Saturday, November 9, 2013

Taking pottyTRAINing too literally


    So O finally decided he was ready to start using the potty a couple of weeks ago, on a Friday afternoon while still at daycare.  That first weekend was a little rough -- he only made it IN the potty once over the whole weekend.  The washing machine was begging for mercy!  So we decided to raise the stakes a little bit and offer bribes incentives for making it to the potty.  Luckily, I already had a stockpile of inexpensive train engines that we had purchased at Cracker Barrel, intending to use as stocking stuffers.  Perfect!  And they have worked a little too well.  He was happy to earn a blue engine for his first #1 in the potty.  As soon as he had snatched it from my hands, he said, "I need a new train car to go with my new engine.  Right, Mom?"  Riiiiiiight, kid -- get back on the potty!  He has since earned a red engine for his first #2 on the potty.  Currently, one more new engine is on the line for his first day of no accidents.  You can do it, O!

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Restaurant Review: Bagger Dave's



It  turns out we can’t go ANYWHERE without ending up on some train-related adventure.  Take this last Saturday.  After going to see a local theatre production, we decided to stop at Bagger Dave’s  (map) at 86th and Michigan Indianapolis for lunch.  We’d never been there before and our good friends Brad and Brittany had heard good things about it.  Bagger Dave's is a chain with locations in Indiana, Michigan, and Missouri. 

When we first walked into the restaurant, a giant old train signal greeted us.   Score!  As we looked around, the wall was adorned with old black and white photos which included pictures of trains.  A stained glass window had a nice train image that got the kids' attention.    The train theme was further extended into the children's coloring place mats and stickers.   And the best was yet to come.

After we sat down and ordered, it wasn’t long until a model train chugged by over our heads!  Similar to the arrangement of the Whistle Stop in Monon, IN, this place has a model train on an elevated track that moves by quietly right over your head!  It circles around the room before disappearing briefly into the bar area and then emerging in the dining area just a moment later.  I couldn’t tell you what size train it was, but it was a large model train, larger than our O scale Lionel at home.  The kids went wild when they saw the train.  As the train moved around the two rooms, the kids would eagerly follow it.  In the above picture, you can see my son in the lower right corner, eyes glued to the train.

The dining experience was so-so.  The French fries were great, but the burger was not exactly memorable.  I could not bring myself to spend $5 on the milk shake.  They also offered micro-brew sodas rather than your standard commercial fare, and my root beer was fine but not memorable.  For our dinner for 3 (the kids split a meal), we spent about $40.

In the end, I would give them an A for good service, A- for train friendly atmosphere, a B- for food, and a C for the price.  You can get better train action at Pizza King, better burgers at (that place downtown, look it up), and better prices for similar quality with a Hardees ThickBurger (not to mention a Steak-N-Shake for half the price of burger and almost half price for shake).  Oh, and they get an A for being child friendly. Nice wide aisles allowed our kids to roam and follow the train, combined with spacious handicapped restroom stalls with changing table (which facilitated recovery from a potty-training incident ).
 
Train-friendly atmosphere: A-
Food Quality:  B-
Service:  A
Price:  C
Kid-Friendly:  A
Changing tables:  Yes
 









Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Raymond Loewy train in Google doodle



https://www.google.com/

Have you all seen today's Google doodle?  It is celebrating Raymond Loewy's 120th birthday.  I didn't know this, but he is considered the father of industrial design.  I wish we could take the kids to see this engine!

Book Review: Chugga-Chugga Choo-Choo by Kevin Lewis


Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

We have collected a lot of train books along the way, and we have checked out even more books from our wonderful local library.  Our kids can find the train in any book -- even those that aren't focused on trains.  O loves My World by Margaret Wise because it has a train in the background of the last page.  Whatever keeps him interested in books is fine with me!


I thought I'd start by reviewing some of our favorite train books.  Chugga Chugga Choo Choo by Kevin Lewis (illustrated by Daniel Kirk) was the best impulse buy I ever made!  I spotted it in a museum gift shop and bought it without even opening it, and it has become a family bedtime favorite.  This is a board book, light on text and heavy on beautiful illustrations.  Our 1- and 3-year-olds both love it right now, and I expect we’ll get another year or two of heavy use before they outgrow it.  The story follows two dolls as they play engineer on a train in a boys’ bedroom.  The two dolls look like father and son, and I think our daddy’s boy likes to pretend that he and Daddy are out on the rails together.  In the end, we say goodnight to the dolls and the train goes to bed with its owner, a sleeping boy. 

