RoadKing said:
I've always thought of doing the same thing. I'll bet it would be a fun indoor winter hobby.
There are "G" scale trains that you can run inside or outside. "G" stands for Garden scale. It is roughly 1/32nd scale narrow gauge railway. Lionel, Bachmann, LGB, Marklin and a couple other brands are available.
I used to run a train at Christmas, just a big oval. We bought a Christmas train and then added a new car every year after my daughter was born. She grew and lost interest in the train, the dogs kept tipping it over, and we stopped putting it up 2 years ago. I've still picked up interesting train cars, just a couple a year.
I worked with a guy who had a HUGE set up of HO trains. It filled almost 1/2 his basement he must have had over a quarter mile of track on several levels. He built the whole thing himself and had hundreds and hundreds of cars. He died a couple years ago and his son is overwhelmed with the collection, just packing it up and moving it is monumental.
Interesting how adults can become fascinated with these toys, but if you look at some of the prices they obviously make them for adults, not for kids!