Modelling HO Scale with a focus on the West and Midwest USA
I learned a couple of years ago that our family lived about an easy 15 minute walk from the Southern Pacific engine terminal-roundhouse-turntable in Eugene Oregon. From 1965-1967. (age 7-9) Now everyone KNEW I was nuts about trains. How come nobody ever took me down there to check out the action??? I'm suffering retro child train fix neglect!
I, like a lot of others, got involved in trains when I was a youth; starting with some track, with turnouts, on a sheet of plywood and a Marklin trainset. Years later, our first Lionel trainsets. I started my first "permanent" layout when my son was about 4. I've been working on my current layout, with a year off for health reasons, since 2001. So, I'd have to say almost 55 years, off and on. Girls, cars, and the military caused some lapses in-between.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
In 1952 when I was three, I received my first trainset of an American Flyer steam loco with a couple of cars. Over the following years the set grew until I was nine. I received my first HO set and my brother got the AF trains. After I graduated High School I packed the trains away when I started working and while I was in the Army. A few years later I built a switching layout in HO. Switched to N in 1979 but still dabbled in HO, and still do. When I retired 16 years ago I joined a club and model with N as my main interest but I still collect and run HO at the club and at shows. Back then being interested in trains was a normal thing not being frowned upon like it is now. Very few of my friends didn't have them.
It's not necessarily frowned upon, but is not promoted in the same way as it used to because of how broken our society is today. Swhy you see fewer younger individuals.
My dad was a model RRer from way back and I got started when my folks got me an American Flyer train set one Christmas around age 5. My dad built me a small layout. That would have been around 1961. When I was 8, I sold that and bought some HO stuff and my dad and I built an HO layout.
I the early years of N scale, I started modeling in that, eventually building three layouts, each a bit more extensive than the last. However, most of the N scale stuff back then ran poorly, so by my college years, I was back into HO. Being a member of the NEB&W at RPI helped my craft and raised my standards quite a bit.
My current layout is about 30 years and three houses in the making. Not too much happened while the kids were young, but now I'm getting to spend some time and get things accomplished.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
I go waaaaay back to last year around this time, when I bought my Roco DCC set off eBay. I spent most of this year deciding if I wanted to seriously get into this hobby.
Sometime in the '80s, my dad built a 4x8 and put down that crappy green flock paper, and we had some track, but never built anything. I seem to remember getting enough track down by myself to run a Santa Fe F unit in a circle, that's about it. I couldn't reach the other side of the table (the 4x8 was shoved in a corner, which was not well thought out.)
If I remember right, his plan was to combine my HO slot cars (Tyco US-1) with some rail stuff on the 4x8. Looking back, this would have been a disaster with those high speed cars flying off the track all the time. At eye level (as it would have been for me at that time) it would have been really dangerous.
Julian
Modeling Pre-WP merger UP (1974-81)
My mom's dad worked for the PRR on the Elmira Branch after a transfer from Wilkes-Barre in the mid-'40s. Dad has a Lionel torpedo that was pulled out for the holidays every year. With that background, it was inevitable that I'd end up "playing with trains." I got my first engine (Athearn PRR F7 in PRR passenger colors) and freight cars in 1977. I was into it for a few years, but got away from trains in high school and college, then slowly started getting back into it in the late '80s. My original goal was a model of the Elmira Branch, till I decided to model the SAL, CofG, and especially ACL,but the layout never got off the ground. I then briefly thought about doing T&P and MP in N, before getting married and settling on an N scale representation of the Lackawanna and Lehigh Valley (with some Erie), and an HO layout that would let me run those purple engines I'd bought 10+ years before. Still trying to figure out how to make two layouts fit into an 8.5' x 24.5' room, and find the time to build stuff for them.
tinplatacis It's not necessarily frowned upon, but is not promoted in the same way as it used to because of how broken our society is today. Swhy you see fewer younger individuals.
Haven't even thought of that aspect. I will add to that, though, that they are also seen as "kids toys" because most peeps are only familiar with wooden train sets. Our roots, Lionel Flyer Marx and TYCO, they all remember going out of business, don't even bother looking for them if they do keep an interest. It's a sad world out there.
Depends on how one qaulifys starting. If it is anything goes I started when I was around 10 years old and a friend let me hold his F unit and run trains on his HO gauge - I fell in love then and started buying and building my own stuff. Very poorly I might add - so if that counts as a start then forty some years ago. Now I have a room full of stuff !!!
At age 3, I was helping my Dad 'run his trains'. At age 8 or 9 I started helping him build his layout. All hand layed track at that time. At age 12 my Dad died and so did my interest in model railroads. At age 32 I was a Dad and my uncle gave my son a bunch of snap track, an engine, and some cars. I'm now 67 and I am still building and running model trains.
South Penn
I got a battery powered "G" guage set at about 4 years old. Then had the Thomas trains for a while, then had nothing until I received an HO set at 13. Been runing trains ever since.
I am now 29.
However, real trains have always been a part of my life. My Grandparents lived 6 blocks away from GE in Erie. (Really GE is in Lawrance Park, my Grandparents lived just into Harborcreek, "on the border" with Lawrence Park.) My Grandfather took me to my first train museum when I was 4-5 years old, on my first train ride between 3-4 years old. (at least that I can remember.) My Dad and Grandfather took me to watch trains (railfanning trip!) when I was 4. (Conrail. Fast, frequent, and loud! And for me, HUGE!) Been hooked ever since!
