We LOVE History, Lets Hear Yours!

[retsignalmtr]

Born in 1949. Got my first trainset, American Flyer, at the age of three. Father and Grandfather worked for the NYC. Trains only came out around Christmas. Several years later my Brother got the AF trains and I received a new HO trainset, also American Flyer. Over the years the trains came out for a while and then were put away again. I went to a vocational High School and studied Electrical construction to start my career as an electricians helper in 1967 After working for a while I took a civil Service test for the NYCTA to be an electrical helper. Got hired in 1968 and was placed as a Signal Maintainers Helper. After 8 months I took another test to be a signal Maintainer. After 19-1/2 months in the army. I survived Vietnam and returned to find I had been promoted while I was in the army. Worked 31 years and retired in 1999. I dabbled in HO and switched to N. I have a double decked N layout in a bedroom of my house. Digitrax DCC. Am a member of The Olde Newburgh Model Railroad Club in Walden, NY., an HO and N club. My brother worked for Metro North Railroad as a Chief Dispatcher, 39 years. Two of my Nephews work there now. One is a Thirdrail Foreman and the other operates Machines in a track production Gang.

Currently I am working on an HO layout in my town's Museum based on the NYC's Old Putnam Division that ran through town until 1951.

 

 

[PRR8259]

Hi all.  I was born in Williamsport, PA in 1968.  About 1973, my father traded in his one remaining well used, nearly physically worn out Lionel train set to Lewis K. English, Sr. (who assembled what is today known as Bowser from more than 23 other companies) on an HO trainset for me.  The pre-WWII trainset remained in his more than 1 million dollar valued collection until he passed away many years later at the age of about 93.

We had a cat, which was Dad's excuse to need to build me an HO layout (to get engines off the floor and out of the cat hair).  We spent more than 10 years completing the scenery and trackwork.

By age 12, English's/Bowser would not wait on me, but they said "you know where everything is, find it yourself."  My parents would often drop me there while they went shopping (only "daycare" I ever had).  By age 18, (PA State Law required you to be 18 or a high school graduate to work in a machine shop such as Bowser, and for me those two events were literally two days apart), actually on my 18th birthday, I started working in the Bowser factory.  I learned a great deal there about both work and life.  Lewis English Sr. would walk through the factory often, several times a week, and say "doesn't this make you want to finish your engineering degree so you don't have to do this (dirty, hot, tough factory work) for a living?"  He had worked as a degreed chemical engineer prior to acquiring Bowser...

Eventually, I also got to work the retail store and the mail order operation (Toy Train Heaven) and I got to see all facets of their business including their small(er) research and development team which in those years was really only 2 or 3 people (Frank Ulman, Lew Sr. and his son, Lee).  That was when they were still releasing new steam locomotive kits and rtr models, prior to any plastic freight cars in HO.  The N5c caboose was I believe their very first plastic anything in HO, and I remember when they had the entire caboose side die redone because actual scale sized rivets were disappearing under the paint film, so they had to enlarge them slightly at significant cost to them at the time for the re-do.

While at University Park Campus of Penn State University, I was a member of the Penn State Model RR club, and I did my share of railfanning at Altoona and Juniata.  I worked my way through college working for English's/Bowser on any free weekend or spring break that I ever had, in addition to working the other five days of a (summer) week for PennDOT.  When I graduated with my engineering degree, the economy was bad (winter into spring of 1992) so I again worked full time for English's/Bowser at minimum wage (it had just risen in PA to something like 5.25 an hour) for several months until landing an engineering position.

I've had really only 3 layouts in my life, and Dad built my current benchwork to be unbolted and re-used when the kids are out and we downsize to another house in a couple years.

I've spent a lifetime playing with all kinds of different trains, dabbling a little bit in brass, too, and have read and learned a lot about railroad history as well as what not to do with a layout.

Finally after all these years of not fully knowing what I wanted, I have settled on the SD40-2 as my favorite locomotive, both because they were so bulletproof for so long, and because I have such vivid memories of them trackside on the former PRR Middle Division.  So I have paired down my fleet to be all HO SD40-2's for now (and all Bowser for now, but I do have one ScaleTrains NdeM unit on pre-order).  I just like standard cab units, and for me they will always be the ultimate loco, as I'm not as excited about the -50 or -60 series.

John

[groundeffects]

I got my interest of trains from both my dad (Howard Jr.) and grandpa (Howard Sr.) in the early 60's.  We lived in Southern California (Pasadena) and my dad built a O scale layout that took up half of a 2 car garage.  The track plan was a 2 times around the garage (loop) with a yard on one side.  My only memory of the layout was a time when my dad was running a 20-30 car freight train that "stringlined" around one of the curves and some of the cars tumbled down one of the hills that was above the yard.  I don't remember how much damage there was that day-I'm just glad I was only a 5 year old spectator at the time!  

