The munchin must have a model railroad. A real one, with snow (apparently model railroads without snow aren’t real). He’s willing to be very, very patient for it (“this will take us years to make”) but he’s locked on and I don’t think anything is going to break that lock. A few days ago he met us at breakfast with the announcement that he had started praying that God would let him have a big HO scale Norfolk-Southern diesel engine. At least God has all the details he needs to place the order.

I remember my teenage trial-entry into the world of model railroading, and I remember one thing in particular: pricing for the whole industry is based on the bank accounts of old retired men with large pensions. It’s a crazy-expensive hobby, particularly for a 5-year-old, and not one I really have any desire to pour money into right now.

But knowing how persistent this kid is, I’m plotting strategy.

I’ve got challenges:

1. I’m broke.
2. I have no spare time.
3. Our house has no extra room.

But I’ve also got a few things on my side.

1. Munchkin is patient. Unlike most 5-year-olds. It’s okay if it takes us a year or two to get started!
2. Munchkin is easily satisfied. An oval on a piece of wood will do, at first, landscaping not mandatory. No brass engines required.
3. I’m pretty clever at things like this.

Since I have some time to work with, I have the luxury of being able to watch clearance sales at the discount web sites and local stores. And I just found this: a $15 engine!

I’ll keep you updated.

GeoTrax Add-on Couplers

It took forever, but here they are. The quality of the first casting was lousy, but they are up to snuff now and we’re running them nonstop on several trains! Now if I can just figure out this e-commerce thing, I’ll send you some.

Trevor can pull a train at last!

It took forever, but man it’s incredible! We’ve got hooks on the back of trains that were missing them, and loops on the front of others. We’ve got Trevor pulling cars like he should have done in the first place, and we’ve got the coolest double-headers: never before possible! If you can’t tell, this railroad household is excited. My little guy had decided that Trevor must be a “railcar” that carried passengers in the back, since he didn’t have a coupler.

A real GeoTrax double-header.

And that red engine in the picture up there is the one that started this whole thing: for some reason, he’s wanted that engine to be the second in a double-header for a long, long time. And more: couplers on trucks, couplers on trolleys. He’s in coupler heaven.

The couplers are extremely easy to install. I’ve got complete instructions, with pictures, ready to post. Stay tuned.

1. There are two styles of coupler: I’m calling them hooks and loops. You know what I’m talking about: front couplers that are a loop of plastic, and back couplers that a hook sticking up.
2. Each of those couplers has a vertical flat surface which attach to the GeoTrax vehicle. I originally tried to make couplers fit to a specific model of vehicle, but the number of designs was overwhelmingly complex; I needed a simpler way. I ended up finding that one basic design worked best, but I needed a way to attach them to a wide variety of bodies.
3. The breakthrough came when I discovered epoxy putty. This stuff squishes to the shape of the vehicle and makes a generic coupler fit any vehicle.

In reality, this technique works for about three-fourths of the vehicles we’ve tried it on. I’ll deal with that problem next.

I’m installing the e-commerce plugin now, and will open it up as soon as I can. At this point, my plan is to offer:

1. A basic kit. It will have an assortment of hooks and loops, as well as enough epoxy putty to attach them.
2. Individual couplers. They come in several colors: white, black, brown, yellow, purple, green, orange, red, peach, and blue.

I hope to add a modified coupler set that will work for those odd vehicles that don’t like this design. Some day, I might also add a mounting guide; it’s important to get the couplers mounted at the right height and angle, and that would be much easier if there were a tool to help.

Stay tuned. I’ll open the “store” as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow (the links are active in the right menu, but you can’t see anything yet). I’ll have pictures and a complete instruction set online too. Thanks for your patience!

One of the best elements of the GeoTrax system has always been their track. It is astonishingly easy to hook together, holds tightly when it should (ever stepped on it?), and is easy to pull apart when you want it to. This is due, in part, to a clever spring-loaded latch design. Look carefully at the end of a piece of track, and you’ll see it. There’s a tongue sticking out, and … oh, I was trying to avoid the engineer’s “male” and “female” terms here because this is, after all, a family blog! On either side of the female connection you’ll find two small plastic tabs sticking out, which catch two matching depressions on the male connection. Push on the tabs: yep, spring loaded. At least, they should be.

