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33 replies

Why do we run our trains?

rogerpeterogerpeteOGR Forum Member

I will post another topic later on with photos & discussion about our seasonal layout, Trains in the Town Hall, but for now I need to get something off my chest.

 

I live in a small town, literally, it is a one blinking light community. Mostly agriculture, and maybe 4% industry, my community is kinda like a modern day Mayberry. 

 

We do a seasonal train layout in our Town Hall- a mixture of scales, trains, and toss in a little whimsy for good measure. We open the display up twice a week for the month of December, there is no admission charge, and we have free refreshments. Our community is over 37% above the national poverty level, (I am also a local grant writer). 

 

Our train display is hands on. We have a lion chief thomas, and multiple accessory activation buttons for the kids (and adults) to enjoy. There is no Plexiglas around our table, no guardrail, no electric fence, not even shock collars... We have always had a very good group of attendees & parents have been very respectful & hands on. I know this is not always the case, but for us it has been. None of our stuff is high end, non of our stuff is fancy, so if something happens, it isn't the end of the world, and we all go into this with this in mind.

 

Last evening two parents brought their (obvious) non-typical child in. He used broken sign language, and the lad was developmentally delayed. They pulled a chair up to the edge of the display, and the child sat down. This group of three sat, and watched trains for 30 minutes. He was almost hypnotized by the four lines. At this point we showed him the buttons & handed him the lion chief remote. The lad was in heaven. It seemed pretty evident to us that he has never run a train. We smiled at mom & dad, and they had a relaxed look come over their face. They stayed another 45 minutes while the boy screamed in delight, as thomas made laps at 85 mph, in reverse. We turned on all the smoke units, and I thought he would lose his mind! One train has a genie with a bubble blower. The bubbles was the frosting on his Christmas cake.

 

As the little boy left, we wished them all a Merry Christmas, and we just looked at each other & smiled. 

 

I didn't post this for folks on the forum to say, "Good Job". I posted this to encourage others to make a difference in the life of someone else. We have all been blessed, and at some point, we have had someone to take the time to "share their toys" with us. Make sure we are returning the favor.

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FM Former Member

We work with folks who serve people with developmental and physical disabilities. In the course of our work, we often have direct contact with these individuals. Especially at this time of year, it gives us pause to know how fortunate God has blessed us in so many ways.

 

The young lad that attended the Town Hall event has also been blessed, to the extent that you may never really know. But his parents will be very grateful for your efforts as they are in the best position to gauge the benefit of his interaction with trains.

 

And I agree, whatever we can do to brighten someone's live in this special way has a huge impact. Thanks for sharing this with us all.

Last edited by Former Member
B brianel_k-lineguyOGR Forum Member

Roger, your topic line... well I didn't know what to expect.

 

My experience at shows has been just as yours. I was often the only layout at shows with no rope barrier, and usually the only one to offer every kid a chance to run the trains. I found parents to be very respectful of this - maybe because I was the only layout like this. A 1033 transformer using the B-U setting and with banked 027 curves, nothing ever went off the layout.

 

Once in a while the kids would get a little too excited, in which a simple explanation of "one at a time and you too will have a turn" was enough. There was a thread a while ago about this sort of thing, where not all the results were as good as mine or Roger's here.

 

Your thread here Roger makes me think of Neil Young and how his son was a big motivation for getting into trains. Great story... deserves a better title... "A Happy Christmas (Display)." What a nice treat to read a post that isn't grumbling about what hasn't been made yet from the usual experts.

 

You ought to send it to the Lionel blog site or put a shortened version on their Facebook page. Nice post Roger!

A AdriaticOGR Forum Member

Last summer I was paying old friends a visit but was early, so decided to walk to a park I used to play in to kill some time. Along the way I was sorting I pod photos of my collection and came across a Mother patiently waiting on "special young guy". He was angry, and sitting staring down on the lawn, pouting. I showed Mom the I pod silently asking for permission. She grinned ear to ear, and nodded. I put it down with my Adriatic and tender pic, smoke flowing over the boiler. He looked at it out of the corner of his eye, grinned, and began pointing, telling me in His language how beautiful it was. He scrolled thru the thing like a pro, laughing, pointing, coo-ing. At the end he stood still laughing, and flashed his hidden Thomas shirt under his coat. Yelling the name, and began running towards home. Mom laughing behind him said Thomas is one word he really knows well. The park was cool too, new equipment. 