So, even when I wasn't modeling, I was doing something with trains, even if it was just watching them. So, you could say I was "in" the hobby for as long as I can remember.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Currently, I'm 29 and tying to get my feet back into the hobby. My fiancée and I are starting to look at houses, and that's making me think about starting something with trains again. I started to buy stuff and build kits when I was a sophomore or junior in high school about 12 years ago. Hit it hard right out of the gate and bought a lot of stuff. Now, I'm regretting some of those purchases, but it was fun going to shows and dreaming. In college, things took a back seat. I was lucky enough to live in an apartment right next to a Canadian Pacific main line, so I could watch 15+ trains a day go past. My hope is to take the 4x8 my dad set up 12 years ago and bring it to the new house. I've seen a few ideas I like and it'd be a good start. I know the family will start to grow in a few years, so maybe something small to start with will be best.
Hi trainman440
I got my first train set when I was four so thats fifty years ago.
Train around the christmass tree no chance not with propper glass decorations
and it's not a great tradition in the UK like it is in the US.
I still have a couple of the glass tree decorations from when I was a child.
but none of the first train set.
regards John
I got my first train when I was 2. It was a special run Marklin SNCF 2-10-0. It would get hauled out every Christmas, and I was allowed to play with it then. I couldn't build structures...yet, and being in the Army meant that much of it would have been crushed during moves. The Tyco trainset I got for my 8th birthday though was the one that built and built and built. I ended up taking over much of the attic with it. That 0-8-0 lasted for YEARS. It finally died when it ran out of carbon for the brushes, and I couldn't find anymore.
With lack of space I couldn't set up until we finally moved home to Wisconsin and my Grandfather let me set up in his basement. I built some car kits, but nothing much and eventually I took it down and gave the basement back to my grandfather. My senior year of college and the following year the layout came out in my dorm room and it enjoyed a fine run for those two years as everyone that knew about couldn't resist dropping by for a run or three. (4x8 twin loops with a turning wye on top of my desk.)
After grad school I finally got to build my first true layout and it wasn't much, because when you're poor you can't afford much. After I got married I was finally able to really get to building...in a club, the home layout has to wait as multipule home remodeling projects in multipule homes have stood in the way of my basement empire. But the club layout has satisfied much of my desires for structures, and empire building....Though some day...
I've been a railfan since the age of 5 thanks to my wonderful father who shared with me his love of trains. I received a Lionel set when I was 7 and discovered HO and the realism of scale modeling when I reached the age of 12. From that point on I started my model railroading hobby and have maintained my interest to the present day.
I first got into model railroading in the late 1960s, when I was in junior high, somewhere around age 13-14. Somebody had given us an old 4'x8' plywood layout, made with brass Atlas sectional track, a hokey styrofoam mountain, green sawdust "grass" and a few piece of cheap rolling stock.
Unfortunately the combination of cheap loco and brass track made for a very frustrating experience. (Plus, I really wanted a steam loco and thought the diesel was rather boring.) Also, I had no money, and no access to a hobby shop, so I had no way to improve anything. Eventually we had to move and couldn't take the layout with us.
A couple years later I tried building an N scale layout, using what little money I made from mowing lawns. Still couldn't afford a steam loco though, and still had trouble with dirty track and getting it to run smoothly and reliably. But I did get to do some scenery and structures, and found I really liked that.
When we needed room and had to get rid of the layout, I switched making dioramas of buildings for a while.
I spent many years dreaming of having a layout but lacking funds and space. Finally after getting married in 1983, I started building an HOn30" layout in our garage. Got the benchwork up and was handlaying track. Then we needed to remodel and everything had to be torn up. I kept the sections of benchwork for a few years in hopes of maybe getting it together again someday, but finally gave up and had it hauled off.
Then in December 2005 I saw a "large scale" starter set on display at a store, marked down to $100. It was a bit toylike, but it was a steam loco and had very realistic sound, so I bought it and soon added some extra track. I had it set up on our front patio, but wanted something more permanent.
The only part of our yard that wasn't already occupied was a narrow strip on a steep slope in the backyard. After giving it a great deal of thought, I figured out how I could fit a layout into that space, and convinced "SWMBO" to let me have it.
I broke ground right around the beginning of 2006, and worked on it pretty much full time the first few years. It took me two and a half years to get the track in and trains running. The past few years have been spent on the much more time consuming work of creating structures and scenery details.
It's kind of hard to believe that this January will be the 10th anniversary of when I started this project!
I started in 1969 when my first PFM HO NKP Berkshire cost $64.95. I did not evey ask for a discount!!!! As the years progressed, my PSC Berkshires cost about $ 600 and the DVP cost way more.
A footnote about my interests in trains. I received my first American Flyer Royal Blue 4-6-2 in 1948. That interest in both prototype and model trains has been active a long time.
The 2nd release of the P2K Berkshires with the proper driver sized tires were a bargain compared to any of my brass models, but I still have them all. Over the forty five years of HO models, the joy and delights of the hobby has improved. This may be the best of times for our hobby of Model Railroading.
And now I hear the GETEL Turbine is coming out! What is next??
CZ
I started out with wooden Thomas trains around the age of three. I got my first set at age 5, a bachmann Santa Fe flyer. So now I've been in the hobby for about 9 years, and I'm 14 now. I have had more of the opposite experience to what many are saying about being a young model railroader. Many old folks are very happy by the fact that there are still young people in the hobby, and are willing to help me out in my endeavors. Maybe it is just Minnesota nice, I don't know.
-Peter. Mantua collector, 3D printing enthusiast, Korail modeler.