I was infected at the little Santa Fe station in Planada, CA about 1940. My friends dad was the station agent and we played around the station a lot. A lot of real hobos around the tracks in those days…very interesting characters!
Jerry
It was a Lionel train set that I got in 1964 that did it for me. In 1966, my dad built me a simple 4x8 HO layout with 2 mainlines, and interchange and 1 spur. One train was OO scale made by mantua and the other was HO scale made by Bachmann. Can anybody remember when Bachmann wasn’t made in China? I can. The HO layout was finally trashed in 75 and I didn’t really do much for several years after that. In 79 I got a HO trainset, just to mess around with, and it snowballed from there. The old mantua OO loco finally bit the big one in 83 when the motor shorted out. The Bachmann had gone to the trash can years before that. A friend got me hooked on Athearn in 81 and I’ve been using them ever since. Recently, I bought two LifeLike Proto2000’s (a GP30 and a PA2) and I’ve been very happy with them. I expect that this bug will be the end of me someday, but if you can’t enjoy yourself, what’s the use of living? I’m currently working on a new layout (HO of course) that is 2 track, a mainline and a shorter branchline running in a loop inside the mainline. The two of them will be able to interchange rolling stock and share spurs and siding. It’s strictly analog block control for now but I think I’ve been bitten by the DCC bug. I am seriously considering changing to DCC in the near future. I’m going to start with the Bachmann EZ command system to get the feel of it, then take the plunge with a better system, possibly Digitrax, when I can afford it.
(1) My dad’s Lionel 027 train set–that I steadily added to.
(2) Frisco freight and passenger trains ran thru downtown in my home town in Missouri–I rode the last passenger train through there(Rolla, MO) --ca. 1966 or 67.
Jim
Grew up 1/2 block from an industrial line. - got my first N scale Minitrix set for a Christmas present . - Grew up/married and bought a home on the CN mainline- joined two MR clubs and spent waaaay too much $
Still haven’t shook the virus.
A picture is worth 1000 words. As a small boy standing on the station waiting for the train and seeing one of these come in. No one would be brave enough stand up close to the edge. But the virus was contagious.
I feel sorry for the kids today. They can only see these specimens in “captivity” preserved. Not running free like they did when I was a youngster.
My parents infected me early - my first Christmas (age 5 months) with a Lionel 027 tinplate (literally!) train. I teethed on a box car.
Chuck (who is presently drawing Social Security)
John, I’m going to show my ignorance and ask what loco is that? Wow. I like.[:)]
Didn’t catch it till I was 22 years old, believe it or not. When I got hired at GE out of the service, to build Locomotives, what a stupid job I said to myself. After about a year I became obsessed with them, and have been since. Now 58 and still working at GE.
Built all kinds over the years started with U-50’s for the UP 23’s 30’s 33’s 36’s. Now have a job working on computers here but still like my choo-choo’s.
Got a Lionel HO set in 1964 (sound familiar?) Added Varney F-units in 1969, and Tyco power in 1976. Ran the snot out of that stuff, so much that in 1979 we tore that layout down, and found that some of the curved sections of rail had the railheads almost worn off!!! Got married in 83 and went to n-scale on a sheet of foam under the bed, always worried that the steeple on the church might poke through at the worst time![:p] Went back to HO in 89, and will stay there til I’m old and decrepit.
I guess you could call this ferroequinitis ! The ex-wife might have called it grounds for divorce, frankly, I just call it fun![;)]
looks like the crescent limited
but the bumpers on the front looks like its from the UK
someone know’s
thanks guys for making this a great thread
K
Let’s see… I remember going to the Amtrak station here many times in the late 1970s / early 1980s with my mother to pick up my grandparents. They hated flying then, and the train was the easiest way to go to my aunt’s house in Philly. Imagine being a kid in the train station then. Because the station was falling apart, it seemed dark and mysterious. In fact, I remember parking the car under the dome out front, walking (or driving–you could get a car down the hallway, and park in the former waiting room!) But, what I remember most was the noise! I still remember the diesels–they were huge, and loud! Amtrak still ran E units on some runs, but the F40s (even louder!) were becoming more common.
As if that wasn’t enough, my great-grandmother lived about 100 feet from the old Monongahela main line in Waynesburg, PA. Most nights, Grandpa and I would go down there and watch the coal trains speed through town. What a change from the slow NS drags of today!
I think that’s what all started it. I got a Bachmann Chessie set in about '82 or so…and it went from there.
My virus started when my family would go to town on Friday nights and Sears had their Christmas Lionel display set up. No body put up a better display in Columbus, Ga in the fifty’s. Phil
Got the bug back in “79” when my son was born. His grandpa went hog-wild and went out and bought over 500 bucks worth of HO equipment, dropped it at my house, and told me to build my new son a layout. Have’nt been able to shake that darn persistant bug yet!
wow so meny of us got this thing
well we live with it
:O)
When my dad built me an N scale railroad for my 3rd birthday!
Marx NYC steam around the xmas tree in 1953
Its a virus? I thought it was some genetic thing aquired before birth. As far as I know I was building a loop of track around the top rail of my crib before I could do anything else for myself.
Dating myself–five years old at the 1939 World’s fair -Union Pacific model railroad display-Treasure Island, San Francisco. WOW!
I still have it after all these years
K
:O)
Got a RELAPSE when I got hooked on DCC and Gadgetmania!! Worth every penny and every minute of time. Long way from Jersey City and the 027 around the tree!