Hi everyone, long time no speak!
I thought the forum has as I wasn't able to log in, but managed to find it again. Glad the accounts were transferred over
We've been busy, but sadly not so much with trains, as in the past year we only managed to get some layouts built twice :O In short, family life, my business got really busy, we had some building work done. None of that helps with planning something bigger.
So we had one build week in November, where I started getting our younger son get involved more. He had his own smaller layouts to manage, whereas my older son and I managed a line running across the whole room and trying not to crash.
Then more recently in May, we had a go at building one layout, where all 3 of us get some stations to manage, and I control a 3-way junction to send traffic to the boys. It was one hell of a challenge, and it took us a few attempts on separate days to work out a flow that was sustainable. I think the best fun my boys had with trains yet, so a lesson for the future is to build layouts that keep them interacting with each other. Separate lines may be easy and convenient for constant runs, but they aren't as fun and don't help them develop planning skills.
(Link in the next post as it didn't let me add two)
Hopefully with all the building work now finished (at least for another year or two), my work-life balance being revised in the next 6 months, and the boys growing up and being more manageable, we can carry on and build something cool again this summer.
Glad to be back!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_DysqRkyTo
I thought the forum has as I wasn't able to log in, but managed to find it again. Glad the accounts were transferred over
We've been busy, but sadly not so much with trains, as in the past year we only managed to get some layouts built twice :O In short, family life, my business got really busy, we had some building work done. None of that helps with planning something bigger.
So we had one build week in November, where I started getting our younger son get involved more. He had his own smaller layouts to manage, whereas my older son and I managed a line running across the whole room and trying not to crash.
Then more recently in May, we had a go at building one layout, where all 3 of us get some stations to manage, and I control a 3-way junction to send traffic to the boys. It was one hell of a challenge, and it took us a few attempts on separate days to work out a flow that was sustainable. I think the best fun my boys had with trains yet, so a lesson for the future is to build layouts that keep them interacting with each other. Separate lines may be easy and convenient for constant runs, but they aren't as fun and don't help them develop planning skills.
(Link in the next post as it didn't let me add two)
Hopefully with all the building work now finished (at least for another year or two), my work-life balance being revised in the next 6 months, and the boys growing up and being more manageable, we can carry on and build something cool again this summer.
Glad to be back!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_DysqRkyTo
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