Most people are introduced to model railroading through toys. As a
toddler you probably received a Thomas the Tank Engine for your birthday or
Christmas. These trains are usually made of wood or plastic and are pushed
around by hand. But, some or battery operated. You could have also received a
train set containing an oval of track with a locomotive and 3 or 4 cars. These
trains are usually run by electricity through a transformer. These trains are
usually not quality that most modelers use. Even though some are very realistic
looking, the motors in the locomotives usually are of less quality, the cars
and locomotive have more plastic parts than higher quality models. That is why
they are called toy model trains battery
operated ride ons..
You may remember or now have a train running around your Christmas tree
each year. This may have sparked your interest in model trains. These trains
are usually G or O scale. Some of these trains are all plastic even the tracks.
This train usually runs off a battery operated motor. Or, maybe you had a
Linoel three rail train under you tree. Most Linoel train sets are usually of
higher quality and are more expensive than most other brand of train sets.
Linoel trains are usually more detailed than other toy model trains; the only
problem I see with Linoel trains is the three rails which do not look
realistic. The reason for the third rail is that the center rail is used for
sending electricity to the locomotive.
Even though a lot of people consider all model trains to be toys I guess
they may be right. But I still like playing with model trains even if they are
right. A model train layout usually has buildings, cars, trucks, people, and
animals with hill, mountains, fields, roads, bridges, trees, and all kind scenery.
All of these items are scaled to the same scale as the train. These items by
their self are all toys, but you put them together on a layout and they become
a part of what I would consider a work of art. These layouts can sometimes be
very elaborate. They can contain forest, fields, streams, ponds, lakes, and
rivers with waterfalls. I have even seen layouts with real water running
through the rivers.
I guess we can come back to the saying (the difference between men and
boys are the price of their toys). Because as kids we played with trains, cars
and trucks as toys. Now as men we still play with basically the same toys but
now we call them models. So in some way I guess there is not much difference
between toy model trains and model trains. Therefore I say get out the toys and
let's play. We can build our toy roads for our toy cars, and trucks. We can
build toy towns with toy people, and toy buildings. We can also build toy
barns, for our farm animals, field for our toy tractors, and toy farm houses for
our toy farmers. The main thing with model trains is that you can have hours
and hours of relaxing fun even if you or young or young at heart. battery operated toy cars.
