I personally had gotten train sets for Christmas that I’d set up on the floor, but within a few weeks, there wasn’t much left of them.
As a teenager, I liked trains, and greatly respected the people that built layouts and all, but figured it was more of an adult hobby at that time. There was a member of our church named Mr. Greenway that had a big layout in a back room of his house, but any time any of us kids were over there, he’d close the door and say “that room is off limits”…
It wasn’t until my mid 20s that I really started getting into the hobby, and all because of a magazine that I found in the lunch room at work that had an article in it about model railroading. The next thing I know I’m buying a starter set and building a layout. The rest is history…
My son was 2 years old at the time, and he got so excited when we pulled up to a railroad crossing. So I decided to buy an 027 Lionel set and operating objects. I built him this set. Naturally he lost his excitement and I developed mine!
Well about four years ago my then girlfriend (now ex) was cleaning out her grown sons room and was about to throw out a box of HO train stuff. She asked me if I wanted it and being the pack rat I am I took it home. Well I never remember ever having a desire to do model trains. When I got home I took everything out of the box. It was an old cheap LL train set with an F7 loco I think and enough track for a small circle. I wired it up on the living room floor. Me and the dogs got to bed around four AM. I went to the local hobby shop the next day and spent four hundred dollars on HO stuff. Including my very first loco an Athearn Genisis Light Mike. And it has been an endless hole for my money since. I have a burning pasion to do model railroading. The more I Iearn the more I do the worse the passion gets. I probably have 3000 dollars in all my stuff easy. I am stockpiling stuff as quickly as I can so when we move ot our own home in less than a year I can hit the ground running. I just got in two more DS-54’s yesterday now I have six but only two are hooked up right now. I am expiermenting on lighting, sound installs , signaling etc so when I get to my final layout I will hopefully not have as many boo boos. My current layout is a 14 x 12 around the wall. Flat plywood not scenery no ballast. Hopefully it will all come up and I can salvage most of it for the next go round.
Thats my sad story and i’m sticking to it!
Terry
[8D]
My grandpa was determined to have someone share his hobby. He bought me an Athearn “train set” when I was two. It was a santa fe diesel locomotive, a 50’ boxcar ( I still have) 40’ flatcar, 40’ boxcar, and a caboose. The rest of the stuff has gone to the land of wind and ghosts. I fell out of the hobby since I really didnt have any money for it. I still got MR in the mail. I built about 5 layouts I got back in full force two three years ago and now its all DCC and sound ( although I think the sound is silly)My grandpa was a member of the Age of Steam railroad museum down in fair park, he would take me down there and let me see all the trains. He didnt model UP but he went on and on about the big boy. I grew up near the UP mainline so it was a heavy influence I love grey yellow and red. When I was around 12 he took my brother and I to Ft. Worth to see the then numbered 8444. We got to go up in the cab and see the fireman and engineer sure was neat and hot even in february. My roommate and I rode the 3985 down to Houston (hind sight I should have taken my grandpa but he had altheimers pretty bad grandma wouldnt let him go.) He died 6 years ago wish he was still around sure would be fun to go on railfan trips with him and my kids. He had a small 8 x 8 layout he would point to different steamers and ask wheel configurations and names while I was 5 he would drill lots of steam info into me every chance he had. Now I converted the garage to a train room with climate control I am modelling UP Green River WY 1940’s-50’s
I am also a member of the UPHS. Now I teach my son what my grandpa taught me.
My dad. He loved trains and had O and HO models. When I was very small I discovered a Mantua Mike that he had built. At first he took it away from me but eventually let me have it. I slept with that darn thing along with a stuffed horse and stuffed monkey. I still have the Mike and have some real horses but no monkeys. The other thing was old MRs from the 50’s. I couldn’t read yet but I loved the pictures, especially the Varney adds with the G&D. Still have the old MRs too. Though they are very worn they are still readable. Bruce
We do a large Lemax Village Christmas scene every year. Wife wanted to have atrain run around it, so I picked up a Bachmann Old Tyme set to use on it. Everything has since gotten out of hand…
My grandparents took me to NYC on an Amtrak train in April. I had had some inklings of model railroading before then, but the train trip really peaked my curiosity. The rest is history…
I used to have your basic “seasonal” layout when I was a child. Then I went off to college, got maried, and had a child of my own. I got my son a “starter” set when he was 6, and the bug bit me again. He’s 11 now, and both him and I are now “out of control”.
my grandpa had a layout in the garage, and i really liked watching them go around. i first ran one on his layout when i was about 4 i and i was hooked since, he built me a small layout that could sit on the dining room table but constant moves have limited my chances of building anything bigger than a 4X8 which im building now… its been 12 years since that fateful day and my grandpa lost his interest in trains and inherited all his stuff, although i sold all of it to fund some new items because all the stuff he had didnt fit the prototype etc… the one thing i wish i didnt sell was an original Rivarossi NYC Hudson which i sold for about $80 but afterwards i found out that they could get up to $350.00 because they are rare here in Australia… but you get that…
I think back when my parents got me a lionel set along with a road race set on a 4x8 platform back in the 60’s. have a 4 yo girl that we got a battery powered race set for xmas and set my mind to thinking. will see what happens from here
Teething on a Lionel box car may have had something to do with it!
Grew up at a time and place where trains were everywhere! Trolleys in the streets, the L overhead, freights passing by every few minutes on a depressed (and frequently bridged) double-track plus sidings industrial line.
Met my first HO railroad at the age of 5, and fell in love with a Varney Dockside 0-4-0t.
Tried building model planes, but they crashed. Built a few model trains, which didn’t. That did it!
3000 total or a month?[:)] I put myself on a strict budget this year, but spent $330 today.
Where are you moving to? I am sort of doing the same thing. I am worried that our ultimate “own” home isn’t going to have enough “neighbors” to operate the layout that I am planning. We have a contract for a place in a small community of 1200 people. I just missed a really nice place in Burlington Iowa which would have had plenty of willing MR operators.
My folks bought me an 027 Marx set for X-Mas when I was 5. We lived across the street from 2 main lines when I was growing up, and I actually got to DRIVE an Funit coal train when I was 7. (it don’t get much sweeter than that [8D])
massive HO layout (dcc if I recal) at the Museum of Science, Boston http://www.mos.org/
it was 20 years ago and I never forgot the awsome layout
talked to scientist he sead to use rubber cement to recreate the mountains’
looked great, I did get to make my own just a short time ago
so thats how the museum got me going as I had a few tyco’s at that point in time…