TrainDad

Toy trains, while still very much enjoyed, are no longer enough.

The munchin must have a model rail­road. A real one, with snow (appar­ently model rail­roads with­out snow aren’t real). He’s will­ing to be very, very patient for it (“this will take us years to make”) but he’s locked on and I don’t think any­thing is going to break that lock. A few days ago he met us at break­fast with the announce­ment that he had started pray­ing that God would let him have a big HO scale Norfolk-Southern diesel engine. At least God has all the details he needs to place the order.

I remem­ber my teenage trial-entry into the world of model rail­road­ing, and I remem­ber one thing in par­tic­u­lar: pric­ing for the whole indus­try is based on the bank accounts of old retired men with large pen­sions. It’s a crazy-expensive hobby, par­tic­u­larly for a 5-year-old, and not one I really have any desire to pour money into right now.

But know­ing how per­sis­tent this kid is, I’m plot­ting strategy.

I’ve got challenges:

1. I’m broke.
2. I have no spare time.
3. Our house has no extra room.

But I’ve also got a few things on my side.

1. Munchkin is patient. Unlike most 5-year-olds. It’s okay if it takes us a year or two to get started!
2. Munchkin is eas­ily sat­is­fied. An oval on a piece of wood will do, at first, land­scap­ing not manda­tory. No brass engines required.
3. I’m pretty clever at things like this.

Since I have some time to work with, I have the lux­ury of being able to watch clear­ance sales at the dis­count web sites and local stores. And I just found this: a $15 engine!

I’ll keep you updated.