 

My dads main interest was Southern Pacific and my grandpa's interest was Santa Fe.  Here are a couple photos of each railroad that were shot in the early 60's. 

 

The above photo was taken by my dad, and shows my siblings (2 older sisters and a younger brother held by my grandpa) on a Espee engine that was retired, and was about to be moved to the LA county fairground for display.  I understand the engine is still there.

 

The next photo was taken at the Santa Fe yard of Los Angeles.  We were at the roundhouse and looking at the engines there.

 

My first layout (which I built in 1970) was HO scale and was a double loop built on a 4'x6' plywood board.  Most of the buildings I had on the layout were the old Kibri wild west buildings (I think I had 9 of them) along with a Revell train station.  For Christmas one year my mom got me a 4-6-0 AHM "Casey Jones" steam engine.  It wasn't a great layout (I never did fully scenic it and never laid any ballast on the tracks either) but it was fun.  I had the layout until around 1980.

 

I've had some unusual jobs in my life.  My first job was working as a seasonal fruit packer (pears and peaches) in the rural high desert town of Littlerock, CA.  It paid for my college anyway.  This was the packing house in 1979 shortly before it was torn down:

 

 

In early 1981 got a job up in Menlo Park, CA at a architectural model shop. My main job was building scenery, however I did do a large amount of metal castings as well as photo-etching.  I did scenery on some pretty impressive models, including a 1/200 scale model of downtown San Francisco, a 1/8 scale model of a new addition of the Stanford Hospital (CA) and also a model of the the Monterey Bay sea floor (I had to plot the contours of the sea floor-scale of this model was 1 inch = 1 actual mile).  This model was on display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for a number of years, and it was always cool to see it when I visited there.   

 

I got out of the model making business around 1988 (part time model building does not pay the bills) and got into the travel business (booking both corporate travel as well as adventure travel).  For about 15 years afterward I did not do any model railroading- I was just too burnt out from doing it during the 80's.  I still rode trains however, riding Amtrak up and back to Seattle a handful of times as well as riding BART trains (Monday thru Friday for 6 years) to and from work (Pleasanton, CA to Emeryville, CA).  

 

Around 2006 I got an interest in model rarilroading again, and built a coffee table layout (about 27" by 46").  The layout was a loop with a "timesaver"  inside of the loop. I still have this layout, and it occupies our living room.  The layout has a "Hawaiian" theme to it, with scratchbuilt and kitbashed buildings that reinforce this tropical theme.

 

I currently enjoy building N scale displays (usually a base/parking lot with a detailed building) that I might  later incorporate into a future N scale layout.  I recently finished "Randy's Donuts" (this is the prototype that the Walthers model donut stand is based on) and I'm just about done with a lumberyard model using the Walthers "Waltons Lumber" kit.

 

I still have an interest in the Southern Pacific, so my next layout will feature this railroad and center on the perishable fruit industry, primarily in the Southern California region near Ventura/Santa Paula.  I hope to start this layout once I retire.

 

Anyway, that's my story.

 

Jeff B

[rogerhensley]

I started in the mid 40s (I'm 81 now) with a Marx key wind set. About a year later I was given a Marx motor drive unit. I had a few items added to it until we moved to a new house. There wasn't room for a train on the main floor so I had to use the attic. Summer was too hot and winter too cold.

A neighbor two doors up from us was talking about his HO gauge railroad. I expressed an interest and he offered to show me. It filled a bedroom and had almost no scenery. But it was fantastic! At least to a teen. I went with him on trips to Hobby Shops where he would pick up items for repair and take them back. That covered about 40 miles.

 

Then I went into the US Navy. When I came out almost all of my books and all of the train materials were gone. My folks had decided that I wouldn't be interested in them any longer. They were partially right.

 

I was married in 1970 to a woman who had kids. Woolworths was having a sale on HO equipment about then and I thought it might be a good thing to build a layout for the kids. I did build it in the basement and brought it up for Christmas. It was a hit for a short time. I built another layout for other kids a couple of years later.

 

In business for myself, I decided to open a train shop. It was a success for a while. A friend suggested that I join the NMRA, I did even tho I didn't have a layout of my own. I had built a couple of test layouts in the shop. One thing after another and the shop was in trouble. I had health problems and the gal that worked for me was keeping it open. Open, yes, but some of the local folks would come in and keep her busy while another gentleman was helping himself to merchandise, I finally returned and discovered the losses, I decided to hold a sale and sell off the merchandise. I did.