               
The words of the story have a nice, soothing rhythm that is perfect for bedtime.  The illustrations are pleasing to the eye and provide lots to talk about (“what are they loading into the car?  Does that bridge cross an aquarium or an ocean?”)  This book makes a great addition to any train-lover’s collection! 

 

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Train Toys 101

by David

The number of brands and different “gauge” (size/compatibility) of tracks makes building up your child’s train track collection from scratch an overwhelming challenge.  When we started out, we had several misdirects and learned some lessons the hard (and expensive!) way.  I hope I can save you some time and some money by sharing with you some of the lessons I learned.  This particular post will not be all-encompassing, but there will be more to come!
Today’s post will be focused on starting up your train track collection. These are the major considerations.  After “Choosing Track Type”, all other sections are focused specifically on the Wooden Railways.

Choosing Track Type


Choosing the “gauge” of your track and then following it consistently is perhaps the most important decision you can make.   In our early days of train toy collecting, we bought anything that looked fun and assumed it would all be compatible.  It's not!   Even within the Thomas brand, there are several gauges to choose from.  The different gauges I am aware of include:  Wooden Railway, Take-n-Play (plastic), and TrackMaster (plastic, with motion).  Of course, it's easy to tell the difference between a wooden and a plastic track, but it is more difficult to tell the difference between the train engines and cars.  They are close enough in size that looking at a picture online will not give you enough information to determine compatibility, so you have to look for subtle clues.

Take-n-Play gauge track


 






http://amzn.to/1av9LOa

TrackMaster gauge



Wooden Railway gauge
 

The method of connection for each track type is different.  As you might expect, this means the trains you buy for the track are also different.  Each type has a slightly different tread width (width between wheels).  If you are trolling Craigslist, again, look for the subtle clues to show you which track type:
 


Take-n-Play trains


http://amzn.to/1aROdYh

Wooden Railway trains





http://amzn.to/1aROBpL


TrackMaster trains

http://amzn.to/HlZE1p


The wooden railway and Take-n-play trains are the most deceptively similar.  Both have magnets for coupling and fully functional wheels.    I ended up with a set of each because I couldn’t tell the difference.  But if you look closely, the wooden railway engines have round magnets and larger wheels.  The Take-N-Play have little cube-shaped magnets with rounded corners.  Their tread width (width between front wheels) is narrower, and their wheels are smaller.
I don’t have much experience with the TrackMaster, but from what I can tell, they are easier to tell apart.  They are slightly larger, have a cheaper finish, and feel less dense. I am pretty certain these are not compatible with GeoTrax, but edits are appreciated!


Brands and Compatibility


There are numerous brands out there.  Doug and Melissa, Orbrium, Thomas, and Chuggington are the more common brands we’ve encountered.  The good news:  if they have the rounded magnets they are almost always compatible (mostly).  Generally the tread width will be a perfect match.  But on some of the trains the height of the magnets may not line up perfectly, but they will still couple up just fine (and they are slightly more likely to uncouple if you let them go free down a hill).  In the case of the Chuggington trains, the trains are much taller than virtually all of the other brands. They will work just fine on your Thomas train set provided you don’t have any short tunnels.   Most wooden trains seem to be about 2” tall, and we have some that are 2.5” tall.  I think the Chuggington trains are 3” but we don’t own any.   On my custom built track, I started learning a little about the needed clearances.  Generally a tunnel needs to be least 3” tall, adding at least another inch if you want a Chuggington train (I haven’t measured for Chuggington).  3” should accommodate the track plus the train.

Tips for Building a Wooden Railway


Having some idea of what to expect when building a railway may help you avoid unneeded purchases, especially EXPENSIVE unneeded purchases.  You will have a myriad of things you CAN build into your track:  hills, curves, junctions, roundhouses and other buildings, scenery (such as trees or little people), signals and signs, and of course the trains.

Hills


A standard hill seems to be about 2.5” from “bottom to bottom”.  If you plan to have any elevated track, that 2.5” is enough to fit most trains (plus the track which runs underneath) “just barely”, but only if the elevated track spans between supports rather than resting on top of a structure.  If you get a slightly taller train or you try to do something like cross under another track  with the bottom of a hill, then you are likely to have interference issues.  You can expect to have at most a quarter inch vertical play if you want to try to shim something to make it a little taller.  In a future segment, I’ll talk about how to easily build hills to a custom height.   Until then, if you are planning your own custom hill, what I have discovered is 6 inches may be too tall, 2.5 inches is too short.  4 inches is probably about right.

