When I was a small child, my father was stationed in France. He bought a Marklin trainset and mounted it on a sheet of plywood. WOW! Hours of excitement.
Im gonna take “I was born with this disease” for 1000 please.
Answer: What is my genetic proof? bloodtest results… caboose red.
PMR
Fall in love?
I never did.
But, I do like model railroading as a hobby.
Rich
Very young. Trains always caught my eye with children’s media; the 1991 animated version of The Little Engine that Could, the Casey Jr. scenes in Dumbo, and the model seasons of Thomas the Tank Engine (series 4 featuring the narrow gauge characters came out when I was a young child and was a VHS tape staple). I would connect my ERTL diecast Thomas figures for hours as a kid.
My introduction to the real thing though happened around the same time. My parents took me to see the state Centennial train around that time, and while I don’t remember it; it was the first mainline special I saw as a very young child. The local railroad museum with its plinthed steam engine was also a special place in those early years. But the most formative train memory I have was on the Heber Valley Railroad with the recently returned to service UP 618 in 1997. My parents complained the day was hot, the bathrooms limited, us kids were being fussy and there was some unexpected nudity trackside from an exposed sunbather; but those weren’t the details I remember… I only remembered the thrill of the big steam engine at work on that trip.
I enjoyed the hobby as I grew up, but my teenage years was when I sunk my teeth really into it; diving headfirst into that local history museum. While I had seen many steam engines at Disneyland since that 1997 trip behind 618, it was some trackside excursions with a camera as a teenager to railfan and a early 2010’s visit to Virginia City where I saw V&T 29 in action that the hobby really started sinking its teeth into me. 29 really gave me that thrill of having seen 618 as a kid once again. A Thanksgiving time visit by UP 844 to my hometown shortly afterwards, and I was well on the way from being a casual railfan to a hardcore foamer.
- Macys in New York City would put on huge model layouts and although they were tinplate, that started me in trains, both models and prototype.
[quote user=“BroadwayLion”]
What is a LION to say. Dad always took the LIRR to work, I loved waiting on the station (not much of a platform in those days) w
When I was 7 or 8 years old. My mom would take my brother and I to a park to swim onweekends, and the park was adjacent to CP’s Sherbrooke sub… A Triang trainset at Christmas cemented my interest.
I didn’t know being a railfan was ‘optional’, it was pretty automatic for me. I grew up across the street from a railroad line, and so saw trains every day growing up. Our local kid’s TV program was “Lunch with Casey”, with Roger Awsumb playing Casey Jones, taking a break from running trains to have lunch with his buddy Roundhouse Rodney in the yard office.
BTW, generally model railroaders got into the hobby because a) they were given a toy train / train set as a kid, and got interested in real trains because of it, and b) they grew up next to a rail line, or had a family member who was a railroader, etc. and got into model trains as an extension of their interest in real trains.
I’ve always thought it would be an interesting project to compare the model railroads of the two groups. I’m sure there would be a difference in emphasis between the two, but not sure exactly what it would turn out to be.
I can’t answer your question accurately, because I cannot remember a time in my life when I wasn’t in love with trains. My earliest memory, probably from @1954, is of the LIRR. I was born in '52.
I grew up not far from the Long Island Railroad, which was an outsized presence in our family life. The main reason was because of the many trips when we’d go to the station to pick my grandparents up for one of their frequent visits. They lived in New York City and we in Babylon. I also remember Uncle Richie, a cop, directing traffic at the main intersection by the station. He would often slow down traffic so we could be in front when the old gate guard would crank down the crossing gates for passing trains. I think he loved 'em as much as I did. I loved sleeping over their house because it was across the street from the line.
We forecast weather using the railroad. From our back yard, the way the railroad sounded would tell us what to expect, with the wind coming off or heading toward the Great South Bay. The way the sound from the railroad changed was far more reliable than Tex Antoine’s forecasts on TV.
Thank you so much for posting this question. Reading everyone else’s answers has been a wonderful experience, bringing back memories like how thrilled I was when I made my first friend who was as hooked as I’ve always been. Thanks to everyone who shared such great memories.
