Indoctrinating children

[ToniBabelony]

A sudden and unexpected encounter with a PlaRail event in the to be closed Seibu Sōgō department store in Tsukuba city.

 

 

Also, a first ride with the only bus line serving Shimodate. Initiated two months ago to Tsukubasanguchi, together with a direct transfer to Tsukuba Center (transfer to the Tsukuba Express), as well as a bus service from Tsukubasanguchi to Sakuragawa. Kanto Railway has been investing a little bit more in the region, which is a positive development. I hope this service will still run in summer, so we can climb Tsukuba-san!

 

[cteno4]

Uh oh Toni, the mini-Toni is going expect this at home! Your wife may have some regrets buying the plarail!

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

Took the Squidlet to Tama Zoo today, and on the way out noticed Keio Railland so took a quick look. I think they should call it "Keio Plarailland", the Squidlet spent a happy 15 minutes examining this layout and would probably still be there at closing time if I hadn't dragged him away.

 

 

Luckily they have proper trains too:

 

 

("Daddy, is it still behind me?") and even a kind of train with a steering wheel and rubber tyres:

 

[ToniBabelony]

Oh dear, I see another one being dipped deep into the PlaRail virus goop.

 

Uh oh Toni, the mini-Toni is going expect this at home! Your wife may have some regrets buying the plarail!

If the man has the wits of his mother, he'll find a way. ;)

[railsquid]

Oh dear, I see another one being dipped deep into the PlaRail virus goop.

 

I see it more as a gateway drug... Though Mrs. Railsquid also seems affected, she keeps texting me asking advice on whether she should buy something (managed to dissuade her from getting something from the execrable "Chuggington" series on offer in the New Years sales the other day).

[cteno4]

You guys are a hoot! Now the wives are infected! Poor little ones don't have a chance!

 

Lucky kids, lucky kids...

 

Jeff

[serotta1972]

My 2 yo daughter joined in the fun tonight.  Now she has an N Scale and HO Thomas train, actually we do. :)

 

 

 

[JR 500系]

I wished I had juniors to take photos with my trains too....   :(

[ToniBabelony]

Yesterday we had a little trip to Utsunomiya to vist another PlaRail event. This time a planned one. The up trip was done by JR where we walked from the JR station to the Tobu department store. There we advanced to the next level of layout building:



The run down back to the grandparents was done partially by Tobu, which has the terminal station sandwiched between the department store floors. Only 8000 series run here and this became a little confusing for the little man, as Odakyu also runs 8000 series. I think he's slowly finding out most companies have this kind of numbering system though.



Running trains is very tiring:



P.s. yes, that is the top-number E501 Series. I think we've already been on that one two times this vacation...

Edited January 25, 2017 by Kabutoni

[medusa]

So cute all these photos...

Remind me to some careless days half a century ago when my grandpa started to indoctrinate me. :)

[railsquid]

The Squidlet (just turned 2) practicing push-along N gauge. The ancient Kato Kuha 103 of no particular value is off the rails in this shot as I needed both hands for the camera, but when holding the tracks and rerailer steady he was remarkably adept at running it back and forth and putting it on the rerailer when it fell off.

 

[enodenlover]

I've loved trains since I was a little kid but I never had any adult in my life to encourage the interest. My father never understood or really approved of my rail fascination; he felt that I should be happy sitting in front of the TV watching a Cubs or Bears game like every other male in the Chicago area.  I envy any kid who's lucky enough to have a "rail mentor" in his life.

[tossedman]

My ten year old wants to ride the Shinkansen. He's planning a trip to Japan. Guess I'd best start saving so we can all go.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

[serotta1972]

My 2 year old always waves when trains go by!

 

 

 

[railsquid]

The Squidlet has that exact same hoodie.

[Sean]

I haven't posted on here in over a year, but seeing these pictures (railsquid,serotta1972 and Kabutoni - those little ones are awesome) I knew I had to re-enter the conversation.

 

My little guy is 2 years old now and has been into trains since he was very small, but his interest has spiked a lot in the past year or so. He is big time into the plarail (and Tomica), though he prefers to push the trains along the tracks himself rather than letting them run on batteries.  Advanced layouts generally end up in tatters in seconds, so we've just got a big loop with the Thomas the Tank Engine mountain as the only scenery. 

