First Christmas, 1936, Lionel train set. I was six months old. Dad was a Santa Fe engineer, we always had trains at home. When I graduated from college, I went to a new town, and a new scale, HO. Still doing HO.
Bob
When I was a wee young lad back in the 60s I remember a huge O scale layout in the basement my brothers and dad used to run. I was too young to run it but very observent. So I would sneek into the basdement and get caught running the train. I remember the layout had a second level underneath the main surface. There was a Budd car and this was the subway. I like to bring the Budd car up and run it on the surface.
I do not remember how we went from O gauge to HO but I am sure it was a space thing as my little sister and I got older the family needed more play space.
By the time I was old enough to play with electric toys by myself my father and I went to a LHS and traded all the HO stuff for N scale stuff. One item was a Con-Cor streamlined passeneger train set. It was a PA-1 and 4 cars; baggage, diner. dome observaton, and rear observaton. It was painted in Great Northern Big Sky Blue. I ran it so much I broke an amature wire in the motor that could not be repaired. I saved it never knowing what for. Years passed and about 3 or 4 years ago I got all my stuff out and started building a layout. I thought how can I make this beautiful blue passenger train run again. I looked at the Walther’s cataloge and bought an undecorated Con-Cor PA-1. I took the unpainted housing off the new engine and took the housing off the old engine and put it on the new engine. Suddenly my old train set was new again and running well. I “painted” the trucks and bottom of the undercarridge with a black Sharpie. The new engin had a 8 pin plug for a drop in decoder. I found one at my LHS and this motor became my 5th motor with a decoder. It seems that a Big Sky Blue Great Northern passenger train might be rare. I am not sure that any manufacturer produces this paint skeem in N scale now-a-days.
I have always been fasinated by trains. Both models and the real thing. I had a girl friend once that lived close to the country. She always complained about
I do not believe I ever "got started’. As near as I can tell I have always been a railfan and model railroader. I have recently begun re-collecting items I remember having when I was 3 and 4 years old. Judging from the collection I have re-aquired so far, it seems at one time there had to have been a Marx trainset or two purchased. However I never remember seeing any of the Marx track other than at my cousins house. My earliest memory is fiber tied Atlas (complete with hot frogs). Seems as though now this Marx junk has become collectible for some reason.
I started my model railroad with a Lionel Pennsylvania flyer set i got for christmas 2 years ago. Over time i added a few straights and curves and 2 switches. Then i realised i didn’t have enough space for O scale and switched to HO in April 2011 Ho proves a better scale to operate in, and the layout has progressed fast on a tight budget.
Something about trains and railroads has always given me a thrill. In 1988, the tender age of five I enthusiastically announced to my grandparents that for Christmas that year I wanted a train set. They happily obliged with a battery operated set that featured a steam engine, likely a 4-4-0, flat car, boxcar and a caboose, my dad took a box for another toy, I do not recall what it had been, and created a rad tunnel.
I loved that train, but within 2-weeks of my heavy-handedness it no longer worked anymore.
I started in HO around 1991, age 8, taking home a Bachmann train set from some friends of ours. It had an ATSF F-unit, two cars and caboose. Don’t think it had been complete or in good shape, but whatever I scored some trains! A year later, my dad sent me out to the car to get from the trunk what he said were dolls for a friend of mine, birthday fell around the same time, and what do I see instead of dolls when I open the trunk? A Tyco Chatanooga Choo-Choo! And let’s say it all got good from then on and out. I took breaks here and there for several years at a time, until early this year with a bit more cash and time bought the train model I’ve always dreamed of, an N&W J with a sound unit and a small string of passenger cars, more locomotives… there’s no hope for me at this stage.
Alvie
Mom tells me when I was real young, I’d always be looking out the window. One day, she asked me what I was lookign for. I said “The train.”
I was looking in the right direction, too, but I had missed the train by about 12 years…
Darn,I can’t remember how I got into scale model railroading. My brother and I got n Athern rubber band drive F unit and some rolling stock for Christmas when we were about 13 or 14. It just sort of grew. I met a local guy and we all joined a club, Lakeshore Model Railroaders, when they still had passenger car on a track in the Mimico Ont. yards. Meetings were interupted by passing trains. Racing cars, marriage and kids put trains on the back burner for a while. I bought RR mags to keep up on things and started a few layouts over the years. I built a lot of kits over the years with plans for a layout. My wife did not support my hobby even a little bit.
When the wife passed away about 10 years ago the planned rec room became my layout room. 6 years or so ago I switched to On30, hey the scenery still worked. Enjoying the hobby more than ever. That Guy I got to know many years ago became a MMR and I am one of the operators on his layout.
Dave