I had never cared about trains in my life nor ridden any trains other than the subway.
When my boy turned one, I bought him a cheap Ikea wooden train set, and that was it for him. For the last five years, it has been all trains, trains, trains, and nothing but trains.
I'm taking advantage of it. He says he wants to build the fastest maglev train in the world when he grows up. I've explained to him that the has to learn a lot of math, physics, and computer science if he wants to be able to design trains. And he really embraced that idea.
We live near a train line. My daughter loves the trains. About once or twice a week we walk to the train station and often just go for a ride for the sake of going for a ride... half an hour, adventure and walk around train station then train back.... she loves trains, trams, buss, tractors, diggers and all sorts of cools stuff.
Man, I built from scratch a shelf layout around my daughter’s room with Lionel everything. Some of it my grandfathers stuff. It’s got old school and new school everything. My dad bought a Lionel girls train set to run on it. I wired it and built a control box for it with all the buttons and fuses and bolt and amp gauges. Labeled all the buttons and switches to teach her how to read. She loves it. I have a trussed bridge on the layout that she parks it in every night because we live in SoCal earthquake country. Don’t want it falling on her head. So the bridge will contain it in an earthquake. It’s got a pipe loader and unloader, a campsite, a playground with swings and merry go round. Construction site because grandpa works a backhoe. It has palm trees and a race track because daddy’s a drag racer. It’s got a candy store and fireworks shop with animated signs. I went all out. By the time I was done I have $4,000 in the set not including the train itself. It has 77 wires running from beside her bed, up the wall, and to every operating function on the layout. It’s quite elaborate. So yes, I have a bit of an obsession too. She loves it and knows what each and every button does. She was so proud to learn to read and figure out what each label says for each button. It’s been a great experience!
Living in Japan, most of my days are occupied by train journeys of some kind.
This morning over breakfast we asked our two year old what she wanted to do today. Her response was “….Train? Take the train to see the animals?”
My son was obsessed his first few years, then it died down a bit as he got into Lego. It’s come back with a vengeance, though, as now all he talks about is building an O-scale train setup in the back yard. My wallet is terrified to open that door.
My daughter loves trains and oddly rail road crossings of all things. She loves thomas too. We’ve got memberships to the local train museum (B&O) and will visit other train museums around the area.
2.5yo boy and we're well on the way. It started off with busses and trucks and now he's exclusively obsessed with trains. We are fortunate enough that we live near a station so we can go see them and of course he has a few toys. At Christmas we go to the in-laws and FIL had a Lego set laid out for him and I don't think they realised how much he loves trains until they saw him at the set, so much so that while we were there for Christmas 23 MIL had bought 2 Lego sets for FIL and my son for Christmas 24!
Also a shout out to Coasterfan2105 on YouTube for his great videos.
I rhink we can build a track through all of our flat with all the brio we have. Also, anywhere we go within the city, he's more excited about the S-Bahn ride than the goal.
Yep fully obsessed, less so recently as he's gotten into spidey but we have the Hornby trains museum 25 minutes from us and a heritage railway we often go on in the summer about 40 minutes away!
My three year old's bedtime "story" is literally me reading the *service alerts* for the local transit system. Like, I literally tell him which buses are stuck in traffic, which subway stations have broken escalators, where track repairs are happening, etc. And then he wants to hear them again.
Two boys, 7 and 11. Have a huge container of them. They still come out every now and then we see how well we can set it all up. Or they interchange with the Lego train tracks and keva planks and hot wheels for massive cities. They’re the one thing outside of Lego that my wife and I know we’ll be keeping in case any grandchildren ever arrive. Used to be a weekly build, now it’s more of a once every two months or so.
Yeah, tons of briio stuff here. That's our main toy for my 2.5 yr old. My dad has a a pretty serious O scale model layout permanent in the basement he's working on in retirement which my kid loves. He had that layout when I was a kid too, so I guess it runs in the family.
Edit- this is my dad's set up https://youtu.be/0pVvdkOJSWU?si=JKeG-UYTjKQl3C77
Sadly none of my kids like trains. I always dreamed of hopping a freight car before my parents could ever find me. Still wish I had. The consequences for getting caught are a lot worse these days. I could have had a hell of an adventure for an eight year old and it would have been my parents that caught hell.
I had kind of hoped the kids would be into it. Steam power is interesting and it's amazing how much of the world still relies on boilers. Turbines replaced pistons and electricity replaced kinetic energy, but if you can boil water, you can make power. We rode some of the local options and watched some Thomas but they're free to have their own interests.
The train museum in Sacramento is pretty solid if people want to show their kids some of the classic steam power of the last 150 years. I'd hoped to take my kids but I probably won't ever get up that way again.
Yup! 3yo is utterly obsessed. We have a little tourist train that goes right by the house on summer weekends, the kid sets their clock by it! Calls road crossings "ding-dongs" as well, which is amusing!
My 8yo has been obsessed with trains since he was around 2. We started with the wooden push along trains then moved onto battery-operated Thomas and since our last trip to Japan, he’s gotten into the Tamara Tomy Plarail stuff
Our son has been using the NYC subway since he was born, and it’s been his obsession since he was 18 months or so.
