Conversation Starter for the phrase, “Little Toy Train.”

I like it, and I agree.  The LC+ is a great little toy.  

I liked the article, too.

Doesn't bother me....I see it as a term of affection.

It's an accurate description of the "Toy" Train.

Little toy trains, little toy tracks
Little toy drums coming from a sack
Carried by a man dressed in white and red
Little boy, don't you think it's time you were in bed?

Sorry Gary, I just couldn't resist.  One of my favorite songs.  One year, I bought all my sons an LGB starter set for around their Christmas trees.  I also bought each of them a little toy drum.  It was a great Christmas.

Bob S.

Sounds like you are trying to have it both ways.  If you are the type who always proclaims "these are just toys", then you have to take the full characterization that goes with it.

I doubt you'd ever see someone review the Vision Line Big Boy and use that phrase to sum up its description.

Gary, I agree with you:  It just sounds demeaning to my ears.

I was brought up with this term. Not disparaging in the least to our hobby.

No matter how close to scale, how well detailed, or how expensive they are still just toys.

Since this is the O-27, high-rail and traditional O-gauge trains forum I don't have an issue with the word "toy" to describe our trains. Along with the tinplate forum, this IS the toy department!  LOL

Post your question over on one of the scale forums and the answer will no doubt be quite different. 

I didn't see anything negative about the comment, nor any hidden agenda in the review. If anything, it may have been meant in a tongue-in-cheek way. But I didn't find anything disparaging about it either, and I am a traditional 027 guy.

Aside from a very few exceptions, the 3-rail hobby was TOY trains for 95 years. If you weren't happy with that, you probably went to HO, which many did. It's only been the last 20 years, and in particular the last 10, where the scale offerings have become as impressive as they are.

While some call them all toys in principle (and maybe they are), I agree that an accurately proportioned, detailed and painted train is far more a model and much less of a toy. They're still all train and all representations. But you can't argue that some are far more accurate representations than others.

It's still a great time to be in the 0 gauge hobby. And given how SMALL the 3-rail market really is, we need both the traditional and the scale offerings for the overall financial health of the train makers.

I don't know what else you would call it but a toy, regardless of its $5,000 cost.  it's surely not a necessity or an investment or even a luxury.  Toy fits perfectly.  

According to Webster:

toy

So I have to agree with C W (and Webster) here. No matter how you cut it or how nice they are, they are all something to play with or something for our enjoyment and they are small (smaller than the real thing anyway), a.k.a. toys. That term does not bother me at all.

I agree they are great little toys regardless of price. 

I was more intrigued by the use of "Lashup" in an OGR magazine article followed by the author pointing out the non prototypical features on the Burlington GP7 #1596. Oh the irony

I concur with those saying it's no big deal.

Whether it's my Phantom Set, or my new Cab Forward Daylight, they are all toys to me.

I'm not a child.

quote:

A $5000 koh's steamer is very detailed.  If you consider it a toy, then you truly are in the upper stratosphere of wage-earners.  The rest of us don't have that luxury.

I don't understand how the affordability changes based on the label we affix to the item.

My US Mail Lady, dropped off, O Gauge Railroading, Run 277 Today Feb. 27th.

     The first article I read was Product Reviews by George Brown.

As always an excellent review by George. I am planing my 2015 Model Train Budget and have added this to my plans. It is not a done deal but after reading the review and going to the MTH Web Site, it is on the list.

     Below is what I found at......

http://mthtrains.com/11-6054-1

http://mthtrains.com/11-80050

  Click screen shot to enlarge. 

I'm a college student, and it's a toy. Price doesn't change that. Models are a kind of toy. My Camaro is a toy. Might be expensive, but it isn't a necessity, it is a toy.

I consider all my trains as toys.  I used to have a Mini Cooper that I also considered as a toy.  I never needed it, but I always wanted one.  When I could afford it, I bought one. It was fun to drive, and I used it when I wanted to have fun driving.  When I got too arthritic, it wasn't fun anymore, and I got rid of it.  Toys are something you buy to have fun with, no matter your age.  You buy them for your children in hopes that they have fun with them.  You buy them for yourself so you can have fun with them  This can include just admiring their detail, scale, paint, or actually running them on a layout.

The layout can be the top of a ping-pong table, a carpeted floor, or a highly detailed miniature recreation of some part of reality.  But, in the end, it's not reality, and you can't actually ride in the toy train to get from point A to point B, so it is a toy.

Some folks just can't admit that these are really toys, and not methods of transportation.

It's my opinion, and that's that.

quote:

That's because you are much more affluent than the rest of society and cannot see the difference between a toy and a high-priced model.  This is why this hobby is disconnected from the general populace.

 

Be glad that the dollars make no meaning to you.  You are blessed.

guess I am going to need to change my signature line...

Having come up through the ranks from HO and N, where our trains are MODEL trains, I think that George was indicating that the LC+ locos are non-scale locos and are Little Toy Trains (though compared to N and HO not little at all), whereas George would not use that description on the Legacy Big Boy, which is clearly not little, and is also a scale model.

Little toy trains is just fine for our semi-scale trains.

Model train is a more accurate term for true scale and highly detailed model trains in any scale/gauge.

Don't do it, there's no truer signature on the forum.

Our sir name used to be "Rodgers" but we ran out of dollars and had to drop the "d". Affluence has nothing to do with perception.

Hmmm....  Must be time for our periodic 'cruise' down our favorite river.

Ahhhh.....That's better!

This made me LOL... seriously!  

I have a lot of "toys" that cost WAAAY more than my toy trains.  They are still toys... I could live without them.  I don't consider the term derogatory whatsoever.  I'm more inclined to call scale equipment "model" trains, but I still call them toy trains from time to time.

Don't

Let me put this in another point of view 

What is a $133,000 yacht a rich mans toy what is a $ $1,000,000 Ferrari a rich mans toy what is a $2000 train engine a train collectors toy train which goes with his model train collection  

Models were something I built as a teen, like Monogram 1/24 scale hot rods. Other static miniatures like airplanes and ships are models too. They are too delicate to be handled much. A model is something you build from scratch our a kit, not pull out of a box and run. That is a toy.

I used to scratch build the rolling stock on my On30 layouts. Those were models. The O gauge, ready to runstuff I have today are toys. As I get older, I find it more fun to play with toys than to build models.

However, I did build a free lanced model of a prewar tinplate electric locomotive. It cost very little to build, but since I built it, it is a model,not a toy. The train it pulls is made of toys though. 

No likee.  I should have known better than to clickee.  This topic may be the most pointless of the last twelve months.  I suspect cabin fever is to blame.  Time much better spent playing with your trains. . . er, I mean operating your highly sophisticated model railroad devices in a prototypical manner.

Pete