We lived on a famr near the WV, PA border, and the WM coal trains ran through our corn field, along the creek bordering the farm. They, if I remember correctly, were 2-8-0 Consolidateds, 2 up front pulling, 2 in the middle and one at the rear pushing. I don't remembre how many cars they were hauling but they took at least 20/30 minutes to pass by.
The ground would tremble before the train arrived, they made a hell of a racket and seemed monstrous to us.
They seemed to run on a schedule as they would appear every morning about the same time. The crew would blow their whistles at us, and after awhile they would throw candy to us as they passed by. We were always excited to see them coming and would be jumping up and down, waving our arms like crazy.
I always wanted to be an engineer, the diesels are great but do not have the alan those steam locos had.
At 6 years of age, I got an American Flyer 027 Zephyr for Christmas. It was lost when we moved.
My Granddad was a railroad machinist at the L&A's Hunt Yard roundhouse in Greenville TX. After Dad graduated from high school, he helped him get a job as a roundhouse helper - the lowwest of the low. After a few months, dad was promoted to machinists helper and then bid on a road job firing steam. He did this for three years, saving money to pay for college. When he started school, he maintained his union membership - officially he had "marked off" not quit. During Christmas and Easter Break and Summer Vacation, he would "mark back up" on the extra board. Anyway, when I was three years old, we drove to Texas to visit Granddad. One evening, my mom said, he had told her to dress me tomorrow in clothes she didn't mind me getting dirty. The following morning all three generations of the male side of the family went to the roundhouse, where granddad introduced grandson Number One and dad reunited with friends who had been fellow firemen back in the day and were long since promoted to engineer. One of them was running a first trick yard job and he told dad to hoist me aboard and he would give us a cab ride. i was scared, that thing (an EMD SW7) was big and loud! But Dad was with me, so it must be all right. I was soon seated on the fireman's seat and enjoying the ride. I even got to blow the horn and ring the bell! After that, mom said, all I could talk about was trains. That Fall, Grandad sent an engieers outfit - bib overalls, cap (with a PRR herald - how he found THAT in Texas, I don't know) and red bandana - for me to wear for Holloween. When I outgrew that, he sent me an Old West US Cavalry corporals uniform. Man, did he have my number, I still love trains and spent 25 years as an Army officer - in Armor, the descendent of the Cavalry! A highlight of my day was our afternoon walk down to the station to watch the trains go by. It was a hell of a thing to do to a poor child and almost seventy years later, I'm still not cured.
I never fell in love with trains.
Model trains were my point of affection. I don't know when it happened, but I had a 4 by 8 Tyco layout before I began Kindergarten. I have always loved model trains.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
One of my earliest memories was of watching SP tiger striped switch engines shuffle cars in Austin's SP yard; standing in the front seat of our station wagon as my dad studied. We lived in UT married student housing, which was close by. I was offered a ride in the engine one time, but turned it down at the time because it scared me. I was three or four at the time.
I got a used Lionel 027 set for my 6th birthday; my dad was in med school and I realize now what a big expense that was for my parents. All I ever wanted for birthdays or Christmas was train-related. I eventually got a trestle set and two swtiches; my dad put it all on a 4x4 sheet of plywood. That satisfied the need until my grandparents gave me (and ostensiably my younger brothers) a Tyco HO set for Christmas when I was 11. In Jr. High, I built my first 4 x 6 layout; and I have been modeling seriously ever since.
I'm 63 and I still ask for train stuff for Christmas and birthdays. I never get anything, so I buy my own presents.
Tin Can IIso I buy my own presents.
Russell
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I got my first trainset in 1968 ( it was my dad's O gauge Marx set )
But I really got the train bug in 1970.
I grew up on my grandparents farm ( 1800 acres) and the Southern Pacific ran down the entire length of our East side. They went by on a regular schedule, but the one that went by at 9 pm was my favorite. And,, It also signaled that it was time for Little Timmy to go to bed.
Rust...... It's a good thing !
Ok, I wouldn't say "in love" but became fascinated, starting in childhood, thanks to my parents. Since Dad drove the car to work, whenever my Mom needed to shop, or visit relatives/friends in the city, we'd always hop a ride in................ one of these :
I liked their appearance, rockin' motion, and the cacaphony of "mechanical music" (noise to non-railfans) that they made.
