Is Santa Working on Repairs/Returns... or Next Year's Line?

Be very careful with this as my access monitors (bad actors, anti-virus, anti-adware/spyware detectors) will not allow a connection. Something not good lives at that address.

Something's wrong with your equipment, then, it's just an eBay pic... loads up fine in Firefox 1.0...

Rob

_All of them_ (:

Thanks for the neat picture! I returned to church after about 35 years away. And this one in my new neighborhood, well can you imagine that there was no one there who was familiar with model trains?!

Although I model in HO, I put together a really neat G scale train and set it up under the church tree. And it was a sensation. It was so fun to see the little ones interact with the train. Including the gray haired pastor, down on his hands and knees and having as much fun as his smaller charges.

The surprising thing was that an eleven year old girl provided the most extraordinary help in getting the train set up and further, taking care of it and running it during the month it was there. I say "surprising" because I am of a generation where only boys played with trains.

And the Saturday I brought it in, she was there helping her Dad set up for the next day services. But her eyes locked onto the box I was carrying, and when I set it on a table she said "I will help."

The train is a beautiful LGB Christmas set, and she took out the box of track and quickly figured out how the sections go together. We set it up on the carpet, and she figured out a problem with a troublesome coupler, which I was able to fix. And I showed her how to hook up the wires to the power pack.

Then it was time to set up the track under the large tree. I am at an age where I was not looking forward to crawling around on hands and knees. But she just dived right in and put the track together, hooked up the power, and ran the steam loco around, and checked for clearances, and adjusted all the branches that were in the way. While she was doing this I replaced the plastic car wheels with replacement metal ones. I had thought that this whole project was going to be a big job. But when I was done with the wheels, she was done with the setup.

You know its' really nice to have unexpected, really good help (:

She put the train together, and arranged all the little toys and trees that I had brought to put in the hopper car. Much better than I would have done. You know I have forgotten how kids are and how they do. It was a joy watching her expertly manage the train layout. She said "I love model trains." I asked her if she had a model train, but she said "No." I asked her is her parents had a model train, and again she said no, but talked about an uncle who had worked for the railroad, and had a large train layout which she remembered.

I told this story to a friend who has been in my basement, and he somewhat sarcastically refereed to "all my surplus trains." I said "they're _not_ surplus!" But that got me thinking.

The next Sunday I spoke to her Dad, and said that I could probably put together a nice set for her, but he said that they were inspired by her love of the train, and that her aunt was going to give her a set for Christmas.

She got the set, HO, and I was happy to learn that it was not going to be a Christmas only set up. She had it set up and running and I had given her some extra trees that were not needed for the church train. And I remembered this group's wonderful contributer Thor and his web site. "All Gauge Model Railroading Page"

And made sure to tell her that the best fun of a train layout is building a little town with buildings and roads and scenery. I downloaded and printed all of Thor's building models and gave her parents the link to the site where they could get more copies. Her Dad said that she loves making projects like this. She is currently adding buildings, one by one to her "town." Using cereal boxes for the cardboard backing.

So I hope the group will enjoy this story. And perhaps remember when they were little (like me) and an older person got them involved with this wonderful hobby. And isn't this something that a "girl" has found so much fun with this hobby in 2004.

Very Best Regards,

Robert Arlington VA

Thanks for sharing you experiences, Robert. Very enjoyable.

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad:

History of N Scale: Railroad Bookstore: 's Books and Toy Trains: to 1,000 sites:

in article snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Robert at snipped-for-privacy@nospam.net wrote on 1/12/05 18:27:

Robert,

That was truly a sweet story!

Dieter Zakas

I dunno, but that test track must be something. Santa doesn't seem to feel the draft from those two tunnels that have to lead outside into the snow.... {|;-)

Richard Albuquerque

I think something is wrong on your end. There is nothing wrong with the site.

ChrisGW

I disabled two adware/spyware programs to get a look at this. I don't know if that's "wrong" but certainly something is set a little on the sensitive side.... Harumph!!!