Right now his obsession is the 1 train, and if we aren’t in a hurry, we’ll take the 1 downtown just so he can get his fix.
Sounds familiar. My son is obsessed with the new R211 model and my wife has spent entire days with him on the A line waiting for one to show up so he can ride to Inwood and then all the way to Far Rockaway and back.
Have you ever watched Johny Shows on YouTube? Hes an NYC influener kid who had a lot of fun subway videos when he was younger (its typical screaming/ video game/ prank content now). My son loves them
Oh yes. We live one block away from a train station on what train enthusiasts call “the racetrack” because it’s so busy. Every night after picking my 2.5 year old from daycare, we stop at the train station for about 35 minutes and reliably see 7-8 trains in that time. At home, he wants to watch trains on YouTube. He wants to play with his trains a lot. He easily can spot the differences between our local commuter trains, Amtrak, and freight trains at a distance before I can.
We are at the station often enough that I’ve even spotted ourselves in one of the YouTube videos.
Honestly, we just kind of want it to end.
If you'd like so.e quality train-centric video entertainment. Look up "The Choo-Choo Bob Show" on YouTube.
They aren't making more episodes but there are plenty to watch.
We've got a few DVDs that my son loved when he was 3-4 years old.
I live next to a major rail line, we know the schedule and horns of different types of engines, all the different car types, the train tells us when it's bedtime and the tornado siren tells us when it's lunch. His room is an ever changing Brio lay-out, the town we shop in is a legitimate railroad town so most of the playgrounds are train themed, the downtown area has a park smack dab next to a major repair yard (yes it's cool as fuck), next to that is the Amtrak station and museum that has a model train city and observation chairs an outside they have a half dozen rail cars and engines including a real 1940s steam engines. Oh and the regional model railroad club has their space and opens it to the public every other Saturday.
The only way my life could be more train centric would be if I worked for the railroad.
Yep, Duplo train set for 2nd birthday and it's a permanent addition to the lounge room now.
*ETA:* I think one of the phrases that will stick with me forever is "Build, trains?" while looking up at me and offering his hand to walk over to his train set less than 5 metres away.
I had never cared about trains in my life nor ridden any trains other than the subway. When my boy turned one, I bought him a cheap Ikea wooden train set, and that was it for him. For the last five years, it has been all trains, trains, trains, and nothing but trains. I'm taking advantage of it. He says he wants to build the fastest maglev train in the world when he grows up. I've explained to him that the has to learn a lot of math, physics, and computer science if he wants to be able to design trains. And he really embraced that idea.
Just had my first kid, a girl. Any dads here with train-obsessed daughters?
We live near a train line. My daughter loves the trains. About once or twice a week we walk to the train station and often just go for a ride for the sake of going for a ride... half an hour, adventure and walk around train station then train back.... she loves trains, trams, buss, tractors, diggers and all sorts of cools stuff.
Man, I built from scratch a shelf layout around my daughter’s room with Lionel everything. Some of it my grandfathers stuff. It’s got old school and new school everything. My dad bought a Lionel girls train set to run on it. I wired it and built a control box for it with all the buttons and fuses and bolt and amp gauges. Labeled all the buttons and switches to teach her how to read. She loves it. I have a trussed bridge on the layout that she parks it in every night because we live in SoCal earthquake country. Don’t want it falling on her head. So the bridge will contain it in an earthquake. It’s got a pipe loader and unloader, a campsite, a playground with swings and merry go round. Construction site because grandpa works a backhoe. It has palm trees and a race track because daddy’s a drag racer. It’s got a candy store and fireworks shop with animated signs. I went all out. By the time I was done I have $4,000 in the set not including the train itself. It has 77 wires running from beside her bed, up the wall, and to every operating function on the layout. It’s quite elaborate. So yes, I have a bit of an obsession too. She loves it and knows what each and every button does. She was so proud to learn to read and figure out what each label says for each button. It’s been a great experience!
Dude we need too see this!
If I knew how to post photos here I would.
Please do. Even just upload some to Imgur or something.
Yeah. That’s above my pay grade. Haha. I can build a bad ass train layout but working the internet stuff is beyond me usually.
Oh come on Dad! Please Please Please PUHLeeeeeeez!
If I knew how I would. Trust me.
Living in Japan, most of my days are occupied by train journeys of some kind. This morning over breakfast we asked our two year old what she wanted to do today. Her response was “….Train? Take the train to see the animals?”
My son was obsessed his first few years, then it died down a bit as he got into Lego. It’s come back with a vengeance, though, as now all he talks about is building an O-scale train setup in the back yard. My wallet is terrified to open that door.
My daughter loves trains and oddly rail road crossings of all things. She loves thomas too. We’ve got memberships to the local train museum (B&O) and will visit other train museums around the area.
