I am curious to see how some of the forum members got started in the hobby of model railroading. Also I think it would be interesting to see what were people’s first engines. Do people still have them? Let’s start a discussion!
For me personally I’ve been interested in model trains since I was about three, when my grandpa took me to his train club and we ran his Pere Marquette/C&O E7. I was content with runing my grandpa’s trains when I visited until a year and a half ago, when I went to a train show and returned with a used HO Bachmann 70 tonner and two used boxcars. Around the same time a Kadee logging caboose and Bowser two bay covered hopper appeared at my house. The engine ran poorly so I soon replaced it with a battered Life-Like SW7 in GN paint that was well used but runs beautifully. I have acquired some more HO stuff since.
Additionally last summer in the middle of a move I switched to N scale and put the HO stuff in storage. I miss HOs detail but N fits my space better. I bought a Arnold U28C in NP and four microtrains cars.
And that my story of how I got into the hobby. I am curious to hearing others stories. How did you get started in the hobby? Expecting a lot of Lionel and American Flyer! Please feel free to reply below!
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!
A gift from my Grandfather for my 10th birthday. It was a Bachmann, N scale Bicentennial Spirit of 76 train set.
My brother and I had already been crafty, building lots of models and things. N scale model railroading began, after that gift.
That locomotive is a Seaboard Coast Line 4670 U36B Diesel Spirit of 76. I still have it. It doesn't work and it's beat up. I keep it as sentimental value and have purchased one that does work.
TF
My parents had a large layout set up long before I came along. Earliest I have proof of in an 8mm silent movie of me running HO trains around the Christmas Tree when I was 2.
My first loco that was truly mine was a blue and yellow Santa Fe F unit from a Tyco train set. I initially set up the included track on the dining room table but soon moved the loco and rolling stock to the layout we set up for the holidays every year down in the family room. Not sure how old I was when I got that one, perhaps 6.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Like many others here, I got my first taste of trains in the 1950s.
My three brothers and I got one combined Christmas present one year -- a used Lionel set. A beat-up locomotive and several cars with broken parts, some bent and dirty track, and the prize -- a watchman who would come out a door when a train approached.
Used, broken, and bent -- it didn't matter. It was the greatest Christmas present ever!
Like most of my other friends, model railroads went away during high school, then college, then marriage and career.
Two years ago I retired, worked on a bunch of home projects, and then became bored when those were completed.
I told my wife I was going to work on a lifelong dream, a model railroad.
York1 John
In 1961 when I was five, my father built a 4x8 double oval with a spur from an Atlas track planning book. It had Atlas switches with their controls along with Selector blocks. He bought a Tyco 4-6-2 Pacific in Santa Fe livery with five cars and a caboose. This was my Christmas present. I learned model railroading utilizing that layout for about twenty years. I then gave the train table layout to a couple of boys who lived next door for their enjoyment. Everything still worked. I did however keep the locomotive, tender and cars. The loco still works, even the headlight. It has not been converted to DCC but sits on a spur track on my 10x17 layout in my shop where it is surrounded by Union Pacific Locomotives and cars. The following year I got an Athearn F3 with a consist, but that F3 quit working within a week. That was the last of Athearn until I started buying some Blue Box kits when I was stationed in Puerto Rico with the USN from 1981-84. I built my sons a 4x6 N scale layout when they were 6 and 8 but they never really developed much of a lasting interest. Too many other things going on in their lives. My granddaughter is fascinated with my current layout at age three so we will see what happens as she gets a little older. - Mike in WA
I guess it's about time for this topic to come around again.
For me, my dad got me a Marx set, I was about 5, he died when I was 6, as did the trains. He was 24.
No other family involvement or family member into railroading, model or otherwise.
My dad was a youg up and coming engineering student with a manufacturer named Waukesha Motors. (Currently GE. Energy)
About 3 years later, my mother remarried a rowdy local hired farm hand No trains, no time for trains, as we moved from farm to farm, as tennant farmers.
My Marx set found it's way to the sand box, entertaining my new step brothers and sisters.
As a teen, I did have a small HO set, a Christmas present. I messed with it alot, made paper mache' mountains, etc. I even added an Aurora HO scale racing set. It all ended up in a couple of boxes. Time for work, and to pitch in "my share".
Fast forward to the early 80's, now I have a son and a daughter. I bought my son a train set, Bachmann I believe, and it fired up my interest in trains.
Son and I built a couple of 4x8's, painted cars and diesels, had fun. 1987 and the WC ( Wisconsin Central) started up, using the long abandoned Soo Line Lakes States Division main line, and I was off and running, to the point where I am now.
I never had the urge or the want to model the 50's, 60's, and even the 70's. I'm glad it's over. I was never around, or new anything about steam locomotives.
My story is nothing romantic, with a family setting and history of family involvement.