Straight Track


Fortunately, there’s a lot more “play” in lining up tracks side to side.  Any given track piece has a certain amount of side to side play to allow to tracks to line up and join.  The amount of play varies brand to brand, but generally it will be about 5 degrees.  What does that mean?  It means you don’t have to get out protractors and compasses to lay out your track ahead of time.   You can just have fun following your imagination in building a track and count on having enough adapter pieces of various sizes to “make it fit”.  Sometimes the fits will be tight, sometimes a little loose.

While we are talking about making it all fit, perhaps the most important rule you can follow is to have a lot of different size pieces, particularly the straight runs, have lengths as small as two inches and male-to-male and female-to-female adapters, you probably will need at least one for every “line” on your track. 

Turns


Virtually every “turn” piece I’ve encountered covers a 45 degree arc, so you always need two pieces to make a 90 degree turns.  There are generally only two different 45 degree arcs:  a small and a large.  They have a different radius, but they both cover 45 degrees.  Both are useful, the narrow radius is great for tight corners, but the larger radius is useful if you need to turn at the bottom of a hill and you don’t want a runaway train to derail


Wooden curves, different radius, but same 45 degree arc

 

Junctions


Junctions, oh are they ever confusing!  They are the most common reason you need the male and female adapters.  Referring back to Figure 3, that 90 degree “T” is the most valuable piece you can buy in terms of versatility.  The other 45 degree junctions are great, too, better for tight spaces.

Price Hints


Finally, let’s talk about MONEY. 
The really short answer is:  $100 ought to get you a nice used starter train set including table, track and some nominal trains.  For this price, expect some wear on the table and maybe even the tracks and minor blemishes on the trains.

This can be an expensive hobby.  Craigslist is the friend of the cost conscious.  Much of our collection has come by swooping in on our friends who decide to sell off their trains, stalking craigslist (during the early build-up phase), and just by lucking into something at a yard sale.  Your best bet is to know what something costs “new” so you can decide if that used item is of value.  A 2’x2’ off-brand train table (very small) will run you about $90 new, deals aplenty for $60.  A more common 40”x60”-ish train table will run anywhere from $100-$300 depending on how fancy it is and what pieces come with it.   Amazon is a great place to comparison shop prices.  Individual straight and curve track segments cost $1-2, while that most valuable “T” costs around $8.  If you are at a yard sale and you see a box full of pieces, if you can pay less than $1 a piece, I promise you have gotten a good deal.   Our best score was a 40x60 table with a full set of trains, tracks and bridges for $40 at a yard sale.  New brand name trains run about $10-20 each, and off-brand trains that kids would still like can be had for as cheap as $5.

What do our kids like?


How much quality can you sacrifice in buying used pieces?  In our experience, the kids don’t notice the condition of the track.  They don’t care about the wood color, and they would only notice pieces that don’t fit well and cause derailing or decoupling.  They DO care about the trains they get.   While they will play with the cheapest train engines, they seem to prefer the ones with some detail, even if that detail is painted.  In the attached picture, which do you think the kids would prefer?  At first, I thought I had to get the Thomas character engines, which can run as high as $20 (new).  My kids never play with these.  They also tend to shy away from the cheap wooden engines with no detail.  My kids would much prefer the middle engine to the other two.  My son’s new favorite engine cost $5 at Cracker Barrel and is similar to the pictured middle engine (he strongly prefers steamies to diesels though).  I think in general, our kids also prefer the trains that have “features” like articulating wheel assemblies, smooth turning wheels, maybe even lights or whistles (we don’t have any of those -- yet!).  Anything which will allow them to run the trains a little faster or be able to push them and let them go a ways on their own definitely makes them more desirable.


Which do you think the kids prefer?  Ours prefer the middle one

Bringing it back to the station


In summary, while there are an overwhelming array of choices and the prices can bust even a robust budget, if you do just a little preparation you can buy more track which will allow you (and your child) more opportunities to build custom tracks.  And it is the building of new tracks and then playing in those new configurations that our children have found the most fun and I have found the most rewarding.  So that’s my final tip:  if you think you need to screw down your tracks so they don’t move, I would suggest against it, or at least not the whole thing.  Allow yourself extra track and the ability to re-arrange the tracks so your creativity can flow!

All aboard!