Like the Lion and Navyman, I also grew up on Long Island, mostly just a few miles from the Lion’s Den. My Dad also rode the LIRR into the city to work. I had a set of Lionels by the time I was 4. A train ride was always an adventure. Once, for my birthday, Dad took me into NYC and we just rode the subways all day.
Fast forward and I replaced the Lionels with an HO layout. I finally found subway cars, the same Redbirds the Lion probably started with. My HO layout had been stored and transported for about 35 years, until my ex-wife suggested I set them up. Like the Lion’s Abbot, she probably didn’t expect more than a tiny Martha Stewart layout. I even upgraded almost all my old rolling stock from the 50s and 60s with Kadees and metal wheelsets. The old engines didn’t convert well, although I still run a few gutted shells as “honorary” dummy engines.
My love of trains started before I could walk or talk according to my mother. Some of that might relate to me being on the autism spectrum. I never put the trains away thru school and college years. Still enjoy them, just the price and what I enjoy has gotten…well…a bit more expensive as most are either brass or G scale/gauge one live steam. Mike
I am another born and raised on Long Island. My mom says that when I was no more than 4 she would push me in a stroller on a bridge over the LIRR Port Washington branch in Elmhurst Queens. If a train was going underneath I would sit up to see what the racket was all about.
Probably around the same time that I fell in love with girls…that would’ve been when I was three.
Wayne
Growing up in Hannover (Germany) in the 1950/1960s, our family never had a car. Still, we did a lot of hiking trips close to Hannover and once a year a summer vacation on beaches in Denmark or the Netherlands, or in the Austrian alps, all by train. Thus, trains are associated with lots of fond memories of my childhood.
When I was about nine years old, we moved to a different part of Hannover. Our new apartment was about a mile away from one of Germany’s major north-south railroad lines between Hannover and Wuerzburg. At least once a week, I would ride my bike to a bridge over this line. In the beginning, there were still trains pulled by steam engines. Then, it was mostly electric locomotives.
Always loved trains, since I was 4 or 5.
Never lived out west, but my first trainset was Santa Fe, have tried to model railroads here where I grew up in PA, but always revert to my primary Santa Fe interest. So that is why my name on here is what it is. At times have dabbled in eastern roads.
We had a big mural of Bryce Canyon on the basement wall behind our train layout. That mural kinda led me to always be in love with the historical American West. I’ve been to Cajon, Tehachapi, along the ATSF in Az, and have even gotten to Tombstone and Tucson. Of course got to Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon twice and have ridden the Grand Canyon Railway.
John
I think that trains, for me, were a foregone conclusion. I grew up in South East Michigan so the 1225 and 765 were visited often by my family. A primary vacation activity was going to train museums as well.
i didn’t fall in love with them … i just like them
I got my first HO train set at Christmas following my 8th B-day, it was on a 4x8 Xmas tree platform which went to the basement where I could play with it all year. That lead to a lifetime of fiddeling with anything electro-mechanical.
In the early 60’s, Ibuilt my first layout on a 5x9 platform in the attic, with hard shell scenery per the articles in MR. By late high school, I was scratch-building structures and RR cars. Built a portable switching layout.
Late 20’s I shifted to scratchbuilding R/C boats… most in HO scale in case a future layout had room for a dock scene. Took a side trip to R/C airplanes for a while. This was followed by years of playing with British sports cars.
After getting “domesticated” (wife & kids), I returned to model trains, I built 2 layouts, which were interrupted by moves; I’m currently on my 3rd room size layout now that we’re in our “final retirement house”. Now that I have more time to devote to the hobby, I’m enjoying it all the more and delving into new areas.
Jim
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
When did I fall In love with trains?
December 1996 - Jaunary 1997
Started with the usual Thomas/Brio, used that from 1997-2000
Got my first HO Scale Life-Like Set around Jaunary 1999, had it until mid or late 2001.
Got my first Lehmann Gross Bahn (LGB) Set in June 2001. I still have it today.
Went back to HO Scale sometime in 6th grade and joined a Modular Club in 2013/2014. This will be my tenth year.
I do two scales: G and HO Scale.