The problem with threads like this, very few actually read through them, they see the topic, and jump in. So It's an exercise in typing, and reminding yourself.
Mike.
My You Tube
While I had trains a boy, it was my wife that got me started (although not intentionally). She was pregnant with our first child and I told her I would get him a train his first Christmas after he was born. Well she bought me a train that Christmas before he was born. The next day I found Model Railroader on the newstand and learned there was an actual hobby.
My first train was a Tyco 4-6-0 quickly followed by a Tyco 0-6-0, Atlas track, and Atlas buildings. I built my first layout following a plan in John Armstrong's book Track Planning for Realistic Operaion. That layout was in the spare bedroom and lasted a few months until our son was born. Then I built the 2nd layout in the master bedroom (it was a rather large bedroom).
And so it went from there. 47 years later I have changed scales twice, I still have everything from the beginning except some of the brass track. A little later I got my boyhood train (that my mother had accidentally saved - most of my boyhood stuff was given away). It's a Fleischman set that still runs after 60 some odd years.
Paul
Good question.. I can't remember not being around the hobby or real trains.
My dad was a railroader,model railroader and part time railfan.
As for the first engine my Dad bought me a Penn-Line PRR 2-8-0 when I was 10 and I had to build it under his supervision. I did all the needed work including,filing, drilling and tapping handrail holes.
I'm proud to say it turn out quite well and was a very smooth runner..I changed the motor from a Pitman DC70 to a Pitman DC80.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
For Christmas when I was about five my parents bought some used trainsets for my older brother and me. It was all they could afford. My brothers worked but there was a part missing from mine so all I could do was pull it around the track. We never did acquire the missing part.
A few years later, I came down on Christmas morning to see an over and under figure 8 layout on the rug that I think was probably and American Flyer set. It had a box car, tank car, gondala, and caboose. It was mine. It was a gift from the lady that lived next door. We learned sometime later that she had been embezzling from her employer and I guess this was her way of easing her conscience. I ran the heck out of it but eventually the loco broke down.
A few years later my brother and I went halves to buy a used 4X8 HO layout. It had 3 operating locos including the old Athearn rubber band drive which we ran as if it were a slot car. That thing could really motor. Had a lot of fun with that layout but eventually all the locos broke down for one reason or another and we ended up giving it away.
About 15 years later as a young adult I got back into the hobby, again with HO. I started with a small layout in my apartment spare bedroom before moving into my first house. Had a good sized layout that filled half the basement which was an 11X28 section. Made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot from that layout. Eventually job and other responsibilities took me away from it and for about ten years I did no modeling at all. In 2001 I retired and built my dream home with a large basement. The layout is nearing a point of completion. I never dreamed it would take so long. Hopefully I'll have enough years left to enjoy what I've built.
Mine is pretty simple and straight forward. Got a Gilbert American Flyer S-scale train set for Christmas in 1947. It was a 4-6-2 Pacific with smoke a few cars and it grew to four switches, more cars, more track and started to get too big for the floor, LOL. A few trips to the LHS showed Me the ultimate scale, HO. In 1950 I got a Varney HO scale train set, with a Varney clone F7 A, with Mantua couplers, not horn-hook, I was hooked.....litarally...... been in HO, ever since, going on 72 yrs. now. No other family member of mine had any interest in Trains......I had to learn everything on My own........much of it from My LHS owned by two brothers, which was a bike ride away. That's when a LHS was really great to learn things and they helped.
Take Care!
Frank
Well, I have told this story before, but I see a lot new faces so here goes.
I was born in 1957. When I was a small child, as far back as I remember, and as far back as the home movies go, my father set up a very elaborate train display for Christmas.
When I was even younger, his bother owned a hobby shop. Originally my father had American Flyer, but traded it all in with his brother for HO. His brother passed away at a young age, I don't really remember him.
My father had two train platforms that were 5' x 9', made from marine plywood which came in that larger size.
Every year on Thanksgiving Day, they moved all the furniture around and set up these two platforms joined together in the living room. My father would then get the trains out and starting setting them up.
Our Christmas tree would only be about 4 feet tall so it could sit on the platform at one end. He would work on the train layout every evening and weekends until it was ready for Christmas Day.
The track was TruScale wood roadbed track, both my parents built both plastic and wood kits for the layout and every year added a few more. All the houses had lights, there were street lamps, and an Aristo Craft working trolley bus loop.
There would be mountains in the background made from a product sold by Life Like in those days called "mountain paper". It was heavy craft paper with "mountain" colors and a little glitter here and there. You crumpled it up and stapled it to some wood supports - presto! mountains.
As two loops of track made their way around, they went into a tunnel in the back under that mountain, and there were passing sidings to stage additional trains.
The rolling stock consisted of mostly Athearn and Varney, both metal and plastic cars. Locos included a Mantua Pacific and Mikado, PennLine GG1, and a set of Varney F3's pulling a set of aluminum streamlined passenger cars.