 

That's when I started a layout at home. I started with a 4x7 which didn't last long until I added on to it, and then I added again and again until it reach the point it is now. I joined the local Historical Society and put on a railroad exhibit. And then a couple of years later, another one. And then...

 

I now have three rooms in the basement of the History Center with trains. 9 layouts and rail exhibits. It seems that I have the ability to build layouts. Oh, yes, I am still a member of the NMRA, but that's another story. That's all folks.

 

[NorthBrit]

My story is not about railroading.  In fact until recently I have not been interested at all.  Yes I did have the obligatory oval of track as a kid, but did little with it.

Born in Leeds, Yorkshire.  An orphan at three days old and given less than a month to live by doctors' in the hospital.  My Uncles' and Aunts'  decided to take me out of hospital 'to die at home'.

A few days later I was taken by my Aunt (who was a 'Mother' to me)  to just outside  Newcastle upon Tyne to see my maternal Grandmother.  The love of buses grew as over the next few years I made the journey several times.  In fact one day a man was taking photographs of the bus we were on and I am in a book.  I have a copy of the book.

Train journeys were very few,  but I used to like the scenery they traveled thru.  Seeing overgrown, unkempt grasses.  Knowing a train was there (somewhere)  but couldn't see it.

Buses and trams were a big part of my life.  Samuel Ledgard (Sammy)  buses to Airedale or Otley (both places in Yorkshire) played a big part.  From the age of seven alone traveling on Heavy Woollen District buses to Earlsheaton, near Dewsbury  every week.  I was nearly twenty years of age when the weekly journeys stopped.  Working six or seven days a week was the cause.

Thruout that time  I would be taken by road haulage drivers from Hudson Ward Flour Millers  to Hull or Liverpool  to collect grain.  Then by the same drivers who worked for Archbolds Storage & Distribution.  Those journeys were always to the North East of England.

In my work I was heavily involved in road haulage and was in charge of all Company vehicles in the area.  Over 100 vehicles.

In the 1960s I became interested in ships and cruising.  Cruise ships have been in my life ever since.   At one time,  Dawn and I would go on four or five cruises a year.  Thanks to Covid a halt as been made.  Maybe we will be allowed a proper cruise again.  (I miss the sea.)

Model railroading was never on my mind until my son said he wanted a layout.  We partly built one in the loft of our house.  Plenty of room.  Before it was finished he left home because of work commitments  leaving me to carry on.

Different personal things happened and circumstances changed.  A short while living in New York  being part of it,  then moving back to England.

I began to learn about the North British Railway.  Becoming a member of The Waverley Line heritage Trust.  Founder member of North East Electrical Tram Trust.  Member of Medway Queen Preservation Society.

It was then that I wanted a model railroad layout.  Not just a layout, but one that had a reason to be where it was;  running thru scenery.   Research took me back to Leeds and Leeds Sovereign Street & Clarence Dock was born. 

That 'month to live'  given by the doctors'   has been a long and enjoyable one. 

 

David 

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

OK, I'll bite.

I have told this story on here before:

 

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 sometime in 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 nearly 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 myself 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.

As an adult I have built several layouts, the last one above a six car garage at our previous home.

I just turned 64 in May, the wife and moved into our "retirement house" a few years ago, and after sorting out some business and family stuff, I am about to start construction of my next layout. I have a wide open 1500 sq ft basement space.

I do still have a lot of stuff from the original layout, but none of those locos are still around.

My new layout plan is posted in another thread here on the forum.

There is my story....

Sheldon  

 

[York1]

In 1955, my parents bought us four boys a used Lionel set.  The locomotive was dented, the caboose had a corner of the roof broken off, and there were various other problems with a used set, but we loved it.

My father's favorite entertainment (besides watching Wagon Train on the massively sized but small screen TV) was to pack us boys into the car after supper and drive to the Union Pacific mainline in our town to watch trains.  We got to see some great steam engines, but my favorite trains were the yellow passenger trains pulled by the Union Pacific E units.

Sixty years later, after retirement, a hobby was needed, and a new N Scale layout was started three years ago.

On a side note, it seems there are lots of complaints about this forum.  I feel the opposite.  I've received so much encouragement and answers to questions from the members of this site, and I enjoy coming back day after day to see what everyone is doing.  My layout even has a Stratton and Gillette boxcar on the layout!

[SeeYou190]

Hmmmm...

