The Little Engine That Could

After watching a slew of James May episodes about toys from days gone by I felt compelled to get a train set. And that turned out to be a lot harder than I would have thought. It seems model trains are nearly a thing of the past and very few stores actually carry them. I managed to find a small hobby store near me that had a meager selection. I did find a neat little train in the N Scale which is quite small but will suit my wants quite well. It’s very small track but that’s good since I plan to run it on a table and don’t need a recreation of the Orient Express, although that would be cool.

It’s such a cute little thing! It was a snap to put together, no pun intended. But the track is a little small. All I have is a small oval to work with. Clearly I will need to buy some more track. I’ll look online and see what I can find. The store I went to really didn’t offer much. It’s kind of sad really. The days of playing with models and manual toys is fading into the past. I remember being a kid and thinking a slot car set was about the coolest thing in the world. And when I finally got one I raced on it for hours. I thought it was such a fantastic thing. Now we have train simulators rather than real trains. And even though this train track is small there is still something quite exciting about watching it go around in circles. Make no mistake I would love to make one of those massive train sets that has dozens of trains going and a slew of handmade hand painted scenery and landscape, but alas I have neither the money nor the space for such endeavors. This little locomotive is about the best I can do.

But i think I need more track.