My earliest train memories are of going fishing with my dad around 1962 or so, along the shore of Puget Sound south of Everett, Washington. These trips were in the early morning and invariably, we would see the incoming westbound Empire Builder pass by headed to Seattle. For a 3 to 4 year old boy, seeing that train pass by at 60 mph only about 4 feet away had a very lasting impact. Not only did it stoke my interest in trains, it is also the reason I’ve chosen the Great Northern Railway as my prototype. I remember these incidents quite well. Was always fascinated-never could get enough.
Other than local industrial switching, there were very few trains running through my town. You really had to go out of your way to be near a mainline. I remember that my Dad would take me, as a very young boy of 3 or 4, to the local station just to watch some trains go by, but my biggest influence on MRR was the fact that my Dad and other relatives were into MRR long before I was born. Who knows if my interest today is Nature or Nurture. In subsequent years, I’ve taken trains in many countries around the world and enjoyed them all, but no doubt, would be a modeler today even without that real world exposure. Cheers.
Combination of the two. My dad’s Lionel 027 layout when I was growing up, and riding the Frisco passenger train through my home town of Rolla, MO in the mid 60’s–being pulled by those red E8’s has been imprinted in my memory ever since.
Jim
I can’t imagine someone not seeing a train. I’m lucky, I see about 25 a day and that without going to the tracks to railfan. Just looking out the window right now I see a CP Rail intermodal train heading east down the shores of Lake Ontario about two miles from my house. If it wasn’t for my dad introducing me to the hobby I doubt that I would be involved in it today. Seeing or not seeing trains wouldn’t have made a difference.
Sadly enough, I actually didn’t get to see operating trains as a kid but only the reminders of what had been. In San Angelo Texas growing up, Santa Fe had long ago abandoned the line except for the rare and often missed grain or cotton trains once a year. But we did have a great old Rail Station, two stories, mission style from the era of the Kansas City Mexico and Orient railroad. Interesting enough, a Company from Mexico reopened the line and does a fairly good seasonal commodities business through the dessert.
I got into trains…after seeing the real ones downtown as a child. Amtrak’s station was an interesting place then. By the late 1970s, the ex-PRR station was a shell of its former self–just the place for an impressionable kid to be while waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to come home from my aunt’s place in Philadelphia. I remember looking out the waiting room windows out to the tracks, either sitting in the car, or walking over to the wall (at the time, you could drive down the enclosed walkway into the former waiting room area)–there was usually some sort of locomotive out there belching huge blue clouds. However, the thing I remember most was the noise, and just how big everything was. One of Amtrak’s F40s must have appeared to be a mile tall then!
Up until that point, I’d never really been that close to a train. Sure, I’d seen them from the car windows, watched the Conrail drags from Great-Grandma’s porch, or heard the Montour’s horns at night, but that was nothing like this!
C’mon guys, ya got to be something of a railroad nut to enjoy being a model railroader! Where else would we get some or most of our ideas from? Theres been more than a few times for me that something on a real passing train has caught my eye, and I pulled over to get a few pics of it. I always carry a disposable camera with me for such occaissions
I grew up in Cleveland, OH during the late 50s and 60s where there was a lot of railroad activity including passenger service (pre-Amtrak) from the station in the Terminal Tower. I used to love when our father would take us downtown on the rapid transit to see the ballgame. I specifically remember walking through the Collinwood yards on my way to Euclid Beach. I’ve spent many summers watching the railroad operations from the bridge and sometimes walking through the yard. I then got a huge Lionel train set in the early 60s and got hooked on model railroading which was a common hobby at that time as almost every kid had or wanted a train set. Although I’ve never seen a steam loco in revenue service, I’ve always been and still am a big fan of steam.
Hear in the San Francisco Bay Area, there is some railroad activity including narrow gauge tourist lines, some freight, Amtrak, MUNI metro, and commuter trains such BART and Caltrain (keep your feet off the seats!).
As usual, I’m going to come at this from a different angle.
There are plenty of people who build models of Clipper ships or Nelsonian men-of-war who have never seen an OCEAN, never mind a 19th century ocean-going sailing ship. Likewise, I’m sure that there will be plenty of people who will model steam locomotives in the future, even after the few presently operating have been retired to display status.
The one thing that differentiates the dyed-in-the-wool model railroader from other model building hobbyists is the way we go beyond the rolling stock, modeling the infrastructure, the surrounding buildings and even the terrain the trains operate through. I have yet to meet a model aircraft enthusiast who has ever tried to build a serious, operating model of a full scale airport for his RC plane(s) to fly into and out of. Slot car racers may nod at raceways when they build their tracks - but has one ever modeled a major freeway interchange (with alternate routes possible?)
