A Family Project

I thought I would share an itching I have had to get into the hobby for some time now, and to have my kids be part of it...

Here's the story of a family project we just completed.

Now, I'm a definite newbie; the talent I see on this forum has done nothing but inspire me. I bought every Black Diamond DVD/Blu Ray I could, and follow this forum religiously.

However, being a newbie, I knew I would screw up...but hey, that's how you learn, right?

So I started with an idea that came to me (more on that later)...and please forgive the photo quality: my point and shoot died after five years of abuse, so I was stuck with a smart phone camera that's not so smart.

Queue the tools and wood from Home Depot:

Now, for every project you need a "holder-helper", someone to keep those ends steady while you work (well, at least try to):

So I finally get a frame together, and set-up my concept in the biggest room my wife would let me work in - my backyard:

So what was my idea?

I thought, hey, wouldn't it be fun to make a "coffee tablesque" layout where the kids and I could run (uh, "play") model trains and Lego?

Model trains when I am around, and then sealed up safely with a Lego roof when I'm not around.

Now, great idea, right? Well...having O scale on the brain, I decided to go "big" or go bust - so no fancy opening chest covers that would suit a smaller scale like N or HO. I had to make sure my kids, being the rambunctious little fellas they are, don't figure out a way to get themselves hurt...thus was born the idea of "removable" covers.

Okay, so I screwed up the top (guess who tried to make opening covers), so time to send in the manual labor to unscrew my mistakes:

Finally, a shell came together, and, wow...that's the moment you realize, um, hey, this thing is pretty big - 3'6" by 6'4"...give or take a few inches:

I also learned a valuable lesson about wood. If it's 8' by 1", it's really 8' by 0.75". Yes, that quarter of an inch gave me a hard time.

So onto city planning, a task spent cutting and fitting, imagining.

I knew I needed a runway, a road and a helicopter pad. My Lego town rules.

Structure(s) all built, I turned my attention to painting...lesson number 2 about to be learned: it's not so easy painting with spray paint. Yup. The internet furniture painting pages make it look easier than it is:

Yea, I know - looks "blah"...so I got bummed out, and then my wife came up with an amazing idea: get the kids to do their painting "handy work" to it.

Why not?

Bring in the painters:

...and let them go nuts:

So with my little Picassos at work, I turned my attention to the coffee table top...which I kept away from them, except for their paw prints:

Pretty soon the whole family got into the spirit:

So after seven days of building spread out, including painting, it was time to move it inside to it's temporary home inside the living room (it'll ultimately end up in the basement):

That is a Railking Pennsylvania 4-6-0 Steam Freight set w/Proto-Sound 3.0. Best starter set on the market in my humble opinion - great price, slow speed operation, smoke, noise, lights all in one package! Kids love lights and noise. Trust me.

So big kudos to MTH; they helped make the hobby more fun for me and the kids.

So I set up everything with the Engineer and Conductor watching on, and we start running the train:

Am I done yet?

.....no. I still need to Gorilla glue some Lego pieces onto the covers:

I put the kids into bed, and being the paying adult, take the train for a spin:

That rear passenger car is a Lionel piece of rolling stock which I have had since I was four - and what still inspires me to stay an O scaler:

So with the covers done, I put all the train stuff in the "box", and setup the covers so my boys can play Lego at seven in the morning (why they feel the need to wake up that early on weekends, I will never know!):

The next best thing to MTH is Lego. My boy proves it:

So what's next?

Scenic the bloody thing and practice those hobby skills! Also get another MTH set, probably the Norfolk Southern SD70ACe RTR Freight Set w/3.0...some more track, structures, etc...

Unfortunately, I sort of doubled my agreed upon budget on this building exercise, and so my financial auditor (*cough*, the wife) says I need to save up before I can move on.

That means 6 months to a year to save a thou or two...just to make sure I'm in scope of a budget.

At least it gives me time to plan!

I am also a 2-railer at heart, and would love to setup that one day. I chose the MTH starter set because I knew that was the way to go with the kids being so young.

So that's it, I hope you enjoyed my story...I can tell you my diet (10 pound weight loss!) was happy, not to mention Home Depot who emptied out my wallet (hehe).

My advice to anyone; just go for it, and if you screw up, hey, you've just learned to have fun.

Mark