Why are little boys...
 

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[Closed] Why are little boys sooo obsessed with trains???

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 hora
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20month old hora junior will happily stand/sit forever watching the trams go by or watch anything to do with 'Thomas'.

Is this normal?

Last night he sat through the entire length of a documentary on a train driver driving trains in Peru 😆


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:13 am
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Trains! 😀 😀 😀


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:13 am
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Completely normal. My boy (3 1/2) is a bit less obsessed than he used to be, but having said that we still spent a fair chunk of yesterday just getting to and from MOSI in Manchester (by train) so he could go for a a 10 minute ride on Agecroft No. 1. We have spent a significant chunk of the past couple of years looking at and riding on trains. I actually quite enjoy visiting train-related stuff as a dad-son bonding sort of thing, but my wife is pretty sick of it.

Can't stand Thomas & Friends though. Nasty, selfish little buggers those trains, Chuggington is much better. 🙂


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:21 am
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Because trains are AWESOME. I found a train the other day. True story.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:24 am
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Not just boys, my twin girls (3) have a trainset each and love any kids tv that is related to trains. Its learned though, because there are so many toys, tv programmes and family tourist attractions that revolve around trains.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:25 am
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All you need is a dinosaur to be driving the train, and he'll explode in ecstasy 🙂


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:26 am
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I've been asking myself the same thing. My 3 year old will sit quietly for ages watching trains on You Tube. Not cartoon trains or trains doing funny things...just trains. A day never passes without him talking about The Polar Express.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:27 am
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All you need is a dinosaur to be driving the train

I hate trains but I want!


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:27 am
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Why are little boys sooo obsessed with [s]trains[/s] their willys???

FTFY


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:28 am
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Never had a train interest in my life. Cars all the way.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:30 am
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Last year the Tornado was running on the Steam Railway that runs past my garden. Whenever it came past the kids would gallop outside to watch and wave at it.

Trains are cool. Trams are dull.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:30 am
 hora
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Not cartoon trains or trains doing funny things...just trains.

Thats just it. Most of last nights Documentary was a infomercial for Virgin trains and mostly talking but he sat there staring/not moving for an hour..


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:31 am
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Thats probably a different thread entirely ir_bandito.... 😕


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:31 am
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Don't ask me. My 3 year old wants to be a train driver when he grows up. But only a STEAM TRAIN driver


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:31 am
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hora - Member

Not cartoon trains or trains doing funny things...just trains.

Thats just it. Most of last nights Documentary was a infomercial for Virgin trains and mostly talking but he sat there staring/not moving for an hour..


Clearly you were watching a different documentary then!


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:32 am
 hora
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I joked last night that he'll probably aspire to be a ticket collector 😐


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:32 am
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Can I just be the first to say - you kept a 20 month old up till 10pm watching telly? You must be mad! 😉

But yeah, boys love trains (I think it's just boys and big stuff really!)


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:32 am
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I enjoyed the doc last night but I'd say your synopsis is way off the mark, the main point I would say was another tale of big business' raping the planet and the unfortunate underprivelidged people who often have no choice but to go along with it.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:36 am
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[img] [/img]

Me, I preferred planes. Having Concorde fly over twice a day on its way into Heathrow does that to a small boy.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:40 am
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wait 'til they grow up - commuting by train will soon strip them of their rose tinted view 🙂


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:41 am
 hora
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Hes normally in bed by 7.30 max. However the last two nights he just wouldnt settle. Theres no way I can be in the same house and hear him cry. I can't stand it.

the main point I would say was another tale of big business' raping the planet and the unfortunate underprivelidged people who often have no choice but to go along with it.

It was still a thinly-veiled infomercial, not quite on a level/blatant with Eddie Stobart/C5 just more subtle.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:42 am
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Mrs North's uncle was apparently always fascinated with trains as a boy.

In fact he still is. He's 63.

hora - you're lucky. How TF am I going to bond over dressing up as a princess? Actually, come to think of it....


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:45 am
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Building a train set myself currently. No kids. Just for me!


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:56 am
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It was still a thinly-veiled infomercial, not quite on a level/blatant with Eddie Stobart/C5 just more subtle.

The odd clip of a Pendolino does not an infomercial make. I viewed it as putting into context the relativelycossetted life he has driving with Virgin verses the 7hrs straight driving a train without a break in quite demanding conditionsw, staying very basic lodgings and being away from your family for 2 weeks at a time.
Not to mention the planet rapeage.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:58 am
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Great big chuffing trains are ace, but I want to be a Spitfire pilot when I grow up.

(I'm 37).


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 11:58 am
 hora
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ourmaninthenorth - girls can like trains etc too!

the In laws bought hora junior a kiddy vac, washing machine, cooker etc for Christmas. WTF.

I brought home a kiddy power drill set....guess what he plays with the most :mrgreen:

but I want to be a Spitfire pilot when I grow up.

As a small kid I wanted to be a Canadian LumberJack. I always hung out in the woods playing.

Decades on I still love playing in woods 😀


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 12:00 pm
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Trains don't really do it for me but at 8am on Sunday morning I was there at Newcastle Central Station enjoying a hot chocolate with Baden jnr + another dad and son enjoying a hot chocolate watching trains. That was all before going to sit for a ride at the front of a metro train. A real train fest before 10.30am.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 12:06 pm
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Hora - bring the little bugger over to Rammy for the day. The girls are now completely blase about these chugging past while we're on the park. Though, as is compulsary, we still wave as they pass by. dems da rules.....

[img] [/img]

The sound of steam trains is the best backgound noise ever. FACT!


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 12:07 pm
 hora
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Binners - when does it normally happen etc???


