What sparked you interest in toy trains?

[Anonymous]

My interest started with my daughter and buying her Thomas and Friends wooden trains. My wife then got me a Lionel Christmas set and now I'm addicted

PJ

[BMRR]

..........Lionel

Stan.

[phillyreading]

Every year around Christmas time my dad would set up his O gauge trains, mainly pre war stuff, and a Lionel scout set from the 60's.  I started setting up the trains around 69 and continued leaving them set up almost all year long in the basement, had only 031 track at that time.  Bought a ZW in Stratford CT a year before moving to Reading PA, the ZW needed a wire put back on one of it terminals, parents paid $30.00 for it used and I am still using it today.  Did not have a whistling tender in the 60's or 70's, got a whistling tender in the 80's in north Miami FL.

I got to see some New Haven freight cars as a child in Stratford CT, also rode on the NH to NYC to see the Empire State building, went to the 102nd floor.

Also my paternal grandfather worked for the Reading Company doing building repair and maintanance.

Lee F.

[LS1Heli]

When I was a kid every Christmas my uncle had a huge 3 to 4 loop 072 layout with postwar steamers running- 681, 671, 2065, etc. I will never forget it. From that day on I said I will have that..still working on the 25x40 basement part though

[magicman710]

What got you into trains? I'm sorry if this post has come up before, I searched them, but never found one so hopefully this the first one.

My interest was that CSX trains had always come through my town, and that Savannah has a train show every January around MLK holdiday, and I would always go and buy HO stuff. (I still have enough to make a walmart size layout ) But, I, like every little boy, got my first Lionel Pennsy Flyer set one year (I think I was 9 or 10) and that was were it started, then, fell. I lost interest like evey boy, I didnt have any accessories, and, like usual, I got bored. I put it away, then would drag it out and play with it, then put it away again.

Then, about 2 years ago, I went to a HobbyTown USA in Statesboro, Georgia and bought me about 15 extra long straight sections of 027 straights. (I forgot to mention, I dindnt understand about the quality of O and stuff, but I did get a K-line set when I was about 6, and I still have the transformer, swticher, and the cars, and the track to come with it, but that was when I didnt care what kind of train it was )

After that, I set it up in my living room, and got a mainline color postion signal as my first accessory. My second was a 397 coal loader, and that was the messiest thing I have ever seen. Now, everywhere you go in my house youll find some coal on the floor. .

Then, last Christmas, I went on a shopping spree on trains. I bought a station, 151 PW semaphore, a PW 394 beacon, a PW 154 crossing flasher, and some other nice accesories. I also bought a modern milk car, and a modern coal dump car, as well as a operating track section and uncoupling track section. I set it up, and ran it. Then, on my birthday this year in April, I picked up my favorite postwar set, a modern #2269W B&O freight set, with the 3356 horse and corral car, 3361 log dump car, 6518 double truck transfomer car, 6315 dingle dome tanker, and a 6517 bay window caboose. Was I happy! Controlling that #2368P F3 with my cab 1, and that log dump car and corral car, I was occupied for hours. Now, Im planning my layout for this fall, and Im sure Ill continue to have more years of fun.

Thanks,

Grayson