Train Virus

[TrainFreak409]

I have not an idea as to where I picked up the Train Virus...

I think it came from my grandfather; because I am told that I was born with it, but no one in my immediate family is this enthusiastic about trains. Sure, they have a few, but they don't really think much of them.

I grew up and was instantly hooked on Thomas the Tank Engine. I watched Shining Time Station; and had the die-cast toys; the wooden toys; the video tapes; the books; everything I could get. My first words were "Choo choo." And then once I could read better; it only grew stronger.

I got my first HO train set for Christmas when I was five. I played with that thing non-stop. But for some reason, my father took it away and hid it in is workshop. I haven't a clue why...I didn't do anything wrong; it just disappeared one day. So after I found it a few years later, I began accumulating more HO scale; and started begging to Mom to go to train shows and stores and all.

When I turned 14; I started looking for a job. And I finally found one at Purkeys Toy Trains. This further pushed my enthusiasm along. My interest soon switched from HO to N scale.

I've been back and forth between two locations, multiple jobs, and various other conditions. I now work at Purkeys again. I've got myself a car that I'd like to deck out in train memorabilia. I'm still collecting N scale, but haven't the space to do any real modeling.

But trains are still my obsession, and hopefully, I'll infect my children with it in the future.

[NeO6874]

There is a treatment for this virus, mind you this is not a cure - you can still spread the virus while undergoing treatment.

- The afflicted person must have at least 1 hour of "train-time" allowed per day, without interruption of "honey-do" lists or the like.  If this hour is not available to work on the railroad, then the afflicted must be allowed to make it up on the nearest convenient weekend. This can also be fulfilled by a day of railfanning.

- The afflicted must be extremely cautious when around children, grandchildren, or other young family members, lest they too catch this virus.

- If an afflicted person infects a child, the child is forever lost to the train virus as well.  No matter what happens, this person cannot recover from the virus.  You will know if your child/children has/have been affected by the virus because they will begin talking about SD40MACs, K-4s, consisting, helper service, Mariahs Pass, Keddie Wye, Tehachapi (sp?) Loop, PRR, ATSF, UP, NKP, NYC, and a host of other nonsensical topics.

Remember, you can spread this virus even when you do not feel any symptoms.  So please be careful, and let's try to keep this relatively contained, lest the CDC gets involved...

[CP5415]

It didn't help much that my Dad had the virus as he loved railfanning & had HO scale trains before I was born.

I was doomed from the start.

My parents bought a house on a street in Scarborough ON that looked directly onto CN's Kingston Sub from the front door.

When I was 2, we moved when they bought a bigger home that was just down the street from CP's Agincourt Yard.

Now I'm hoping my son gets it so I can spend more time with my trains.

My daughter has the virus in a small way but I doubt she'll get it full on like her Daddy!

Gordon

[ModelTrainman]

The bug bit me because of the following:Thomas the Tank Engine, Brio HO trains, LEGO trains, and again HO and LEGO trains.

[Anonymous]

I was infected right after birth. We had tracks behind the house, and one of the first decipherable words I said was "train?". I was about 6 months old, and already staying up all night. My poor mom would be half dead, standing there, trying to get me to go to sleep, and just when she thought she was going to be able to go to bed for a while, my head would pop up, and I would say, "train?". She would say "No, there's no train!" But about 15-30 minutes later, here would come the train, usually a streamer or an Alco S-2 would be on the point. After about a year of this, Mom folded and started being able to sleep and not worry about me. I was up talking nonsense all night, and watching the trains go by about 1 an hour. I never could sleep at night, I don't know if the trains did it, or it's just the way I am.
 
When I was 5, my folks got me a HO layout, set up by the O guage fanatic three doors down. I ended my modeling at 18, and only did real trains until a short time ago, when a friend asked me to fix a couple of old brass locos. I was hooked again, and already have about two dozen cars, about a dozen locos, and a bunch of track I haven't laid yet.

[Budliner]

only one other pal of mine has been biten

I guess this virus was not as contagious as I had imagined

[ArtOfRuin]

In general: Playskool Express train set when I was 2.

Model RRing: A Bachmann HO train set when I was 5.

