Model railroading incentive.

[tatans]

Sitting here wondering what triggered my move to MR, I guess it was waiting for the bus downtown and looking in the window of a dry cleaners where the owner put up small  detailed layout in HO at Christmas time, it was a long wait at 40° below, but that layout started me into the hobby many years later, I remember the layout exactly to this day and this train ran  in a circular route for over 2 weeks night and day(this was in the 50's) so I guess the equipment wasn't as bad as everyone thinks. I also remember how bloody cold it was. So I guess I owe it all to the window display. I also recall NOT ever getting a Lionel train for Christmas too. Keep on choochin'

[trainfan1221]

Nice story, little layouts like that can be inspiring even if it is a simple oval. 

[lvanhen]

I was lucky as a child - lived in Brooklyn, NY City!  Got to see the Lionel displays at Macy's, Gimbels', A&S, and others - some were huge!!! (1940's - 50's)

[wjstix]

I was lucky being born in Minneapolis in 1958 (yes I turn 50 in a couple of months!). I lived right next to a shortline railroad, the MN&S. It was a small enough railroad that the guys noticed me in our yard waving to them all the time, and stopped the train to give me a railroader's flashlight for Christmas when I was 5.

Our local kid's TV star was Roger Awsumb as "Casey Jones" on "Lunch with Casey". I had an outfit just like his and was photographed with him several times in the early sixties - a few times the pics showed up in the newspaper. Plus there used to be a 15 minute TV show (yes they had 15 minute shows back then) sponsored by Woodcraft Hobby in Minneapolis, showing new products and showing film of model and real railroads in action. Later my Dad became their mailman and got to know all of them, and I got my start in HO from a Tyco train set he got me there in 1971.

[BlueHillsCPR]

I lived a few blocks from the Canadian National Yard in my hometown and could hear the loco's working making up trains from my house, expecially on cold winter nights.  My neighbor across the street was a CN engineer and a modeler with a large layout in his basement.  I got a look at it once as a kid.  A friend of mine and his father had a basement layout as well.  That's where the interest started.  Then my mother got a deal on an early 70's Tyco train set...not the best by any means but it sparked a passion that has lasted over thirty years, that I hope to pass on to my boys.

I used to ride my bike over to the CN yard and watch the Loco's moving cars and trains departing for points unknown.  Those are some good memories...

[Tjsingle]

I got my incentive by living near a conrail subdivision in Norristown PA the tracks ran right by my house, my mom worked at a building right at the tracks. I remeber watching big conrail diesels storming past me and I was  5 when we moved. My parents bought me a bachmann train set, with a conrail gp35. Now im here

[Packers#1]

I got my incentive from loving trains since I could wrap my head around what I was looking at. So basically, since I was born, if that's possible. And then, i asked for a little train set for my birthday when I was like 6 (HO), got it, locomotive stopped working, when back to the LHS in Augusta, saw a bigger layout, convinced my dad to get me that, then screwed it up, got a bachmann seyt later on, lost interest in that, quit model railroading for a little while, saw an iron duke N scale train set in Greenville, got that, and started expanding and switching manufactures until I became the model railroader I am today. Of course, reading model railroader and becoming a member of this forum and others is the main reason I know over 5/6 of the stuff I know now. Thanks guys!

[TrainsRMe1]

 I strated liking trains when I was about 6 or 7, we lived not to far from the Union Pacific mainline and I could hear the horns of the loco's in the morning and evening,But the real train bug didn't bite until my dad bought me a lionel train set, it had the cardboard trees, four telephone poles and just enough track for an oval, I would run that train like there was no tomorrow!! the power pak would get very warm, I don't remember but I think it's still up in my mom's attic!!! After a while I remember telling my dad that I wanted a train that looked real, I didn't know the scales so I said I wanted "the smaller real looking trains" After talking with him and a year of being good He got me my first Tyco train set, An SANTA FE f7 with a New Haven box car,great Northern flatcar,virginan hopper and a Santa Fe caboose! and yes I run that train like there was no tomorrow too, but This time I wanted to have a layout but there was only one little problem---- no $$$$$$$$!! I could have done small jobs, but being at the age of 9 I was starting to lose interest in trains, then after a few years GIRLS enterd the picture, but I'm back now I have the girl of my dreams and plans for my dream layout,

   Thank you UP for waking me up in the morning when I was a kid, Thank you Dad for my first train set, and thank you Tyco for getting in the mind set (sort of) to have a model train layout! 

