Train Fanatic times infinity

Ok, Tornado Boy is the epitome of a train fanatic. He pretty much eats, breathes, sleeps trains. We are WAY past the Thomas train stage....he now is into the electric HO and O scale trains and of course riding the real things. We hit one of his major to do items while we were in Washington, DC - we rode the only high-speed train in the US - the Acela...his next item is to fly to Chicago and ride the Empire Builder all the way to Seattle. He has actually learned a History lesson concerning the Empire Builder and the man who "built" the route - James J. Hill...pretty cool stuff....anyways...back to trains.



We were very much buried under trains here at home....he is the proud owner of an O and HO scale train along with miles of Geo-Track set ups, a new Lego train set up and a Playmobile train set up. These things pretty much take up the entire floor...or should I say house!!! So, tornado boy came up with the idea of selling off all of his old Thomas Train collection (he had a HUGE amount of items) and old toys he doesn't use in order to raise money to redo his playroom and build an elevated track system for his HO scale train. Quite a mature plan for a 6 year old! Who would have thought that Thomas train items would sell like hot cakes and lo and behold, we raised more than enough money to paint, put furniture and build the track layout. Tornado Boy had everything "mapped out" in what order things needed to be accomplished.....



Step 1: Paint.....he picked the colors after switching between blue and orange and then back to blue again (THANK YOU- just couldn't imagine day-glo orange painted on all 4 walls) and painting one wall with magnetic paint so he can hang up his works of art on the wall with no more pin marks. His beloved Polar Express poster and CSX transportation map finally have a spot.


His other beloved map - railroads of the continental united states is TOO huge for the room and will stay in his bedroom.
Step 2: get furniture including his own large desk for current work and art projects
Step 3: build track supports and track along the top of the ceiling to elevate his HO scale trains. This was interesting since my husband and I are the most "UN-builder-like" people in the world....but we pulled it off with everything actually being level!!



We are only missing new wood floors (hopefully will go in within the next year or so- VERY yucky old carpet is just blech!). I also want to paint some mural items along the track line over time - mountains, buildings, trees....so there is scenary along the track line. Tornado Boy has it in his head for future train plans for his O scale train....to cut a hole in the wall to run the track from his playroom through into his bathroom and then cut another hole in the wall through to his bedroom and run the train through and then around the top of his bedroom walls. This is do-able but the thought of punching holes in the walls is a wee bit intimidating to us...but it would mean NO more tripping on trains on the floor!