I grew up in Gainesville, Florida, and moved to Cape Coral when I was 13 after spending one year in Slaughter, Louisiana.

I graduated High School in January, 1985 barely 17 years old. I started college in Nashville Tennessee, but dropped out in 1986. I attended the Nashville Auto Diesel College with my scholarship money (and without my parent's knowledge) and completed the courses in August, 1986.

I moved back to Cape Coral and went to work as a blue collar wrench twister (to the shame of my parents) in 1986. In 2019 I was running all the training centers in the Southeast for a large industrial manufacturer. I was also in charge of new technician recruitment and dealer network development. Then I retired.

I met my wife in November, 1987. We were married in January, 1988. We are still married and have raised three daughters.

I bought my house in 1999. I previously owned a custom built house, but that is a tragic story.

I have built 5 STRATTON AND GILLETTE layouts.

1) High School Layout, N Scale, 21 square feet, 14 years old: This layout was started with big ambitions for it to be part of my future permanent lifetime layout. Somthing like an N scale layout that grows. It had an engine terminal and two loops of track. Expansion tracks on both ends of the layout were intended to make it part of a peninsula on a much bigger layout in the future.

2) Dream House Layout, N scale, 800 square feet, 21 years old: Within a period of less than 12 months, I broke up with Jeanna, met my wife, got married, was blessed with a step-daughter and had another baby girl on the way. That was fast.

The dream house layout reached the point where I could run a train from one end to the other, but it never really became operational. I amassed an amazing collection of around 75 Atlas/Kato locomotives and 400 MTL train cars. Only about 20% of these were ever were painted. Almost all of them were sold off to help out any way they could.

The house was torn down less than two years after it was built.

3: The Misfire Layout, N scale, 20 square feet, 23 years old: This layout was intended to be one end of a much larger N scale layout. After we left the dream house we moved into an 800 square foot 3 bedroom duplex. I had a small wall in the dining room I used for layout space. This section had a helix to staging, the turnaround loop, and some interesting scenic features.

The track plan was horrid, and it was no fun to run trains on.

In short order I decided to switch to HO scale, and this layout came down. 

4: The Master Bedroom Layout, HO scale, 16 square feet later enlarged to 24 square feet, 25 years old: Based on a track plan from Model Railroader this was simply a switching module, I guess an ISL would describe it quite well enough. It had a run through track so it could be part of a bigger layout in the future.

While working on this layout, I changed my era from 1968 to 1954.

This one was finished like a piece of furniture, and it was beautiful. Scenery was completed, and it was a lot of fun. It was moved into this house we bought in Cape Coral, and was set up in the new master bedroom. A second section was started and this was well designed and added a lot to the operation.

5: The Spare Bedroom Layout, HO scale, 44 square feet, 40 years old: The Master Bedroom layout sections could not be fit into the spare bedroom, so they were sent to the landfill. The new layout was crammed into the 11 by 12 bedroom that was vacated when my middle daughter moved out.

My track plan was terrible, I made some bad decisions on construction, and I took some shortcuts to speed up construction. Lots of mistakes, and after a couple years of work and redesigns the progress stalled badly.

It came down and was hauled to the landfill in 2016. This was a disaster of an attempt, and I learned things I am not willing to compromise on.

I have planned the sixth and Final Lifetime Layout. It will be HO scale, 160 sqaure feet. I will hopefully start this within 12 months. It was supposed to begin on 01/JAN/2020, but my job travel made that impossible.

What else do you want to know?

-Kevin

[RR_Mel]

My dad gave me a Lionel 027 train set for Christmas 1945, that did it for me . . . I was hooked!!!

As time went on he and an older cousin helped build a large layout in our basement.  4’ x 8’ on one end of a shelf to a 4’ x 4’ turnaround, about 40’ of shelf between the two larger tables.

The War was still doing its thing so track was unable to get.  My dad had a follow worker make a O gauge die for making individual rails from tin cans (food).  We made the rails and used carpet tacks to make the track.

We moved to El Paso TX in 1949 and didn’t have the room for a large O gauge layout.  In 1951 my mom bought me a Model Railroad Handbook and it had several pages of John Allens G&D . . . I was instantly hooked on HO scale.





My dad really didn’t like HO scale, he said it would never stay on the track.  He would not contribute money for HO so I got a paper route and bought my first locomotive with my own money.

Back in 1951 there wasn’t any flex track, it was hand laid.  The book had an article on hand laying track so I did it to it.

I proved that my HO trains would stay on the track and dad accepted that but wasn’t a happy camper.

I’ve been an HO scale model railroader ever since.