I’m not saying that nobody ever has - just that they aren’t very visible.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - scenery, structures and all eventually)
Some of the military modelers, judging from their magazines, are into dioramas which include buildings and scenery. I’ve also seen the military wargamers with scenery and buildings that they maneuver their units over.
Enjoy
Paul
[D)]I’m glad that I asked this [8D]. The big thing that comes across to me from the answers is how much the feel (sight, sound etc) of the real thing has impacted on most people posting. Makes me recall a lot about the real trains of my childhood and youth.
I also recall being very “put out” if not scared by a huge 0 gauge layout on which everything moved at a scale 5,000MPH at least. I was terrified that things were going to smash into each other or fly off the edges… which were about at chest height for me. Strange thing is that that layout focussed almost entirely on operating a timetable/sequence but it spawned a bunch of really sound modellers that still produce a good commercial line of freight cars.
Another layout had controllers made up from some of the gear originally used to release the bombs from Lancaster Bombers - the top side was very like the handle swinging around an arc that you get on a streetcar control column. Most people mounted these things flat with the wires in a box underneath. This guy had them back-to back on edge (down line one side, up line the other side) - with nothing shielding the bare resitance wires… so your’s truly kept getting a 12V DC belt off them… I think that adult fingers wouldn’t fit in but I was gawping at the trains, my fingers wandered and “POW”!
The weird thing is that my big brother was bored by both and has never had any significant interest in railways real or modelled. ( [D)] … [(-D] ) but I’ve been fascinated by all aspects of rail as long as I can recall… maybe the electricity got to the brain cell [%-)]
Chuck… interesting perspective… I’ve modelled all sorts of things and built my own motorcycle (also into landRovers at one time) … but I’ve always returned to railways/railroads. O
Howdy, Dave.
Since I received my first (Lionel lithographed metal) train set at the ripe old age of five months, I’m really not in a position to judge. My toddler world was full of things that ran flanged wheels on steel rails, so the twig was bent long before I could have given the matter any conscious thought.
OTOH, I spent my military career deeply involved with the care, feeding and coddling of aircraft. If someone gives me a model of one, it’ll be trade goods as soon as the donor is out the door. I also aced my one Naval Architecture course - and haven’t even considered building any kind of watercraft since.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in Southern Nevada)
Yes…Growing up south of Detroit (late 60’s early 70’s) near 4 main lines I was spoiled. I can recall driving to my grandfathers business in Ecorse, in the shadow of Great Lakes Steel (National Steel and now owned by US Steel), we would be stopped by switchers pulling out strings of gons and coil cars to the main. I was hooked and to this day those are my favorite rolling stock.
Hi: I grew up in a Railroad Town. I first remember the trains when they ran behind our house. ERIE RR. I had three older brothers that worked in the Coach Shops repairing Passenger Coaches. When the passenger service slowed down the shops were converted to freight car repair. I never worked for the railroad, but my mother used to work at the Union News Resturant at the Station. After school I used to go to the station until my mother finished her shift.
I used to see/watch the trains as they went through. The Passenger trains stopped, the freights just passed through picking up speed to make it up the hill and over the summit. There would be Two Steam Locos on the front and two more Pushers on the rear, and every time I saw one I would watch it from start to finish. I used to try to count the cars on the freights, but by the time the middle of the train was passing, it was going so fast and I was so close on the station platform, that I couldn’t distinguish the separation between cars and count fast enough. I think the highest I ever counted was around 70 to 75 cars. This was in the mid 40’s and all steam. I didn’t know one steam loco from another at the time, I was only 10-12 years old.
I remember the Diesels when they first started coming through. ABBA F-units, front and back. The biggest difference I remember was that the Diesels were less noisy. I don’t remember the real transition from steam to diesel, I was in the navy for 4 yrs. and when I came back home it was all Diesel.
My first try at model Rail Roading, I was still in high school and started with Lionel “027”, started a layout in the attic of our house. Don’t remember much about it but remember making mountains with chicken wire and news papers soaked with something (what ?). I don’t know what happened to all the Lionel stuff, wh
I got a windup train from Santy Claus at age 2, a Marx electric at age 3 and a real Lionel Electric Train at age 5, all of which influenced my rail interest. But I also had a bunch of real trains some 50 feet from my backyard…