In the last few months, however, the Mattel/Fisher-Price bean counters made what must be a monetary decision that is simply horrible: they removed that spring loading, instead molding the tabs right into the main track. They added a little cut around the tab, trying to give it some play, but it just doesn’t work. If you try to use this new track style — and it’s included in just about all the new products — you’ll find that it’s very difficult to connect together.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, there’s another way to see it: turn the track over. The old-style track has a flat, boxy cover glued over the couplers on either end, encasing the spring mechanism. The new track is a single molded piece.

Try it. See if you don’t agree that the new track is difficult to connect.

Difficult = BAD! My 2-year-old could connect the old track by himself. Now he’s 5, and he’s asked for help several times with the new track. Difficult = BAD!

There is recourse, however. My lovely bride called Fisher-Price to complain that she couldn’t put the new track together, and they mailed her a rebate coupon for $15 towards the purchase of more GeoTrax. Another gift at Christmas had the same new track, so she made another call and received yet another coupon. We can still find the old track in some track packs, so we’ll replace it that way. More importantly, we’re giving Fisher-Price feedback: fix the track!

I hope you’ll consider doing the same thing.

WHAT HAPPENED

My day job includes designing special exhibitions for an art museum. In December of 2007, right after that last post, I began work on the design and subsequent installation of a new expansion facility. It was a massive job that completely consumed my life for well over a year. The end result is an awesome, world-class exhibition with an educational wing that is especially great. I’m proud of it.

WHY I’M BACK

Well, it’s like this. This whole time I’ve been lurking on the Yahoo GeoTrax group, and over the last week or so the discussion has turned to making couplers for GeoTrax. If you’ve read my past posts you know that’s a subject dear to my heart, and it finally gave me the gently nudge to get moving again.

ABOUT THAT TRIP

Holy cow, that camping trip was amazing. I had never camped on the beach before, and the experience was fantastic. I’ll give an off-topic post with more details.

ABOUT THOSE COUPLERS

I cast plastic couplers that work identically to the standard GeoTrax couplers. They were brilliant, but had one significant issue … I couldn’t figure out a good way to attach them to the ridiculously wide range of GeoTrax engine and car designs. That had me stymied for a long time, but about a month ago I accidentally ran into the perfect solution: epoxy putty. So I’m back on track. I’ll get a post up with the details and some pictures, and I’ll get them up for sale as soon as possible.

ONE MORE THING

Before I get into all those, I’m going to post on what I see as the worst thing that’s happened to GeoTrax since they stopped making Geo: the introduction of track that doesn’t have spring-loaded couplers. It’s my latest soapbox and I want to beg you for help to get it fixed.

Thanks for the support. See you again soon!

Yep, you read it right. We are taking a 3-year-old camping. That might be stu-u-upid enough by itself, but wait! There’s more.

It’s November: very, very cold.

And on a beach: 3-yr-old wandering around dangerous surf.

At a campground that brags about the rattlesnakes and coral snakes. Oh yeah, and the hundreds of alligators.

With no planning, because we decided to go… today.

And — worst of all — no trains.

I am, officially, an idiot.

Oh, did I mention that he still sleeps in a crib at home, and I’m pretending he’ll take to a sleeping bag like magic?

And I don’t even have an excuse. I actually did this same thing last year, and it was a horrendous debacle. And I do mean debacle — ice, rain, hurricane-force winds, freezing temperatures, and no preparation on my part for any of those conditions.

I remember the park ranger, yelling over the storm:

“So, you think you’re gonna keep a 2-year-old chitlin alive in this madness?”

(Me, with utter confidence in my masculinity): “Oh yeah. No problem. We’re ready. And I brought a month’s supply of firewood.”

(Me, 24 minutes later): “Do you know where the nearest hotel is?”

“Yup, I figgered you’d be back, so I called to set y’all up in a room.”

