Indoctrinating children

[marknewton]

Speaking of buses, I thought someone would have guessed by now why this bus was an unusual thing to see parked up in Port Kembla.

 

 

It's one of 100 Volvo BM10Ls with bodies built by Fuji Heavy Industries for service at Expo 85 in Tsukuba. The following year 79 of them were imported to Australia. They must have been very well built, because in 2106 over half of them are still in service. The old girl in my photo is used these days for school runs and charter work, and according to a mate of mine who works for the operator, still goes well.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[railsquid]

The Squidlet at the controls of a Shinkansen.

 

 

[Kiha66]

The Squidlet at the controls of a Shinkansen.

 

Looks like he might need a booster seat!  Although as long as he can see the atc I'm sure it will be fine. 

[railsquid]

He's only allowed to drive Kodama services until he can see over the instrument panel ;)

[tossedman]

I've got a budding 10 year old artist on my hands. Noah painted this from a photo in a book that he owns, Rails Across Canada. 

 

[serotta1972]

Me and my 2 year old trainspotting on 23rd St. and below us is the Caltrain Line and above us is Interstate 280 in San Francisco, CA.  She was all excited as we waited for a train but as soon as the rumbling and sound of the diesel engine came near, she put her head down on my shoulder and hung on tightly.  I was able to shoot a video of the train passing by and later showed it to her.  I got some pics and need to figure out how to link the video.

 

 

 

[railsquid]

The Squidlet receives a practical demonstration of the originally proposed freight Shinkansen.

 

[JR 500系]

That E5, is that the one that can combine with the E6 to transform to a robot?  :)

[railsquid]

It transforms to another model of Shinkansen, presumably one with an E-number, but I'm not really familiar with those so not sure which. Unfortunately the Squidlet is somewhat scared of that functionality, I think because it falls apart if dropped and he thinks he's broken it.

[ToniBabelony]

Ah toy trains... Our little destructive man at home has been playing a bit roughly with the wooden train set, which has caused some joiners to crack and break. Now considering buying him some PlaRail, as that's much sturdier and offers more possibilities in building elevated tracks and more complicated layouts (which he seems to like a lot).

 

Yesterday, Odakyu had a family open day at the Ebina storage yard where an Odakyu 4000, JR East E233-2000 and Tokyo Metro 16000 were presented next to each other to celebrate the new through services on all networks. Seeing the TM 16000 up close and having ridden a brand new one, with fellow forum member Densha, a few weeks ago really made me interested in having a model... They're really beautifully designed and constructed trains.

 

Here the little guy is watching an MSE switching through the yard at Ebina while a 3000 Series just left the station. On that day, we also witnessed the Sōtetsu 11003F (Sōnyan) running over the Sōtetsu Atsugi line (JR East Sagami line, Atsugi sta. - Sōtetsu Main line, Kashiwadai sta.). Unfortunately no good pictures could be taken, but it was a pretty rare event and got some people in the waiting line pretty excited.

 

Edited October 17, 2016 by Kabutoni

[serotta1972]

Hey Kabutoni - what's that blue train on the far left?  We are lacking train exposure in my part - we were lucky to see one train go by, on weekends Caltrain run every hour.  Been thinking about getting some PlaRail for my daughter so she stays away from my stuff.  :)

 

@Squid - seeing the tunnel reminded me of many scenes from your layout.

[ToniBabelony]

Hey Kabutoni - what's that blue train on the far left? 

 

That's an Odakyū 60000 Series MSE (Metro Super Express). The only type Odakyu currently has that is allowed to run on both JR Central (Gotemba line) and Tokyo Metro (Chiyoda and Yurakuchō lines). Maybe one of the coolest Ltd. Express trains in existence at the moment, as it can run in 6, 4 or 10 car formations, has a ton of safety systems installed to be able to run on plenty of lines and looks pretty good as well. Then again, there are also the Izukyū trains which virtually also can run on almost the entire Tokyū network (which they do from time to time).

 

Anyway, a few weeks ago we also visited Hakone, where you can wear a little uniform at Yūmoto station:

 

 

Odakyū is maybe one of the most family friendly (big) companies in the Kantō area.

[serotta1972]

Thanks Toni!  Fully painted or stickered contemporary trains are becoming so rare it seems so I get excited when I see one.  :)

[cteno4]

Awwwww! Too cute, I can see poppa Toni popping picks of mini Toni!

 

Jeff

[JR 500系]

Oh that's so nice! Little Toni looks so nice in that Hakone uniform!

 

Odakyu is my favorite Private Rail company... with Kintetsu coming in a close 2nd. Their fleet of romance cars are amazing not only in terms of looks but comfortability and sightseeing as well, especially those with observation decks like the LSE7000, HiSE10000, VSE 50000 etc...  Their commuter trains are fun too, such as the 1000 series, 3000 series, and even comes with their own inspection train the Techno-Inspector...

 

Seems like a fun day to truly 'train-wash' the little ones!

 

*One thing i'm very curious, how is the Mrs. reacting to this; i.e. the train events? I know most women are not into trains so I wonder how the Mrs. would be like at a train event with the Mr. and the little ones... Unfortunately, I do not have little ones of my own nor any train events here to experience this...

[ToniBabelony]

Some train testing. Surprisingly, the Romance Car manages C140-15 curves and combined C140-15 s-curves well! This offers prospects for staging yards.

 

Also, I think the little man has managed to master the Tomix controller before turning three years old.

 

 

The wife likes train events for families, but we have yet to visit a more hardcore event together. What makes tge little man happy, makes mama happy it seems. The man is still a bit too young for an event longer than an hour or two though...

Edited October 22, 2016 by Kabutoni

[marknewton]

*One thing i'm very curious, how is the Mrs. reacting to this; i.e. the train events? I know most women are not into trains...

That depends on the woman. In our house it's usually my wife who organises the railfan outings and activities.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[JR 500系]

That depends on the woman. In our house it's usually my wife who organises the railfan outings and activities.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

Wow cool! You have my envy Mark!  :)

[cteno4]

You chose well mark!

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

Look Daddy, a train!

 

 

(Ignoring the funny black thing) Look Daddy, a...

 

 

 

... level crossing!!!

 

[railsquid]

Well, the Squidlet uttered his first proper word today (as in a properly formed word, not toddler-speak like "mamama dadadada nenenene")... And the word was...

 

Azusa.

 

Yes, the name of a train. Bit of a mystery as it's not a train he's shown much interest in (despite having travelled on it), but it popped up on the Youtube video he was watching...

 

We hope he will develop some more practical words soon.

[Densha]

Hahaha this made my day! :)

[marknewton]

You chose well mark!

That's what she tells me! :)

 

I'm working tomorrow, but Harry and Paula are going for a run on this beastie:

 

 

I think they'll have fun.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[cteno4]

That does deserve the title of beastie!

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

The first public showing of my layout project. My son really likes the elevated part where a bridge will come. The prospect of a moving bus system also got him pretty excited.

 

 

He's become a little bit more like his father...

 

In a few weeks we'll be welcoming PlaRail in the house. Mama somehow is very eager to get bridges and tunnels to play with. I think the brainwashing project is going very smoothly.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Kabutoni