Mel
 
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951



My Model Railroad    
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
 
Bakersfield, California
 
Aging is not for wimps.

[MisterBeasley]

I was a Lionel kid since school started.  I was probably 11 or 12 when I sold the Lionels and switched to HO.  Some time during my college years I boxed up the trains an put them in the basement.  After that, I carried them with me, never taking them out of their boxes, for 40 years.

It was actually the ex-wife who suggested putting up the trains again.  I think she expected some little Martha Stewart thing around the Christmas tree, but I built a larger layout, much larger.  I got all new engines and electronics.  However, I kept my old rolling stock and structures, upgrading to Kadees and metal wheelsets.

Now divorced and living states away, it's time to put the layout back together.  Older but wiser now, it will be a bit smaller and simpler.

[BigDaddy]

I have a picture of my 2nd Christmas in 1953 with an American Flyer around the tree.  Several years later we added a Tyco HO and I decided I liked HO better.

We had a neighbor who had very large basement HO layout.  His grandkids were there a lot and we all hung out together.  We were not allowed to run the trains and I don't remember seeing granddad run the trains more than a couple times. 

When my kids were 6-8 I build them a layout.  Then I got divorced.  Kept the trains, threw away some l-girders and all the electrical stuff I had after storing it 15 years.  A couple years later a grandson came along and I started another layout.

[ricktrains4824]

My love of trains has always been.

My Mom's parents lived 3 blocks from (at the time) Conrail & NS "Lake Erie Sub" and ~ 6 blocks from GE Erie locomotive plant. Any time we went to my Grandparents, there were always trains somewhere. (Grandma still lives there.) Spent many an afternoon with Grandpa simply watching trains somewhere nearby.

My Dad's youngest brother had a HO Layout upstairs when I was young. 

My Great Grandparents (Dad's side) had a farm alongside former Erie trackage near the NY/PA border. Dad's other Grandma lived a few blocks from a pair of rail lines in town. My Dad's real Dad lived 2 blocks from NS trackage outside Cleveland OH for years when I was a kid. Dad's step Dad and real Mom lived near an old PRR abandonded branch, and not far from the OC&T tourist line. Again, almost always saw trains going to visit any of them. 

I grew up in a area with CR having a branch line through town, (Former ERIE RR) plus the former ALY (Now B&P) railroad (Hammermill owned) ran on former PRR rails through town, with that line sitting just 4 miles south of where I grew up in the countryside. 

Nearby was the Lakeshore Railway Museum. Plus there is a Climax locomotive on display at the local historical museum. Add in the OC&T tourist line to the south of me, Kinzua Viaduct west of me, plus a pair of RailTrails, both within 10 miles of my childhood home, and I have been in a very big "Rail Rich" locale, from the time I was born. 

I received a battery operated O scale set when I was little, and had a HO scale set when I was 14.

Add in the fact that the original Thomas series (with Shining Time Station) was on when I grew up, and the perfect storm was definately there.

[N Scale Train Boy]

As a model railroader, most of us have a love for history baked in. Howvever, not all the history we love is exactly, well, prototypical! So, I'm curious to see who wants to share their own histories, whether that be your personal history with model trains and railfanning, a history of your model railroad in or out of universe, or any combination of those!

 

For myself, I've always loved trains. My grandfather has a large collection of Lionel sets, and whenever I would go to his place, especially around the holidays, I would take over their living room table with his trains, with a different layout every time. I'd love watching trains along the Hudson, and by the time I was 12, my parents had bought me my first N Scale set. I collected and would build and take apart my tracks every time I took them out for a few years. Finally, going into High School, my father bought me a hollow core door and some sheets of foam, and I built my first semi-permanent layout on top of my dresser, with scenery and a fairly set track plan, but not nailed or glued down track. This, which I originally focused on being modeled after the western US, would become the home of the Balfour and Colucci Creek Southern Railroad, a line through New York and New England. 

In-Universe History of the B&CCS here : https://bccsrailroad.weebly.com/about-the-bccs.html.

Eventually, I focused on something a bit smaller, and built a 1'x8' switching layout, which has become my main-stay operating place. Having started a YouTube channel to share my love of trains, I not only learned how to make scenery and lay track, but also how to shoot good photos and videos and how to edit videos. Nowadays, I am studying Architecture at RPI, and as such, I've been very involved with the NEB&W there, currently being the club's president, where I have done my best to keep us moving through our current predicament of having no railroad to work on until Covid restrictions are lifted and we can move into our new location.

So thats me and my railroad, now lets here from all of you! Hope everyone is safe and healthy!