[Wikious]

Not sure when I got mine, but definitely before I had entered kindergarten. I used to play with (break inadvertently) my mom's HO trains, so they bought me some Brio ones. I used to get driven around town to see if we could find any trains. Kinda died out for a bit in middle school to early high school, but late senior year I started modeling again and now I'm pretty serious about it.

[johncolley]

I was an early railfan, introduced to it by my stepdad who was a 22 year conductor on SP before he passed on in '48. In those days the caboose was assigned to the crew and when I was a kid he would take me down and let me sit in the cupola to watch the yard switchers at work while he laid in supplies, filled lamps, and did paperwork for his upcoming trips. Lo and behold for my 9th Christmas I got a Marx wind-up train set. The loco was of stamped black metal. An even bigger surprise was the next year, my 10th Christmas, I got the identical loco but electric with a train set. I was content with that, running tracks all over the living room and hallway, until I was 12 when I graduated to a Lionel set with a "real" loco, a Pennsy S-2 Steam Turbine! I kept adding to my collection with money from paper routes, baby sitting, mowing lawns, etc. By the time I was 16 I had a 4 unit diesel I hand painted into Black Widow, and another two units I painted into Daylight colors. By then I had learned about decals. Now that I'm 70 I am really into Operations, run HO Free-mo modules because I love big curves and turnouts, enjoy setups with others running point to point, and GN trains circa '47-'50. John Colley, Port Townsend, WA

[kcole4001]

Great stories! I wish I had a nearby yard to watch the switching action early on.

I started out with Tyco train sets in the mid 1970s, and I'd always want to run some trains on Sunday afternoon. On the way to and from church, we'd cross the CN line at a fairly picturesque (to me, anyway) grade crossing, which I will model eventually on my garage layout. But that was just playing with toy trains.

 Real model railroading bit when I discovered MR in the high school library in late 1978. The Clinchfield series was just wrapping up, and the overall detail in the pics in the magazine were what really got me hooked.

I've been armchairing ever since due to lack of space and money, until about 4 years ago when I bought some HO goodies and tried my hand at building an 'L' shaped switching layout. Good practice that, but I decided that more was necessary, so I measured my garage (16'X30') and decided I could get away with using the back 10', while still getting the car in for oil changes, and do woodworking in the space the rest of the time.

[Packers#1]

I also forgot to say "THANK YOU THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE!" I used to play w/ those all the time, then I think I heard about HO trains, so there you go, then refer to my first post.

[stebbycentral]

It was all my dad's fault. 

[danmerkel]

I grew up about 75 yards from the Nickel Plate line that ran along the Ohio River between Martins Ferry & Steubenville.  Dad took us over to watch the trains in the small yard and they took us in the cab a couple of times!

We also had a next door neighbor who had a layoug in a spare bedroom.  Each year at Christmas time, we always had to get Andy something for his trains.  Don't know how, but we managed to get the right scale... maybe Santa intervened a little to help us out.

But my love of trains "may" actually be in my blood.  At one time, my mother's father and all of his brothers & sisters either worked for the Wheeling & Lake Erie OR were married to men who did.  Unfortunately, I don't remember any of them very much.

