This is very shocking news that made me very sad today. My 5 year old son just called me at work to tell me two older boys he knows from school were over and they ran my trains while I was out. In his own words "they ran them really fast and now they don't work anymore."
I asked him to put Mother on and asked her why she let strangers at the trains without calling me. Then I asked her if she's going to pay for any damaged units. And here I was itching to go out and spend more on trains. LHS here I come!
All is Ok. I returned home last night to find the locomotive and some of the other wheels on the train slightly derailed. When you applied voltage nothing would happen, hence the kids thought it was broken.
I fear the same thing happening. I have a very destructive 4 year old grandson. I am presently building an HO layout in a big room but on the floor I am putting a Lionel O scale so that he can run it when he wants and not bother my stuff. John Hubbard
Why would you cancel your train-buying visit to the hobby shop??? You didn't make the mistake of telling your wife that they're okay, only just derailed????
You had her on the ropes and you let her go!!!!
Had you played this right, you could have new trains AND old trains - not to mention some residual guilt on her part that could have been parlayed into all sorts of additional benefits.
At 4 years old, why not just get him a Thomas the Tank Engine set? That seems a lot more age-appropriate. Why risk even Lionel (both for his and its sake)?
(1) Why don't you make up a couple of "kids throttles" - with a reduced top speed. Not too slow, but just slow enough to not take off curves. For an analog throttle you only need a handful of parts and you can build it in different easy-to-use variations ;-) There are lots of howto's on the WWW, even some with throttles for kids and/or disabled persons (e.g. just two buttons "right" and "left")... Put your real throttles on top of the cupboard ;-)
(2) I'm not sure I understand the "train on the floor" thing right - do you mean the train hitting the floor because of your kids throwing it? Or just because of a derail? If it's the latter, just install "rock slide protection nets" along the rails or beneath the rails. For example, on your below-the-layout-return-run, just install a net on each side. Attach the net with hook'n'loop band or just use small nails - so you can open it if you need to. On the scenic'd part of the layout you can still disguise the net as a fence or just mount it beside the layout so a train will hit the net instead of the floor. While not possible everywhere, you may be able to protect your trains from the worst...
(3) If you've got small kids (larger kids are the same, just harder to fool), giving them a toy train will only work so long... Just build a portion of your layout (if it's large enough) specially for your kids, have them place the houses (paper or lego houses and out-of-scale cars or dinosaurs - Ahhhh), have them paint the base board (yeah, I know, lilac lawns and blue roads...) and so on. Also try to have a connection to run your trains over the kid's portion of the layout, or their "Harry Potter train" on your part of the layout. But one thing - take care that if they break something they'll not get a replacement right away. Make them either take part in repairing it or live without it for a while, so they'll learn the value of not destroying things ;-)
Why not just wire up the "kids throttle" to house voltage? When the rug rats put their grubby little paws on it they get the snot zapped out of them. Betcha they don't touch it again!
Locks on the door to the train room. I wouldn't let the little curtain climbers anywhere near expensive railroad equipment. Let 'em play with Tom the Thomas Choo-choo whatever in their own damn room! They can make mountains out of diapers, ballast out of dried food crumbs, grass and brush out of the mold growing on the dirty dishes under the bed. It can be set in an oil refinery type setting to explain all the obnoxious odors in the room.
What do you do when they run your expensive brass Big Boy locomotive off the rails onto the floor or crash it into another loco, just for the fun of it?? Noooo way. Build a bullet-proof plexiglass wall around said layout with armed guards with orders to shoot any one that puts so much as one jelly stained fingerprint on the glass. THAT will teach those crumb snatchers not to touch the big people things!
Prosecution of an adult for dereliction of duty is hardly the same thing as beating a defenseless child, -although an overweening sense of entitlement may be present in both cases.
Bush obviously thought he was entitled to take a little time off from the military whenever he felt like it, just as many children -and their parents- feel that they're entitled to an automatic "A" in any course where they've usually attended class.
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