Fixing James

Tonight I worked on a whole different set of skills that I hesitated to blog about then I realized that the very fact that I attempted the project is because I value being self sufficient and I love anything DIY.

For anyone out there with a kid who is even half as obsessed with trains as O is, you know how important it is that the fleet always be running in top shape. Well, awhile back, in our house, James bit the dust. James is Thomas' red friend and in the particular model we have, his battery is hidden in his coal car but the motorized parts are actually in the engine so there are a couple of wires that run from the back to the front. A few twists of these wires and over time, they snap rendering James a manual push train rather than a cool battery operated train that can race the other trains along the super cool tracks we build around here. This, my dear readers, is a problem.

After a few months of James being neglected, I finally picked up some wires that I could use to fix him. So, I took him apart and started patching him up. Here he is with a new section spliced into the red wire. I had to add sections to both the red and the blue wires.

My boys peered on from across the project, my husband trying to teach O to say, "We only have one shot" and occasionally humming themes from various movies like Mission Impossible and O periodically handing me things I didn't need (like 7 attempts to get me to load the battery before the train was put back together). In the end, James is faster than ever. With good strong wires, a little slack to accommodate rough and tumble little big boy play and a fresh batteries, he's easily the fastest train in the fleet.

And my sweet boy is happy . . . and this time it isn't just because he's wearing shorts (he's obsessed).

Thank you for reading,
Julie