In my own way to encourage the hobby I have sent Little Lionel sets to all of my Male grand nephews after asking my nephews ( and their spouses) if that was OK. They all said sure.
One of them, Max, was having great fun with a wooden set before I "electrified and remoted" him with the Little Lionel. He loved the set but wanted to control the train by hand as he did with the wood ones. NO such luck because the track on the Little Lionel has center gear teeth that are engaged by the Engine's gear as it moves along the track.
The Little Lionel train cannot be easily pushed by hand and de-rails. He became intensly frustrated but refused to let go of the trains.
I began to think of others who are so entrenched with running trains while proud that they don't have TMCC or DCS and never will; love to control them with the transformer levers.
I think of what they and Max are missing.
