My initial interest in the hobby began with "O" Gauge trains in grade school. With the generous and considerable help and guidance of my father, we built a complex, Lionel Super "O" layout on two, 5' x 10' plywood tables.
Through the succeeding years, I have largely pursued the "O" Gauge Hobby, and, the Standard Gauge Hobby. Intermingled with those pursuits was an avid interest in LGB trains, including an LGB layout. Largely due to time constraints, and, quite frankly my preferences at the time, all of my home layouts have been "Toy Train Layouts".
At home, when the prices of detailed, scale-sized, "O" gauge locomotives (many running on 72" curves) kept increasing, my young son and I moved to HO trains for one layout. Unfortunately, that size of train proved a little challenging given my son's age, so, the HO trains were put away. Additionally, at that time, DCC was in it's infancy. Nothing like the DCC of today!
For a number of years, I was a member of a very sophisticated HO Club in the area. That Club is building a 2,400 square foot "free lanced" layout in a building that the Club owns. My stated interest for joining the club was to learn about designing and creating scenery, and, the Club members knew that I was principally an "0" Gauge enthusiast at heart. Notwithstanding, they graciously welcomed me to the Club. In this regard, Club members were more than happy to teach me how to construct scenery, and assigned specific sections of the layout to me to complete with considerable expert help along the way. Track laying, and, "electronics", were generally handled by other Club members who had significant experience, with an overall "leader" for each of those specialties. As noted above, DCC was in it's infancy at the time.
As for me, my interests include "Real Trains", particularly the Southern Pacific "Daylight" locomotive, and the Norfolk & Western "J" Class steamers. In this regard, I have had the pleasure of riding behind both steamers on "Railfan" trips, and the experience was wonderful -- particularly a daylong excursion on the N&W No. 611 with my then 11 year old son!