My New Years Eve project

After letting everything Dry over night my granddaughter started painting on the glue while my grandson put down the grass, They had a plan of where they wanted grass and where they didn't want it. And they did a pretty good job of keeping the glue off the track.


While they put down the grass i wired it up. I had switches and a control box so he could run one or both trains or have insulated passing sidings and such but he wanted it so both trains moved at once with the inside loop going the opposite way of the outside loop. So I wired it up as he Instructed.

Thanks David.

That's the way to work with kids. Given the tools, they will do just fine. ...Adults should stay in the background.
Great job.

I left Charlotte too soon, it seems. How was the show with Z?

And lastly a few pic's of how it looks now

It all looks terrific! Good call on the stain too, what a great gift!

John
Raildig

It turned out very well.  Most of all it sounds like your grandson had a great time.  Now he has a real sense of ownership and pride in the layout because he got to help build it.  Awesome gift!

-Jason

Well its comming up on 2 years since I gave my grandson his first train set. Last xmas he got several cardbord bldg kits a couple locomotives and some cars to add to his collection. But i'm conserned he may be loosing intrest in it. So for this xmas I had gathered some more track and a few turnouts to add a 2nd loop of track hoping that it might get him more intrested When i saw this on facebook for free.

Thinking maybe this would be a good alternative to helping hin add another loop and sidings to his current layout, I jumped on it after all the price was right.

But now that i have it here i'm woundering if i should give him this? or help him upgrade his current layout in a box? or maybe Both?
On one hand he would get to lay the track however he wants and continue building on to what he has allready built himself. On the other this free layout is bigger and would alow him to do more.

Anyway a little info about the free train table i just got.
It's 5'-7" long x 2'-1" wide and their's a backdrop board thats about 7" or 8" tall
When picking it up i learned that the gentalman who built it did so after having a stroke which left him with very little use of his right hand/arm. Which explained a lot about the bench work, not bad for someone with one arm but still not good. And the wireing looked like it was ok till someone hacked it up trying to remove the control panel. The benchwork isn't a big deal I tour it all off leaving just the 3 pieces of plywood that were cobbled together to make the table. I will pick up some 1 x 4's tommorrow and rebuild a frame and supports, thats the easy part for me. The wiring, Well Tracing wires for track power to each loop, the turntable, a dozen isulated sideings, 15 turnouts, a handfull of actuation and remote uncupling tracks, and a few unknown wires not connercted to anything, looked to be a hurculeain task considering every wire was the exat same color and had obviously come off the same spool of marklin blue wire. So I decider to just remove it all and start over. I also tore out the 2 dozen or so christmas tree lights that had been used to light the houses and buildings that didnt come with the layout. I'm not sure about the turnouts and track work. It appears they are both spiked and glued down. I need to build a new base to support the table top and make room in the basement first so i can set it up to mess with it.

This is how it looks now


Oh does anyone happen to have a extra marklin 8998 first generation turntable controler?