Model Railroading > Morning Maintenance

Haven't had much time to work on my trains lately, but this morning was quiet for once so I was able to knock out wheel upgrades and coupler replacements for the Greenville hoppers I picked up from eBay earlier this year, and finish a Walthers autorack I've had for some time.  I used the Intermountain 33" wheels on the hoppers, and the 28" wheels on the tri-level autorack, Kadee #5's are my default.  My apprentice carmen were very curious to see what I was working on this morning, and they were super helpful carrying everything back down to the layout.  Hopefully we can do a test run tomorrow.  My layout progress is slower than a tortoise, but it was nice to spend a little time on stuff this morning with my kids.

Nathan

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Lots O fun!  Kids learning about upgrading rolling stock too!

Your boys have that sparkling look in their eyes that says they are interested in whatever Dad is doing. They are at that age when their lifetime values and interests are starting to form over the next several years. Great that you are exposing them to our fascinating hobby which can lead them to learn a number of skills (We model railroaders are mighty handy at many things,  just ask one of us!).

When my two sons were that age, I built a little 2 step platform that allowed them to stand, hold onto a handrail and see my HO scale layout. They learned to handle the throttle and understand some basics about railroads. They loved to show their friends the layout and point out special things of interest. Now as grown men, they still enjoy checking out my layout when they visit, but neither became modellers. 
  

That's awesome Nathan, and I'm a bit envious if your Granite Rock hoppers!

It's interesting Westbound, of my two older boys, the one will come see what I'm up to like tonight, while the other one is very into trains and wants to build a Lionel collection.  And I got to show my niece and nephews the layout today and let them run trains for a few minutes.  I've still got a ton of things to fix, we had too many hiccups.  But they sure enjoyed it!

Nathan

ChrisCampi Wrote:
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> That's awesome Nathan, and I'm a bit envious if
> your Granite Rock hoppers!

I'm chuckling Chris because I've been working on finding those for a while now, got lucky on eBay earlier this year and was able to final snag those three.  Some day they will be appropriately weathered.

Nathan