How did you start model railroading

[kpolak]

When I was about 10, my father and I built a simple HO 4x8 with Tyco trains, atlas track, remote 'snap' switches and everything.  Just a painted plywood top.  Continued on for about 5-6 years after that building plastic kit models, and playing with the trains.  UP Steam Loco, Chessie, and Illinois Central, Diesels.

I still have all that stuff.  HO fits into a rather small space.  It's very difficult to part with.  I have friends that are threatening to build an HO layout, and it would be fun to get those old trains rolling again, on their layout.

When I was about 16, I frequented the flea markets with my father and started down the Lionel path...we went just about every week to the same flea market.  Everyone called him 'the train man'.  I don't recall ever running the Lionels...it was more collecting.  We packed up those after he retired. 

I'm 41 now; reviving the cars we collected, adding more, and constructed a Christmas layout (we have a very small house, and I am only allowed to put up the trains at Christmas).  I really enjoy operating (playing with) the trains with my daughter(s) (second due this month) and friends children.

I think I gave my father the bug again.  He is constantly on the lookout for more trains.  When I talk to him he usually tells me "so and so has this, what should I offer".

Kurt

[Jumijo]

I had a Lionel set when I was a kid. That gave way to HO for a few years before I lost interest as a teen.

30+ years later, I bought my kids a Lionel set for Christmas. I'm now addicted!

Jim 

[cnw1995]

In the early 70s my dad built us an HO figure 8 layout on a pingpong table. I had the Tyco Burlington passenger set and my brother had the Tyco Santa Fe Freight. We played the heck out of that layout - complete with army men, Matchbox cars, model airplanes, etc. Then it went away when the bedroom was needed for my new sister.

Fast forward to my randomly picking up a Model Railroader magazine in the library back in 2000. I was bitten by the bug - read their five years of back issues. Then got an N scale set and eventually a 3 by 5 ft folding table layout. When my dad was sick, I found his Lionels that he never really used when helping clean his house. My mom gave them to me... And I dumped the N and got my own Lionel set - the Ballyhoo circus train - by then we moved to a basement with a house and eyeballing the raised crawlspace, I gradually turned it into a layout space. Then I got a copy of the first Classic Trains magazine -- an article by William Middleton about 'chasing the last interurbans' turned me into a trolley nut.

[AKKevinT]

Great thread– the stories from everyone are wonderful.

My dad bought a Lionel set for me in 1958 as a Christmas gift while he was on a trip. I think my mom had a fit over it because it cost around $38.00! It was the Lionel 1597S starter set but to me it was great.

My mother made me take good care of the set, and the boxes (how did she know) since it was considered an expensive toy in our household. We never had a permanent layout, I just played with it on the floor and then back into the box it would go. I played with it until I was in my early teens then it got packed away for 30 years or more. I moved on to outdoor adventures including mushing dogs, canoe trekking, and mountaineering never even thinking about Lionel trains.

Then after I married and started a family my good old Mom dug that same old Lionel set out and mailed it to me up here in Alaska. She knew my kids would enjoy it so she made sure to include a note on the original box that said "Be sure to take care of this Lionel train set because we paid a lot of money for it back in the day!" Moms are great! I opened the box and saw all those orange and black boxes and instantly I was nine years old again. After a local guy serviced the 2018 steamer for me I put it onthe tracks and I was bitten by the "bug". That was about nine years ago and I still feel like a little kid everytime I spend time with these darn trains.

Kevin T.

[MikeSanta]

I had trains when I was a kid. I got my first set when I was 4: I still have it and run it. My dad had trains which I wound up getting custody of. I was out of trains from 18 or so, except for a Christmas layout until I was 34. Even during that time I was semi-dormant: I'd go to a hobby shop or read a train magazine once in a while. Then I got back into it in 1987 and I've been with a layout ever since.I'll get into the scenery and stuff as well as the trains.

[marxalot]

My Uncle used to take me for hikes along Train Avenue in Cleveland when I was a kid. Got a taste for the 1 foot = 12" trains way back then.