This layout would generally stay in the living room until some time February...
Then, when I was about 10, we moved into a house with a basement, and my father set the layout up down there. This time with plaster mountains, elevated track, more hidden staging sidings, etc. The layout did not come down after Christmas, in fact I was given charge of it after demonstrating the proper skills, interest and respect.
So I was given a working model railroad of nealy 200 sq ft at age 10.
From there I started buying kits, learning more, making small changes to the layout, adding stuff, and by age 14 I was working in the local hobby shop, and doing a lot of the repairs there. I was building wood kits like Silver Streak, Mantua loco kits, etc.
By age 15 I was one of only a few junior members offered membership in the well published Severna Park Model Railroad Club, where I learned to hand lay track and build turnouts, scratch build structures, understand advanced DC wiring and more.
And I was building a much larger layout at home.....
I consider my self very lucky to have known and learned from so many great people in this hobby.
And, I worked in hobby shops until I was a young adult, managing the train department in the last one at only 22 years old. I met a lot "important" people in the hobby and the industry at that time.
Today I am just a few weeks away from being 62, just moved into our "retirement house" and have a wide open 1400 sq ft basement for my next layout.
I do still have a lot of stuff from the original layout, but none of those locos are still around.
That is my story....
Sheldon
The earliest I can remember, (so it's probably the first) is a Lionel "Coastal Limited" set I got for Christmas when I was either 4 or 5 years old. I'm 28 now, and I still have it in the original box, and it still runs great. I'm mainly into HO, but I still take out and run my older O and G scale sets every now and then to keep them loose. I just can't part with them.
Ok, here goes. My first train was a Marx Key wind up. This was in the 40s. Then it was a Marx electric and then we went to a bigger and better Marx in the 50s. I went to the Navy and when I came home, no Marx. :-(
1970, I went to Woolworth's and bought a bunch of HO for my kids, bulit a 4x8 and then and then... Yes, it was my hobby, not theirs. I've never looked back.
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
well, when the LION was but a wee little cub him wanted a train for christmas.
In the eye of the LION him saw a toy wooden train pulled around by a string. Him was a little embarassed to as for that, hime being a little older than a train on a string.
What I found under the tree was an American Flyer train loop with a Hudson locomotive and several freight cars.
I mean, really, what good are freight cars. The only trains I had ever seen were passenger (commuter) trains.
At least a young LION could eat the passengers!
And to add insult to injury, they would only go around and around in a circle. What good is that? A toy train on a string could go wherever I wanted it to go.
The Imagination untamed!
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Hello All,
Check out this thread http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/272369.aspx
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
My first was an HO scale Tyco Royal Blue deluxe set from Sears at Christmas 1978. I killed the motor in it pretty quickly. Ended up with a MPC Era Lionel set for my birthday the following March. I got back into HO at 16 years old with an Atlas/Kato N&W Alco RS3, what I consider my first "hobby grade" vs toy train quality engine. Mike the Aspie
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
.I first got into the hobby back around 2009-2010ish with an Atlas O TMCC C630 and Lionel Legacy 990 controller. Soon moved to HO, but still kept collecting O. Currently I have the C630 minus its smoke unit, Lionel TMCC Gp30, and A Legacy NS 911 SD60E. I also have around 30 HO DCC/Sound locos from various manufacturers
My grandpa had a train room, and although he died before I can remember, the train room did stay around for a few years before it was torn out due to mold. We did keep the trains though, and I've done my best to keep them in good condition.
My first locomotive was a Life-Like N-scale F40PH, undecorated. My interest didn't stay in N for long, and I ended up getting an HO scale Life-Like train set with a Santa Fe GP38-2 from a garage sale for about $5. It never ran that well, but the set did allow me to run my grandpa's trains, and I liked how much easier it was to play and work on HO scale.
_________________________________________________________________
First locomotive In 1950, A little tin windup locomotive thar ran on floor
Got the first of several American S gauge train sets in 1952. Oval with sidng set up on 4x8 table.
Revell HO train set with F unit about 1959
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Dad traded in his worn out Lionel trains to Lewis K. English, Sr. of English's Model RR Supply (who assembled what today is known as Bowser Manufacturing from more than 23 other model railroad companies) when I was a very little boy. Lew was a big Lionel collector who amassed a large private collection, and he retained my father's trains in the collection (Dad was able to point them out to me on the walls). I vividly remember the small train store they had then, which has since grown to be a wonderful and larger store. Dad and Lew, Sr. and Shirlee English are all missed now.
My first locomotive, circa 1972 or 1973, was the HO Mantua Tyco C-430 (freight train set) painted in the Santa Fe red and silver warbonnet sheme (matching the one used in real life on the U28CG's). During the '70's and '80's I ran the wheels off it, eventually replacing the brushes a couple times.
