To all of us Train People

[TurboOne]

What was it that got you started like or loving Trains ?

Mine was the old desiel that would bring two cars to our town about twice a week. One day, my mother pulled over and ran to the engineer. She actually talked him into letting me on the engine, I got to blow the horn, and run the engine for about 1/2 mile, until the end of the line. It was the noisyest sound I ever heard. I thought I never wanted to be on a train again. But to this day, I can remember the sounds, the smells, the thrill that man gave a little boy.

Woo Wooooooooooooooo !

Tim (yes I can still hear)

[riverrailfan]

Mine was are yearly trips to Winona, MN for vaction. The BN would run next to are fishing spots and the C&NW would cross the ole Miss on an old swing bridge into Winona. Two weeks of watching trains. We would stay at my uncles house the whole time. He lived half a block away from the railroad tracks. When the train would come though in the middle of the night at high speed, the whole house shook. Now they just slowly go by.
When I was alot younger, we would take the train to Reinlander, Wisconson to meet up with my grandparents when they were on vaction. I only remember bits and pieces of those trips.
Now with my 3 year old son big into trains, he has rekindled my intrest

[daan]

I first was afraid of trains. Behind our old house in Switserland was a giant stone arc bridge and every sunday there was a steam train going over it. It made a lot of noise, and that was what scared me. I was 2 years old.. From that time trains fascinated me and after the wooden trainset my brother and I got a Faller playtrain to go with the playmobil. That was great!! I know I was upset about it because the train couldn't stop slowly. It was either on or off, and a "real stop" was not possible.
Then I started h0 with 7 years old, a TGV (french High Speed train) from Lima.
then Z, german prewar 0, h0 again, LGB, h0, N and eventually 0 postwar and modern stuff american style.

[brianel027]

I was born on a December 3rd. My dad couldn't wait the 4 weeks 'til Christmas, so I guess I had my first train set when I was only days old. Stayed with trains all through high school, then they went away for a while. Years later, I was very in love with a woman who had a son. I wanted to do something for her boy when the idea of a train set popped into my head. Got a Lionel catalog and a K-Line one as well. Bought a train set for the boy, but got tired of his mom's (how to say this politely) being with other guys so I said "the heck with this." I ended up with the train set and for a while it was a saving grace while I grieved that bad relationship. Years ago, it was Lionel that got me in the hobby... years later it was K-Line that made it possible.

I've been screwed over by a few women, but I've never been screwed over by a train.

[cnw1995]

Growing up along the Northeast Corridor in the Penn Central days didn't encourage an interest. Even commuting on Metra for a decade didn't click with me. I got interested in trains as a result of getting interested in model railroading...

While I enjoyed an HO layout my dad built on a ping-pong table, I didn't become really interested in the hobby until I happened upon a Model Railroader mag at our local library about five years ago - and was just hooked. I ended up devouring their entire five-years of back-issues - then moved on to all their modelling and prototype books. Bought an N scale train set and eventually got a 3 x 5 layout of the British prototype featuring Tomix N scaled Thomas the Tank series engines I bought in Japan. After nearing finishing it, including converting all the engines to DCC, I considered the difficulty I was having working in that scale - and literally gave it all away to start anew in O but at more of a 'fun' tinplate level.

[Anonymous]

I really don't know exactly what made me love trains, but even when I was a toddler I was obsessed with trains. My parents have told me about the many drives they'd take me on when I was little to go looking for trains. Because I loved trains so much, I received various little kids' toy trains. That wasn't enough for me, though. One of my favorite things to do when I was little was to line up things (toys, stuffed animals, boxes, shoes, whatever I could get my hands on) all over the house to make trains. There was even a Christmas when I didn't want to open any of the presents, but line them all up to make a train! My first electric train came when I was 4 years old. It was a Playmobil G scale train set with a red diesel switcher, gondola car, boxcar and circle of track. Pretty soon, there were more cars, track and accessories added to it. When I was 5 or 6, I got a Bachmann HO set with a chrome Santa Fe F9. I still played with the Playmobil lots, but the HO collection kept growing and growing. When I was in grade 2, my dad built a layout for them that could run three trains. I still have HO trains and the original (but obviously much altered) layout is incororated into my current HO layout.

