Here is a chance to share how you involve your family in your hobby. Maybe it is a place name or perhaps you have begged, coerced, er, negotiated a more tangible interaction. Greetings folks, Over the years I've done my best to get family and friends involved with my hobby. It can be a tough go. Usually I have to settle for naming a location after them with their permission. I don't give up. I recently purchased a bunch of mostly white Atlas beer can / shorty tank cars with the intent of having my girlfriends daughters "grafitize" them. That thread is here: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...t-Marking-quot-Up-Your-Cars-Graffiti-or-Other Hmmm. Based on the feedback I have realized I should use a larger flat surface such as a box car or maybe even a building / mountain, bridge abutment or something. Various Projects: Reinstall the "Memory Fence" in memorial to my father - it is made from full size memory sticks. Print signs for buildings / business named after people I know Have a "build a hill" day / house party where friends and family can come run trains, and cut / shape / assemble / paint / install quick hills / small buildings made from various materials. All of the materials will be out and ready. I'm thinking if I prepare just right most projects will only take 15 to 30 minutes. "Assemble" a train of flat cars with signs mounted on them thanking the folks who have helped me come so far. Anything you do? Folks, this is intended to be an easy going thread. Please post as if you were sitting back with your favorite beverage and friends just shooting the breeze. Thanks!
This should be a very interesting thread. Good idea you have there. My daughter has her own shelf layout, though she doesn't do much with it. My son and his cub scouts have made trees as a craft project. The kids helped me build a mountain, my wife keeps the rolling stock collection growing. And both the mine and town names on my layout are pulled from our family tree.
I started in the hobby with N-Scale about 32 years ago when my daughter saw trains at a friend's house and liked them. I built a small layout, she lost interest and so did I. Her daughter got interested in trains when she saw a simple circle around a Christmas tree when she was 4 at our house. I decided to get back into it and built a layout. She has participated and has been encouraged to help build, which she does whenever she visits now just short of 12 years old. I have rocks she cast and weathered on the layout, she is building a water tower kit and has scratch built an oversized open box out of balsa that should thinks looks good sitting on a flatcar. I tried to suggest a different color , but purple it is. Her mother almost had a puppy when she came down into the basement and saw the kid with a metal ruler being used as a straight edge against balsa and a #11 Exacto in her other hand cutting the wood for the box. Participation in building is the way I have gone and so far, so good.
My son has his own shelf track and I also have four throttles (there are four of us) to run the new layout. Also kids love to run the train around the tree. The kids have been involved with trains since really small.
My wife is got involved since I started going to a club. She has her own trains she takes and runs them. Very fun to watch lol. She will have her own shelf layout at home when I get the money to put one up for her to work on. kenny.
Other things that have been done in my family are as follows: My dad named an industry after my brother and I I have an industry named after my son My wife wants to paint my backdrop I also have a thomas the tank engine to run for kids enjoyment as well. Even though my kids are now 9 and 11 the neighborhood kids will love it.
My son and I went railfanning in many locations in BC together. One time we drove around looking at graffiti on box cars, as he said - "I must have the only dad to drive his son around looking at graffiti." He used to volunteer on the Royal Hudson steam train and he started when he was 11 so often I would accompany him to make sure he was okay. At one time, we were both moderators here. We worked on two layouts together in our home, and we both participated in many operating sessions at various homes throughout the lower mainland (greater Vancouver). We both worked train shows together. And now that he has left and is in the Canadian Forces we still email items about RRing. When he comes home, we usually go to ops at friends layouts and have him visit the "old gang." During my time in the hobby I have also brought other young guys I have met to many an operating session again throughout the lower mainland and worked with their parents advising on hobby information. I worked with one teacher who had a hard to teach young male student (mildly handicapped) who was totally into model RRing and prototypes in the area. I told the teacher how to use RRing as a tool to reach him, to put math problems into cars switched, how to get at history through the history of the prototypes - a lot of Canadian history tied up in our railways.
Believe it or not, my two youngest enjoy ... ballasting! My main city of Cedricsburg is named for the late uncle who got me hooked on the hobby. One of its main industries is a packing plant named after a brother-in-law who's been a long-time employee of Hormel. A cereal plant going up shortly will be named for my youngest, who would eat cereal five meals a day if we let him. Several other businesses will be named for family members. My siblings and I are the kind of family that only gets together if there's some reason to do so. Up intil a few years ago, we had a 2,000-square-foot HO layout that provided a monthly reason for a couple brothers and a brother-in-law and I to get together. Now that my N scale layout is nearing the operational stage, I'm hoping that becomes the "excuse." Jim
For interactive graffiti, there's also construction site fences. This idea was my contribution to Carl Arendt's book, 52 Micro Layouts You Can Build: Model Railroading in Extremely Small Spaces. He drew the trackplan around the concept: Graffiti Bros. Construction Co. http://www.carendt.com/microplans/pages/industrial/trams/page2.html
I like the idea of naming businesses and such after family. My wife is in it whole hog these days. Her layout I am just beginning on, but it's based on local railroad spots she knows. She also loves train rides and running out to photograph trains. We are now expecting our first children (twin boys) and I hope they will take to it. I have to say both my parent's like planes, trains and vehicles, so the mold was cast at a young age for me.
Ballasting???????? Send them to me. They will be fed and given a room. I have enough ballasting (and painting rails) to keep them busy for some period of time.
