When my son first started clamoring for model trains, as opposed to Thomas and other “children’s” trains, I had to make a decision. Did I want to let him play with something that he was supposed to be five years too young to play with? After much thought, I decided that I wanted to allow him the freedom to explore the hobby at his developmental level and made ways to make it work for him. Some of these ideas might be helpful to you. First, I made sure that we were all clear on what are model trains and what are toy trains. Model trains run on electricity. Toy trains either run on batteries or are pushed/ pulled by hand.