FM Former Member

"Last summer I was paying old friends a visit but was early, so decided to walk to a park I used to play in to kill some time. Along the way I was sorting I pod photos of my collection and came across a Mother patiently waiting on "special young guy". He was angry, and sitting staring down on the lawn, pouting. I showed Mom the I pod silently asking for permission. She grinned ear to ear, and nodded. I put it down with my Adriatic and tender pic, smoke flowing over the boiler. He looked at it out of the corner of his eye, grinned, and began pointing, telling me in His language how beautiful it was. He scrolled thru the thing like a pro, laughing, pointing, coo-ing. At the end he stood still laughing, and flashed his hidden Thomas shirt under his coat. Yelling the name, and began running towards home. Mom laughing behind him said Thomas is one word he really knows well. The park was cool too, new equipment."

 

 
Another great story!
Last edited by Former Member
Alan RogersAlan RogersOGR Forum Member

You know, come to think of it, I have only had to ask adults to not touch....

 

I regularly volunteer time to teach youngin's how to scratchbuild. The latest is the daughter of a co-worker, who is modeling a California Mission for a school project.

 

Every time I wonder if I'm helping launch a new career.

 

Great article, Roger. Thanks!

TexSpecialTexSpecialOGR Forum Member

The best thing we can do in our train hobby is share it with others especially those who have special needs.  Your sharing is commendable.

 

I share my train hobby with disabled veterans directing my efforts more towards war veterans who are suffering with PTSD.  Most vets I have shared my trains with have no hobby at all and were just closing themselves up and taking their meds.  Thanks to Lionel's LionChief + engines, I am able to take my trains to various veterans functions and give them "hands on" experience of having fun again.  Boy, does it work, they love running the trains and I help  them get started in the hobby.  It sure feels good to see smiles on their faces again.

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

TM Terrie McgovernOGR Forum Member
Originally Posted by C. Chancey:

A while back I was contacted by a toy train magazine representative who asked me if I would mind showing my layout to two teenage boys who were both autistic and loved trains. The parents of each of the boys brought their sons over on a Sunday afternoon and spent several hours watching different trains travel the course of my layout. Both sets of parents told me that for some unknown reason each of their autistic boys had taken an interest in trains and spent almost all of their time looking at pictures and videos of trains, and that this was the first time they had ever seen a model train layout and trains. Both boys spent their time walking around the layout, often focusing on one area for several minutes and then moving onto another area. The expressions on their faces of excitement and happiness was amazing, and their parents were equally excited and happy to see their sons having such a good time.

 

It was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had and will never forget, and it all came from toy trains.

You must have some great pictures. Are you going to post them for us all to see? Sounds unusual for a train magazine to contact someone to have an open house for them, but I guess stranger things have happened. 

KR Karl ReichenbachOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

Why do we run our trains? That is a good question. I run mine because I enjoy them.

Each December since 1986 I have been opening my layout to the public on 10 different dates. On these 10 days I get the most enjoyment from running my trains.

I have about 1000 visitors each year and have never had any problems with any children that have visited the layout.

The viewing area is about 30' long and kids can get up on a bench and be nose level with the trains as they go by.  There is no plexi glass between them and the trains.

This past Saturday I had a mother with an autistic boy visit.  She got him up on the

bench and stood behind him.  He stayed on the bench for about 45 miniutes with his nose glued to the trains as they went by.  He moved his arms and made many gestures, but not once did he try to touch the trains.

 

This is the most enjoyable ten days of the year running my trains.  This is why I do it.

 

Over the years there have been many children that come each year and don't want to go home.  Some that came as a child are now bringing their children.

