Suggestions to make your layout "kid friendly"?

When my children were very young I had two, bar stool height, chairs that they sat in.  This gave them a good view of the layout and I had a row of buttons that they could press to make the horn and whistle shed's sound off as well as other accessories.  Now-a-days I use DCS to run a scene so I can talk to visitors while the trains operate, buttons for my grandchildren to press will be added to this layout as well.

Not sure if you have legacy or TMCC but if you do and want to add buttons like the post above (good idea by the way), you could add a big red button. I'm 25 and enjoy that button way too much I'm sure a kid would also!

Would your layout accomodate a route where you could run a Thomas? My layout is more designed around my young visitors - my kids - and Thomas and his friends are predominantly featured. There are a few stools, each with their own transformer. 3 is a tad young to do much...

We built ours at a "kid-friendly" height of 40 inches, based on the Tinplate Trackers height standard. This was determined based on the average height of small children. At that height, the ones most likely to touch the trains can't normally see them unless they're too far back to grab them. The ones that can see them up close are [usually] better disciplined and won't touch them. We've only had a few train-touching incidents over the past 15 years. It also helps that we have some operating buildings with fascia-mounted push buttons for them to play with.

I have also considered hooking push buttons up to accessories for visitors to push. I have a few air whistle accessories that I might do that with, while also wiring it to my control panel so I could operate it if I want to.

Your wife's suggestion isn't bad, and in this day and age of Craigslist, you can get quite a lot of Thomas stuff for cheap.  Even the Goodwill store often has it.

 

Based on my 18-month-old's reaction at the train store, he was appropriately fascinated by the MTH O-gauge stuff when I was holding him, but when I placed him down, he gravitated towards the small (2'x2', if that) loop of Thomas/Richard Scarry wood railroad track.  I can't imagine that would cost much more than $40-50 to build and put on a kid-sized table.  He played with that happily for about ten mins while I talked to the shop owner.

 

Alternately, you could cut some keyholes into plexiglass pieces and affix a couple of screws in the front of your layout so that you could quickly drop plexi in front of things to keep touching at a minimum while still allowing visibility.

Michael, Here's what I have done since first sharing the layout w/ children, back in 1995. I can't say this works for everybody, but it has been one hundred per cent effective for my wife and me:

First of all, as you can see in these photos, I wanted adults and children to have intimate access to the trains and the environment I had crafted. Thus, six mainline tracks run right along/very close to the edge of the layout for nearly the entire length of the aisle along its perimeter, all very much within physical reach, and certainly affording visual access.

 

Secondly, for smaller children, I provide the tall stools you see here. We reverse them so the backs face the layout, giving the children, who stand or kneel (w/ pillows added) onto them,  depending on the child's size,  a railing to hold onto and steady themselves. We rarely have had more than three children at a time visiting the layout, which we feel keeps them focused on what their always-attentive parents have to say, as well as on the trains, and not focused on playing w/ other children. Plus, they each seem to want to talk to me as the trains are running, so I have a better chance of paying them the proper respect and undivided attention when they are fewer in number. Also, attentive parents are key to the whole welcoming. I have wanted everybody to feel welcome to touch the layout. They have all done so w/ restraint and care, without exception, to date.

 

Thirdly, since I only run my TMCC engines (ten at a time) when we have guests, I sound the whistles every time a train approaches where a visitor - adult or child - is standing along the layout's edge. Sounding the whistles has been sufficient to warn of the approaching trains. I began doing this because I noticed, early on, that even adults got engrossed at what was there for them to see and would lean onto the nearest track to peer inward to see farther.

 

 

The aisle is along the rightside of this scene, 2" from that locomotive on the right...

 

 

 

...the aisle continues along the rightside of this section (you can see a corner of the green fabric skirting in the lower right corner...

 

At this point in the layout, when children seem to want to touch a train, which is right at their noses, here, I stop it and invite them to do so. I want them to have fun, not feel cut-off from the trains...

...as a result, all of us have the chance to play, the adults and the children alike.

