That. Is. Awesome.

" I couldn't convince them to play"

sounds like you need new friends willing to help you work out your operations questions.  :> ) ......DaveB

Brio

I really liked your wooden train exercise. Laughing out loud here

Imagine how much quicker...

Albert Einstein might have formulated his theory of Special Relativity if he had used Brio trains instead of just mind experiments!  Maybe that lessen should be for the next time your daughter is home sick!

Very cool

md (one of the boring Vanrail non-players)

Brio operations

well I knew you were serious...

...we just had really important things to chat about like Vanrail's world domination! Thank you again for hosting us by the way.  md

Too Cool!

  Phooey on those fogeys who passed on an ops session.  I would press on with ops just you and your daughter.  

Toni

You even have station signs

" I would press on with ops just you and your daughter. "

and bake fresh cookies too..........DaveB

I did something similar with my grandson and his wooden train set recently, he even has some neat accessories like a draw bridge, a turntable/round house, a signal tower, etc. so we could set up a quite involved scene then stop the trains at various stations to pick up and drop off passengers.

using the Brio trains

Sir and daughter,My daughters enjoyed as do the granddaughters more than the boys playing with the toy trains and this article brought back happy memories. Our footplate workings sometimes entailed a thirty mile run engine first then return running tender first-even big (to us) 2-8-0 austerity locos. Similar to S160s so if they wanted to run their train tender leading I let them after all they were in charge.The little ones would ask "is it  toy or a model?" depending on my answer the toy could even be played with on the floor. Once their little hands and fingers could hold securely they graduated to models, there was the odd incident but trusting was the most important thing and not breathing down their neck was  very important. Sometimes help if needed was usually in rerailing engines with umpteen wheelsets but practice made perfect. Playing trains with enjoyment was the excercise of the lesson and lots and lots of praise but also if they wanted to mix and match well so be it, it to them was more fun that way.Building dioramas was very absorbing to them as well. I must get some more of these Brio toys now for the greatgrandchildren. There might be a problem though in getting "grandy" up off his knees off the carpet afterwards!Thanks again for the happy memory of sixty years or more ago.James.

Ops is ops...

I have long held the opinion that a good operating session is nearly independent of the layout on which it is conducted.  As long as things work correctly, few derailments or shorts, the rest doesn't really matter that much.  A good operating scheme with prototypical movements is much more important to me than scenery.  The fun of model railroading to me is the modeling of the railroading, not the modeling of the railroad.  It's a verb, the action of railroading.  That can happen in any scale, with or without scenery, even on your wooden toy train.  Ops is ops. 

Randy

Sounds like my first operating session

Just after we moved into our new place I had a piece of my old layout sitting on saw horses and had an operating session with my two oldest kids and my dad.  My daughter was very careful to move the throttle slowly and control the locomotive, my son jammed the control to full speed ahead!  They do play (er, operate) very differently. 

Last night I was showing my layout to a friend and I jury rigged some track to run a couple of engines.  My kids came running and all tested out the sound equipped engine (a GP38-2W) including the 2 year old, with some assistance.  I think I know who my crew will be for the first test run of the new layout before the Trains 2013 layout tour.

brio operations

"They're two they're four they're six they're eight...."  which one's the cheeky one again?

Kids and Trains

A lot of comments above about spending time playing trains with your ((great-)grand-)kids.  As a father, I recognize that the most important thing is that you spend time playing anything with your kids.  But something that many people don't realize is that kids like to play very elaborate games, and real life can inform these games. 

If the real life happens to be operating rules of real trains, then we, as model railroaders, get more enjoyment out of the play, and we're more likely to do it.  Now, obviously, you have to be selective about which rules you adopt -- my five year old can't read a schedule yet, but she does understand about delivering goods from one place to another.  One outcome for us is that most of our Brio layouts are point-to-point, which is not only more realistic, but more fun too!

Thanks for all the positive comments.  I'll keep playing with the wooden trains (and the electric ones), but we're finished with Brio Pembroke now as we had company on Friday night and cleaned it all up.  Anyone want us to try out their Layout Design Element on the next round?

The Brio is Out Again