 

When I built the layout, I built with children watching the trains in mind, and have had no regrets from it.

 

As I said before these Christmas open houses are the most rewarding  time of the year for me running my trains.

 

Karl

AGHRMattAGHRMattOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERMEMORIAL SUPPORTER

Why do I run trains? A question with many answers.

  • The look of wonder I see in the eyes of small children.
  • The rekindling of a fond childhood memory in adults.
  • The dirty looks the wives give their husbands when they take interest in the high-end stuff.
  • The "meltdowns" of small kids when their parents tell them it's time to leave. We live for that.
  • The interaction of the model train with the scenery through which is passes.
  • The sense of accomplishment I feel at making some modification or duplicating some prototypical consist.
  • The sound of the wheels rolling down the tracks
  • The gentle, relaxing white noise.
  • Shooting the breeze with club members and visitors.
  • The joy a child shows when he or she takes the controls. Corollary to that is the joy I experience getting to sit down and get off my aching feet.
  • The friendly ribbing I get from other members over my "2-rail tendencies".
  • The friendly ribbing I get from my 2-rail colleagues about "leaving the dark side."

 

Last edited by AGHRMatt
gnnpnutgnnpnutOGR Forum Member

The following photo is my twin daughters, and two twin boys that ran two of my trains for about two hours at the National Train Show 2012 in Grand Rapids Michigan on the Sunday afternoon about two hours before teardown. 

 

My daughters were heading off to university in two weeks, and this was the last train show that they attended with me.  They were both running a train together on one of our three main lines.  The two boys were absolutely fascinated by the steam locomotives.  They both asked the boys if they wanted to run them. 


The boys had a blast, and my daughters grinned ear to ear the whole time.  I wished I had my camera handy so I could have shot some decent pics.  Their parents had an absolutely great time watching their boys.

 

GirlsandTwinsatGR4AUG12

 

These moments, and other moments of kids running my trains are the only thing I miss about modular railroading.  After my daughters went off to school, the fun really went out of it for me. This show was over two years ago, and three years since the girls went to Trainfest with me.  After 10 years of trailer O scaling, even seeing the joy on kid's faces didn't overcome sore knees, sore back, expense and trailer balderdash that doing shows entailed.

 

My hat is off to anybody that has the intestinal fortitude to do public shows, and anybody out there that is doing it solely for kids enjoyment truly are the greatest ambassadors for our hobby.   

 

Regards,

GNNPNUT

 

 

 

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TRAINMANTIMTRAINMANTIMOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

Very nice reply Jerry. I would have to agree with you for two reasons. First, When you and some of the former IHMD members would let me run your guys trains at the shows I would see you at. Second, seeing the smile on the kids faces when they run trains on the TCA Midwest Division modular layout at shows. It just makes me smile from ear to ear. 

 

This past Saturday, the TCA Midwest Division set up a small modular layout at the Rosemont Convention Center for an event called Operation North Pole. Operarion North Pole is an event for children you are terminally ill and their families. All the families that were invited have breakfast with Santa and Ronald McDonald. As part of the event, Metra/Union Pacific, Operation Lifesaver, and Operation North Pole, take them for a train ride on Metra's UP Northwest Line from Des Plaines to Pingree Road in Crystal Lake,Il and back. After they get back into Des Plaines they are then taken back to the convention center where they are greeted by fire fighters and the volunteers that help put on the event. All in all its a pretty AMAZING event. This year was my second year doing the event and boy I had a ton more fun then I did last year. 

 

Here are two pictures of the kids who ran my train. Plus a video I made of the real and model Operation North Pole train that can found on my YouTube page, which can be found at the end of this post.

 

 

photo

 

 

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Last edited by TRAINMANTIM
Gilly@N&WGilly@N&WOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
Originally Posted by AGHRMatt:

Why do I run trains? A question with many answers.

Matt, looks like you covered all of the bases. You described well what it's like when we run our modular layout for the public.

 

Gilly

 

Watching a Grandfather telling his grandchild that "I used to have one exactly like this".

Last edited by Gilly@N&W

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