Hi there - Complete model train newbie here and dad of a 4 year old. Looking for some suggestions for a particular conundrum.
Over the summer my father-in-law gave my son an electric train set (HO scale made by Model Power). We had several problems with it - track would come apart, cars would decouple, and I was pretty uncomfortable having the thing plugged in especially since I have an 18 month old also roaming around.
I threw some money at the problem and:
1. Bought some plywood and encased it in felt to make a train table which slides under a bed
2. Purchased the My World TGV
3. Pickup up some extra C track on eBay
Right now my son is really quite happy with the set up. We've got a figure 8 with a turnout. If we want to make something elaborate, we use the turnout to connect tracks to a bigger layout that we have on the hardwood floor. The My World product is perfect for his age. It's nice because he can independently pull out the train table and use the trains without any adult supervision. He likes to use the remote, but he also like to push the trains along the track with his hand, including the original cars that his grandfather gave him. We use eneloops (low discharge NiMh) rechargeable batteries and we just change them once a week.
So now for the conundrum:
We live in San Francisco, so of course by son is obsessed with PCC streetcars (can't blame the kid for good taste). I would love to get him a streetcar - my absolute ideal would be a PCC streetcar that works exactly like the My World trains, but to the best of my knowledge there are no remote control battery operated HO streetcars out there.
So I've come up with some options - and I know that some of this might be a little half baked since I don't really know much about model trains.
1. Just get him a non-motorized street car and have him push it around on the existing Marklin tracks
2. Get Bachmann PCC streetcar and pull out the original Model Power tracks to create a circle on his train table. These tracks would have to be nailed together so they don't disconnect. It would kill the current figure 8 that we have so it's really not a great solution.
3. Go with option 2 and sell all of the Marklin track and replace it with some Bachmann EZ track.
4. Figure out a way to run DC on the current Marklin tracks and some how add a third rail pickup shoe to the bottom of the streetcar
5. Perform surgery on a streetcar and make it battery + remote operated
For all of the of non-battery DC power options, I was hoping that something like
http://www.modeltrainstu...ler-RC-01-p/rkn-c001.htm might fit the bill to avoid plugging a controller into the wall. He doesn't build long trains and his My World train runs like a champ on 4 AA batteries.
I do like 3 rails system and as he gets older I think that it'll be easier to for him to grow with as he gets older. I'm also realistic that things are apt to change quite a bit in the next 10 years.
My budget is about $150 and/or 6 hours of time.
I know that there's a lot of goofy ideas here - appreciate any thoughts or feedback!