It seems like there are a lot of us who took a long break from the hobby and are now getting back. I started 14 months ago and have noticed there are a lot of us. How about checking in, saying whan you stopped, when you got back and what you are dreaming of this time.
I stopped in 1984 with a move, started again in April of 05 and dream of a 10x25 L shaped logging and mining branch line.
I’ll bet there are hundreds of us.
I stopped back in the mid-1960’s when I went to college. Sometime after that, I boxed everything up and put it in the basement, and later moved it with me a few times between various attics and storage rooms. I got things out and started thinking about a layout about a year-and-a-half ago, and I’m now just about 14 months into construction myself.
I’ve got a 5x12 foot free-standing HO layout table, but I dream about taking over the whole family room and really building a large around-the-room system with peninsulas.
I was actively modeling N scale until 1977, when I moved to a new home. I had plans on using the finished attic space for a layout, but the plans never materialized. Eleven years later, I got divorced and moved again. Gave up almost everything in the divorce (and GLADLY I might add!) except the trains. Another 12 years went by as the trains waited patiently for me in their storage boxes. I had kept my railroad magazine subscriptions and maintained an interest, just didn’t build anything.
Grandkids came along and I was inspired to build a layout and try to spark an interest in them. Didn’t work on the first two, but the third grandson, now 4, is a train nut extraordinaire! Mostly Thomas right now, but he shows great potential! Eventually, I plan on giving him my small 3’ x7’ layout and building my “Dream Layout” in a spare bedroom.
Once trains are in your blood, they NEVER leave, they just go dormant!
Darrell, back on track, and quiet…for now
Took a break for the military and raising a family. Found one thing though that helps.
Fly fishing relaxes the mind so you can think up your next project. [:)]
Well…
Had Lionel stuff when I was a kid, worked on a small HO layout for about a year when I was in high school (mid 70’s).
Got back into HO about 1993 with a big basement. Started picking up N-scale stuff about '95 and built a 3ft X 8ft N-scale dogbone on foam. Tore down the L-girder and Homosote HO and the N-scale dogbone and moved in '97 and didn’t unpack the HO or the N until a few months ago.
My current basement is unfinished, so I’m doing an L-shaped N-scale switching layout in a walk-in closet. Also, the HO equipment didn’t do well in the move.
If I fini***he basement, I’d do a large around the walls shelf in N or HO. I figure the N switcher will give me a chance to brush off the rust and try some new techniques and products. And it might keep me busy for a long time anyway.
I started in the late 60’s and continued for about 4 years. Job moving, space, time, and of course…lack of money made me decide to get out of it. I retired a few years ago and was in search of a hobby that I wouldn’t get tired of or burned out in and remembered the fun I had in Modelrailroading. So, here I am and I have been at it most every day for about 2 1/2 years now. I have a large garage layout that keeps growing, but “…if there is space, there needs to be a train”.[;)][:D]
REX
I claim to be a rookie, but in truth in the early 80’s I built 4x8 with two loops and no turnouts–had a bridge using the cheapo pilons. No scenery except green cloth. Lasted about a month when my dad moved in for 6 months and needed the room. I don’t remember if it was steam or deisel or what road name it was. Gave the stuff to my nephew. Stuff disappeared.
I stopped in the early eighties after twenty years. Then the urge started to slowly come back to life in 2003. When I found out the local hobby shop was going out of business and selling everything at half price, I was hooked.
Tom
I had a ping-pong table full of pre-war Lionel in High School then N gage around the attic in the 60’s. Have been moving frequently for 30 years after that. Now, about t retire, into Pennsy HO. GG1’s across New Jersey. Have 13 by 20 basement and just starting.
Experimenting with light weight foam on portable tables.
I was in to MR for several years as an adult. I would spend many evenings down cellar working on the layout and my wife would watch TV and knit or crochet stuff. When my wife died, I lost interest in the hobby. Guess I connected it to much happier days. About 4 years ago my old Boy Scout Troop asked me if I would be willing to do Railroading Merit Badge and go to Steamtown with them. I did and it jump started me back into the hobby. I know my wife would be pleased that I am back using whatever creativity the good Lord blessed me with to create a miniture world.
Got interested in trains at age 10 when my Dad built me a 5x9 Lionel set-up. Stayed with it thru my mid 20’s then career, moves too numerous to mention & social life prevented me from really getting into it although, I did stay connected thru magazines & shows. I even managed to get a few “plywood centrals” up & running a couple of times.Two years ago I discovered E-Bay and started massing a collection of PRR locos & cars.Now I am semi-retired and have a home with a good size basement(19x39) so, the plan is basically finalized and construction should start by the end of summer(the workbench area is already up & operational). I am grateful for this forum as it is a treasure trove of information that I have & will frequently refer to.Thanks to all of you who have posted pictures of your work, you are truly inspirational…regards, John
I was hooked on trains when I was about 4 on my grandfathers farm. The Webster branch of the old Boston & Albany ran right along his fence and I would run to the window to watch those big steam engines roar past.
