My 16 month old son has recently become crazy for trains. He knows about 12 words, and choo-choo is one of them. How could a dad that enjoys trains resist an opportunity like that? My family has a train history. My great grandfather and my dad both work on the Illinois Central. My dad used to run Lionel trains with us, and I have a set that has been around longer than me! It isn't anything special, it is a 71 Lionel 8142, but sentimental value etc. My wife and I used to fiddle with n scale about 8 years ago, but we didn't have room to build that layout and it got packed away. Dad also sets up some nice HO trains every year at Christmas. This holiday season, my boy Alex suddenly started talking about choo-choo's. I think he picked it up at daycare. So we watched a little Thomas and Friends, and he loves it. It isn't to bad for a kids show from a grown up perspective either! So I put the old Lionel up around the Christmas tree, and he was hooked. He'll just sit on my lap and watch the train. It is fantastic. So I unpacked the old N scale, am in the process of building a small bench for it, and just bought him the Lionel Thomas set on ebay. I found the 3 cars for a good price, since I have track and transformer, so here we go! As a bonus, we live in Altoona, PA, one of the railfans mecca's So we have a lot of opportunities to go watch choo-choo's when the weather is nicer.
Sounds like you've got it made - and maybe the Lionel will turn into an heirloom or at least a family tradition! Glad to have you along.
Welcome back into the "World's Greatest Hobby", and to the TrainBoard. I hope you, your wife, and your son enjoy a long life with trains, and we look forward to sharing it with you.
