Stretched before you is a 32″x48″ tabla rasa and a drawer of track pieces. The stakes are high. Success means hours of independent, uninterrupted, creative playtime, eventually resulting in your child’s acceptance to MIT. Failure to build is the surest …
Continue ReadingI always loved Clue. Okay, the die-rolling was largely unnecessary but I loved the deduction and record-keeping, the strategy behind deciding which cards to show which people to keep them in the dark. Well, now Days of Wonder is releasing …
Continue ReadingIn Hamburg, Germany, housed in a nondescript brick building, you’ll find the Miniatur Wunderland – the largest HO scale model railroad in the world. The model, which has taken more than 500,000 hours to build since the beginning of its construction in 2000, is astounding in its size and detail: More than 16,000 square feet […]
Continue ReadingNow that is a geek’s train. This video shows how a maglev train could be created using a superconductor and magnetic track without going into the nitty-gritty of the Meissner Effect. If you are interested in trying this yourself you can always pick up an Economy Superconductivity Kit. Sadly, Amazon does not sell liquid nitrogen. […]
Continue ReadingOne year ago, you were reading this on GeekDad, by Jeremiah McNichols: I thought I’d take the Geotrax baton from fellow Geekdad Don to give a nod to some parents who are hacking some serious modifications into their Geotrax toys. Users are cutting up track pieces to allow for configurations not planned for by Fisher-Price […]
Continue ReadingOne year ago, you were reading this on GeekDad: Model Train Puzzles My son, age 3, is obsessed with trains. Crazy obsessed. Throwing fuel on the fire, we took him to a model train expo a few weeks ago. A small display by The Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society caught our attention late in the […]
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The Western Railway Museum is dedicated to the memory of the wonderful trolley infrastructure that existed in the Bay Area before the age of the motor car.
Continue ReadingI thought I’d take the Geotrax baton from fellow Geekdad Don to give a nod to some parents who are hacking some serious modifications into their Geotrax toys. Users are cutting up track pieces to allow for configurations not planned for by Fisher-Price toy designers. They’re also sharing photos of engine teardowns (joja_15 of the […]
Continue ReadingSimple to put together and nigh on indestructible, Fisher-Price’s Geotrax are wickedly addictive. I’m definitely guilty of doing the less-than-occasional rain dance so that I have an excuse to play with them! For those suffering from Thomas overload, this may be the answer to your prayers. The trains come in push and remote control versions(with […]
Continue ReadingSince my post “Model Train Puzzles” a few weeks back, we’ve been slowly building an HO-scale version, beginning with a folding, suitcase-sized box for easy storage and transport. After an initial father-son shopping trip to the hobby store for track and rolling stock (based upon the layout described by the Prince William County Model Railroad […]
Continue ReadingOur son became fascinated by the Jordan Spreaders and rotary snowplows (the “rotaries”) of the Union Pacific after watching The Battle for Donnor Pass. (Where else can you watch guys blast ice from tracks and tunnels with everything from shotguns to dynamite – or learn how they re-rail an engine in a blizzard…but I digress.) […]
Continue ReadingMy son, age 3, is obsessed with trains. Crazy obsessed. Throwing fuel on the fire, we took him to a model train expo a few weeks ago. A small display by The Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society caught our attention late in the day. It was a small fold-out switching layout without scenery measuring roughly […]
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