 

Unfortunately my own N-gauge layout is now in storage since we moved into a new house in the suburbs last fall and I have decided to wait until he is a bit older to take it out and set it up again.  The plus side though is that we now live near an actual above ground station (as opposed to the subway when we lived downtown) so he gets a lot of time on the train these days.  And as an added bonus our local park has a swing set that has a view of the railway, so he can sit and watch the trains go by while he swings, which is great. 

 

Some highlights of his year in trains;

 

Us trainspotting at Nagoya Station last year

 

He got loads of plarail for Christmas this year

 

Our visit to the Maglev Museum last summer

 

This is the same face I make when visiting a train show

Edited February 14, 2017 by Sean

[serotta1972]

New generation of model railroaders!  :) We got to see some real trains the other day and she kept saying "I like trains".  So great to be able to share our hobby and or passion with our children.

[cteno4]

How many times did you whisper in her ear and whlie in utero "you like trains, you like trains, you like trains"!

 

Jeff

[Sean]

New generation of model railroaders!  :) We got to see some real trains the other day and she kept saying "I like trains".  So great to be able to share our hobby and or passion with our children.

Yes, it is great.  My kid says the same thing.  And when we are going out when we ask "Do you want to go on a train ride?" his response is inevitably "YES!!!!"

 

I have to admit there is a lot of competition out there for trains though - he has really gotten into dinosaurs recently so we are spending a lot of time focusing on that interest these days. 

[JR 500系]

So cool! it's so nice to have little ones with the same interests! After seeing so many little ones in my heart I do Wish I had them too..

 

Just curious, usually how are the Mrs reacting to trains? I would like to hope that because of the little ones the threshold for buying trains have been increased significantly? Something like: "I'm buying this train because junior likes it" etc and usually it would be a much better response than from before without the little ones....

[Sean]

So cool! it's so nice to have little ones with the same interests! After seeing so many little ones in my heart I do Wish I had them too..

 

Just curious, usually how are the Mrs reacting to trains? I would like to hope that because of the little ones the threshold for buying trains have been increased significantly? Something like: "I'm buying this train because junior likes it" etc and usually it would be a much better response than from before without the little ones....

Actually I haven't been able to buy anything for my own layout in about a year.  But the Mrs. is usually supportive of train toy purchases for him and is way more interested in trains than she was before (when her interest was zero). 

 

In fact she actually bought him some plarail stuff all on her own for Christmas (and again at New Year), which was impressive. 

 

When he is a bit older and able to get into N-guage stuff, I think she might join us (well, assuming he still likes trains by then!)

[railsquid]

I finally got round to connecting upper and lower bits of the layout (temporarily at least) which involves the connecting track passing through a bridge/tunnel structure, which the Squidlet is delighted by, he's also taken a liking to this 455/475 EMU for some reason.

 

[railsquid]

So cool! it's so nice to have little ones with the same interests! After seeing so many little ones in my heart I do Wish I had them too..

 

Just curious, usually how are the Mrs reacting to trains? I would like to hope that because of the little ones the threshold for buying trains have been increased significantly? Something like: "I'm buying this train because junior likes it" etc and usually it would be a much better response than from before without the little ones....

 

Yesterday Mrs. Squid came home from what we call the "Potato Shop" (that place with the Golden M logo, Squidlet loves the chips (fries) there) with not one but two Happy Meal Plarail units, apparently she brokered some kind of deal with another mother whose child was not into trains to swap with some kind of stickers...

[railsquid]

Meanwhile the in-laws have dug out these tinplate Kokuden units from who knows where.

 

[ToniBabelony]

Just curious, usually how are the Mrs reacting to trains? I would like to hope that because of the little ones the threshold for buying trains have been increased significantly? Something like: "I'm buying this train because junior likes it" etc and usually it would be a much better response than from before without the little ones....

I got the same question last Saturday at the secret T-Trak meeting actually. Here moms is starting to like trains more and more, partially because of our son's sake, but I think also partially because of genuine interest. Every day she has to remember her ride to work, as our son want to know exactly what type she was riding on (it's usually an Odakyū 3000 type). She also goes trainspotting without papa and even notifies me when she spots something interesting (e.g. the Odakyū Techno Inspector last Saturday), as we as watchin the Suzukawa Ayako YouTube channel on a daily basis (with or without the kid). The indoctrination process is going well.