Text continued from page 70. the trains and help build the layout, but you have to Ask First, because some things are sharp or fragile and I don’t want you to get hurt.” It took a couple times for my then-3½ yearold son to remember to Ask First, but soon, after a few (verbal) reminders, it became habit, and even now they Ask First, especially because most of the time the answer is, “Sure! Let’s do it together!”
putting my light box to use and create some car cards with easy-to-read photo IDs. The Caboose Industries ground throws I’ve used so far are easy and fun for kids to flip, and they quickly figure out to check the points before
For our 1’ x 6’ “Alameda-Beltin-a-Box” switching layout, the Stonebridge Models “e-Z Throttle” is just the right size. It fits well in small hands, is easy to operate, and the 9V battery is fine for this one-ironhorse town. While operating on my
The importance of ownership
It’s never too early to introduce some realistic operations. Even on a simple roundy-round, my then three-year-old son could crank the throttle up to “10” on the main, but he also knew to slow down to “6” through the stations and “4” through the yard. (Of course, breaking those rules was fun, too). If you’re worried about some fragile scratch-built rolling stock then set up a train just for the kid using the gaudy fantasy cars left over from the 1980’s (kids seem to like those better anyway). Older kids, like my daughter, usually prefer switching ops. At the beginning a simple verbal-switchlist is enough to suffice. I say, “Drop these cars at A, B and C, and pick up those cars for the outbound.” Later, working together to create switchlist forms on Excel or another program allows you both to learn computer, typing, and spreadsheet skills. Now my daughter is 10 and loves to take pictures with her iPod Touch, so I’m looking forward to Page 72 • May 2012 MRH
much smoother group ops sessions, as each kid can control their own train without worrying about toggles and power blocks, and although head-on collisions and rear-ending do sometimes occur, I can count on one hand how often it happened over the last couple of years.
Figure 18: While Uki enjoys building a layout with Dad, she really loves running trains. Smaller layouts allow both to happen in a “fun” amount of time for everyone. running trains through turnouts. I like to do everything as manually as possible, so we use long bamboo skewers for uncoupling. Hold above, place the tip gently between the coupler-hands and slowly rotate the skewer. Easy-peasy.
Kids and Model Railroading, page 14
2’x4’ Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout, both my kids find the DCC NCE PowerCab easy to hold, and use the throttle wheel and the headlight button (figure 17 previous page). DCC also allows, with another throttle,
If you’re the type of perfectionist who gets nervous when people begin to get near enough to breathe on your layout, then letting your kids work on your masterpiece probably won’t be much fun for you or them. You either can have kids work at the workbench on projects that you install later, or start a small layout just for them. When I began working on my 2’ x 4’ Mt. Coffin & Columbia River layout, my kids helped with building up the rough blocks of foam, laying flextrack, making rocks and trees at the workbench, and running “test” trains, but all the scratch-built structures and bridges, handlaid curved and threeway turnouts, and other fine details I saved for myself. At that point, I sat down with my then nine-year-old daughter and we started planning and building a 1’ x 6’ fold-up switching shelf layout just for us, and for which the goal was to create a project that we could work on every aspect together, regardless of the resulting modeling quality. And while I’ll admit to building, with her permission, a few
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