I was five years old and in a model train club with my dad, but we did not have a layout yet. The model train show was coming up and we went and my dad was talking to a person from the train club. I was walking around and I had 20 dollars and I walked by a vendor that had a little brown train controller. I stopped and paid five dollars for it and it came with a piece of track that you could hook wires up to. After I left that vendor I found another vendor that was selling track so I bought some track for 7 dollars. then I found an n scale engine (Minneapolis &st.Louis railroad) and I brought it. My dad was surprised and I was happy. I made the oval when I got home and then my dad said let’s get g scale so we did and I wandered back to n scale. Then he said let’s build a ho layout and we did, but I wandered back to n scale. We had the ho layout for a long time. Now I am 19 years old and now I am back to n scale. I made up my mind to stay with n scale.
I cant remember how old I was, but I remember the house we lived in… We called it the white house since it was colonial style with 4 columns on the front porch. Anyway it was the late 70’s early 80’s, a Tyco Chatanooga Choo Choo Diesel. Bright Orange and Yellow, a couple of cars and a matching caboose. It only came out during the holidays, and every year I wanted it to have it set up all year around. Some time later my uncle gave me a Bachmann 0-6-0 set and my dad built a big loop little loop layout on a sheet of ply. I played with the trains almost daily I loved it! I wore the Chattanooga loco out to the point that it would only pull 2 cars, about the same time my sister started dating a guy that had some old trains that he gave to me. There was a BN loco of the same model as the one I already had, but this one still had a strong motor and all the hand railings (a 4 or 5 yr old kid is really hard on those things). I was the happiest kid on the block. That X-mas I recieved a Tyco Turbo Train, I know it was a slot car with a skimpy train body but wow this is cool it went up the walls and through a loop. I am not sure when but some time later the “layout” became damaged from some guests and was never fixed. I would set up a loop of track around the X-mas trees using the rubber couplers from the Turbo Train. All and all I always dreamed of building my own layout one day. I kept the BN loco out on my shelf for years to remind me of that dream. Today that loco belongs in the collection of some one who collects Tyco locomotives and I have built 3 layouts. I am planning another layout that I can build with my son to hopefully put a dream inside of him as well.
Massey
P.S. the X-mas trains are still running in my house.
My father bought an American Flyer S gauge train set at a Navy Exchange for $14 in 1947, supposedly for me, although I was only six months old! Now, at age 63, I still model in S, though I long ago switched to “scale” rather than “tinplate” and handlay my track. I still have and use all of the equipment from that original set, converted with scale trucks, couplers and details.
Mine was a Lionel tinplate train set - lithographed galvanized steel, flat hook-and-slot couplers, loop of track on the living room rug. I was just past five - months!
The next year a pair of switches and another half-curve were added. Now I could route the train over the secondary main.
That was when I started to notice that almost everything interesting rolled flanged wheels on steel rails - streetcars, the Third Avenue El, even a Class One in a trench a few blocks from home.
One of my cousins got the Lionel when I switched to HO in '48. I still have my Mantua Shifter and it still runs.
The final change took place in 1960, with a brass locomotive kit (birthday gift from the girlfriend who would become my wife later that year.) It was HOj scale (1:80) Japanese prototype. Both locomotive and marriage are still going strong.
In 1964 I discovered the Upper Kiso Valley…
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
My dad had an old shelf switching layout sitting in the basement that he built long before I was born. I don’t really remember what prompted him to do so, but he later built a larger point-to-point switching set up. As I got older, so did he, and as life caught up with us we ended up taking it down for space in the basement. That was close to 10 years ago. Now I’m 18, and I just started a new layout last spring. My dad grew up right next to the Nickel Plate in Sheffield, so naturally that was his pet-road and I seem to have inherited his affinity for all things NKP. Pending an addition to the layout, we’ll see what happens as I’m now juggling college a few hours away. Either way, I’m glad I got back into it, and something tells me the old man is too, because he seems to enjoy running it just as much as I do.
When I was a kid, train sets were called ‘electric trains’, and the typical diesel freight train set had an F-unit. I don’t remember ever seeing a freight train being pulled by an F-unit, so I had no interest in getting a train set.
Things changed when I was twelve years old. My family moved to a neighbourhood near some light industrial trackage, and one day I decided to go and watch the switchers spot cars. It was 1974, and CN was running GM switchers while CP ran Alco switchers. It was my first taste of railfanning.
I still wasn’t inspired enough to buy a train set until I saw an HO scale model of a GM switcher sitting in the display case at one of the local hobby shops. It was a Cox SW1500, which was identical to Athearn’s SW7. I wanted that locomotive, but it wasn’t offered with any train sets that were in the store at the time. Then one day I approached the hobby shop owner and told him that I wanted to buy a train set, and he showed me a stack of sets that were on sale. They were made by Model Power, and the loco, cars, and track were manufactured by Lima of Italy. The set came with a Santa Fe FP45. I told him I liked the set but I wanted the GM switcher. He offered to swap the locomotive, and it was a deal. So I went home with a train set that had a locomotive that looked similar to what I saw in ‘real life’.
Did you also make up your mind to stay with the Minni Lou? That is one railroad I would seriously consider modeling if I were starting over today. Ah to see a model of the North Star Limited with mixed M&StL and Wabash power running through down state Iowa.
Now that was a wonderful swap. The Model Power FP45 would have turned you away from model railroading forever - yuck what a poor piece of equipment.
American Flyer S scale for Christmas in the '50s. All my friends had Lionel O scale, but I liked S better because it had two rails like a real railroad.
