CivilEngineer posted:My wife has aesthetic requirements, so the permanent narrow layout will get vetoed. My kid will be 5 when I am ready to give it to him. He needs something low so he can see the action.
Since it is portable, I have the option to move it to a family room for playing. With minimal accessories he can also incorporate his other toys. I've got plenty of open-top cars coming so he can make his own dinosaur train.
It can always be re-purposed as-is to be part of a bigger modular layout and replaced with something smaller if it doesn't work out. I don't mind holding on to the scrap lumber if the whole thing is rebuilt.
This about how I got started back in the hobby.. My younger daughter (about 5 then) took interest in trains, for whatever reason.. She 'discovered' boys and lost interest, but I was 'hooked' again.. Now it's my Grandson's turn.. He always wants to run Papa Neel's trains.. I think I have more fun than he does.. I let him pick out the trains he wants to run and away we go.. Unfortunately, I'm divorced now, but the one advantage there is that I have a free reign of what I choose to do with the trains.. I'm limited only by room size and my imagination!!