Today, my favorite loco on hand is an HO Tower 55 BNSF ES44DC.
I grew up in the train store, worked some summers, Thanksgiving breaks, Christmas breaks and spring breaks there during college and until getting my first engineering job after college. I learned many valuable life lessons in that train store, or in the Bowser factory, and made many friends whom I've treasured among the employees and customers. We all have had a lot of fun with the trains.
John
I was fascinated by trains from pre-school on ward. Santa gave me a Lionel train set with a Hudson steam engine at age for and that was the beginning.
I still have that Hudson for nostaglia but it's worse for the ware from my childhood years.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
As a very small child I had an American Flyer 4-4-0 with two freight cars and a caboose with an oval of track (not tinplate, it had scale-type plastic ties) that came out every Christmastime to run under the tree. Later I got an N scale train set (about 1968?) but it only ran for a short time before dying (probably just needed a good cleaning).
I figure my real start in model railroading was an HO Tyco train set with an MRC Golden Throttlepack that I got for Christmas 1971. My dad was the mailman for Woodcraft Hobby in Minneapolis and he got them there - I still have the receipt tucked away in my dad's papers, think it totalled like $46.95. I got my first copy of MR about the same time - Dec 1971 issue.
The set had a U.P. 4-6-2 that I don't still have, although I do have other Mantua engines (like the similar 2-8-2) that I got much later. (After a brief HO experience, I was a O gauge "Hi-railer" for about 15 years before coming back to HO in 1988.) I do still have the AF 4-4-0, but not the original cars....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dc7Fh66khs
My parents gave me a Triang trainset when I was 6 years old. A roughly detailed CP Rail F7 and four or five CP lettered cars. To me at the time it was super detailed. Still have it somewhere.
i got into model trains in 6th grade when my grampa gave me his Life-Like christmas train he ran around the tree, and when my dad gave me his old TYCO sets from the '80s, my grampa gave me 2 Great Northern F7 A-units and an assortment of freight cars too, my dad gave me the Big Logger TYCO set with everything from the box as well, a few months after that, my grampa gave me his old Athearn blue box sets from the early 1960's, he gave me 2 sets, the Hustler set with 2 cars and a caboose, and he gave me a Santa Fe passenger set with both powered A and B units with 4 cars. i still have the Santa Fe set's original box in my basement, as well as the box the Hustler came in too, so that's how i got into modeling. i'm now working on creating a mid-1940's to early 1950's Pennsylvania railroad style layout in HO with my friend.
As far as I remember, I've always been into trains. I got my first set when I was 2 (wrecked it, of course), and my family used to take 2 or 3 trips a year on the Arcade and Attica excursion trains.
My first layout was a circle of track on a 4x4 sheet of plywood. Used to love watching trains just go around and around.
The first locomotive I remember owning (and still do) is a Tyco 0-8-0 Chattanooga that came with a set. Thing's big enough to be a Mike . Anyway, she doesn't run anymore, but I still have it for sentimental reasons.
- Adam
When all else fails, wing it!
It all started in Japan in 1953 or there abouts. It was Christmas, no T.V., Armed Forces Radio only but it was great listening to all of the shows from Jack Benny, to George and Gracie Allen, boy that's dating myself but I loved it. I wanted a train and asked Santa for one. On Christmas Day when I ran to the living room I couldn't believe it, an oval track with a siding, a Lionel steamer with frieght cars and three stainless steel passenger cars on the siding. A working train station, a village all lit up and some cars
I ran that train all day, switching car running frieght and passenger trains, what a ball. In 1956 my father closed off his office for two weeks even put paper over the door windows. The Christmas tree was in the living room. On that special day I went down stairs and his office door was open. A ton of stuff under the tree and on the floor in my fathers' was a huge oval with sidings, villages, lighted stations. My frieght train oval was the inner railroad, (027), while a brand new O guage was on the outside with two F inits in Southern livery with four aluminum passenger coaches on the out side with switches, cross overs, over head signals, I mean everything. I admit I was a fortunate kid.
It started when I was about seven, switched to HO in Junior High school. I am now 72 and still building and running trains.
The oldest engine is still going strong. This ICG by Atlas, purchased at a hobby shop in Memphis, TN. I bought it in 1974 or so, even the headlight still works.
Not bad for an engine that is 45 years old. Only maintenance has been a few drops of oil about once a year and running it.
What a great hobby and what great memories.
Robert Sylvester
Newberry-Columbia Line
Newberry, SC
My dad and uncle got me a nice Lionel for my first birthday and christmas (1950) some years later I actually got to play with it. About 1960 I got an Athearn Hustler and some assorted cars, most of which are still in use, and have been in HO ever since. Dad built my brother and I a 4x8 for HO and himself a large dogbone layout for the Lionel. We moved in 1964 and the Lionel has been stored since.