Hello,
I am a beginning model railroder with a desire to set up a Christmas layout. I have been looking at/working on gathering components for an On30 layout. However, I put the trains I have on a track and set some of our Chsirtmas Village stuff next to it for a scale comparison and my daughter (3.5 years old) immediately wanted to grab and play with them. Needless to say that will not work out too well!
So my wife and I are looking at alternatives; I am not one to restrict my children from handling things as I feel everyone is far better off by teaching proper handling rather than being very restrictive, but of course within reason. We want to work up to the more delicate stuff by demonstrating with more durable items first. If it matters much, we live in the US.
One is Hornby OO Thomas, which sees to lack the details of normal HO/OO/On30 stuff for far less potential for damage by handling. One concern there is play time will always need to be supervised to get rolling stock on tracks, etc. Electricity would not be mich of an issue as everything will be converted to battery power and remote control.
Another alternative is Geotrax, which is discontinued but still available in good quantity.
The final alternative, which we have looked at in stores and considered, is Trackmaster. In researching, I see Trackmaster is preceeded by plarail and there are at least two versions of Trackmaster itself with some incompatibility between the two versions.
So I am looking for advice on all the above if anyone can give it, and some answers to some questions about Trackmaster.
1. What are the differences in the original Thomas Trackmaster and the newer Fisher Price track (or were they all Fisher Price)? I see a brownish color track that seems to be original, and a grey color track that seems to be the newer Fisher Price version? Is there an article or anything anybody can point me to?
2. I understand there are also differences in the engines between new and old? I also understand the two versions of engines are not interchangeable on the different versions of track?
3. I do like the brown or grey track better than the blue Plarail, but would I be better of getting Plarail instead (for some reason)?
Any other info you all might point me at would be great, and if you can think of any blanks to fill in that I have inadvertently left out it would also be appreciated!
Thx!
Helmut
I am a beginning model railroder with a desire to set up a Christmas layout. I have been looking at/working on gathering components for an On30 layout. However, I put the trains I have on a track and set some of our Chsirtmas Village stuff next to it for a scale comparison and my daughter (3.5 years old) immediately wanted to grab and play with them. Needless to say that will not work out too well!
So my wife and I are looking at alternatives; I am not one to restrict my children from handling things as I feel everyone is far better off by teaching proper handling rather than being very restrictive, but of course within reason. We want to work up to the more delicate stuff by demonstrating with more durable items first. If it matters much, we live in the US.
One is Hornby OO Thomas, which sees to lack the details of normal HO/OO/On30 stuff for far less potential for damage by handling. One concern there is play time will always need to be supervised to get rolling stock on tracks, etc. Electricity would not be mich of an issue as everything will be converted to battery power and remote control.
Another alternative is Geotrax, which is discontinued but still available in good quantity.
The final alternative, which we have looked at in stores and considered, is Trackmaster. In researching, I see Trackmaster is preceeded by plarail and there are at least two versions of Trackmaster itself with some incompatibility between the two versions.
So I am looking for advice on all the above if anyone can give it, and some answers to some questions about Trackmaster.
1. What are the differences in the original Thomas Trackmaster and the newer Fisher Price track (or were they all Fisher Price)? I see a brownish color track that seems to be original, and a grey color track that seems to be the newer Fisher Price version? Is there an article or anything anybody can point me to?
2. I understand there are also differences in the engines between new and old? I also understand the two versions of engines are not interchangeable on the different versions of track?
3. I do like the brown or grey track better than the blue Plarail, but would I be better of getting Plarail instead (for some reason)?
Any other info you all might point me at would be great, and if you can think of any blanks to fill in that I have inadvertently left out it would also be appreciated!
Thx!
Helmut