The Collectibles Store Blog

Boys and girls these days are a lot more interested in updating their face book information than in actually sticking their faces into a book.    Sometimes it seems like young people are just not interested in anything that doesn’t have flashy graphics connected to it.  Multi-tasking seems to be the flavor of the day, so long as none of the tasks include anything remotely truly meaningful.  Even though they consider history to be what happened last week, it’s still important to find ways to get them involved with it.  It just helps being familiar with the stories of how things came to be.  I don’t mean to get on my high horse, but it’s our duty as patriotic citizens to pass on some sense of our vibrant past to them.  So how can we overcome their reluctance to learning about the dead bones of the past? Toy locomotives can put our youngsters on the track to becoming more culturally and historically literate.  Yes.  Yeah, historic model locomotives embody a vibrant history with them but don’t burden us with feeling that we are being educated.  Try using model trains to teach our traditions this way:

Use locomotives as a veiled vehicle for our traditions:

Try to make your lay out time and place authentic.  For example, let’s say that you choose to depict the American Southwest in the period just after the Civil War.  You can feign ignorance and get your kids to “help” you figure out what would make for correct scenic details to your setup.  They might read about the telegraph and add telegraph lines next to the tracks.  A ghost town that failed to benefit on the railroad because it didn’t get a stop might be shown tantalizingly close to the track.  Maybe even have a few washed out prospectors still panning for gold in the nearby stream.

Spice up the tired old school report by swapping in a model locomotive setup instead:  

Diorama and similar craft projects are fine but if you’ve already gotten your youngster into toy trains why not take advantage of his or her hobby to really impress at his next school presentation.  You will need to set it up on a portable hobby table and possibly help your kid bring it in on the day that it is due, but the combination of historic detail and the fascination that such trains inspire simply on their own are likely to really go over well. A picture of Jesse James is fine, but what if you incorporated toy locomotives to bring the train robber’s life details and cultural context to life.  As your period specific train rounds the curve there are Jesse and his whole gang just waiting to attack and continue his wrong headed crusade.  It’s sure to be a coup!

Visit Historic locomotive Locales:  

There are also a few toy train museums and other locomotive related historic sites where you can see historic model locomotives and some real trains as well.  This can be great fun and be very educational as well.  In some places, model train clubs often put on model locomotive events.. Just do an internet search and you are sure to come into contact with your local toy locomotive society.

All of these things are sure to place your child on track to greater national literacy.  Even if you just do model training without even considering the educational possibilities you will inevitably kindle a greater sense of historical knowledge simply by handling these little mechanical doorways to the past.  

Here is more information on Model Steam Trains. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Model Trains.

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