a look at what's available on eBay. I definitely don't want damaged equipment. We've already had to have Thomas, Annie, and Clarabel's couplers adjusted because our little buddy dropped them.
Dear Scarpia
Dear Dante
I just ordered the book you suggested. Thanks for responding.
If you go with HO I would purchase inexpensive or used locomotives and rolling stock for your son until he gets older and can safely handle more expensive equipment. If you want the nice stuff run it after the little one goes to bed. This is what I do with my grandkids. No sense running a $100+ locomotive off the board when a $25 Bachman will crash just as well without damaging your pocket book quite to the extreme.
Scarpia Jaddie: Dear Friends I'm planning to build my nearly-three-year-old son an HO-scale layout soon, and image of which is attached. The inside of the layout will be open. Originally, I planned to build an O-scale layout, but because of cost and space, I changed my plan to HO scale. I don't know much about trains aside from the fact that my son loves them. He has over a hundred Thomas-related characters, several tracks, and the O-gauge Thomas starter oval from Lionel. Hi Jaddie, I'm going to ask why again you're going to HO. If the layout is really for your son, who already has an O-gauge starter set, maybe it would be better to stay in the larger scale. In the space you have, you can easily do a nice small O layout, perfect for a young train fan. Now if it's for you as well, well that changes things!
Jaddie: Dear Friends I'm planning to build my nearly-three-year-old son an HO-scale layout soon, and image of which is attached. The inside of the layout will be open. Originally, I planned to build an O-scale layout, but because of cost and space, I changed my plan to HO scale. I don't know much about trains aside from the fact that my son loves them. He has over a hundred Thomas-related characters, several tracks, and the O-gauge Thomas starter oval from Lionel.
Dear Friends
I'm planning to build my nearly-three-year-old son an HO-scale layout soon, and image of which is attached. The inside of the layout will be open.
Originally, I planned to build an O-scale layout, but because of cost and space, I changed my plan to HO scale.
I don't know much about trains aside from the fact that my son loves them. He has over a hundred Thomas-related characters, several tracks, and the O-gauge Thomas starter oval from Lionel.
I'm going to ask why again you're going to HO. If the layout is really for your son, who already has an O-gauge starter set, maybe it would be better to stay in the larger scale.
In the space you have, you can easily do a nice small O layout, perfect for a young train fan.
Now if it's for you as well, well that changes things!
I have to side with Scarpia on this one. With a three year son and some O-gauge stuff already in hand, you should consider sticking with O-gauge, at least until your son gets older and can handle the more delicate and finicky HO scale stuff.
As for the layout design, it is not all that bad in that each of the ovals connect to one another for continuous operation. Try it and if it becomes boring too quickly, then redesign it.
Rich
Alton Junction
Jaddie Dear Friends I'm planning to build my nearly-three-year-old son an HO-scale layout soon, and image of which is attached. The inside of the layout will be open. Originally, I planned to build an O-scale layout, but because of cost and space, I changed my plan to HO scale. I don't know much about trains aside from the fact that my son loves them. He has over a hundred Thomas-related characters, several tracks, and the O-gauge Thomas starter oval from Lionel.
I'm trying to model 1956, not live in it.
It might be more than you want for a simple start, but to get a good idea about how railroads work and the track planning to express that, get a copy of "Track Planning for Realistic Operatiion" (3rd Edition) by John Armstrong.
It is brief, concise and easy to understand. Sooner or later you will find it extremely useful. It is one of the bibles of the hobby and is available on our host's publishing site; also, on Amazon and possibly others.
Dear Johnnny
I've searched for clubs in my area, but they're either building layouts or doing operations. I have no skills or knowledge in either area and am afraid I'd cause "confusion and delay," as Sir Topham Hatt says. I'd like to visit a club in which I could learn without being in the way.
I've never thrown a switch on a railroad in my life, and I've never had an electric track other than a simple oval. I don't even know what that little crescent-shaped thing is at the front of HO equipment.
There are a bunch of excellent train stores within about twelve miles of me. There are four I can think of off the top of my head. The first two are located within five miles of our home.
Those number-six turnouts consume a lot of space when used as a "forward-and-reverse crossover" (I don't know the correct technical term for this.).
Would you make the layout larger, or would you opt for a single-direction crossover?
Dear Sean
Thanks for the welcome to the asylum. I guess model railroading provides asylum for lots of folks, apparently lots of smart and handy ones.
Your suggestion for an open girder bridge is a practical solution I'll use. Maybe I can put a truss bridge in a location where turns won't be an issue.
Jaddie, being that you are north east of Atlanta you should check into the train clubs in the area. And if I remember right there is a great hobby shop some where close to you.
A lift out would fit good on the left side of the track plan you posted and with long passanger cars I will have to say you would be better off using #6 turnouts.
Johnnny_reb Once a word is spoken it can not be unspoken!
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