Father/Son Ops

When my kids and I spend time together, it's not usually around the trains...they have acquired a passing interest in Dad's hobby, but each of them tends to have their own set of different interests.

My 8 year old son, the only boy, has shown the most interest of the three; after all, trains tend to be perceived as a "boy thing," so the girls don't tend to hang around it as much. Usually, when I have a layout in operating condition, the roundy-round variety of operations is the extent of my son's interest; however, the other night, after running 15 minutes of laps on the Marmion Valley, he pointed to the shelf layout.

"How do the trains run on that one?" (this referring to the lack of a loop)

I explained that it is like a puzzle; picking up and dropping off the cars in certain spots. He was sufficiently interested enough to want to grab a throttle and run a few trains.

Picking up two cars from the team track.

We had a nice little 30 minute ops session, learning about runaround moves, picking up cars, and learning how to operate the NCE Powercab throttle. I uncoupled cars and acted as general help (especially runaway train patrol), but he did all the helming of the throttle and decided all the moves to make.

In a burst of logic, he also announced that "The train looks like it's going slow, but if you were a person that size it would be going fast."

Wha-a-a-a? Inference of scale speed? Unprovoked? We might have a model railroader on our hands. Alert the authorities.

Pickup acquired, running around the consist.

It goes to show you; I make the assumption constantly that a switching layout is too complex or involved (read:boring) for younger kids to enjoy. That assumption is wrong; my son was totally engrossed with the activity, and enjoyed it immensely.

Layouts "for kids" don't have to be roundy-round tail-chasers by default. The "game factor" involved with a switching layout can be very engaging, and it even sneaks in a little bit of educational problem solving and logic.

Heading off with consist in tow.

Best of all, it was a nice Father/Son evening activity spent together. It reminded me of the sessions my own father and I used to have building our N scale layout; who knows? Perhaps the bug will pass down another generation.