Received a Marx Allstate set with a 1666 locomotive, trestle, and figure eight track around 1960. Migrated to HO in my teens, then was awash with nothing for a few years and then back into HO and then back to O/O27 a couple of years ago. Thanks to a very understanding wife I have have had a train to run (not that I always did) for about all of 31 years of marriage.

Jim

[Tom1947]

I got my first American Flyer set in 1954 or 1955 and have been collecting and running trains for the last 50 years.  I collect and run the older Flyer it has a feel and look to it that the new S gage does not have. 

[otftch]

Received my first Lionel set the day I was born in 1950.I really don't remember not having trains.

                         Ed

                             

[anjdevil2]

Well, after moving from a 1 bed apt (Mom, Dad, me & 2 brothers) over Grandma & Grandpa's house, we settled into a 3 bed 1 car garage home with a full length basement (I was 4 in 1959).  After awhile I found plywood and 2X4's in the basement.  Dad constructed a set up that was 12X16 layout with a 50's steamer around the perimeter, a siding for passenger trains and an "EL" for the lone diesel, a Santa Fe unit if I remember, which we didn't like because it was a diesel!!!

We had the foam mountains and a beacon, the cantilever bridge that worked once and a while, a bunch of Plasticville stuff.  Everything was lit up and at night, we shut off all the lights and ran trains.  Dad had made a control board from ex-Navy stuff with lights and all, and everything ran off the Lionel ZW.  All Lionel (American Flyer & Marx??  God forbid...).  We moved again in 1969 and I never saw much of it until 1998 when Dad had rearraigned the new house.  I found some of it, but he just ain't tellin' where its all at!!  I just got back into it last year with my own NY Central Flyer, and now my first around the Christmas tree Lionel layout!!

I must confess the family was always smitten with railroads, as my Great Grandfather worked for the PRR, and we lived 1/2 mile from the NorthEast Corridor in North Brunswick, NJ

[Dr. John]

I got started in 1962 when Santa brought me a Marx wind-up set - all tinplate with 2 rail track. I received a Marx Allstate set in 1965. I went into HO for a 30 year hiatus, then came back to O gauge about 6 years ago, dabbling in S gauge and On30 on the side.

[mickey4479]

After my childhood, the Lionel train we had disappeared forever.  About 12 years ago I got into HO for about 3 or 4 years.  I sure wish I had found this forum and Classic Toy train magazines before.  When I started needing reading glasses and after seeing a friends O scale 2 rail layout, my interest in 3 rail returned.  I sold off my HO stuff and built my 9' X 5' (3) rail layout.  I can't tell you how many mistakes I made with layouts along the way, but I learned a lot from those.  One of the best decisions I made was to go with Atlas track and switches.  More expensive, but I like the look and it has performed well for me and for a 9 X 5 layout, the cost was OK.  When I dismantled that to build a 12 X 24 foot layout, I had to save some $ to get the track and switches I needed.  I finally did a little better with track planning and scenic planning and expanded my track plan so I could run the Steam locos that require 072 diameter as a minimum.  I did a little at a time, as my budget allowed.  I am so tight with money its funny.  I agonized about spending $130 on a reconditioned Lionel KW transformer, but did not blink an eye when it came to buying my first Lionel scale steam loco that broke the bank for me.  Now I have 3 Lionel steamers and 1 Kline steamer and love 'em.  But I do not have a collection as some might define it.  Once a thread on this forum asked what constituted a collection.  The replies were amazing and quite entertaining too.  I really like this forum!  Sorry for such a long winded reply! 

[alexweiihman]

HO dosent have the features or the appeal that O does to me.

[RR Redneck]

I never really did like HO.

[LS1Heli]

There was no MTH.

First Lionel set was recieved in 1987. It was the Rock Island 027 DC powered "Rail Blazer" set. Did have some HO as a kid as well.

What really got me going was every Christmas my uncle setting a huge postwar/MPC 072 layout. As a kid it seemed absolutey huge. In reality the layout was really only 8' x 25'  

[mitchelr]

Santa came with a Lionel 1615 Switcher in 1955.  We always had a train under the tree. I still have it and it runs like a scalded dog.  I also have my Dad's Marx set from the 1930's or 40's, but it is not running right now.  As a kid my Dad's cousin's husband had a big layout.  He passed on a few years back and his wife gave me his trains.  I still use his ZW and run the 1953 UP 2033 Alcos and passenger cars along with his freight set headed by a 2025 steamer(the one that took the nose dive onto the concrete).