(massive relief): “Oh, thank you, kind sir!“

“But they ain’t got no rooms left. No sir. Said the nearest vacancy was in Dubuque. 1,158 miles northwest. Just turn left at the sign that says ‘thanks for coming (idiot).’ ”

I’ve pretty much erased from my mind just how bad that was. It took a year, but now I’ve started having these sweet dreams of how nice it will be to prance in the woods with my sweet little guy, searching for bugs and snakes, giggling in the warm sunshine.

Or in the ice storm, while being chased by alligators.

“Yup, nearest available room is Albuquerque, 2,414 miles due west. [Under his breath…] Idiot.”

Yup, easy add-on couplers. Has anyone else noticed that fewer and fewer Geotrax vehicles can be hooked together? What really got me going was the Friendliest Team–twin trolleys, Chatty and Chirpy, that are so friendly they can’t couple to each other or anyone else. No hooks, no loops, nothing. What does that mean to my 3-year-old? The trolleys sit off to the side, because playing with them means it’s hard to play with anything else. No trains, no long lines of every-car-we-own consists. For a kid who loves trains, that’s what it’s all about. So I decided to do something about it.

What I’ve ended up with are molded plastic couplers that can be attached to any Geotrax vehicle. (Or anything else in the world, for that matter, though I’m not sure why you would, but hey–you buy, I’ll sell, whether you stick them on your Geotrax or on your pink plastic flamingo. No difference to me.) Since the Geotrax line has a wide variety of “bumpers” where there should be couplers, I’ve made them with a mounting surface that fits as many as possible. Over time, I might make a few different varieties to fit a few specific vehicles that are problematic, but don’t hold your breath… this generic version fits almost everything.

I should have pictures and more detailed information up by tomorrow, along with pricing and ordering info. My goal is not to get rich off of these; they won’t be outrageous. Stay tuned!

The ride was about what I expected; Jonathan enjoyed it, though, and I’m glad we had the opportunity. We got much more excitement out of watching Thomas drive. If you go to one of these events, I recommend asking right up front where the best viewing location is to see Thomas start up. That’s the exciting moment, as he belches smoke and steam and the driving wheels slip. We also watched him from above, standing on a bridge. He tooted his tinny English whistle once as he went under, his engineer leaning out the window and waving.

One of the things Jonathan enjoyed most was the Norfolk-Southern engine on a side track. They allowed visitors into the cab, let them sit in the driver’s seat and handle the controls. With the engine running, it was a great experience to push the throttle and hear the diesel roar. And it’s always a delight to blow the horn!

Other highlights included rides on a “caboose train” and a large HO-scale model railroad set up by a local club.

Finally, Jonathan received a GeoTrax Grand Central Station set as a birthday gift. This is the “expanded set” with extra cars and a DVD. JB was so excited he just didn’t know how to express it. Aero is his new favorite — he asked if he could sleep with Aero tonight.

Lots to talk about over the next few days… notes on Thomas and Geotrax and TrackMaster and more. Stay tuned!

• Geotrax trains run easily on both the old blue track and the new brown. They don’t have a traction surface (track top), however, so they can’t pull much.
• The wheels on Trackmaster cars will fit between the rails on Geotrax track, although they have a very bumpy ride.
• Unfortunately, the drive wheels on Trackmaster engines are a tiny bit too wide to fit between Geotrax rails. That means you can’t run Trackmaster engines on Geotrax.

I assume that’s the sticky wicket; I think people are wanting to run Thomas on Geotrax, not the other way around.

I’ve been pondering this for a while, and I don’t have a good solution. There is a cheap Thomas (the $6 Pull-Back) that is approximately the same size and proportions as Geotrax trains, but it’s not a simple conversion to mount the shell on a Geo engine. As Geotrax trains get bigger, due to adding the gear complexities of reverse and the ability to fit little people inside, those pull-back shells seem smaller each day. The trains in the Mail Delivery set have similarly-sized shells: just a bit too small to make an easy conversion. Does anyone know of a Thomas toy that is a little bigger than the pull-backs? For example, how large is the whistle-and-go Thomas?

You can always put a Trackmaster Thomas on the back of a Geotrax gondola, then tell the kids that Thomas broke down and Geo has to save him!

Any thoughts? I’d love to develop a simple and inexpensive conversion that people could easily do themselves.