A quick fact not known by anyone outside of immediate family is that I love toy train sets! Willie, my father-in-law, has an excellent room in his house that is devoted to trains. About ten years ago, my mother bought me one for Christmas and I never had a place to properly set it up. When Willie started his train room, I got the opportunity to set mine up as part of his room. We had fun placing the track, wiring up the switches and enlisted Virginia to decorate and paint the scenery. Anyway, my train was removed from the room about a year ago as the layout grew to a point that three complete sets (Yes three, and they all worked!) no longer fit. For non-train enthusiasts, a layout is something that is never complete. There is always scene changes, re-routing of the tracks, additions, subtractions, and the work goes on and on. To continue, I unpacked the train a couple weeks ago and somehow the power cord for my transformer didn’t make the trip to Texas. After a few minutes on the computer I managed to locate the nearest Lionel Train dealer and the trip was planned.
Last Saturday was Shealyn’s turn to go on a “special trip” with Dad, so she and I got in the truck and headed off to the hobby shop to buy a new cord. Upon arrival we both walked around the store with eyes bulging out of our heads and mouths open taking in all the train stuff. The bad news is that Lionel has discontinued the transformer that came with my set, including replacement parts! Bummer, the good news is that the salesman was more than happy to set me up with a brand new transformer that is now the standard of all Lionel Trains (imagine that!).
We got home and got the train going and to my suprise, Shealyn was very interested in the whole operation! I showed her how to run it, including the whistle, and she immediately tested how fast it would go! After we got the train and cars back on the track I attempted to show her the finer points on speed control through the corners and she only derailed it a couple more times before she realized its limitations. I enjoyed watching her work it for about ten minutes before we were called to the table for dinner. At this point I didn’t think much of her interest.
Fast forward a week… today I am sitting at the kitchen table and I hear the train running. I get up and walk out to find Shealyn laying on the floor running the train. I crawl onto the floor next to her and start talking with her about the train and learned that she plays with it almost everyday and has gotten quite good at it. She shows me how she likes to blow the horn and points out interesting little facts she has learned about the operation of the train. I have to admit that I was impressed with her insight.
I think the fact that a train runs near our house several times a day has had some influence on her curiosity, but I am most excited that her and I share this interest. We have already started plans to expand our basic little layout to include more track and even some switching stations. Hopefully her interest doesn’t fade and we can share in this hobby.
The Conductor and His Apprentice
As you can see, I have only set up the most basic layout, but we are going to expand. Unfortunately, we have to keep it fairly simple as it is not a permanent setup.
Keeping our eyes peeled!
Have a great week!
( Trust me, I was trying to hold it together because #1 I didn’t want my kids to see me like that, #2 who wants that to be the new teacher’s 1st impression of a crazy mom and #3 I didn’t want to scare any other parents or kids. It just didn’t happen! Carter’s teacher looked right at me and said, “mom, I’ll take care of him and love him!” Yep, gonna like that one. Somehow, I managed to bring my emotions into check and have a short civil conversation with her and I think Carter will have a good year! After he dispersed his school supplies (there was a list) around the room per her directions we ventured on to Shealyn’s room. 
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