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 12:18 pm
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I used to live about 50 yards from that viaduct in Garden Street out of sight on the other side. Trains chuff past on Saturdays and Sundays. The big steamers used to rattle my windows. The East Lancs Railway is 33% owned by Pete Waterman.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 12:23 pm
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The trains run every weekend, all weekend. Sometimes at night too.

[url= http://www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/ ]East Lancs railway[/url]

They have loads of different events. The Santa Express before christmas was brilliant. The girls loved it! They have Thomas the Tank engine weekends. Normally on bank holidays

Oh... and the Trackside bar on the station at Bury is a fine pub with a massive selection of beers. But obviously, that won't be of any interest, as you'll be coming for the trains

[img] [/img]

I really do love seeing these chug past all weekend 😀


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 12:30 pm
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Surely diesels chug, kettles chuff?


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 12:36 pm
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A fair point njee

Anyway Hora... you'd know all this if you ever came to see me. I'm starting to think you don't love me any more. Its very upsetting 🙁


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 12:38 pm
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East Lancs railway

Cor. I had no idea that existed. That's next Saturday with the boy sorted then. 🙂


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 12:41 pm
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It isn't just boys - our 20 month old daughter will not go any further than the bridge on our road until she has seen at least one 'choo choo' go past. Even though beyond it lies the park, the river,and the chip shop,all places she is pretty keen to go to! Fortunately it's the Midland mainline, so we don't usually have to wait too long.

Drivers often wave at her, and a couple of times she's got a nee naw of the horn too!


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 1:08 pm
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symbolic isn't it - trains into tunnels and all that 🙂


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 1:09 pm
 hora
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binners the TV-breaking mofo is very funny. Saying that he has an amazing aim. I might take advantage of the Cricket club nearby and kindle the potential I could have had.


 
Posted : 13/02/2012 1:21 pm
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Children really love those amazing things because it is a small and moving. Aside from that, they can just rarely see a train in person.


 
Posted : 14/02/2012 1:19 pm
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Little boys? that's nothing, my brother in law, the green spouting "i'll save the planet" type who refuses to get a drivers license even after the emergency trip to the hospital last week with the one year old where they had to phone an ambulance even though it really wasn't warranted twonk of a man has paid thousands to York train museum to learn how to drive a steam train!!!

I think this is warranted:

🙄


 
Posted : 14/02/2012 2:51 pm
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Me @ 7 on a South West Gas shunter.... awesome toy 🙂

My full size trainset 🙂

[img] [/img]

http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/Seabank_Gas_Works


 
Posted : 14/02/2012 2:55 pm
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I reckon it's conditioning. We show them trains, diggers, whatever and go OOH LOOK! and get all excited, and that teaches them that they are something to be excited about.


 
Posted : 14/02/2012 2:58 pm
 hora
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I reckon it's conditioning. We show them trains, diggers, whatever and go OOH LOOK! and get all excited, and that teaches them that they are something to be excited about.

Well our lad was given a vac, a washing machine and a cooker.

As soon as he was given the drill kit he dropped everything else.

Plus why does he gravitate towards trains? Yes theres Chuggington and Thomas however his favourite programmes are Waybaloo, In the Night Garden and something street.


 
Posted : 14/02/2012 3:05 pm
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@hora because it's a train ....uhhhhhh. and thEy is Epic! 😉


 
Posted : 14/02/2012 3:42 pm
 hora
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Portilo's BBC series repeating on BBC4 as above tonight. Those carriages remind me of my slamdoor commute from only a few years ago 🙁


 
Posted : 14/02/2012 7:42 pm
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Trains move,
they produce sound, fire, smoke, steam,
they have life,
theyre built by skilled men,
driven by skiled men and women,
they live and breathe,
they have a character,
theyre manly and masculine,
they misbehave,
they speed,
they have colour,


 
Posted : 14/02/2012 7:54 pm
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Hora bring him down here for the day let him have a go on the Romney Hythe & dymchurch light railway, 15inch gauge public railway and you can organise drive the train days.

Er boys like trains, men like trains, it's just in the genes.

Worse days work was Beeching and electrification.


 
Posted : 14/02/2012 8:05 pm
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There are really a lot of things in a train why children love it! We've been a kid before. We must know the reason for that. Or should I say, you never heard of it at all that time?


 
Posted : 15/02/2012 12:58 pm
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Don't forget tractors!


 
Posted : 15/02/2012 1:39 pm
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for me personally this was the main attraction...

[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 15/02/2012 1:42 pm
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Don't forget tractors!

Yes, tractors! I also have them when I was still a kid.


 
Posted : 17/02/2012 11:44 am
 DezB
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Do tell us more traindriver!


 
Posted : 17/02/2012 11:58 am
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dez - stop winding up the bot, you naughty boy
kid car train tram spam


 
Posted : 17/02/2012 12:18 pm
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dez - stop winding up the bot, you naughty boy

lol

How many bots have we got now on the forum? Be interesting to see their IP addresses, wonder where they come from?


 
Posted : 17/02/2012 12:40 pm
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They do quite a good line in trains down here. The goods trains on the Adelaide - Melbourne line seem to be about a kilometre long with 4 engines. All diseasles though 🙁


 
Posted : 17/02/2012 1:56 pm
 DezB
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Can you wind up a bot?
There's at least 4 according to [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/weird-forum-behaviour ]this thread[/url].


 
Posted : 17/02/2012 2:02 pm
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trains are ace, Take him to Oxenhope, he will love it.


 
Posted : 17/02/2012 2:15 pm
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Can you wind up a bot?

Sometimes:
[img] [/img]


 
Posted : 17/02/2012 2:16 pm
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My 2 year old daughter is a big fan of trains. I took her to the Sealife Centre in Birmingham and all she kept asking for was trains. She loves aeroplanes too. We have to go to the local aerodrome at least once a month to watch them.


 
Posted : 17/02/2012 3:18 pm

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