It is interesting to see where & how we got our respective starts in this great hobby.

dlm

[corsair7]

Sitting here wondering what triggered my move to MR, I guess it was waiting for the bus downtown and looking in the window of a dry cleaners where the owner put up small  detailed layout in HO at Christmas time, it was a long wait at 40° below, but that layout started me into the hobby many years later, I remember the layout exactly to this day and this train ran  in a circular route for over 2 weeks night and day(this was in the 50's) so I guess the equipment wasn't as bad as everyone thinks. I also remember how bloody cold it was. So I guess I owe it all to the window display. I also recall NOT ever getting a Lionel train for Christmas too. Keep on choochin'

I was always interested in model railroading but didn't get started in the hobby until 1977.

I saw my first model railroad around Xmastime when my parents took me to the local Sears in or near Macon, Georgia in the early 1950s. It was an amazing Lionel layout that even allowed coupling and uncoupling of the various cars. My parents never had quite enough money to buy me a Lionel train set even though I wanted very badly. I did get a battery powered train set once and literally ran the wheels a motor off of that train set. Pmce that was gone, I never got another one.

In 1977, I took my 2 year-old son to Big Daddy's on Northern Blvd in Queens. While there I bought a Tyco Illinois Central freight train set. I got it home and told my wife that here was something I could do with my son that both of us would like. She didn't like it and neither did the kid. But I did so I took every opportunity to set it up and run the trains. I eventually mounted that on train set on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood that was cut into 2' x 4' sections that could be stored when not being used as we lived in a 2 bedroom garden apartment.

I eventually got sick and tired of taking an hour to 90 minutes to set up the layout before I could run anything on it and bought a small N-Scale train set and I've been in N-Scale ever since.

Irv

[Texas Zepher]

Sitting here wondering what triggered my move to MR,

Incentives?  Triggers?  Inspiration?    I thought it was a genetic built in thing!?!  As far as I know I have always loved trains.

[Flashwave]

Sitting here wondering what triggered my move to MR,

Incentives?  Triggers?  Inspiration?    I thought it was a genetic built in thing!?!  As far as I know I have always loved trains.

I think it is too. I was asking about why the train was late when I was about 3, a train that stopped rtunning and had it;s tracks torn up twenty years ahead of me. My first was Ho, an American 4-4-0. I carried that thing all around until gravity took a long hard look and it shattered into the component pieces, I still have most of them though. Dad knew it would fall, but also knew I was not gonna leave it somewhere. I don;t recall my first layout, but I had a CNW Dummy F7, my 440, and some cars on a loop that circled under my bed. When I changed beds, I fell asleep a couple time in the loop of track.

Also a fan of Thomas, and trains anywhere. I got to see the Macy's style layouts, and Cinncinati Powe rand Light still has one they put up.  

[shayfan84325]

I was 3 in 1960 and I had the plastic equivalent to Brio.  My mom tells me I never enjoyed running the trains; I liked arranging and rearranging the track and running the trains long enough to test the layout.  3 years later, my folks gave me a TYCO set for Christmas.  My dad and I (really my dad did all the work) built a small layout (oval and spur).  I quickly lost interest and the layout fell by the wayside.

I spent a lot of the next 6 years building model cars.  I developed a lot of model building skill.  I also got into slot cars (learned a lot about electricity, motors, and drive-trains)

Then I was in the Jr. High School library in 1969 and a copy of Model Railroader magazine caught my eye.  N scale seemed so perfect; it was precious in its size and detail - I was hooked.  I saved my money and bought a set, added some flex track, found a piece of scrap plywood - Hello layout.  I persevered with N scale, building 3 layouts (the final one with hand laid code 55 track), but I was always frustrated by the lack of reliability of the locos (today's N scalers have it better than I did).  As a result I developed a case of HO scale envy.

After college, there was no time/space/money for model railroading, but I never lost my love for the hobby.  At age 43 the stars aligned and suddenly the time/space/money became available, so I re-entered the hobby in HO.  I've never really loved real trains as such - after all, railroads are really just corporations - but I love to build models of their equipment.  I still only operate my layout to make sure it works; I've always been a builder, not an operator.