When I was 6 years old all I wanted for christmas was a train. I remember opening everything under the tree that day....and no train. The disappointment must have been so obvious. My dad got up and opened the door next to our tree (to the front porch) and there it was! On an old 4x8 running in an oval, my first HO trainset. I tell you that because it was that moment that I fell in love with model railroading.
Over the next few years that 4x8 moved into our old basement (the one noboby went down to) doubled in size, and got smaller with scale. It was a little boys heaven.
When I was 13 or so, some contractors working on the old house we lived in managed to destroy everything, which wasnt much, but it was the world to me. It was around the same time that I got my first job. Life changed a bit, and I never started to build another railroad.
Fast forward to my mid twenties...my father had been ill for nearly a decade with a horrible muscle disease, and I had ended up back home after a horrible relationship went south. That's when we went back down to the basement, this time it would be him and I who would start the layout of my dreams!! We worked hard at completing a track plan, and finishing the benchwork...everything was going great...and then I recieved a phone call. A job offer. The one I had been waiting years for. I made the choice to move all the way across the country, and or layout would have to wait.
I never moved back home, and my father passed away less than a year later.
5 moves, 4 states, and 7 years later I'm in my mid 30s and decided it was time to finish what dad and I started. For the last year I have been building benchwork, and in the last two months I've been laying track. Yesterday after finishing some electric work I ran the first train down my layout. It was a moment that meant so much to me, I dont think many people would understand.
I just wanted to share with you all, and say thank you to those who choose to post. I've done a lot of learning just from this forum. So thanks everyone!
Jerry:
Sorry you lost your dad when he was so young.
Congratulations on sticking in there and getting where you always wanted to be. I think your father would be pleased.
I envy the fact that you have been able to run your first train on your layout. I have been in the hobby for about 10 years but I am still at least a year away from starting construction on my layout, and obviously longer until my first train runs. I hope it feels as good for me as it did for you. I'm pretty sure it will!
Now, Sir, how about some pictures?
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks Dave! I know he would be super proud. I figured out DCC, but posting pics on this forum is a whole new monster for me I'll sit down tomorrow and see if I can get some posted for ya.
Hey Jerry, welcome to the forum, and back to the hobby. That first run is always a thrill, always remember it. I was young when I lost my dad too, in my mid teens, before I got into model RRs. I like to think he'd enjoy it once he knew of the quality available in models. Anyway, it's cool you have that connection.
To post pictures here, you have to use a service like Photobucket, Snapfish, and put your photos there, then post a link on your replies. IMG ones post a picture directly in your post.
(If anyone can make this easier to understand, feel free)
I'd like to see your layout! Dan
Hi Jerry; Glad to have you on the Forum. I have been an N Scaler for over thirty years and working on my new build after taking down my thirty year old layout. There are more N Scalers on here that have been working in this scale much longer than I.
I learned so much from the layout I took down that I am trying to correct those errors on my new build and design for the space I have now. Good luck with what you are doing and by all means ask when you are stumped. Doug
Jerry,
The heaviness of losing a father can only be fully understood by those of us who have experienced such loss. My condolences.
Glad to read that you were able to spend some creative inspirational hobby time with your father.
Your story is moving and much of it a common thread among model railroaders. It was a boyhood visit with my father to a holiday season train show and the Marx O gauge around the Christmas tree each year that sparked my life long interest in model trains.
Saving nickels and dimes made it possible to have a train around our tree after my son was born. We built that first layout together, wasn't much, a dept. store HO train set on a 4x6 piece of plywood, popsicle stick-cereral box scenery, but oh what grand memories.
Thanks for sharing, good luck with your layout and Happy Holidays, regards, Peter
Thank you all for the kind words. I promised a couple pics, so here we go. Hopefully I figured out how to post them.
Its not much to look at just yet, but this is the track I have managed to lay down to this point. Its been a slow go, but atleast I can switch the mine when I just want to run a train. " alt="" />" target=""> This one just gives an idea of the setup. Clearly I have much more work ahead." target="">
This one just gives an idea of the setup. Clearly I have much more work ahead." target="">
I think many of can relate to your story. Our parents often got us started and many of them helped along the way. Moves, school, cars, work and women (then kids) have often delayed plans for dream layouts.
Both my folks were in on starting me with my first Lionel set. After their seperation Mom and I didn't have much room and Dad was too far away to physically help when we did get some space. Christmas would usually bring some additions, but the old layout didn't grow much. Mom's remarriage brought me some space, but all those other things started to get in the way about that time.
Fast forward through all the inbetween stuff. Space and cost sent me toward HO and finally when I needed something to think about beside work, I started collecting for my dream. Started a little pratice layout and when I semi-retired I got to work on it and run it some. Had a large dream planned, but a son returned home and ate up the space. Now looking forward to having both sons help finish a small space, so I can build a small around the wall layout.
I know Dad would have helped with the benchwork and wiring and Mom was good at crafts, so would have been a great help on scenery. I think of them often when enjoying my trains.
Have fun,
Richard
I can relate all too well. It's been 7 years since he has passed and to this day I miss his presence as we spent many hours in the basement watching the trains roll by. It's just not the same when you don't have someone to share the hobby with.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=5959
If one could roll back the hands of time... They would be waiting for the next train into the future. A. H. Francey 1921-2007
Thanks for sharing your story Jerry.
