Kids will be kids, and large groups of kids will be thundering herds of rhinos.
I don’t worry about my own kids and the trains. They’re old enough to know how to handle and respect them. (Both have their own they’re welcome to run at any time.) When I have visitors over, I have no trouble handing the remotes to kids. They enjoy learning how to run them. I do try to enforce the “stay on the grass” rule when kids are around, It’s not the easiest rule to enforce because my kids are used to being able to walk into the interior of the railroad when there are no other kids around, but a gentle “stay on the grass, please” seems to work.
My biggest “issue” is the kids playing with the figures and details I set out. But I set these out knowing they’re “kid magnets.” I have every expectation that my log piles are going to migrate around the railroad or be picked up and loaded onto passing flat cars. My hoppers invariably get filled with rocks and ballast.
Ya know what? I did the same thing when I was their age. I filled hopper cars with rocks. I stood over the tracks to make “tunnels” as the trains passed under my legs. I don’t discourage that behavior, because it’s how kids play with trains. I do keep my eyes open to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand (which it occasionally does.) I’ve got a fairly small railroad, and it’s easy for me to keep my eyes on the train as it’s running around the yard.
The reality is that I’ve broken far more things just running myself than the kids have, so if “having to fix stuff” was the litmus test for who got to run the railroad, I’d had to have hung my transmitter up long ago. I’ve also found most parents of kids who visit the railroad (especially the ones not involved in the hobby) are absolutely paranoid that their kids are going to break something, and keep them on very short leashes.
Public shows tend to be a different ballgame. There’s not that personal interaction between the railroad host and visitor that occurs when someone visits our back yards. The advantage there is that there’s usually some kind of physical barrier (a rope or similar) where those minding the display can politely say “please stay back.” And usually there’s a fairly safe buffer zone between the ropes and the trains, so one has to reach pretty far to do any damage. But there’s also a lot more people to watch, too. The problem is that often times, the club members are huddled in in the back corner talking among themselves instead of working the ropes, interacting with the viewers. It’s been my experience that such incursions into the display are far less frequent when there’s someone engaging the viewers at the ropeline. Maybe it’s that 1-on-1 interaction that’s akin to visitors in our back yards.
There’s no excuse for bad behavior, but there’s also a need to strike a distinction between what’s “bad” behavior and what’s “inherent” behavior in a particular situation. I’ve heard many railroad tour hosts complain about the kids running around their yards and around the trains. My question to them is often–perhaps not quite so bluntly–“what did you expect?” Kids don’t like museums where you just walk around and look at things behind glass cases. There’s nothing wrong with “don’t touch” rules for your garden railroad, but they’re not going to create an environment where kids’ imaginations are captured. Kids like to “do” far more than they like to “see.” The kids are going to look for alternative creative outlets while they’re there. And who knows what that outlet might be…
Later,
K
