Driving my train!

So anyone who has met Mr B pretty much any time in his entire life will confirm that this guy loves trains. His addiction fluctuates...sometimes he is "completely driven", and sometimes he is just "nearly totally dedicated". I honestly couldn't even begin to estimate the number of days that my living-room-since-becoming-a-mommy has looked like this:

I really don't mind at all. In fact, when he wants to get out the wooden trains, I love it. As he has gotten older, the "real" model train, his Lionel, and the GeoTrax, as well as a few other train systems have begun to captivate him a bit more. But when he is randomly wanting to be a little more creative with track building, we head back to the good-old wooden tracks and have fun!

Though lately, he has been getting a little more creative with his Lionel train too. Just a few weeks ago, I heard him directing a train-building mission with his favorite accomplice. They put a lot of effort into getting the set-up just right. I was doing the dishes, so I couldn't overhear exactly what they were both so serious about.
Finally, I went in to check things out, and discovered this excellent tunnel creation:


But let me be sure to say, in the interest of full clarity, that M sitting ON the red chair was somehow a VITAL part of the set up, and she was totally on board with it. He would just sit and wait patiently with the train not running if she had to get up for a moment. And she really tried hard to stay in the chair for quite some time.

Ahhh...good times!