Frank

I left a space in foreground of layout that is simply flat ground covers.  I have a bag of plasticville houses and barn, figures, animals and a few cars.  I set the houses up and let them play with these while trains are running on this space if they want to do something.

The whistle thing that Frank uses works well also

 

There are lots of ideas, but first and foremost is keep it simple, with play value. Remember, a child's idea a fun running trains is different from most adults.

 

Some suggestions of things I've done:

 

-Place interactive accessories that need hands on cooperation near the front of the layout, easily accessible. Place continuous operating accessories, like the Lionel operating billboard (which changes from one sign to another by itself) or the rotating beacon light tower towards the back of the layout.

 

-Make sure you have some roads for kids to move cars and trucks. The Williams by Bachmann E-Z Streets might be worth looking into for added action.

 

-Make things movable for the kids to change their minds. I've take trees (the types with molded bases like the Lifelike trees) and glued them to a brown painted metal washer. the washer adds weight so the trees don't fall over, yet are easily moved from one place to another.

 

I've also taken styrofoam insulation board and cut it into various shapes, painted it green on the top and grey on the sides to simulate rocks, and buildings can be placed on these to give the flat layout board a little more depth. They can also be moved or removed if the kids want some change.

 

-Kids love to push buttons. I've wired operating track signals, like the Banjo Signal to a button instead of some sort of track activated trip. There's an advantage to this on a small layout that the signal doesn't turn on every short lap, but also the kids get to participate, even younger ones that might not be running the trains, can still activate an accessory.

 

-Action train cars are always fun. The spring dump cars are afforadable put stick with the log cars versus the coal. If the coal is accidentally spilled in the wrong place, it makes for a mess. The cure for this is I've used orange juice caps that are cut in half in place of the coal. Yes, the colorful cap load is a little unprototypical, but kids don't seem to mind and is it much easier to pick up that load if accidentally dumped in the wrong spot.

 

Also simple train cars, like flat cars and gondolas which are easily loaded are fun. Keep your eyes open when at the toy section of stores. There are many toys that are easily adaptable to your train layout. I took a farm tractor toy that had a trailer with an operating conveyor belt, adapted it to mount on to Lionel trestles, and now I have an afforable and popular with the kids way to drop a load into a waiting gondola. Here, the cut in half juice caps work perfectly. Small wood cubes (available at craft shops) work great too.

 

-Adults very typically want to superimpose their ideas of building the layout and running trains over the kids ideas. It should be a joint venture that is about both fun and learning. Like sounds and and slow train running are big with adults. One affordable idea for sounds is the MRC Sound Station, which I have. For one price of $50-$60 you get horn sounds, whistle sounds, crossing bell, engine bells, a conductor, rumbling sounds of trains on track, diesel idle sounds, etc. No, it's not on par with Lionel Railsounds, but it is very affordable and easy to install with push button operation... again a real kid pleaser. And when there's more than one child at the layout, it's a good thing to have multiple things each child can participate with.

 

-Simple speed control. Most of the newer current Lionel and RMT engines I have need a little more power to run than similar locos of a decade ago. But I still love the postwar Lionel 1033 transformer for being a perfect kid-friendly power source. The A-U and B-U settings to the track differ and can be changed easily to compensate for the power needs of the engine. A K-Line MP-15 or S-2 runs great on the B-U setting of 0-11 volts to the track. It will run slow and yet will not fly off the track. A newer loco or a postwar/MPC loco that needs more power runs fine on the A-U setting of 5-16 volts, which will make other locos like those K-Line ones, run like speed demons and potentially be flying off the train layout.

 

There are a few suggestions. There are certainly others. Check out www.thortrains.net for others.

 

 

Frank ,

All I can say is WOW. One day I'd like visit  that layout of yours in person. I promise to sit in the chair and be a good boy.

I had a little one over the other day and you really have to think about them being there. In several places my track comes almost to the edge of the table.
Little bitty fingers can be seriously injured if an engine like a Big Boy runs over them.
I ask his mom to pick him up because we were talking but I explained to her why.
I do want to move the button for my MTH fire house from the control panel to right in front of it for kids that come over and he played with the gantry crane and that was big hit.

