I finally figured something out while watching an old Twilight Zone episode "Walking Distance" on You Tube. That something? Why I like trains and enjoy model railroading! For me, it's the closest thing I'll ever see to time travel. Back to when comics were a dime, when Walgreens had a soda fountain and made limeades, when there were only 4 channels on the TV and people went to the library to actually get books to read, back to when a young boy could walk along a railroad track and hear the sound of a diesel freight rumbling closer on it's way into the city. My layout is within "walking distance" but it can magically allow me to go decades into the past whenever I choose to go. A bit of philosophic reflection on a quiet spring evening...
Cedarwoodron
cedarwoodronA bit of philosophic reflection on a quiet spring evening...
Amen!
I would place recreating memories as at least half the enjoyment I get out of my layout, the other 50% is divided in the enjoyment of kit building, scenery, yes, even ballasting and all the other fun stuff.
But, when I'm running trains, often with the room lighting subdued and the buildings and passenger car interiors all litup, the signal lights reflecting off the shiny Budd stainless cars and a Mars light on an approaching E8 or Alco PA, complete with very realistic sound effects, well — it sends shivers down my spine.
I was fortunate enough to be involved in the 1:1 railroading enough to have some great memories and one of my greatest pleasures is being able to visualise and recreate in miniature these moments in time.
P-C_1000 by Edmund, on Flickr
PRR_diner by Edmund, on Flickr
Thank you.
I'm going back to running trains now
Regards, Ed
Fellas,I can fondly recall the last of main line steam in Columbus and seeing brand new GP9s and RS11s on the PRR and N&W.
In the 60s it was EMD GP30,GP35,SD35 and SD45 while GE was offering U25B,U25C and other early U-Boats..Of course there was EMD's SW1500 that I wanted to see oh so badly.
With today's excellent models I can easily be in "walking distance" of those years.
I will never forget Woolco's day after Chirstmas sale when AHM engines,cars,figurers and buildings was dirt cheap.
Who can forget McDonalds hamburgers for 15 cents each?
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
One of the main reasons why my layout is set in the 50's is to go back to the time when I was young. In my memories that was the happy decade of my pre teen years (born 1947). It's one of the reasons I don't like weathering - in my mind the dirt and grime aren't there.
Paul
IRONROOSTER in my mind the dirt and grime aren't there.
Paul,I'm just the opposite..I feel the dirt and grime ads to the realism of steam railroading and my 1954 (changed from 54/55) steam layout will reflect that.
I have a not so pleasent memory of coming home from school with cinder dust on my school clothes. I took a "detour" to watch trains and was showered in cinder dust by IIRC a PRR J1..Needless to say my Mother was not to happy.
IRONROOSTER One of the main reasons why my layout is set in the 50's is to go back to the time when I was young.
One of the main reasons why my layout is set in the 50's is to go back to the time when I was young.
I have a layout set in 2019, but with a full City of Los Angeles train running. My best memory was riding that train 1600 miles when I was a boy.
York1 John
My current trains are from 15 years before I was born. Previously my layout was from when I was a baby.
.
My only memories of trains from being a child are few and far between. I grew up in Gainesville, Florida in the 1970s. Not any trains to speak of.
My trains are not a time machine, it is a portal. It takes me to a place I have never been where everything is how I want it to me.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I don't have any real nostalgic memerories to go on, as I was never around trains, always on the farm.
Even though my age says I should remember steam, I never saw a steam locomotive, other than museums or a restored loco on an excursion.
My most nostalgic memerory would be, as a kid, on granddad's farm, on a summer's night, bedroom windows open looking for a breeze, and listening to the Soo Line move freight on their Lake States main, just down the road from the farm.
Catch one during the day, and it's a long lash up of GP9's and even an F or two, slowly moving it's train.
My current love of trains comes mostly from the start-up of the WC, late 1980's, running on the same Lake States main that I watched the Soo run on, and at the same time, working with my young son building a 4x8.
Plus I've always been fascinated by any huge machinery.
Mike.
My You Tube
IRONROOSTER It's one of the reasons I don't like weathering - in my mind the dirt and grime aren't there. Paul
It's one of the reasons I don't like weathering - in my mind the dirt and grime aren't there.
I never thought of it like that. What a great way to put it!
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
IRONROOSTEROne of the main reasons why my layout is set in the 50's is to go back to the time when I was young....