As for how I got interested in prewar and postwar trains, it was from an old black and white photograph of my uncle, along with my mom and her twin sister, playing with my uncle's Lionel Scout set. Ever since I first saw that photograph, I wanted that train! Unfortunately, my grandpa sold the train many,many years before I was born. All through my childhood, the thing I wanted most was a Lionel train. At that time, my family was under the false impression that Lionel trains were a thing of the past and that they're now all worth lots of money. Eventually, when I was 10, I got a Marx 4-wheel plastic set. I was thrilled with it! I got another Marx set for my 11th birthday and later on got my first Lionel set with a 600 M-K-T switcher (the rare one with the grey base and yellow handrails). From then on the collection continued to grow and expand to where I am now.

[palallin]

I got my first train for my first Christmas (from my grandfather). It was an HO set that didn't run. He took it back the next day and bought the last O set in the store, a Marx set. I still have it, and it took it's 40th 2nd-day-of-Christmas run just 10 days ago.

When I was 4 thru 7 years old, we lived near Silver Dollar City, and I was enthralled by the narrow gauge steam trains they had painted up in Frisco colors. (The trains still run, though the original motive power has been retired and replaced by little tank engines.)

Then, when I was seven, we moved to the city, but Grandpa got me my first Lionel for Christmas of '72--an uncatalogued Sears set (8020 Alco pulling, among other cars, the rare, dark blue GN hopper)--which also graces my layout every Christmas.

There was a dubious flirtation with HO in my teen years, but I came home to O in grad school. I'm still enthralled with the Frisco, though I also collect MoPac and T & P. And, of course, I've started playing with Standard Gauge this past year.

[laz 57]

My POP got me mine when I was born in '57.
Put it up under the tree every year and then put it away for the year did this till my brother had kids then he took the set and started the tradition. So I desided what the heck, get one for under your tree dummy, duh.
Started with a starter set took hook,line and sinker, and some 27 engines later I'm still into it bigger and better then ever. Love the TMCC and all bells and whistles. Also love just watching and daydreaming as they go around in a circle. Still one of the coolest toys out there.
Now thanks to SPANKYBIRD and others on this forum am now taking pics of the layout.
Laz 57

[Anonymous]

Oh well Thomas The Tank was a big factor, My Grandma used to take me to
Strasburg and Ringoes. Thats how I love trains.

[Anonymous]

Ringoes?

I work there!

[ChiefEagles]

Santa brought me my first Lioenl Hudson set when I was 6.

[Anonymous]

I always had a trian layout every Christmas as a yong boy. Mom would always make me put it away about a week after Christmas and there they sad till the next year. I packed them away as I got older. then about 3 yrs ago i had cancer. As I went thru treatment I was looking for something to take my mine off my treatment so one day I opned a packed box and bingo TRAINS. I started to play around and there you go I was hooked. I'm now cancer free but I justed my 2nd layout and I'm running 3 O gauges Lionel's dated from 1947 to 53.

[ChiefEagles]

Jimmy, sounds great [both cancer free and running trains]. God bless.

[Anonymous]

My memories go back to 1962, when I got my first train, a Lionel. In the mid 1960s my Dad built an HO layout (large one) for my brothers and I in the basement. He tore it down in 1981 so that my brother would live in that room while going to college. After my brother moved out, and a little encouragement from me, he re-launched a new layout in N scale. It was my Dad's love of trains that lit the spark for me. I love trains now as much as he ever did. I am now trying to light the spark in my 2 boys, 7 and 10. Got them O scale for Christmas. (Lionel and MTH) Strategy seems to be working. Another generation hooked!! Oh Yeaaaahhhh!!!!! Couldn't have a better hobby!!

[Anonymous]

You work at Ringoes? Wow!!!

I LOVE Ringoes.. Have not been there in a while though....

[Anonymous]

Yep.

