Bought 2 train sets for my son!

[gazzarose]

Only problem is he's only 4 months on Wednesday!

I've been waiting about 15-16 years to have a son to have an excuse to buy another train set after I temporarily grew out of mine when I was about 15. Hornbys winter sale was on and I some how convinced the holder of the purse strings that it was too good a deal to miss, so I bought a Thomas set, a Perry set and a couple of Troublesome Trucks. Obviously were going to 'wait' until he's a bit older before opening it and I definately won't accidentally get them out of the box been they arrive on Wednesday to play.... I mean check the quality. I cant wait til when me and minime can build a layout together in the attic. I'm already plotting to build a mini set for under the Xmas tree like a fellow Ph'er did a couple of years ago.

Any one else covertly building a layout of collection?

[MitchT]

You definitely need to test it, just to be sure. Nothing worse than a disappointed little boy if his train set doesn't work. In fact, train sets can be like classic cars - They need to be run regularly to keep them in good working order

[MiniMan64]

My father bought my son a little basic Midland goods set for Christmas.

He was 3 months old.

Enjoy!

[shortar53]

The youngest has the Western Messenger set (50 quid at Argos), and got the Thomas set for Christmas, it came with the basic Thomas set (small oval, thomas, annie, clarabel and a speed controller), plus a couple of bonus pieces of track. At 3, he's still a little rough, keeps pulling the track apart, but loves it - he's able to drive, put things on the sidings and shunt etc.
I'd avoid buying the hornby mat - it's literally a 6'x4' sheet of paper

Awaiting the post christmas skint-ness to subside, then going to mount some track onto a board in his room.
Currently, I'm thinking that I should have the board hinged at the bottom and go flat against the wall when not in use.

Have a look at Wordsworth Model Railway - they do some good OO gauge card models that add some nice detail to the setup/

[MiniMan64]

i had similar issues with pulling trains and track apart with my lad so we have a big main layout of loops where we drive trains and then I stuck the Hornby track mat to a board and that sits next to the main layout (with no track) attached so he 'play' trains if he wants pushing around some of the older models and doing Thomas stories himself

[gazzarose]

I'm looking forward to doing a bit of 'quality checking' on the dining table tomorrow evening. Its been a long time since I've been anywhere near a train set. I always hoped my bother in law (whos just turned 15, and was only 3 when I met my wife) would have a train set that I could play with but he never did.

I bought a track mat off ebay about 10 years ago thats up the attic so I may get that out and stick it to a bit of ply. Its going to be a while til we can play trains together but maybe I'll have the train set equivalent of those kids who can play piano when they're 2! I want to do a proper layout up the attic at some point. I had quite a bit layout round the perimeter of my bedroom when I was younger but never did any scenery or anything, just a part paper mached mountain/tunnel. I just used to watch my trains go round and round. What I do wish is that I'd kept my old trains carefully instead of just chucking them in boxes. My favourite was a class 37 intercity set in BR blue, so before the HST.

Next thing I need to look into is DCC. Are there any resonably priced DCC controllers that can have a second handset attached so one canbe 'Thomas' and the other can be 'Percy' or whatever, one thing that always bugged me with my old DC set when I was younger was you couldn't shunt when another loco was on the track and always had to be careful with point settings in sidings or you'd end up with a multi loco pile up.

[austinsmirk]

I've built up my 1980's electric lego train set and all the other bits, in one of the lofts.

I have two daughters, neither of which can get in the loft.

[Starfighter]

My dad did something similar when it was a kid.

[williredale]

I've done the same. My two daughters don't seem that interested in all the kit I've bought 'them'

[gazzarose]

Well the sets arrived yesterday, but there were a couple of issues.

I'd ordered a Thomas the Tank set R9283, a Percy and the mail train set R9284 and a Troublesome Trucks pack R9294. 2 largish boxes arrived, and when I looked inside there was the Thomas set and 2 Percy sets, but no Troublesome Trucks. Now I had a moral dilemma, do I keep/sell the extra Percy set and forget about the Trucks or ring Hornby and tell them. After a couple of hours my conscious was getting to me so I rang them, half.hoping they'd say to keep it, but they're collecting it tomorrow and going to send out the Troublesome Trucks.

We'll when I got home last night I found the track mat that was in my attic. I tried setting an oval up on the dining room table on the mat, but the 3rd radius curves didn't fit and the mat used 2nd radius anyway. So I moved the rug from the laminate floor in the living room and set some track up. Got the locos and stuff all out and a little disappointed that one of Annies wheels was damaged and as it rolled along the whole carriage wobbled, rang hornby again today and they're sending a new axel. Anyway I had a little play (there, I admit it, I was playing) and enjoyed it. Itching for boy to grow a bit so we can play together, but at the moment he didn't seem that impressed.

I do hope the quality control on the more grown up hornby stuff is better if I'm going to start to buy any for myself, dodgy wheel in a £50 set is one thing but on a £200 Train pack might be a bit more annoying.