Add to that, across the street was a 4 track rail line where I often saw equipment like this running by:
Some kids became ultra gung-ho with Hemi's, Cuda's, Harley's, or F4 Phantoms by the time the teen years hit. For me, it had to run on rails!
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
Trains and music have just always been there.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Probably in the womb, as mother loved trains. One of her early jobs required her to travel around the country by train. There was a pre-war Lionel 0-6-0 set on a 4x7 table, that they had bought from a friend, in their room as far back as I can remember.
Have fun,
Richard
I was barely weaned when I started watching Thomas the Train. Little did my parents know the monster they created!
Parents, teach your kids to love Model Railroading, cause then they won't have money for Alcohol or Drugs!
JJF
Prototypically modeling the Great Northern in Minnesota with just a hint of freelancing.
Yesterday is History.
Tomorrow is a Mystery.
But today is a Gift, that is why it is called the Present.
Being born in 1944, and growing up in Chicago, trains were "everywhere". We lived close to the C&NW racetrack on the northwest side, and I spent many hours trackside watching the old steamers and the new streamliners go by. Sadly, I don't have even a picture from those times.
Also, going to my Grandmothers in southern Illinois (Anna) was a special treat for me as the Illinois Central mains were just across the street. Talk about fast trains, when the City of New Orleans or Panama Limited roared thru, they were (so I'm told) doing about 100 mph!
So to this youngster, the locos were the epitome of massive power and admiration. And yes, I'm still in awe of them today.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
When did I fall in love with trains? Just after WW2 would be the answer.
No big locomotives; nor little ones for that matter.
From just after being born I lived with my Aunt, Uncle and two cousins (both girls).
Saturday, all packed and off to Bridlington for a weeks holidays.
The entrance into Leeds City Station was through what I thought a tunnel. Actually the Queen's Hotel was either side and above giving the impression of a tunnel. It was dark, dismal and above all very smoky.
The lighting was dim. The lightbulbs were covered in smoke. As for the shades above the bulbs, they were the darkest of gray. I do not think anything had been cleaned for years.
To the right Aunt bought our train tickets as we children waited. Inside the Ticket Office there was hardly any lighting. How any Staff saw what they were doing is anybody's guess. The queues at each ticket desk seemed to flow with such ease.
I loved it!
I never felt that way again until I was nine or ten years of age.
This time entering Dewsbury Market Street Station. By this time the Station was closed to passengers. In fact the closure to passengers was in 1930s. Becoming a Goods Only Station. Yet nearly every Saturday in Summer a passenger train would leave. Its destination would be to a coastal station.
To enter Market Street Station a train would travel through a tunnel first. This made everything dark and dismal. Because there was (supposedly) no passenger trains the lighting was very poor. Oh how I loved the station.
Leeds City Station has a bright, airy new entrance. A well lit concourse to the waiting trains. The queues are interminably long.
Dewsbury Market Street Station has long gone. The only trains that run there now are on my layout.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
What is a LION to say. Dad always took the LIRR to work, I loved waiting on the station (not much of a platform in those days) waiting for the grey and orange MU set make its way around the corner in the distance and then grow in size until it stopped at the station.
Always loved those grey MU cars with their orange storm doors. THAT is what a train was supposed to look like.
So, I asked my parents for a train for Christmas. I was a bit embarrassed since I thought myself to be a little old for a wooden train on a string.
What appeared under the tree was an American Flyer Train set. It was amazing and a little disappointing. There was a steam engine and a few freight cars. Where were the grey MUs with the orange storm doors? And then, all it could do was run around the circle. At least a train on a string could go wherever I wanted it to go.
Well, when life gives you cherries, the least you could do was to make a pie.
Eventually some passenger cars appeared, apparently purchased used from Nassau Hobbies in Freeport, NY. They are an MR advertiser so I suppose that they are still in business although I suspect that American Flyer layout they had in the store no longer exists.
About the time I had my appendix out Dad convinced me to switch to HO. He spoke of the "Interoomential" that would under the eaves of the house from one dormer to the next. That never did happen, but I did get a train table that sat on the half-wall that protected the rest of the floor from falling down the stairway. I had a couple of loops and switches, and I had a 'punishment-siding' where misbehaving cars could wait until they could be repaired. I suppose that today that would be called an RIP track, but Dad was amused by my calling it the 'punishment-siding'.
