Nothing beats train racing with Lionels! One of the major train shows theyhave here always features train racing for the kids. Of course, the trick is to go as fast as you can but not TOO fast since a die-cast Lionel locomotive will roll right off the track. It gets pretty intense, some of the kids are pretty sharp, and will take a slower diesel locomotive over a fast steamer because they KNOW the other kid will roll off. Slow and steady, and all that.
Me, I'm all for absolutely prototypical as much is practical. I really got that bug at the club I belonged to several years ago, we modeled the then Conrail, now Norfolk Southern, and original Lehigh Valley/Reading main line from New Jersey (Oak Island, across from Newark Airport, where they load all the cars on for cross-country transport) to Harrisburg. We had a lot of nice stuff, including an operating hump yard. Trackwork was EXACT - we had a couple of Conrail track workers come by one day and they knew EXACTLY where they were ont he layout by the track arrangements. Alas, the landlord thought he had us captive and tripled the rent when we went to renew the lease - little did he figure, we went in and tore the whole thing down, a sad affair but we figured we'd rebuild elsewhere. They now have a larger space and they own the building, not rent. I didn't have enough time to put into it so I quit to open my spot to a member who could put more time into it. They have a website, I have to look it up, a VERY nice layout. Don't be put off by the web site quality - I'm not sure who does it but they aren;t very good with a spell checker!

http://members.aol.com/lkv01/lkv01.html



>Randy;
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>Here is a story about my Marklin HO train table “L” shaped using two 4’ x 8’ pieces of plywood. It was two levels and two tracks North and South bound in the European fashion so trains can run in both directions and not worry about sharing a common track.
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>Our son and daughter were 8 and 6 years old, and on a Sunday afternoon my wife went shopping with her girl friend. I was watching the kids and wanted to watch the 49’ers play football. So as I had just finished building the layout I placed two powerpacks next to each other and one train North bound and the other South bound. I like realism so adhere to the prototype operation as much as possible.
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>Children do not always conform to what his/her parents plan or suggest. The kids were quiet while running the trains and I was enjoying the football game. Suddenly the kids ran in from the garage and shouted, “Daddy, come see what we are doing”! I went out with the kids and they proudly displayed a new event. They turned around one of the trains so both were running in the same direction. They were having races and having the time of their lives!
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>Amazing how children may think differently then prototypical railroad operation calls for! European at that! I laughed my head of and will never forget the fun they had running the trains and how I enjoyed what they were doing!
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>Tom