52 years and I’ve had a layout nearly all of that time. I had no layout from 82-84 but I belonged to a modular club…
I too have been active off and on, but probably for more than 30 of my 56 years, starting at age 3 with an OO trainset which was a bribe to keep my little hands off my father’s scratchbuilt brass loco collection… Mostly I’ve used HO, with a preference for HOn30 for the last 36 years, but have dabbled in OO, OO9, N, On2 and HOn3
I started with Lionel HO layout built by my Dad at age 4.That makes 39 years in the hobby. I’ve seen a lot of changes since 1965. Started my boys off with Athearn and P2k. As another modeler posted, the RTR stuff is fantastic nowdays, but I really wonder if the hobby will be better off if the crafts of scratchbuilding and kitbashing are “lost” to the ages.
KarlB
www.fcsme.org
Built first layout in 1946 using a plastic Dockside engine from AHC as power (belive it was a Rivarossi model) and car battery as electric source. We had no electric power lines where I lived at the time, only kerosene lamps for night time reading, etc. Remember the Kix ceral boxes with the RR cars on them? I built most of them for static display. Still prefer to build over R-T-R.
Started when I was four, and I am still at it at age 27. So 23 years for me.
Phil - Ontario Eastern Railway
I started as a child with a Graham Farrish OO gauge train set then Tri-ang OO gauge, when I was married at 21 we had a small flat and I had just discovered the Great Little Railways of North Wales so I built my first 009 Narrow Gauge Railway. I them moved up to 0N16.5 Narrow Gauge (7mm scale on OO Track). My wife bought me a Mamod Live Steam Locomotive which moved me up to SM32 16mm scale on Peco Narrow Gauge O Gauge track. With the introduction of Bachmann Locos & Coaches at affordable prices I started collecting American Narrow Gauge on Gauge 1 at the same time I got into 5" & 71/4" Narrow Gauge Locomotives someting I could ride & drive myself. After a hernia an several house moves I unpacked the Backmann by that time 20.3 scale was more available, I now have what I was looking for Big Locos on narrow track. I’m now 56 and teaching my first grand child the delights of railways, she loves it.
John Masters, Ottery St Mary, Devon, England.
I inherited the hobby. Father (an N-scaler since the start of Arnold) gave me my first train at the age of 7 (a Triang wind-up). Being 38 now, I’ve modeled in H0, H0n3 and now P87 over the years.
I’am into models trains for over 25 years. I’am into “Via” and Alaska trains as well as any special trains lfor instance “The Coca-Cola” trains. I only got one problem and that iis that the hobby become quite expensive because our moey’s value is so low.
Fank you for this oppertunity. I’am from Pretoria in South Africa.
Having been started in a love of trains by my father during world war two with homemade train made of scrap wood, thread spools and buttons it’s hard to remember exactly when I got started . It was then the usual graduation through Marx, Lionel and several other brands of tinplate before a friend and his brother introduced me to HO trains. My first kits were a Globe silver Rock Island boxcar and a Mantua B&O gondola, shortly after that Athearn came out with their line of inexpensive plastic kits and every Nickel I made at various part time jobs went into buying them and the soon to follow plastic F7s. I wish we had some of the fine running equipment of today back then. Todays modeler don’t know how great they have it.
Walter E. Kulpa Newton, Iowa
Been in and out since around 1948, am in N scale now, developing a 80+s.f. layout.
Total years probably around 43, can’t shake the impulse to “play” with trains, just a kid nearing retirement age.
As a kid in the mid forties, I had a tinplate layout. Trains were always on my “Santa” list. I remember in the late forties looking at a Model Railroader mag. at the local drugstore and thought it was all Prototype info. I guess thats when I discovered scale models.
Even during my pursuit of girls, getting married, Navy and career I have always been an armchair model railroader and have purchased material for future layout.
Now I am retired and plan to fini***hat layout in the basement that has been under construction for the last 20 years
h42man
I’m just about 17 right now and have been into trains for as long as I can remember. My first electric train was a Playmobil G scale set that has had track and rolling stock added to it and I still have it now. I was about 5 or 6 when I got my first HO Bachmann starter set. The number of HO trains I had grew very quickly as more and more items were added. I think sometime around grade 2 my Dad built me my first layout. The HO layout has grown a great deal since then. Ever since I was a little kid I had wanted a Lionel train after seeing a picture of my uncle’s Scout set. When I was maybe 10 I got a Marx set. I now have a very large collection of Lionel, Marx, American Flyer and many other tinplate manufacturers and a layout to run them on. I have a more realistic layout with my HO and a tinplate layout with my larger trains. I love both and why choose one when you can have it all? I have no intention of slowing down whatsoever and since I’m quite young I’ve got an awful long way to go with my love of trains!
I started in N Scale in 1974 when a girlfriend gave me a set. Been in this scale ever since, on and off, depending on my motor racing commitments. I’m a member of the local N scale club.
Toy de Carvalho
Jhb, South Africa.
I started about 12 years ago working on my 3rd layout at present
Always been a HO modeler
My 1st engine was a Mantua Shifter kit in about 1952-3. Flex track was available only in steel at the time because of the Korean War.
I was forced to get out of the hobby for a short time, until my boys were older and I could use them as a reason to get back in.
I’m sure that I would have gotten daughters involved in trains too.
I started in the hobby at the age of 3 running trains on my dad’s layout.i haven’t look back since but did find time to build a model of the RMS Titanic and still race 1/24th and 1/32nd slot cars from time to time.
been modeling since early high school
wow has it been that long?
HO from age 8 until now.
Also G scale for a few years.
And a little Lionel O for a few years.
Maybe I need to join a 12 step program.
My dad got us started in HO in the mid 50’s when I was about7. I kept up until high school and girls interupted. Built a few cars and structures in college, then a long lapse. My daughter got me interested again about 8 years ago. Wow! What a difference in the kit quality and the RTR steam locos.
I’ve been modeling just 3 years but must say I’ve never had such a facinating and exciting experience as this hobby offers. I got my start by reading a western that described loading cattle on train pulled by a Baldwin mogul 4-4-0 engine. I didn’t know what the terms meant but looked them up on the web and found the meeting of UP 119 and the Jupiter at Promontory, Utah in 1869. I was hooked and have been an old time steam and more enthusiast since. I am now working on my first layout on a Western theme that I hope to display at a local show during the Thanksgiving to Christmas holidays.
Thanks Model Railroading for many hours of entertainment and education!