Trains

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Anybody here like to talk about trains? I have an 11 year old son who needs to connect with someone who shares his interest.

I like trains, but I only really know things about the trains in my city- timetables, different types of trains, and so forth. I know nothing about train engines and such things.
I am 22 years old, so he may or may not want to talk to someone closer to his own age.

Trains? That fits within my sphere of interest.

Just a bit. Have a look at:

http://www.picturetrail.com/emettplus

I have a garden railway and a portable exhibition layout.

But "Trains" is a big, big, field. I'm not much into diesels and electrics, steam is the real thing and the more eccentric the better.

And I'm in the UK, so not much up on the American scene.

What's your son's particular interest in this form of transport?

Last edited by Emettman on 18 Aug 2006, 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

My son likes diesel and steam engines and can pretty much tell you everything about them. He especially loves Japanese trains. He has already ostracized himself his first year in middle school with all of the train talk. He has been very interested in them since the age of two. He will be estatic this evening when he can log on and read these replies! Please keep up the communication if you don't mind. Thank you!

Trains Magazine has has lots of good stuff on their website (just google for it), including a web cam on the roof of the shelter at the railroad park in Rochelle, IL (125-175 freight trains/day on two major mainlines that cross there).

Also have him check the forvms and web cams at trainorders.com and the many railroad-related discussion groups at groups.yahoo.com.

He could literally spend months going through all of the links on those and the other related websites. Also, most railroads in the world, including North America, have strong websites.

Have fun!

Mike

Thanks Mike. I am pretty sure my son knows about many of those websites since he is always searching for train related items. We have gone on a few train vacations since it has been his passion. We did not think about the possible train yahoo chatrooms. I will let him check those out as well.

Hi! sorry mine's welsh language and poltics of Wales

Yes... Needs someone to share the hobby and interest with, it certainly shouldn't be squashed, but needs encouragement to realise that not everyone has it as their interest, and to an outsider it's boring.
(I still have to work sometimes to remember that the depths of existential philosophy are not everyone's cup of tea)

One very quirky site which I return to again and again, which has amazing depths of trivia and solid historical information, including reproduced items from the 1800's

http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/index.html

It's not for solid reading, but for dipping into. All sorts of things, including a picture of possibly the ugliest loco in the world:
http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/plate023.Html

but there are other contenders to be found there as well.

He can talk to me all he likes about trains and it won't bother me. It would be good to know things that aren't about timetables and routes (my primary area of train knowledge). I love steam trains but don't know much about them.

I'm not much on timetables (except as involved in the historic railway accidents) but routes can be fascinating. Time gone, I used to spend many an evening playing Railway Rivals, drawing in competing lines with felt-tip pens on plastic covered maps (A classic set of games!) I still have the original version of Railroad Tycoon on my computer and return to it occasionally.

I've always wondered about trying to get a copy of the very old (1958) Avalon Hill game "Dispatcher":
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/6759
but it doesn't often come up in the UK.

Sound a bit like me in the third and fourth grades, I'm 39 now. As an interest of mone, it's pretty much on the back burner so to speak, however, I still take a somewhat distant interest in them. When I travel w/o a car, time permitting, I prefer trains over airlines and busses. The NE Corridor has to be my favorite route due to the fact that it's Electrified.

I'd be willing ti listen to your Son talk about Trains. I know all to well, how it feels not to have somebody that I can talk about my Obsessions with.