Take care,

Mitch 

 

[Blueberryhill RR]

1949 and it was a Lionel set.

There was no MTH.

[ChiefEagles]

Santa came with a Lionel whenI was 6.

[Railfan1]

I just started playing with my dad's trains when I was very young (with his help of course )and now.... I just can't get enough of 'em.

[darianj]

For me, it started when I purchased the Polar Express set for my son last Christmas to put around the tree.  OK.....He was only 1 1/2 at the time, so I had to run the set.  I got a little bored with the loop, so I slowly purchase more track, a few buildings and accessories, and built a layout in the basement.  In one year, I've purchased about 7 sets, 3 loco's, and I don't know how much rolling stock.

[yallaen]

As a kid, I was growing up with my dad's layout..it was 4x8, with leaves on either side. I was down in the basement at age 5, playing with the 'ole 675..when I fell asleep. I landed on the ZW's handle..my parents were upstairs with friends, when my Dad kept hearing the "nnnnnnnnn cluck" sound. I have a pic somewhere of m asleep at the switch..the 675 in pieces all over the concrete floor :(

Then growing up, I got into HO. I eventually built a double decker platform..HO on top, Lionel on bottom. HEHEHE..you remember the shanty bldg that ran on a 9v battery, and made diesel idling noises? Well, I figured if you adjusted the voltage, you could make the sound change. I tried hooking it to the main track power..it made a funny noise then BAM! and a sharp pain to my thumb! My Dad wondered what I had did...I blew up a capacitor! OUCH! It could have sliced my thumb!

Anyway, it all got socked away with divorce and me going to Army.

I got it from my Dad about 5 years ago. Intent on restoring a layout...but then my wife and I had troubles...moved..and I stored it in a leaking garage (unknown to me)..and most of it rusted. I sold some for $$, and she destroyed or sold the rest the week after I filed for divorce..

New wife, new plans..new job with railroad, and I wanted to have something to decorate with RR theme...hence Ebay purchases..and now a shelf railroad in the works!

 

[Buckeye Riveter]

Please refer to the photo to the left, where I was introduced to the wonderful hobby of toy trains by my late Grandfather Reynolds in West Lebanon, Indiana.  I still have the Marx train from 1955.

[Anonymous]

What got me started is playing with my daughter with her Thomas the Train toys. It just grew from there.

[jefelectric]

I think it was 1948 when I got my first Lionel trains set.  Had that until mid 50s and then went into HO until late 60s.  Stored them away until 2000 when I retired.  Decided to go into 3 rail O with all the new electronics and sold off the stored HO on ebay.  Love the new O gauge stuff and spend way to much on it.

A question for Eric, what do you have against Kato? I thought the N guys loved their stuff.

[RR Redneck]

(If you choose to believe it) New Bright sets when I was younger, and now it is Lionels, Aristo-Crafts, and anything N scale with knucke couplers that isn't Kato.

[Sturgeon-Phish]

A friend of mine when he was in his late 70's asked me to build him a portable table to set up some trains on for an annual Thanksgiving weekend start of the Holidays fund raiser.  After building the table he asked me to help set up the trains for the show.  I got bit by the train bug, HARD.  After a couple of years and collecting, I had a portable layout also and we joined the two layout via two bridges.  I continued to collect refurb and rebuild locos and accessories.  I now have more trains than my friend, and a permenant layout.  My friend is in his mid 80's now and we still put our layout together.  Our stuff is all old American Flyer, and I really prefer the old stuff to the new.  It is so neat when folks at the train show in their 50's-80's look at our layout and reminence, saying "I had one just like that".  There has been many a tear shed when the sound and smell of the steamers trigger memories from long ago.  Sorry, I digress.  What got me started, it toys I could not afford as a kid.  Seeing 50+ year old toys running and the nastalgia.  It's fun.  I am a total toy train nut.

Jim

[alexweiihman]

I started when my uncle started sending my father and I boxs of new mth trains, little did we know he was terminally ill, the trains to him were his legacy