Eventually we moved to another house in the same town and my railroad became a 4x8' table in my bedroom. Dad got me some nice Fleishman locomotives that ran well. One was a small Milwaukee Road switcher which pulled my Yellow passenger cars quite nicely. The other was a grey steam locomotive of European ancestry. They both ran very well.
Still, in Junior High School (anybody remember those?) I became enamored with printing, and so I sold the trains and bought a 6x9 hand operated platen press with twelve type cases. And so that became the status quo until I joined the Navy.
Our ship frequently called in Japan, and in a hobby shop in Yokohama I began to buy some more trains. Some blue MU trains that could pass for subway cars, and a New York Central train set with A-B Alco locomotives, and nine metal passenger cars. Alas the drives on all of this equipment were marginal at best and inoperative at worst. And I could never run that passenger train. It needed at least 30" radius curves, the likes of which I never had. These locomotives and cars are in very sad shape now, maybe only useful for a static display. It will take a better craftsman then me to resurrect them.
After about ten years living in NYC and occasionally with my parents, (I always paid my parents room and board, and even rented a car from them) I decided to enter the Monastery. Never mind that we were all Presbyterians, and that Presbyterian monasteries did not grow thickly upon the face of the earth, so I became a Catholic.
I must have done something correctly, since I have been here for almost forty years.
Soon after my profession, I asked the Abbot if I might set up my model trains, and undoubtedly, he had in mind a table with a loop of trains on it. Silly Abbot, he never met a rabid model railroader before. The Prior pointed to a dungeon like room in the basement of the south wing saying that this is where we had our hobbies. He said that we had several ping-pong tables (left over from the time when we ran a school here) as if I might use one. I took two of them and was off running.
This room had an uneven floor. Actually, it resembled two tectonic plates pushing up against each other creating a range of the Rocky Mountains. The two ping-pong tables bridged this fault nicely but climbing under the table with spools of wire left something to be desired. Eventually word came down from on high that this area of the monastery, and this room in particular was to be renovated, and no, a train layout was not in the cards.
I eventually located a space in a former classroom on the third floor of the library building. I constructed the Eregion Railroad, serving Middle Earth. The four principal trains, Trains 1, 2, 3 and 4 all met at Bree at 1pm. That is to say at 1300 hours. From this connection you could get from any place in Middle Earth to any other place in Middle Earth. Of course, there were also regional trains and even local commuter trains. I had enough equipment to run the entire schedule that I had created.
But it became too complicated, too difficult to maintain, and I lost interest in it for a while. What the heck, it is easy to become armored with computers. But then a young fellow from Germany wanted to see and run my layout. And the spark rekindled. I tore down the Eregion Railroad and started work on my present layout, The Route of the Broadway LION. The layout was going to feature push-pull passenger equipment operating a fleet of commuter trains.
At this time, it turns out, LifeLike introduced reasonably priced subway trains. I bought a set at a train show and was hooked. Today my layout supports ten six-car trains running on fifteen scale miles of track.
You do see the new problem, don’t you? I do not have ten heads so how could I ever run ten trains at once? The answer was that I could not do so, but the tracks could do it by themselves. Let the tracks run the trains. I cut gaps to slow the train as it approached the station, and then an open gap would stop the train. I found a clockwork in the powerhouse that likely enough was the control from an old oil burner. I made six ten-second segments, and these would power the track where the train was stopped long enough to get it on its way again. Eventually one corner of the room was filled with the relays needed to operate these trains and their signals.
The trains ran from the terminal at 242nd Street through the loop at South Ferry and back to 242nd Street. But now the equipment was pointed the opposite direction. I had to wire the equipment in six car sets which gave me 48-wheel power pickup. It also meant that I would not even need to wire my double crossover. Rectifiers of course would stop the train in this station, and it could only leave after I had aligned the interlocking plant and cleared the home signal.
