Lionel Trains & Childhood |
JANUARY 2002
Many of us who enjoy the hobby of railway modelling as adults had a fascination with trains, full size or miniature, as children. Untold thousands of us were introduced to this pastime on Christmas morning, when a new Lionel train set appeared under the tree.
I confess that I had several things on my hobby agenda as I headed into the holidays. There was a structure to finish for Al Lill (see last month's topic). With several days visiting relatives on tap, I packaged up several boxcar kits to pass the time. After arrival home on Boxing Day, I was looking forward to a solid week of building models and laying track.
Well, I laid track all right, but not only the HO scale variety. My digression began on the night of December 27, when I innocently set up a loop of my old Lionel train set (received in 1968) in the vicinity of the Christmas tree, for the amusement of our 20-month-old son Spencer. When I saw the thrill he experienced in watching the engine roar around the oval (and in taking the throttle), my mind returned to the wonders of my own childhood and similar thrills. And then I began to ponder...
Why not build something a little more permanent involving the Lionel equipment? After all, the little guy was excited about this new-found old toy, and goodness knows I am not thrilled with him playing with my resin cars and brass locomotives on the layout downstairs. I further confess that, for a very few hours, I toyed with the idea of dismantling my HO scale layout, disposing of all my equipment, and starting anew with Lionel and MTH equipment. The wave of madness passed, and I staggered back from the edge of that abyss. Nonetheless, I wanted to build a toy train layout.
The solution revealed itself in the construction of a new layout underneath a portion of my existing HO scale effort. In one day, I built open grid benchwork of 1x2s, topped with 7/16 poplar plywood painted green, supported on the wall and L-girder legs (similar to the construction of the HO layout). Two days later I purchased and laid brand new Lionel track, and the train began roaring around (it was hilarious to see the look on the face of fellow HO-scale modeller Dave Love when I headed for the cash register with a pile of Lionel track). The Lionel train layout stands at 24 inches off the floor, and is about 12 feet long in the shape of a dog bone, with one long double-ended siding. I figure that Spencer will have at least two years of enjoyment before his head starts scraping the underside of the front profile boards above.
There are a couple of things I have learned from this experience. Firstly, it is wonderful to back away from the seriousness of the hobby once in awhile, and just do something for the fun of it. Secondly, I have discovered in the first twenty months of fatherhood that a hobby is not all that enjoyable if it removes me from the wonder of experiencing my son's early development. Building a layout for him ensures that we will spend more time together, and I may even get some more modelling time in! I encourage any other young fathers (or grandfathers) out there to consider this possibility.
Ian Wilson
January 7, 2002
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