Who or what got you interested in model trains ?

[okiechoochoo]

first train at Christmas in 1952. Was a Lionel Alco anniversary set and a steam freight set. Been going almost non stop since then.

[Brutus]

My Dad had a lionel set from when he was a kid that I remember playing with when I was very very young. I think it got ruined in a basement flood or something. Later, I got a Bachman freight train that was HO. I never had much money, but I added some trees and a couple manual switches and stuff. Don't know where it went - I'm sure my mom got rid of it. My father-in-law is working up an N gauge train set - he's still in the planning stages mostly. Got me thinking about it. I bought an HO train last Christmas, but I didn't really like the scale. Over the Summer, I started looking at O gauge trains and they just feel right - they are a good size and have some toy quality that really appeals to me - I guess it's probably nostalgia as much as anything else.

[Tom1947]

My father bought me my first traing set in 1955 when we lived on the Hill in Everett, Pa. I still have it and have been adding rolling stock and engines to the collection ever since. This will be the first year in about 15 that I have put it up over Christmass. Just finshed the bench work today and should have track and buildings streets etc done some time lmid to late week.

[Anonymous]

The thing that started my interest in trains in general occurred back in the early fifties. My dad was a funeral director. Occasionally, he would take me to the Seaboard station in Columbia, S.C. to pick up the remains of someone who died up north but desired burial back home. Usually we met the Silver Meteor in the wee hours of the morning, sometimes it was the Silver Star. I remember talking with the train crew while the dearly departed was being loaded in dad's Cadillac hearse. I wish I had asked for a quick tour of the engine but I didn't want to bother the crew, anyway the sight of the Meteor coming into the station (I loved the Mars light) and making a super smooth stop about sent me into sensory overload! I was hooked at the tender age of 5.

[jonadel]

My folks gave me a Marx set for Christmas in either '51 or '52, it's all I wanted. Still have it, but it's in pretty tough shape. My Dad then became very interested in HO in the mid '50's and we had a small layout togther. Then, like most young men my interests went in other directions.

It wasn't until the '70's when our oldest son was able to enjoy trains that I got going again. He and his younger brother just didn't seem to have the interest in O gauge that I had, video games were sadly more important. And I just couldn't afford the Lionel name, except for the really cheap stuff.

Fast forward to 1996, my wonderful wife bought me the MTH Amtrak set and it just ignited my interest again. Both sons now have their own sets around their own Christmas trees and really look forward to coming home and playing with Dad's trains on a permanent layout. Being done with braces, college tuitions, cars, extra insurance, etc. finally allowed me to build our layout and not worry about spending money on toy's. It's kind of funny, our yougest son who is 27 and single has tons of friends always stopping in and when he has the trains out they just have the best time. I don't know what it is about a train just doing a simple circle, it's almost hypnotical.

Jon

[cnw1995]

My brothers and I had an HO layout on a ping-pong table we jammed into what became my sister's bedroom and ran two Tyco train sets - a Burlington passenger set pulled by F3s and a Santa Fe freight set. My dad set it up with us. When my sister was born, it went away. I actually didn't know my dad had Lionel trains until I was an adult. I don't remember him taking me to Madison Hardware to have them refurbished in the early 80s. Now I have them. What got me interested? Candidly, it was stumbling across an issue of Model Railroader in our local library - I was hooked. I read five years of back-issues they had - got an N scale train set and never looked back. Switched to O because I found N too fiddly. Got my dad's O trains and my own 'Ballyhoo circus' set. Now I'm getting into 'traction.'

[Anonymous]

I honestly don't know. I was too young to remember. I can't say that the gift of a train set is what got me interested in model trains because the reason I got my first train sets was because I was already so obsessed with trains. I suppose it would be real trains that got me hooked, even though the tracks don't go by my house and my town has only a single-track secondary CP line. All I know is that my parents tell me that pretty much ever since I could walk and talk, I was a train fanatic. They tell me about the many railfan excursions they'd have to take me on when I was just a toddler. They'd drive around for hours, hoping to come across a train. When you have a kid like that, it's only natural that you buy him trains for Christmas and things just progressed from there.

[3railguy]

I got my first train when I was three. A pu***rain with track, switches, and turntable. I played with that a lot and got a Lionel when I was five. I ran the **** out of that until I was ten and got my first HO set which I modeled until I was twenty.

[garyseven]

Real trains traveling through Lindsey, Ohio. Loved watching them from my grandparents living room window on Garfield St. I think they were NYC. There was a big grain elevator.

[laz 57]

DAD IN '57
when I was born got me my first train set.
laz57

[Anonymous]

Dan Kuntz. In the town I grew up, He was a man who had a large layout in his basement. I don't remenber the size, but it took up most of his basement. It did not have anything but track. Around the outside he had a single track of G scale track and the middle was filled with O scale track. Then on a side table, he had several tracks of N scale.

[EIS2]

Santa!

[crip]

My wife. When I was young my brother got a train set for christmas but I don"t what happened to it. The first christmas with my wife she asked me what I wanted for Christmas and out of the blue I said I always wanted my own train set. The rest is history!

[Anonymous]

MY Dad bought me my first set in 1961. I've been hooked ever since and I still have them and they still run! We moved several times and they made the trip everytime without any major damage.

[Heartman]

Dad, in 1947 and I haven't stopped since

Dennis

[marxalot]

When I go WAY back into the memory bank I remember getting a wind up train that would follow along a flexible piece of round rubber. You could form the route any way you wished. I had to be only 3 or 4 or so with that. A friend's father when I was around 7 or 8 (1957-58) had a lot of Lionel, even the great GG1, set up in his attic. I was hooked after seeing that. My first train set was a Marx. Marx 027 led to a small HO until my teens when things got packed away... but only for awhile.........

[dwiemer]

Started with Dad. He gave me his set from 1949 and followed by a Sears Set in 72. My uncles had some standard guage including a Blue Comet that can still get me excited. When we moved to my parent's current location, they had a 4 line New York Central tracks at the bottom of the hill. I have pictures from NYC, Penn Central, and Conrail all on the same rails.
The trains went away for some time and now that I live in the south and have a son of my own, I set up the old lionels around the tree last year and wouldn't ya know it, I am hooked again.
Dennis

[Buckeye Riveter]

After my father died, my mother moved back to Indiana where we lived with my grandparents. My grandpa bought me a Marx Train when I was 4 1/2 and it was off to the races. Click on the photo in the signiture below and the photo on the left was taken of me running the Marx Train. [8D]

The first Lionel showed up when I was ten.[:D]

I still have both tains. [:)]

[mackb4]

Excuse me if this has already been a topic,but who or what got you interested in model trains[?] My interest started when I was 5yrs old in 1974,and found my Dad's old trains in a box ,up in the attic.I had him set up the train on the floor,and presto!I was hooked.I got my first train set that Christmas.My Granddad got my Dad interested in trains in the 1950's.He must of liked them for a while cause an old desk of my Graddad's had a Lionel train ad from a Virginia newspaper from the 1930's in it.Sorta neat,hey.[8D]