EZ Track the only Bachmann track?

[NarrowMinded]

Yes there are, they are known as dummy units they have no motor or gears they are
Locomotives meant to be pulled in a multi-unit train.

Donaldon has some good points, I would suggest as someone else did you buy the Thomas set, Thomas has six wheels no small wiggly pilot wheels and most of the "wagons" as they are called in Europe are four wheeled, they also come with hook and loop couplers which couple easy and stay coupled.

As mentioned before my girls when younger and now my nephew play with trains and were able to put these on the track after a few lessons, add a rerailer section and it's that much simpler, my girls four and seven play with a diesel set and also are able to place derailed cars on the track, I believe that playing with Thomas taught my girls the dexterity and gentle handling needed for the multi-wheeled diesels they play with now. you can see my girls playing with their train on Bachmanns home page "world of Bachmann" they love those trains.

Thomas and his wagons were designed with kids hands and habits in mind, they don't have a lot of fragile details to break off. HO Thomas has survived a lot of little hands in this house and is still running strong along with Percy.


NM-Jeff

[Jim Banner]

From my own observations, many 3 year olds do just fine running trains, although they usually lack the small motor control necessary to put a train back on the rails.  This pretty well means an adult has to be involved when they want to run their trains.  If they want to push their trains, there are always dummy locomotives with no motors or drive gear in them.  One solution may be a dummy locomotive which is the youngster's locomotive plus a powered locomotive which is Grandpa's locomotive and only comes out when Grandpa is there to help with the running.

Another observation about youngsters is that they see a model railroad a little differently than adults do.  For many adults, the structures and scenery are just a nice looking background for the real stars - the trains.  For most youngsters, they are all part of a world in miniature.  If they cannot run the trains for some reason, they still enjoy arranging their world, moving buildings, trees, and particularly human figures around.  And for all of us, at all ages, one of the joys of model railroading is making our worlds in miniature grow, if not in area then in detail.  As others have pointed out, children can be hard on delicate model railroad equipment and the youngest one may be confused by complex track work.  So can old guys, but that is another story.

Keeping in mind your supply of H0 track and the ease of obtaining H0 equipment, my suggestion is to start out with a simple oval of track on a table no less than 39" wide and 72" long.  This is a size that can slide under a single bed or if mounted to a wall, can fold down onto a single bed.  It can also sit permanently on the lower level of a bunk bed once the child is old enough to sleep on the top level.  Some variations include making the fold down such that it disconnects from the wall when sitting on the bed so that the bed can be moved out from the wall, allowing access from both sides.  This is important if the train is going to be pushable.  If the bed has head and foot boards of the same height, the table can be made long enough to sit on the end boards or can be extended to that length when the child grows tall enough to work at a bit higher table and/or is looking for more layout room.

Initially, a flat plywood table top painted green works well and the track can be tacked to it with track nails (regular nails are too fat.)  While there are many beautiful building kits available, they tend to be delicate to very delicate.  Initially, I would use some of the paper buildings that can be found on line.  These can be printed out and glued over appropriate wooden or cardboard shapes to make house, shops, factories etc. that are almost indestructible.  There are many bottle brush trees available for building model forests.  Look for ones with a base so they can stand on the table and check that they will not cause harm if the child falls on them.  The wire trunks of bottle brush trees are usually light enough that they will collapse without harm and can be straightened as necessary.  For vehicles, there are lots of Hot Wheels and similar.  They are a bit large for H0 scale but close enough.  And they are rugged.  Part of the fun of model railroading that you can share with your grandchild is visiting some garage sales and finding used vehicles for the layout.  For human and animal figures, you can buy the beautiful German ones for $2 each or the ones from China for as little as 6¢ each.  If you deal on eBay, one dealer I have had excellent service from is wehonest_cn.  Clicking on this link should take you to his H0 offerings.  http://tinyurl.com/4xreawc

A lot of the fun of model railroading is building the layout.  This is true for youngsters as well as adults.  Which leads to the following suggestion: do not fasten down anything on the table top except the oval of track.  Let your grandson put the buildings, trees, figures and vehicles where he likes them.  And do not worry if the arrangement is different every time.  If necessary, glue the figures and trees to clear plastic bases or plastic bases painted the same colour as the table top.

A couple of additional suggestions would be to not give the boy too many loose pieces all at once.  Spread it out over several years and after that be prepared to help upgrade things, for example from paper covered wooden buildings to plastic ones.  Some of the things that are 'must have' right from the beginning are two stations so that the train can go from somewhere to somewhere and some open cars like gondolas and hoppers so that he can transport people, animals, and whatever else you and he come up with, from place to place.