My Dad and trains go back in my memories as far as I can remember. In fact trains and Dad are my earliest memories. We had plywood pacifics of various sizes throughout my childhood and youth. In the 1960s Dad worked at the main Post Office in downtown Vancouver. Back then when the big department stores had big toy departments he would walk up to the Hudson Bay, a block away on his lunch hour and pick up a new something for the layout. I still have the packaging for some and see the price stickers were something like a $1.75 for a flat car or $3.50 for a steam loco.
Dad had Muscular Dystrophy and was unable to do all the usual outdoor activities with us though we went fishing an awful lot. That just involved sitting in the boat. He died in 1993 after a long bout with alzheimers. He had been in a home for about three years as Mom could no longer care for him, I was the only one he would recognize in those last three years. My job involved driving all over the greater Vancouver area. At times I would see a used book store and go in and buy big railroad picture books that according to the home staff, he would spend hours looking at and relate a lot of stories of working the mail car out of Winnipeg or hopping a freight to our summer place at Ottermere Ontario from Winnipeg in the dirty thirties.
For me trains gave way to a lot of long hours at work and that let me enjoy things like traveling, extreme downhill skiing, mountain biking and golf. Around age forty Arthritis started slowing me down to the point of leaving my outdoor activities behind, by fifty I was really bad and turned back to trains as a pastime and was glad Dad had introduced me to that world. I now have a 15' x 24' layout and everytime I am in there I can feel my Dad standing behind me grinning ear to ear.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
hey jerry I'm from toronto ont.that is a great story. glad your back into it again. rambo1...
rambo1jerry what work did you get into just for asking. rambo1..
I'm originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I live in Kansas City now (No shortage of trains here) I've been a News Photojournalist for about 15 years now. Its one of those jobs where you have to move to a new Market to get a raise.
Your layout is off to a good start! Nice use of the space.
Good job and looks like the modern way of doing things, double good and will help in the longrun.
I lost my Dad 40 years ago last May. I always tell people who are experiencing loss such as a father; or, mother, that you never get used to it, you only learn to live with it!
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
My Dad passed when I was just 9, but some of my best memories are of setting up the train every year. We had no room in our house for anything permanent, so about this time of year we started putting everything together, and it would last into the first week of January. Even the mere 5x10 that the final version was took up a significant potrion of our family room, and eventually my Mom wanted it back. The layotu was in pieces, we stored in the small partial basement until it was time to bring them out and bolt it all together, and set across a few sawhorses. Track stayed on, everything else was set up fresh each year. Almost 40 years now, and I still wish he were here to see everything. I know he'd love DCC, and probably would have figured it out pretty quickly. And maybe on some of my larger layouts I've built over the past few years, he could have managed a lap or two without derailing - was always the family joke that while he did all the track work, only I could actually run the trains without running a switch and derailing something. Since I intend to be here a while, I'm hoping finally I will get well into scenery on a layout - I haven't quite decided what I'll put in as a tribute, but I have some ideas.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Jerry, I loved your story and even shared it with my girlfriend. We've both lost both of our parents, so it was particularly poignant for us. When I was young, my dad (we were stationed in France) and he bought and set up our first train layout, a Marklin on a 4x8 sheet of plywood. Hours would pass as we ran trains together, and I know it was that was the beginning of my love for trains. A few years passed and Dad was stationed in Korea and we lived with my grandparents. My grandfather had the coolest Lionel layout in his basement. The next year, my parents my brother our own Lionel trainsets. As I got older, the interest in trains waned as I became interested in cars (what 16 year old doesn't?), joined the Air Force and started drag racing. When I was about to get out of the service, my father now worked for a chain of gas stations as their VP of marketing. He managed to talk the two owners into sponsoring my drag racing. Dad knew nothing about cars (I think that was the fighter pilot in him. They'll break stuff, like their airplanes, but since they had others fixing them, they rarely learned to fix things for themselves. LOL). But, he said he was willing to learn, however, before we could start, he passed away. I know the loss you feel. But, I passed BOTH interests onto my son, and now my middle granddaughter has her own trainset.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
I have really enjoyed reading all of YOUR stories. I hope to hear some more! Model Railroading really is the best hobby, with the best hobbyists.
Welcome back to the hobby! My story is a little different. My love of trains came from my uncle. Every Xmas we would visit my aunt and uncle. He always had an old tinplate wind-up train running around the tree that fascinated me. When I was about 9 or 10 he took me downstairs and pulled out more trains then I could believe and he just let me play with them! From then on, every Xmas I would go straight to his family room to play with trains all night!
Then, after I became an adult and had my own family one Xmas we arrived and no trains! I asked him what happened. With a very sad expression he told me that he had discovered that those trains were so valuable we couldn't play with them anymore! A lot of his trains (and other toys) were from the late 1800's and early 20th century. Can you imagine him letting me play with those!
Everyone over the age of 40 probably knew of my uncle. He was one of the original Disney "Old Farts" club of animators. He worked on many of the most famous Disney animations. But to me he was just Uncle Vance.
Both my aunt and uncle are gone now. When my uncle passed, my aunt let me have a few of his toys and donated the rest to a museum. But, she gave his drawing table (where he helped create some of the Jungle Book characters) to my son, himself a fledgling animator. When my aunt passed, I donated the rest of his toys and trains also.
My uncle was my hero. He was like a kid who never grew up and I have tried to follow in his footsteps! I always think about him at the holidays and all the pleasant memories.
Tim