The real thing: Guilford used to have an as-needed local run from the Lawrence, MA yard through my home town of Methuen, MA, on its way to Salem, NH (Lawrence and Salem are the next towns over from Methuen). I lived near the unused station adjacent to the tracks (still do, too bad the Methuen branch is abandoned ). I'd always miss it headed in to Salem but I'd hang out at the station for when it headed back to the Lawrence yard. I loved the rumble and noise it made. In elementary school, I attended a karate school in Salem that was just in front of the tracks. You could see the train about 15ft. from the rear door when it was open and when it was, everyone would stop and watch the train go by before continuing with the lesson. Finally, when I was in middle school I was at a building about 50 yards from the tracks. I got my last glimpses of the local freights from the schoolyard shortly before the line was abandoned.

[Budliner]

wow looks like I was over this virus for a few months

but.. I think it hit me again

art I sure don't want to run trains with you, man if one gets busted, you may pull that black belt jujitsu and mue-ti on me with a choke hold off the top shelf...

I guess I have been hot into remote control helicopters, but I still keep my eye out for my latest score of brass locomotives

I still need to get a flat car and setup this mini color camera I snagged for $18 (local compter store wanted $89) I was thinking I can just push the flat around and don't have to drill out a engine to mount it.

seems I need a crazy cable for my ATI 9500 video card to install the cam on the computer, funny I know I had that blue box thinggy someplace, I will find it as soon as I buy a new one...

K-

[THE.RR]

VIRUS!?!?!?!?!  I thought it was a dominant gene on the DNA. 

Dad was building cars long before I was born (oldest I've found so far was scratched in 1949), and had the beginings of his first layout by the time I could stand.  My brother and I never did have 'toy' trains.  Our first 'set' was Athearn cars and Hi-F drive units.  By the time I was 10, Dad was a member of the old East Bay club in Emeryville, CA.  Talk about a LAYOUT!!!!

[OzarkBelt]

its not a virus, its a blessing (and a curse)

[jesrr]

 Well, if your going to get sick, i can't think of a better virus.

[sabaj]

Mother said every time she carried me passed a window I would turn my head to look. So she would put me in the high chair in front of the window. Veiw was old US 30S and the UP main line at the north end of the Echo UT yards.

 9 months old and 844 makes her maden run west Nov. 1944.

Farm was below the tracks and I spent many great hours with my Dad as a youth and watching the Big Boys and Challengers dragging and shoving freight. The pushers returning to Ogden from Wahsatch.  Then the SCREAMING BIG BLOWS on the head end. Why would any one want to use a Jet engine on a locomotive? You could hear them 10 miles away.

[da_kraut]

Parents bought me a train made of wood when I was just able to walk as a toddler, the rest is history.

Frank 

[Kenfolk]

I must have caught it on a passenger train trip in 2nd grade, though I had been exposed to the bug even earlier, with a wood set. American Flyer worsened the outbreak, affecting both my brother and me (think my father must have had a contagious case--he would take us to the depot to watch the trains).

Somehow, having two sons intensified the infection, followed by the building of numerous ho scale layouts. One son ended up working at a railcar unloading facility; the other worked as a conductor on an excursion coal-fired steam train. So there is evidence again of it contagious nature.

Shortly after I began building my most recent n-scale layout, one son began a new layout of his own.

The virus doesn't let up, but manifests itself in new ways--such as the forums here, computer track planning, etc.  

[spidge]

Wait, I thew up again! You should see my scenery now.

I know I got this bug from an uncle who had a really cool layout in his two car garage plus workshop. It would run from waist level back and forth accross the garage walls around a mountain with a huge trestle(wooden) up to a staging yard in the attick. I went up there once and could not believe how many trains he had staged, there had to be 20 plus, then again I was just a little phart and it was probably only 18. I mean a lot of ready to roll trains.

Its so distracting that my favorites on my system consist of 95% train related sites and I don't know how to spell unless its train related.(even then its tuff).

[trainwrekd]

I got the virus about 39 years ago....traveling from Edmonton to Toronto on CN's then passenger train......motion sickness kept me busy for most of the journey......until we hit a gravel truck just outside Toronto, killed the truck driver and derailed the lead locomotive (it stayed upright) we had to take busses the rest of the way to Toronto....two bad experiences.....but been hooked ever since