Subway equipment, that is the stations and the tunnels and the third rails, not to mention a power regulated sub-station do not tumble out of the railroad catalogs. So, I spent years building things on my own. These can be seen on my website… BroadwayLion.com
Time grows longer I and I grow older and work on the BroadwayLION seems to have come to an end, though I long to get back up there, my stability and endurance mitigate against the three-story stairway. I keep telling the therapist that I will get back up there again, and with the grace of the Lord I shall. But not until the weather turns cooler.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
My dad tells the story that I was about 3-4 and would be mesmorized watching the trains go through a yard while we were on vaca in Switzerland. I don't remember that at all, but he's likely right. The love has only grown.
I was born with it. I was drawing trains at the age of 2. Watched thomas, (Thomas and the Magic Railroad destroyed me and the franchise at the age of 13.) got an G scale train set then HO Scale. Got multiple HO train sets but I settled for N Scale because I love the size.
I tried getting a job for the railroad but they aren't responding back to me. My dream job will be that a DREAM.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
JDawg Parents, teach your kids to love Model Railroading, cause then they won't have money for Alcohol or Drugs!
That is very true and should be used in more places than just here!
In my case, one could say it almost was in my blood. My late maternal grandfather worked for the Northern Pacific (hence my love for the NP) from the mid 1940s and retired from there in the mid 60s. Never got the chance to discuss it with him as he died well before I was into modeling and such. My uncle also modeled for many years. He has enough medical problems that he can no longer do it so I was given all his books and equipment in May. I have integrated some of his models into my collection and am working on getting more worked in as well. The books will most likely end up at our local library as it doesn't have much for NP books.
My Mom has related a story to me that when I was about 4 or so I wanted her to stop under the "subway" (as the NP called it) so that I could hear the train running over. (At that time, it was the Burlington Northern running but it was a train.) mom wouldn't do that as that would have caused the rest of the drivers to be unhappy. There have been times where I've been walking and have stopped on the sidewalk just to listen to the trains going over. (now BNSF but again it is still a train.)
angelob6660I tried getting a job for the railroad but they aren't responding back to me. My dream job will be that a DREAM.
No, they will not get back to you. But from time to time the major railroads hold a job fair and you will have to keep an ear on the rails to discover where and when and how to apply.
If they say to be there at 10:00, then you will be locked out at 10:01. If they say to bring two number two pencils then a pencil and a pen will not do. Part of the test is to see if you can follow instructions.
You may have better luck with small regional lines.
ROAR
I popped out the womb with a turnout in one hand and an GP-7 in the other.
Lion mentioned: "You may have better luck with small regional lines"
One other thing: the pay on short lines and regionals is lower, but the work environment may often be MUCH better. You get to have more than just "a railroad life" -- you get to have a life at home, too.
One of the major gripes of employees of "the big ones" is not enough (or NO) time off, "demerits" for this and that, and often harassment by management. This is probably going to result in a nationwide strike before too much longer.
I hired out in 1979 and retired in 2012. Ran freight and passenger for Conrail, did a little time on Metro-North when it was brand-new, spent the next 6 years jumping back and forth from CR to Amtrak, then stuck with Amtrak for my last 20 years. So I got to see about as much as one could see in my territory, from the PA/NY line to Boston.
But I wouldn't want to run the big freight trains today. No way.
I have lunch every month or so with a friend from south of Albany who put in 42 years. He agrees -- the job "in times past" was a great one, but wouldn't want to be doing it today!
When I was a small child, my father was stationed in France. He bought a Marklin trainset and mounted it on a sheet of plywood. WOW! Hours of excitement.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Im gonna take "I was born with this disease" for 1000 please.
Answer: What is my genetic proof? bloodtest results... caboose red.
PMR
Fall in love?
I never did.
But, I do like model railroading as a hobby.
Rich
Alton Junction
Very young. Trains always caught my eye with children's media; the 1991 animated version of The Little Engine that Could, the Casey Jr. scenes in Dumbo, and the model seasons of Thomas the Tank Engine (series 4 featuring the narrow gauge characters came out when I was a young child and was a VHS tape staple). I would connect my ERTL diecast Thomas figures for hours as a kid.