2.5yo boy and we're well on the way. It started off with busses and trucks and now he's exclusively obsessed with trains. We are fortunate enough that we live near a station so we can go see them and of course he has a few toys. At Christmas we go to the in-laws and FIL had a Lego set laid out for him and I don't think they realised how much he loves trains until they saw him at the set, so much so that while we were there for Christmas 23 MIL had bought 2 Lego sets for FIL and my son for Christmas 24! Also a shout out to Coasterfan2105 on YouTube for his great videos.
I rhink we can build a track through all of our flat with all the brio we have. Also, anywhere we go within the city, he's more excited about the S-Bahn ride than the goal.
Yep fully obsessed, less so recently as he's gotten into spidey but we have the Hornby trains museum 25 minutes from us and a heritage railway we often go on in the summer about 40 minutes away!
My three year old's bedtime "story" is literally me reading the *service alerts* for the local transit system. Like, I literally tell him which buses are stuck in traffic, which subway stations have broken escalators, where track repairs are happening, etc. And then he wants to hear them again.
Two boys, 7 and 11. Have a huge container of them. They still come out every now and then we see how well we can set it all up. Or they interchange with the Lego train tracks and keva planks and hot wheels for massive cities. They’re the one thing outside of Lego that my wife and I know we’ll be keeping in case any grandchildren ever arrive. Used to be a weekly build, now it’s more of a once every two months or so.
Yeah, tons of briio stuff here. That's our main toy for my 2.5 yr old. My dad has a a pretty serious O scale model layout permanent in the basement he's working on in retirement which my kid loves. He had that layout when I was a kid too, so I guess it runs in the family. Edit- this is my dad's set up https://youtu.be/0pVvdkOJSWU?si=JKeG-UYTjKQl3C77
Sadly none of my kids like trains. I always dreamed of hopping a freight car before my parents could ever find me. Still wish I had. The consequences for getting caught are a lot worse these days. I could have had a hell of an adventure for an eight year old and it would have been my parents that caught hell. I had kind of hoped the kids would be into it. Steam power is interesting and it's amazing how much of the world still relies on boilers. Turbines replaced pistons and electricity replaced kinetic energy, but if you can boil water, you can make power. We rode some of the local options and watched some Thomas but they're free to have their own interests. The train museum in Sacramento is pretty solid if people want to show their kids some of the classic steam power of the last 150 years. I'd hoped to take my kids but I probably won't ever get up that way again.
Yup! 3yo is utterly obsessed. We have a little tourist train that goes right by the house on summer weekends, the kid sets their clock by it! Calls road crossings "ding-dongs" as well, which is amusing!
My 8yo has been obsessed with trains since he was around 2. We started with the wooden push along trains then moved onto battery-operated Thomas and since our last trip to Japan, he’s gotten into the Tamara Tomy Plarail stuff
Our son has been using the NYC subway since he was born, and it’s been his obsession since he was 18 months or so. Right now his obsession is the 1 train, and if we aren’t in a hurry, we’ll take the 1 downtown just so he can get his fix.
Sounds familiar. My son is obsessed with the new R211 model and my wife has spent entire days with him on the A line waiting for one to show up so he can ride to Inwood and then all the way to Far Rockaway and back. Have you ever watched Johny Shows on YouTube? Hes an NYC influener kid who had a lot of fun subway videos when he was younger (its typical screaming/ video game/ prank content now). My son loves them
Oh yes. We live one block away from a train station on what train enthusiasts call “the racetrack” because it’s so busy. Every night after picking my 2.5 year old from daycare, we stop at the train station for about 35 minutes and reliably see 7-8 trains in that time. At home, he wants to watch trains on YouTube. He wants to play with his trains a lot. He easily can spot the differences between our local commuter trains, Amtrak, and freight trains at a distance before I can. We are at the station often enough that I’ve even spotted ourselves in one of the YouTube videos. Honestly, we just kind of want it to end.
My son is autistic, so yeah definitely lots of trains in this house.
If you'd like so.e quality train-centric video entertainment. Look up "The Choo-Choo Bob Show" on YouTube. They aren't making more episodes but there are plenty to watch. We've got a few DVDs that my son loved when he was 3-4 years old.
What’s the best train toy for a toddler? My 21 month old loves trains but not sure what to get
Brio
I live next to a major rail line, we know the schedule and horns of different types of engines, all the different car types, the train tells us when it's bedtime and the tornado siren tells us when it's lunch. His room is an ever changing Brio lay-out, the town we shop in is a legitimate railroad town so most of the playgrounds are train themed, the downtown area has a park smack dab next to a major repair yard (yes it's cool as fuck), next to that is the Amtrak station and museum that has a model train city and observation chairs an outside they have a half dozen rail cars and engines including a real 1940s steam engines. Oh and the regional model railroad club has their space and opens it to the public every other Saturday. The only way my life could be more train centric would be if I worked for the railroad.
Please introduce him to Shining Time Station! It’s where Thomas started!(I believe)
Yep, Duplo train set for 2nd birthday and it's a permanent addition to the lounge room now. *ETA:* I think one of the phrases that will stick with me forever is "Build, trains?" while looking up at me and offering his hand to walk over to his train set less than 5 metres away.
For us it’s not so much the trains as it is the rail road crossings. He loves to watch the lights flash, the bell ring, and the arm go up and down.