Another one that seems to be a hit at my house is the PS2 brill trolley with all the station stops and the dialog that goes with it. The kids seem to really get into that.

David

My strategy has been to let them play with select equipment on my test loop.  This is an O72 FasTrack oval that is on a carpeted basement floor.  It is about 7x11.  I can quickly hook up (or disconnect) Legacy/DCS or both.  I usually run conventional for the kids.  I have an NYC diecast steamer and a pretty good collection of non-fragile rolling stock.  I am not picky about what runs together.  Older kids get to pick the cars.  My Z-4000 is a big hit because the kids love the handles.  The whistle button is usually "discovered" right away.    I let my niece "run" the throttle when she was only about 2 1/2.  I provided another hand to prevent it being maxed out but she was happy.  If I have a derail, I turn off and unplug the Z4K because even a 5 year old quickly figures out where the "ON" switch is.  I explain this is a "safety" thing.  Using this approach, derails are not a problem.

 

If it is a more mature crowd (notice I didn't say "older") I will show them the nicer stuff.  If the "adults" try to derail the train on the floor, I'm not likely to trust them with the stuff on the layout.

 

Getting some second hand Thomas stuff sounds like a good idea - both the wooden and Lionel.  My nephew played with the wooden trains at Greenfield Village for at least an hour before we pried him off to go do other stuff.

 

Michael, I see upon seeing Moonson's photos and re-reading your post, you are wanting to make an adult layout more kid-friendly.

 

I'm impressed with Moonson's layout, and while I admire his efforts to make the layout viewable by kids, it seems to me to be more of an adult kind of layout. I highly doubt kids will be reaching onto that layout to move cars and trucks around or see if they can beat the train across the track. But that's just my take on it. It looks like far too nice and detailed a layout for young hands to be reaching on to. At the same time, that doesn't mean kids don't enjoy seeing it.

 

But I suppose there is a difference between layouts that encourage kids and layouts that kids can actually participate and play with. I have two layouts: one that is mine (not that kids can't enjoy that one, but it is far more detailed in the vein of the above photos) and another much simpler layout that is more like the layouts many of us had as children. That's the layout most of my above ideas were used on. And while kids enjoy MY layout, they have much more fun on the layout that is geared towards their playing with.

 

Certainly a well detailed adult kind of layout can have some of the things popular with kids, like operating cars and accessories, sound effects and even adding something along the lines of a Thomas train to the locomotive roster.

 

Also when parents view the two layouts, they can see the advanced state of my layout while also seeing the place where they can start their kids. And seeing the simple techniques I have applied, they can see that the hobby is not as unafforable as the more complex, detailed layout would have them believe.

My layout, at 27" high, has a number of pushbuttons mounted in radio shack "project boxes" mounted to the front apron.  They control:

 

Whistle/horn - I opened up my Z-1000 and added a set of wires parallel to the built-in horn button, so they can blow the horn without hitting the other Z-1000 controls

 

Lionel Track Crew - repairing a track right near the edge of the layout

 

Lionel NH Scrapyard - same as above

 

31" loop of Realtrax with 1 segment isolated center rail...a push of the button energizes the trolley (or short train) on the track and it makes one loop then stops and waits for the next button press.

 

31" half-loop of Realtrax with bumpers on each end and an isolated center rail.. a push of the button makes the bump and go trolley go out, bump and return, then wait for the next button press.

 

A pushbutton controlled siding with an MTH aquarium car... inside lights and goes round when button is pressed.

 

... and a few other pushbutton controlled accessories, like oil pumps, transfer dock, tug of war, kids on swings, etc.

 

Kids know "no hands on the layout", but press all the buttons they want!

 

Ed

 

Ed,

 

These are great ideas!  Give them buttons to press that do things and that are protected against overloading whatever the "action" is.  Nice.