My introduction to the real thing though happened around the same time. My parents took me to see the state Centennial train around that time, and while I don't remember it; it was the first mainline special I saw as a very young child. The local railroad museum with its plinthed steam engine was also a special place in those early years. But the most formative train memory I have was on the Heber Valley Railroad with the recently returned to service UP 618 in 1997. My parents complained the day was hot, the bathrooms limited, us kids were being fussy and there was some unexpected nudity trackside from an exposed sunbather; but those weren't the details I remember... I only remembered the thrill of the big steam engine at work on that trip. I enjoyed the hobby as I grew up, but my teenage years was when I sunk my teeth really into it; diving headfirst into that local history museum. While I had seen many steam engines at Disneyland since that 1997 trip behind 618, it was some trackside excursions with a camera as a teenager to railfan and a early 2010's visit to Virginia City where I saw V&T 29 in action that the hobby really started sinking its teeth into me. 29 really gave me that thrill of having seen 618 as a kid once again. A Thanksgiving time visit by UP 844 to my hometown shortly afterwards, and I was well on the way from being a casual railfan to a hardcore foamer.
1946. Macys in New York City would put on huge model layouts and although they were tinplate, that started me in trains, both models and prototype.
BroadwayLion What is a LION to say. Dad always took the LIRR to work, I loved waiting on the station (not much of a platform in those days) waiting for the grey and orange MU set make its way around the corner in the distance and then grow in size until it stopped at the station.
Do you remember the DD1's that ran on the LIRR. I would stand alongside the track (not too close) and watch the engine rocking from side-to-side coming toward me and flash by at 60mph. That was in the late 40's and it is still my favorite engine. I would even go to Penn station and see the DD-1's hauling trains through the East river tunel to Long Island. I can still smell the ozone those engines would generate through the switching gear.
When I was 7 or 8 years old. My mom would take my brother and I to a park to swim onweekends, and the park was adjacent to CP's Sherbrooke sub.. A Triang trainset at Christmas cemented my interest.
I didn't know being a railfan was 'optional', it was pretty automatic for me. I grew up across the street from a railroad line, and so saw trains every day growing up. Our local kid's TV program was "Lunch with Casey", with Roger Awsumb playing Casey Jones, taking a break from running trains to have lunch with his buddy Roundhouse Rodney in the yard office.
BTW, generally model railroaders got into the hobby because a) they were given a toy train / train set as a kid, and got interested in real trains because of it, and b) they grew up next to a rail line, or had a family member who was a railroader, etc. and got into model trains as an extension of their interest in real trains.
I've always thought it would be an interesting project to compare the model railroads of the two groups. I'm sure there would be a difference in emphasis between the two, but not sure exactly what it would turn out to be.
I can't answer your question accurately, because I cannot remember a time in my life when I wasn't in love with trains. My earliest memory, probably from @1954, is of the LIRR. I was born in '52.
I grew up not far from the Long Island Railroad, which was an outsized presence in our family life. The main reason was because of the many trips when we'd go to the station to pick my grandparents up for one of their frequent visits. They lived in New York City and we in Babylon. I also remember Uncle Richie, a cop, directing traffic at the main intersection by the station. He would often slow down traffic so we could be in front when the old gate guard would crank down the crossing gates for passing trains. I think he loved 'em as much as I did. I loved sleeping over their house because it was across the street from the line.
We forecast weather using the railroad. From our back yard, the way the railroad sounded would tell us what to expect, with the wind coming off or heading toward the Great South Bay. The way the sound from the railroad changed was far more reliable than Tex Antoine's forecasts on TV.
Thank you so much for posting this question. Reading everyone else's answers has been a wonderful experience, bringing back memories like how thrilled I was when I made my first friend who was as hooked as I've always been. Thanks to everyone who shared such great memories.
Like the Lion and Navyman, I also grew up on Long Island, mostly just a few miles from the Lion's Den. My Dad also rode the LIRR into the city to work. I had a set of Lionels by the time I was 4. A train ride was always an adventure. Once, for my birthday, Dad took me into NYC and we just rode the subways all day.
Fast forward and I replaced the Lionels with an HO layout. I finally found subway cars, the same Redbirds the Lion probably started with. My HO layout had been stored and transported for about 35 years, until my ex-wife suggested I set them up. Like the Lion's Abbot, she probably didn't expect more than a tiny Martha Stewart layout. I even upgraded almost all my old rolling stock from the 50s and 60s with Kadees and metal wheelsets. The old engines didn't convert well, although I still run a few gutted shells as "honorary" dummy engines.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.