Then, at age 9, I received my first electric train, a Lionel ( what else in the late 40’s), and had many happy days running this on the parlor floor or my bedroom floor.
Then there was a 55 year hiatus while we raised a family and had many other duties that allowed no time for hobbies, nor the room even if I had the time. The last three years have been spent building the room, gathering supplies, tracks, locos, cars,books, DVD’s, benchwork , train shows, etc Hopefully this winter, the first trains will run.
Started in the mid 70’s (Triang train set from my dad) lost interest when I got the drivers license (and have been in a downward spiral ever since) got dragged along to the local trainshow a couple of years ago and voila! I’m back addicted to used brass via ebay (still modelling the basement floor motif).
Does Three days count? [:D]
-James-
Well, like a lot of others, I spent my formative years with Lionel and Flyer. There was a hobby shop near my High School that was building a small HO layout, which I thought was the neatest thing. We’re talkin mid Fiftys here, so it was brass rail on black fiber ties. I was able to convince Dad, it was time to trade in the old stuff for a Mantua 0-4-0 Shifter, a couple of Varney box cars, and caboose, all kits. In those days there was little, if any R-T-R. We kept the big Lionell transformer, bought a rectifier, and was able to provide DC, which in itself was a new experience. My Dad was no modeler, and at fourteen I sure wasn’t. But he spent the whole weekend doing most of the building, so that I could start my RR empire. I remember spending many lunch periods with my nose pressed against the hobby shop window staring at a Bowser kit of a U.P. 4-6-6-4 Challanger, and thinking “That must be what Heaven is like”. I spent countless hours of studyhall time pouring over MR and RMC. My heros were Armstrong, Westcott, Allen, Odegard, et al. Then school was over, going into the business world and having some liquid assets, in the form of cash, I was able to pursue my passion in earnest. But after thirty years, I began to lose interest. The only thing that comes to mind is, I was engaged in the custom builder/painter aspect of the hobby, and successful at it. But the pressures of business turned what was an enjoyable pastime, into less-than-enjoyable work! So for most of the last twenty years, I built nothing! Read an occasional magazine, but that was all. But then about a year ago, I was surfing around E-bay, and I ran across the model railroad pages, and it was fun looking at all the new and not-so-new stuff to be found there. And, not to bore you all, but I picked up a few things, started building what can only be described as a rather large O scale standard, and two foot gauge diorama. I am learning about the new stuff that has come along since I quit. I am re-acquainting my self with lost skills, and having more
OK. It may not count, but here goes.
When i was 10 i started with a lifelike train set. And i got too far ahead of myself and sort of wrecked it.
That was it for me and trains for a few years.
Enter the 13 year old alexander.
I felt that train itch take hold again. And so i started with another set, and i am in the process of redoing my layout with foam.
Alexander
I get the same feel from the postings. There also appear to be a few who are still thinking and planning but have not yet begun building. To those folks - Jump in and just do it if you have the resources.
I started with lego trains as a child (my parents imported them from Germany), and had built my first 4x8 HO layout by the time I was 12. This became an 8x8 about a year thereafter and a better planned L shaped attic layout (about 3-1/2 sheets of plywood all told) a few years later. Interestingly, I found my old track plan by accident the other day.
I worked on this on and off through college but then came the job market and I stopped around 1985. I always had the urge to go back but the time was not right.
In 1991 I purchased my house. It had a large attic which I envisioned using half of for my empire. My wife had other plans. She has an incredible amount of stuff and there was no room at the inn [banghead].
Winter of 2003 I decided to build a garage. It took almost a year to get the permits from the Town. (A tight space on the property) After all that work, I added four feet of height to the attic wall space and turned the design into a victorian carriage house with a walk up train room. It took all of my spare time from Oct 2004 until November 2005 to substantially complete it. Thank God for 20 years of building experience. (I also customized my graphics program - visio - and spent many nights building, refining and discarding track plans.)
My holy grail was always the train room. It kept me going. It’s 17-1/2’ by 30’ walk up, fully insulated etc. All in all a nice space. I started the benchwork in December and now have 100 feet of runnable double track main line, slightly sceniced and half of the mtn line in place. It’s going to be many years in the makin
You would hand it all over to me?
Started MRing when I was 4,kept up and expanded until I was 16, then hormones, girls and a certain 69 Mustang ripped me from the hobby. When my boys were little, I got back into it, and I’ve been with it since.
The hobby does seem to have a certain boomerang effect doesnt it??
You got that right…ah fly fishing. To bad I wasn’t that good at it or the fact that theres no salmon in SC. Man do I miss salmon fishing in upstate NY. But your right ,it does take the mind off of model railroading.
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}