On the Glancy modular layout, there are buttons distributed around the edge and our members can plug in operating accessories to be activated by them.  The kids really like those.  Other than at the "Day out with Thomas" display we had at Greenfield Village, I haven't really seen too many incidents involving touching of the trains, it does happen though and we expect it.

 

The one funny story I remember about that was when I first got my Lionel JLC GG1.  A locomotive that weighs almost 9 pounds.  I was running it on the outer line and at a pretty good speed and I think a kid must have gotten his ear too close to the track and well.... he wasn't real happy.  I've been more careful about my speed with it since then

Can't be of much help since my kids, then grandkids, neices and nephews were/are not "grabbers". IMO, if their parents can't have them "look but not grab", I'm not interested in being "politically correct".

Do you really think having a few buttons to push (which I have, BTW) will keep a "grabber" content?

My layout was designed with my Grandchildren in mind.  I have many Lionel accessories and in past layouts I had them operated by TMCC/SC2's.

 

This time around I placed all the control buttons within easy reach of little fingers.  All the manual reloadable accessories are placed around the edges for easy access.

 

When they 'fire up' the layout all the lights come on, the oil pumps begin their clanking, the hobo village comes alive as well as the playgrounds, aquarium, etc.  Their eyes light up.

 

I begin a few few trains and the button pushing commenses.  Favorites are the Nuclear Reactor, Horse and Cattle corrals, Ice Station, AF Barrel Loader, Gantry Cranes.  Oh, what am I saying, they like them all.

 

Here are pictures of parts of the four sides of the layout.

 

I fitted a rheostat so that I can reduce the voltage in the electrified razor-wire fence that rings my layout, from 'lethal'  to merely 'stun'  when smaller visitors are present. (Only joking!)

Our main table heights are 40" and 36". We are building 12" high plywood walking surfaces with gradual ramps for the kids. As they get older we can lower the floor or remove it all together.

Good idea Pops!   I built my layout  low (27") because I was worried about an excited kid walking right off a stepstool.

 

NQDY - when I saw rheostat, I was expecting a "lower the max voltage" plan to keep the trains at a workable speed with kids at the throttle.

 

Ed

 

It's not an adult hobby, no matter how old we are or how much we need to pretend that it is.  Get over it.  Have plenty of pushbutton accessories and, when there's kids over, run cheap trains.

 

Pete

Some very good ideas here. I really appreciate it. Texas Pete, I understand what you are saying but when you pay $650 or more for an engine then it becomes and adult hobby.....

What is it, then?

Get over what?
I will admit, however, that pretending is a big part of it.

 

1.  Fun.

2.  Get over living in denial and the need to refer to this hobby as "adult." (Whatever that is. It appears it may have something to do with the price of our trains, LOL!)

 

My feeling is, there wouldn't be so much protesting that toy trains are an "adult" hobby if most folks didn't know, deep down inside, that it's real appeal is to their inner children.

 

Pete

I built my Texas theme layout for all kids in mind both young and old.  I have Lionel Cab-2 which is easy for children to operate, even setting speed limit on trains.  When my grandchildren or other younger kids are operating trains my larger more expensive engines are on the display shelves and the one's I have for younger operators on on the layout.  Simple and no problems.

 

TEX

Steve

I am looking forward to the new Lionel Thomas set with the simplified remote control. I understand it can run on the same track as legacy, and the Lionel rep thought it would be compatible with DCS. My five year old grandson had a chance to platy with it at York and seemed to really enjoy it.

 

 

The Thomas remote has less buttons and is simpler then the Legacy, TMCC or DCS controller, meaning the child is less likely to push the wrong button, especially that enticing large red "Emergency Stop" button.

Richard, I agree with you on the age group relating to Thomas trains.  For them I usually switch over to conventional, still using Legacy handheld, a Beep or Lionel motorized unit which run slower, and they love the "BIG" red knob on the Cab-2.  In conventional they can push all the buttons they want and it will not hurt anything.  I give a few simple instruction for the older kids using Legacy and they have fun with the Quailing whistle, auto switching, etc. and soon operate the trains better than I can do.  My Legacy handles everything with all ages just fine.

 

TEX

Steve