I’ve just questioned elsewhere whether any of us would bother to model railroads if we hadn’t stood lines side somewhere and experienced the real thing? What do you think about the connection between the 1:1 and your models/modelling?
[8D]
When I started Model Railroading in 2002, I had never seen a real train except for the tram like thing at Disney World when we went on vacation! I got into mrring when I got hooked on a friend of mines Lionel layout. I had really no interest in trains and knew nothing about them, I was in the hobby so I could have a neat place to run my hot wheels. Boy have things changed! I now camp near a CSX line and try to railfan as much as possible, but still yet am learning new things about trains everyday! I really didn’t base hardly any of my first layout on prototypical standards, but now I find them pretty interesting. I still don’t go completely by the prototype though. Just my story!
-beegle55
I don’t know how well this fits in, but my layout is based on an area in west Texas that I have visited quite a few times. I was inspired to build a layout after checking out the railroading scene out there. I grew up in a great are in regards to prototype railroading and truly think if it were not for that, I would not have persued the hobby.
Edit: After reading the below post, the thing that really kicked it off was finding my father’s big ole’ box of Tyco stuff in our storage shed when I was a kid. After seeing all those real trains for years, it was a blast creating my own little railroad empire. Without having seen the real thing for a few years before that, I am not certain if I would have been inspired to pull that box out of storage or not. I had lots of GI Joe and Star Wars toys to keep me busy otherwise.
Like Beegle, it was that Lionel train set that got me started. The Lionel was followed by a gift subscription to Model Railroader for my eighth birthday. That was followed a few years later by a conversion to HO to make room for more kids in the house.
Although I had seen real trains - my Dad used to commute by rail to New York City - they were not of particular interest to me until I had already been hooked on model railroading. I’m really the reverse of your thesis. Model railroading led to an interest in studying and learning about the prototype.
just my experiences
Fred W
Me and you both Fred! And yea, I didn’t go and model the large scale Lionel’s because boy are they costly on a limited budget and the space was an issue as well. I wouldn’t be in mrring again if it wasn’t for my dad who relit my interest in this hobby after my first layout failure.
-beegle55
I have always loved trains and having a model railroad brings it closer to experiancing watching or riding on an actual train.
I like listening to the rumble of an actual train going by and watch it.
My father worked for INCO at Sudbury, northern Ontario, in the very early 50’s. I have vague memories of pressing my face against the window of our car, as a three-year-old (no cars seats back then) as we drove past the switching yards near the three major mine sites and near the large smelter while steam engines were moving about. I was captivated… and that is about all I can recall. Now, much later, I still am enthralled with steam locomotives. If you have ever ridden on an elephant, you’ll know what I mean when I say it is completely consuming. [8D]
If I had not stood trackside with my father watching all of the N&W’s magnificent steam locomotives, feeling the earth tremble as they passed, and had I not fallen in love with them, I doubt I would ever have been interested in model railroading. For me, steam locomotive models are the main thing, and everything else is trimmings.
My interest in model railroadingis kind of a compound thing. Partially from growing up with the Wabash line through my town being only a couple hundred feet away, and walking it to and from school nearly every day for 8 years. Another big component was the eclectic Lionel layout that my uncle had built in his basement…I would have lived in that room if I could. The final component was my boss from the first job I had after college…his father was a railroader all his professional life, and on his retirement he and his son (my boss) were heavily into model railroading. My boss used to bring locomotives to work with him to do maintenance and repair during his lunch hour…he’s the one who made the point to me that the trains were not just for kids.
I too grew up outside New York City, watching my Dad get on the Long Island Railroad in the morning. It was a real treat when I got to take the occasional trip into the city with him. Best of all, though, were the subways. I remember typing up a letter to one of the model companies, probably Athearn, asking about the possibility of subway or commuter train models. I was probably 12 or 13 at the time.
So it really wasn’t much of a surprise when, 40 years later, the first tracks I laid for my “grownup” layout were for the subways that now rumble beneath the streets of Moose Bay.
My great-uncle (and namesake) Tom was a brakeman on the Southern Pacific, and my older cousin was already a train freak when at the tender age of five, I was whisked up to Truckee, CA, loaded into the cab of an AC-6 and taken from Truckee over Donner Pass to Norden, where our helper loco turned and ran back light down Donner Pass through the snowsheds to Truckee. From then on, I was HOOKED!
I don’t know if I would have become a bonafide model railroader if that hadn’t happened, though my mother always said that when I was a mere child (under five), I would stand at the window and shake all over (possibly peeing my diapers) watching the little train of the Nevada County Narrow Gauge pull into the terminal at Nevada City, right across the street from our house.
In my case, it’s probably Genetic, LOL! I’ve been a train freak since conscious memory.
Tom
Which came first the Modeler or the Railfan?
I don’t know. Been around both all my life.
Probably not. I like the size and power of the real thing. My dad used to take me to see the trains in the yard by Cleveland Hopkins Airport. If there weren’t a lot of trains running you could go watch the big jets land.
I think I would have been a model railroader anyway. It’s hard to tell, as an Army brat I moved around a lot growing up. Some places I didn’t know where there was a train and others the train was literally in my back yard. But I think the fascination of operating minatures was enough to get me hooked.
Enjoy
Paul
There is something about the squeal and the clickity-clack of a flanged wheel on a steel rail, or maybe the lonesome cry of a steam engine whistle on a rainy winter night, or perhaps the ground shaking beneath you when one passed. Or maybe its the masculine blast of a diesel locomotive horn or the growl of 9,000 horsepower going upgrade. Or perhaps, just perhaps, we all need a little aggravation in life and model railroading fits the bill.
The first time I saw a real train (that I can remember) was in 1964. How could a person live in Williamsburg, Virginia and NOT see a train? There were passenger trains and coal and freight trains going through all the time. That year was also the first time I rode on a train. What an experience that was! I’ve had rides on many trains since then. The Super Chief, The City of New Orleans, The City of San Fransisco and many others. I’ve never riden on an Amtrak train and I’m told that I’m not missing much.
Jeffrey–
Though I’ve ridden AMTRAK quite a bit, I’m pretty much on your side. I can tell you that there’s really no experience like having ridden the Coast and San Joaquin Daylights, the Lark, City of SF, Overland Limited, the CZ, Royal Gorge, Prospector or Shasta Daylight in their heyday. Man, that was TRAVELING!
Tom
I was around steam at Strasburg, EBT and other places as a child that is the number one thing that got me into the hobby. Strasburg had a 4-4-0 PRR #1223 (No longer running, now stored at the PRR Museum) that was a favorite real life engine due to it’s good running qualities.
The B&O Museum, BSME and local firehalls showing trains at wintertime sealed my particpation in the hobby.
I can’t even imagine not ever seeing a real train… I was born and raised in a town that had a Southern Pacific track running right through the middle of it (now Union Pacific), and grew up playing in railroad yards and on side tracked cars, so it was only natural that I grew up to be a model railroader. I do however feel bad for those that are into trains, but that don’t have tracks within a reasonable distance to railfan…
Tracklayer
That’s an interesting one …
… I think I’d have ended up making models anyway - but that might have been cars or military dioramas. I think the moment I became a rail enthusiast was about age 5, when I met my first steam train at a narrow guage rail museum (which might explain some of my later modelling preferences), but the two seem always to have gone together.