Last piece of advice - do not be too disappointed if your grandson loses interest in model railroading.  It sometimes happens.  But also realize that you may be starting him on a life long hobby, as my parents did with me some 60 years ago.  I hope it is the latter.

Jim

[NuthinDragginOwt]

You can find "Dummy" non powered engined around, though they are becoming harder to find. Years ago, people used Dummy engines in order to use less power on the power packs when running a train with 2 or more engines (1 powered-1 dummy, 1 powered-2 dummies, etc.) being that dummies were cheaper, and older models tend to require more power to run compared to today's newer models. With that said, most manufacturers have changed to producing only powered engines, the only exceptions being some sets that have 2 engines in the set, this keeps the price down a little on the sets. I would just ask at a train store about dummy engines, they may have some, if they don't, keep checking around.
Also, I myself have put together train sets for youngsters over the years, I have found that models with a lot of small parts such as hand railings, and horns, get removed quite quickly. That can be caused by the model being dropped or mishandled, and in some cases, a destructive child that gets bored one day and tries to pull every possible loose part off the model. My personal suggestion for an engine is an "F-unit", I will post a link below of a photo of one. Athearn brand "F7A" units are probably the easiest to find as a dummy engine. These engines typically do not have a whole lot of parts that can be broken off, of course supervision is the best suggestion. Same goes for cars, cars more molded on feature will stand up better.
F7A:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Athearn-HO-MILW-CMStP-P-EMD-F7A-Dummy-NIB-3017-/280719763031?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item415c33a657

[Doneldon]

foggy-

Be sure to purchase trains which have no small parts which can break off and be eaten or inhaled. This is an important consideration for any toys used by small children. This includes scenery items, bells or whistles on locomotives, wheels, caboose smokestacks, couplers, railings and hundreds of other small parts. Also, make sure that the models you buy have no lead-containing paint. That is a significant issue with most toys, including trains, being made in China. Ideally, major manufacturers watch this, but trains are not designed for unsupervised use by toddlers and pre-schoolers so they may not be as carefully monitored for things like paint or the metals used for casting small parts. I can't overstate this concern. A four-year-old child in my community died last year after ingesting a piece from his older sister's charm bracelet. Apparently the charms contained lead because the bracelets were intended for older children who could be assumed would not chew or swallow the charms.
                                                     -- D

[Len]

You might be able to find some "dummy" FA/FT/F3/F7 cab units around, although they are starting to become scarce for some reason. Speaking from experience with my grandson, for a 3yr old I would stick with cab type power units, without delicate hand rails. 3yr olds like to get 'hands on' with their locos, and most handrails don't hold up very well to that.

As someone else mentioned, you might also want to look at O gauge for a 3yr old. The loco in the Lionel "Scout" set has what's known as a spur gear drive. This means, unlike a worm gear drive, it can be pushed around without hurting anything even when the power is off. Many post war O locomotives are also like this.

If you stay with HO, the first four layouts on this page http://www.atlasrr.com/Code100web/index.htm will fit a 4 x 6 table.

Len

[railsider]

A lot of us "grown-ups" (note the quotation marks) sneer at the Brio wood trains, including Thomas, but that's the kind of thing that draws kids into the hobby. The woodies are designed for kids to push and pummel, without breaking, while they learn about life -- and that includes that things will breaks if you handle them childishly (a lesson some big people never do seem to learn!).

Thomas the Wooden Engine is a great nursery introducer to the fun of trains -- but take the kids (or grand-kids) out to see real, full-scale trains, too. And let them see Dad's or Grandpa's "real" layout, hands off for the first time. If the fever develops, then they can try a throttle, and slowly ease into the edges of the hobby, while still banging about that wooden Thomas.

Once the kid learns that things break unless you're careful, and learns to be careful, it's time for the "real" HO Thomas set, if the spark of model train excitement still burns (you can never predict, it just happens, or doesn't, depending on the child's intricate little individual personality: live with it).

Then once the Thomas infatuation goes by the wayside, replace it with "real" trains (but not expensive ones, not yet). Let the kid have some, but not all of, the input about which train to buy: steam, diesel, passenger, freight. But kkeep it simple, still. Add scenery, then simple building kits. Stress simple, and let the kid do most of the work, regardless of how bod you think the final building looks. The kid (and remember, this could be a boy or a girl!) will see the shortcomings of that first attempt soon enough, and will do better with practice. Just like you did, Dad, long years ago.

At some point, the young engineer will be ready to make his or her own decisions, and if you've done this right, will still ask you for advice and wise counsel. In less time than you imagine, you will have a seasoned model-railroading colleague working with you, and perhaps, if you have taught well, doing better than you, and mzking you so proud you'll cry -- in secret, of course.

Railsider