Crafting with Kids

Your age plays a big part in the trains you’ll select. Very young kids may be fascinated by electric trains, but they surely won’t be able to set them up and run them. Many people think that children shouldn’t be given electric trains until they are eight years old or older. I personally think six is a good age to transition from toy trains and battery operated trains to real electric trains.

I recommend GeoTrax to many people with young children because the curves are designed so that no matter how a child assembles them the track pieces will always assemble correctly. It’s the only product I’ve seen that had this capability. With GeoTrax children learn about laying out the tracks without the frustration of having to redo sections of it because the pieces don’t fit right.

Model Railroad Scales

When deciding on a scale, its important to remember, that the larger the number in the proportions the smaller the model will be. For example, HO is 1:87.1, or about half the size of O gauge at 1:48.

If referring to a narrow gauge railroad, it’s normal to see n3 or in the case of O scale there’s “n3″, “n2″ & “n30″ The “N” refers to narrow, and the next number refers to the gauge (or width)

The more popular scales are HO, N & O (more popular to less popular). scales have a larger commercial presence, thus making it slightly easier to locate.

Space becomes a large concern when picking a scale. It’s important to pick a scale that will work well in the area you have. It’s not very smart to choose O scale, if you only have a 1′ wide shelf to use set it up.

You can find lots of layout plans online Model electric train sites and model railroad manufacturers websites are good places to look. If your looking to buy a model electric train, parts and supplies have a look at http://electrictrain.org/.

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