Switched to HO when I was a young teen with money I made delivering the morning newspaper.
Left the hobby when I went in the Navy.
Moving ahead 30 years… Bought a Thomas the Tank Engine HO set for the grandchildren who were big Thomas fans and who had LOTS of wooden Thomas trains. The new train went over much bigger than expected with the two of them fighting constantly over who’s turn it was to run Thomas around that 36 inch circle of easy track. I decided to build a 4x8 three times around layout to give Thomas more room to run. During the construction, I remembered how much I had enjoyed it in my youth and we were off and running.
You can see that 4x8 in the top center of the track plan.
3-5 a windup Marx o/27 plastic windup loco with tinplate cars on a circle of two rail track.
8-9 an electric Marx 0/27 3 rail steamer set for Xmas! and for the following Easter a Diesel switcher set! Then dad selected an L shaped layout to run three trains on 2 4x8s and helped me wire it up to run.
Then as a teen my girlfriends parents were moving and her father was throwing out N scale stuff into the huge dumpster, so I started picking stuff out Until he said “if you are going to take that, don’t you think you should compensate me for it?” TO which I replied " You are throwing it out, are you not? therefore it has NO VALUE to you and isn’t worth anything to you so why should I compensate you for “trash” that has no value to you? {he stopped throwing out n scale stuff then] That ended my “free” collection of N scale stuff, but I had already aquired quite a few pieces by then so I had a set to play with as a teen.
fast forward some uh, 20 years to 5 years ago when a local auction house had a big train auction. Nothing we found interesting {and when I found out My Other Half {MOH} also had a penchant for trains…N scale too}. I wanted HO this time though, so I got back into the hobby then. I jumpd in to quick and made a few mistakes {such as buying 3 DC locos and sets and buying cheap cars then reading about DCC enough and deciding I wanted that instead and wanted the more expensive detailed realistic cars}
I built a small HO layout pushing the space issue as we really have none for one in a trailer.
Now I am happy as a clam in sand!
I had a Tyco train set with a Mantua 2-8-2 as a kid. I wreaked it while in a fight with my brother. I always built models of various kinds as a kid. I found the books Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California in the U of Utah library as a student and really fell i9n love with railroads. Met Dale Darney of V&T shops as a student and he taught me much about modeling. Be modeling ever since. - Nevin
I grew up in a family that had several model railroaders. My cousins had a double-decker that may have had HO on the bottom and N on top. Around age 7, my Grandpa bought me a Tyco train set for Christmas, with the stipulation that it had to stay at his house because we didn’t have enough room (go figure-we added 1 more kid and I ended up bringing it home because other visiting kids were playing with it anyway). As a teen I worked in a Hobby shop, and always bought new things with my paycheck. I was also introduced to the “Special Order”, which now accounts for 85% of what I buy. From age 17 to my 30’s my stuff was pretty much packed up in boxes or totes, but I continued to add and build. Between the Walther’s Steel Mill and Auto Plant series and their new Passenger cars and especially A-line and Rail power kits I have become less of a collector and more of an actual Model Railroader since. While I purchase much RTR these days I still love to kitbash and scratchbuild.
I must have been a slow coaching project. When my dad was stationed in France, he bought a Märklin train set that he attached to a sheet of plywood. A few years later, he bought my brother and I each a Lionel trainset. Finally, in my young adult years, I build my first “permanent” HO layout with my son. Now that I’m in my 50s, I’m working on my most ambitious layout; an HO layout - 27’ x 18’, with a staging area yet to be built.
My wife’s father used to work for the PRR and at Xmass she would get him RR books as presents
We visited at Xmass and Thanksgiving each year spending several days
I spent free time reading his books and was fascinated by what I didn’t know about the RR industry
I especially like the Don Ball JR books
When her father passed away I was given the books and never tired of rereading them
In 1997 my wife said why not set up a small 4x8 for yourself in the basement
That started it all
My model railroading interest started when I was only 3 or 4 years old. My older brothers were given a MARX O scale train set which they played with constantly. The problem for me was that because I was so young they wouldn’t let me even get near the train set let alone run the throttle. Talk about frustrating! Before I was old enough to be allowed to operate the train set my brothers had managed to wear it out, so it was packed away (nothing was ever thrown out back then - fortunately).
About 40 years later my parents were cleaning house and came across the train set. They asked if anyone wanted it and my brothers said no, but I was quite happy to finally have the train set to myself - burned out motor and all. The motor was not salvageable thanks to misguilded efforts to repair it way back when, but the power pack and remote switches worked fine. I went to a local train show and luckily found two working MARX steam engines for $10 bucks each, as well as a bunch of track in reasonable condition for peanuts. I threw together a crude bench using 4 x 8 sheets of plywood and set up a layout. I finally got to run trains! It was fun but my interest lasted about two hours and my two boys (preteens) could care less. I wanted more than just watching trains go round.
About that time Harry Potter made his appearance on the world scene and with him came the HO Hogwarts Express train set. My wife bought me one as a Christmas gift and my interest was rekindled. This stuff was much more realistic (OK - it was Hogwarts but it looked good to me).
That pretty much gets me to where I am now. I have DCC, about 100 cars, 10 engines, lots of structures in various stages of progress and a layout plan that has been modified so many times it is not funny. The layout will have to wait until #2 son is out of school but in the mean time I am having a ball building stuff and learning, and following these forums. By the way, I am actually fairly pleased that I did not dive into building a layout r