I'm from the same era, Paul, but didn't care at all for that time period, instead opting for the late '30s - on my layout, I make that time what I want it to be.
Wayne
I'd rather not go back to a "time when I was young". Nope.
Now younger, say even 10 or 15 years, OK, lets go! Especially if I have the option of making a few changes.
A couple of hours in the trainroom does for my mind what a couple of hours on a bike does for my body.
Nuff said.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
mbinsewiI'd rather not go back to a "time when I was young". Nope.
Neither would I.
I really love the world today. I have access to more luxury items and better food than anyone in my income bracket could have dreamed of previously.
Automobiles are wonderful now, air travel is safe and affordable, television and streaming services are so good, and I could never go back to not having the internet!
SeeYou190I really love the world today.
So do I. As a kid I remember reading about all the things that would change as I grew older and was very excited about it all. I felt frustrated that it was all taking so long. It is the same today as solutions to so many of the world's problems are available, however, the time it takes to enact them seems glacial.
In the meantime, my layout takes me to different places and times and I like that.
Yes, hence the popularity of the Transition Era, those good old days so many of us try to recreate. In not too much longer, it will be a memory, too.
I contacted the author of an MR photo article with a storefront for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith. Back then, it was Beane, not Smith. It's that kind of detail that we can remember and bring back, like air raid shelters.
It was a time before graffiti started, too.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
MisterBeasley It's that kind of detail that we can remember and bring back, like air raid shelters.
IMG_9414 by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
I had very little exposure to 1/1 railroading as a youth, but was practially hypnotized by the sight of real trains any chance I got to see them. I don't recal any specific prototypes from then. It irks me that we lived walking distance of the SP engine terminal in Eugene Oregon for 3 years, and never even knew of it's existance till recent years.
I got into model railroading at around 17. My earliest modeling attempts were crude by any standard, but I was learning fast.
Something that my models can do is take me back to when I was young. I Don't mean by modeling the time that I was young, but playing with actual models that were there when I was young. The growl of an Athearn BB GP-35 with Zinc flywheels still has the same almost musical charm now as it did then, when it replaced tyco junk that so frusterated me. The many Athearn freight car kits on my layout are like those then too, like friendly faces.
I do model the feel of the area I grew up in, mixing in other elements that I like. And leaving out what I don't. Weathering is usually on the lighter side, to kill the shiny store bought look, but not omitted.
Dan
Cederwooden ... Thank you for a great thought starting thread.
I was born in Texas, but my earliest memories were after we moved to Tennessee. I vaguely recall sleeping in an upper birth of a Pullman sleeper on a trip to visit grandparents in Chicago . We moved to the Chicago area when I was four years old where we lived very close to the CB&Q triple track line in the suburbs. I remember being taken to see Santa Claus in Marshall Fields downtown, and that meant riding an old steam powered commuter train. Growing up, I had numerous visits to the Museum of Science and Industry, and I enjoyed the O gauge Santa Fe train layout there. We were the first ones on our street to have a TV, and it was a crude black and white one. I watched Howdy Dowdy .
I remember the Burlington changed the commuter trains to being powered with E-units and having the new Budd double deckers. Family trips in my childhood included train travel on many railroads that served Chicago. For some trips we transferred in other cities to railroads that did not serve Chicago. So, I was a railfan by the time I was a teenager.
My father was a second generation model railroader, and I became a third generation model railroader. Dad was an O scale guy and a live steamer. My first train was a Marx, and the next was Lionel . I changed to HO when I was a teenager.
I had very little time for model railroading during college and early in my career. Eventually, I was employed in Finance, Marketing, and Economics with a major railroad . After that my career took me on other adventures. While working at the railroad, I took up N Scale as a hobby. Later, I changed to HO .
Now, we are retired in Kentucky, and I am modeling CB&Q , my childhood favorite, and a few other railroads.
Our hobby is like a time machine as you said. It brings back many fond memories. My layout is very much part of who am, and it almost feels like it is alive at times.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
... but what?
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761... but what?
But people are having a pleasent conversation about what their layout represents to them, and how they enjoy the hobby.
I think most of us would appreciate it if you put more than 3 seconds of effort and two words into your responses.
MisterBeasley I contacted the author of an MR photo article with a storefront for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith. Back then, it was Beane, not Smith.
I contacted the author of an MR photo article with a storefront for Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith. Back then, it was Beane, not Smith.
According to Ed Norton, it was Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Ziggy.
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27