[laz 57]

JIMMYDETROIT keep those trains rollen and congrats on beating the cancer.
Laz 57

[prewardude]

What got me hooked was a Marx set that my Dad set up around the Christmas tree when I was about 2 or 3 years old. That set had been his when he was a kid. I don't remember much about it except the brown tin "cattle car". Unfortunately, I had a bad habit of taking things apart without being able to put them back together again when I was a kid! Needless to say, that train is long gone. [:(]

Glad to hear you're doing okay, Jimmy. [:)]

[TurboOne]

Jimmy, way to beat the cancer, my dad just got his clean bill of health from his cancer, 3 years clean also. Glad trains were part of the healing process.

What is a Ringos ????

To those that grew up in the midwest around trains and daan in Switzerland with the train so close, I envy you. That had to be a great memory for all. On my next trip to the wifes grandmas in Alemeda, CO. I hear there is a real train still running about 30 miles away. I will have to take the kids on a train ride so that they can have the experience of a real train. They do get excited seeing the trolley, but not the same for me.

Wooooooooo Woooooooooo

Tim

[Anonymous]

Whats a Ringoes? Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!! You anwnser it Lehigh Valley!!

[Roger Bielen]

My first 5 years were spent in Passaic, N.J. living in an industrial area with a small freight yard at the end of the street. I remember SW type switchers and small steam engines. After hours and on weekends Dad would take me to climb on the cars. Downtown the main street was divided down the middle with, I think, the Lacawanna main lines. I remember some steam and later GG-1's. Occasionally we would take a train to NY during the Christmas season to see the sites.

[pokorbm]

I also spent my early childhood in Passaic, NJ and lived about a block away from the Erie Lackawanna tracks. I remember hearing the sound of trains as I lay in bed. My uncle and I used to travel on the train from downtown Passaic to Hoboken, and then take the ferry to Manhatten to visit my grandparents.

When I was older, (and long after the downtown station was abandoned and converted to a parking lot), I commuted to college on the Erie Lackawanna mainline from the Passaic Park Station to Hoboken.

[Anonymous]

the trains my dad had in the basement. HO and and american flyer, i always begged to see them bu he didn't always do it. also train shows as a 4 yr old....don't get to many anymore and i need track! why'd they havta sell the expo center in pensauken. now i'm learning to wire and solder with greater efficiency, also bult an addition to my layout, but what good is more area without track!
pleasent dreams

[flyingyankee616]

[:D]My wife bought a box of old trains at a yard sale about eight years ago,and in it was a rusted old 1935 Flyingyankee616. It took me a few months of cleaning and scrubbing and trying `to figure out how to make it run. After that I was hooked.

[TurboOne]

Alright you east coasters, the west coast newbie thats a Charger fan wants to know what is a Ringos ?

There are definately some awesome beginnings here about the start of the awesome world of TRAINS.

Tim

[j1love]

I grew up about 5 blocks from the PRR main line between Harrisburg and Philly. My buddies and I used to ride our bikes in a park next to a portion of the line where PC, Amtrak, and Conrail shared this line. I eventually rode out by myself and lay down on the inside of a broad curve and watched all the trains go by! There is NOTHING like the sight of a metroliner or a commuter train or (gasp!) coal drag from track level (I was laying down at trackside). Put simply, I was hooked at 12 years old!

[FJ and G]

I grew up with real trains, riding NYC, PRR and subways. Family never had a car so always went by rail.

I'm certain I'm the only one on this forum who only went by rail as a kid. The model RRing naturally followed.

[Anonymous]

Ok. Ringoes is a old train station and has a train that goes about 12 miles down, and comes back. Its for scenic , I guess. And a course, they have a gift shop there...

[TurboOne]

QUOTE: Originally posted by snell50

Ok. Ringoes is a old train station and has a train that goes about 12 miles down, and comes back. Its for scenic , I guess. And a course, they have a gift shop there...

Thanks snell, do you know if ringos has a website. It sound like a fun time.

Tim

[Anonymous]

I don't know. Why don't you type in Ringoes, NJ on google? (Ringoes is a town)

Its fun, but I hav'nt been there since I was 6.

(5 years ago)