When I was little, my Dad got me and my two older brothers into model airplane building and flying. He taught us to scratch build from balsawood, from kits, and then to fly what we built. This was in the early 60's. From that time forward, my two brothers went on to compete in pylon racing, pattern contests, scale contests, quickie 500 racing, and they became well respected among the hobby.
I flew one pattern contest and then lost interest in planes. They went to the flying field one day and I had Dad's workshop to myself. I started building my first diorama in that workshop and it was a log cabin setting. Later I sent up the Lionel train on the carpet and in the middle of it I set up my log cabin. That was it --- I was hooked for life.
My oldest brother became a world class builder of pylon racing rc planes --- but sadly enough the paints and resins took their toll on him and he passed away many years ago from a form of blood cancer. My other brother, who is a commercial pilot, still loves to fly planes with Dad to this day.
Every now and then I go to the flying field with them and take the transmitter for some mode one action but it scares them to death when they see me fly. Trains on the other hand never crash into a million pieces --- so I'm not too scared to let them have the remote.
Marx.
Yah, MARX. Don't laugh. Wind-up train right at the end of WWII. Ran the thing to death, Dad realized that maybe I was ready for electric. Another Marx. Ran THAT one to death. When I was 12, Dad bought me--yes, ANOTHER Marx! This one was a deluxe set with track all over the place, actual 4-wheel trucks on the freight cars, neat accessories (my buddy had Lionel and he was always jealous of how MUCH my set had, LOL!). Transferred my love to HO when I was fourteen, courtesy of a high-school buddy who wanted to get rid of some Athearn metal and Silver-Streak wood and Ulrich and Varney metal cars because he was going back into O scale. Saved up my money, went out and bought an Athearn Rubber-band drive F-7 in SP Black Widow. Curved my own track (with fibre ties), bought a DC Rectifier to convert my old Marx transformer to DC. Had a ball. When I got to college and had an apartment, bought a REAL Athearn set--F7 A-B set with about eight freight cars and Atlas 18" radius. Set it up on the rug, drove my room-mate NUTS! Sneaked out one day and spent the ASTONISHING sum of $45.95 for my first Brass Loco, a PFM Santa Fe 1950 2-8-0 (still have it, still wobbles along as cute as it ever did, though the motor is now an NWSL can). Worked it up from there over the last 40+ years. Oh, BTW, still have most of the Athearn and Varney and Ulrich and Silver Streak cars on the present layout. They may not look as detailed as the newer cars, but they've got a lot of mileage and a HELL of a lot of my affection!
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
WIth me it started kinda slow and worked its way into the madness that it is today.
When I was 4 my Dad bought a Tyco Chatanooga Choo Choo Diesel set for the X-mas tree. I didnt get to play with it that year and I could only play with it while mom and dad were around the next 2 years but it didnt matter. The train was my favorite part of getting the X-mas tree up and even after I got all those shiney new toys I still played with the train.
The next step in my adiction was every now and then I would see a BN freight pass by the tracks near my house. I loved watching the trains. Also once a year we would go to a park/beach that had tracks running by it and I would see the BN, UP, and Amtrak trains while I was there. I loved trains so much that my grandpa made me a small wooden train that had one car and a caboose that I could pull around on a string (the Tyco only came out on X-mas so I needed another train to keep me busy)
And the final nail in the coffin was when I was about 6 or so and my Dad brought me to a train show at the Puyallup fairgrounds. That was it I was hooked and I had to have one of those in my toy room... bedroom... heck I am not picky I will take any room in the house for the trains it didnt matter to me. Dad put some track down on a 4x8 sheet of ply and I had a loop of track that worked for a little while but we couldnt get to the far side to throw the switch for the passing siding and things happened to the layout so we took it down. It would not be until 20 years later that I would get the chance to build my own layout in a spare room. It didnt last long but I learned alot building it, it did work good, and that spawned 2 other layouts, the last of which I am still building.
Through almost the entire 20 years I always had a locomotive sitting on my dresser or bookshelf reminding me that I was going to build my layout someday. Durring my high school years my buddys would tease me about the toy train sitting there but I told them that one day I was going to be building my model empire and that usually shut them up.
Today my son's favorite toys are his Thomas The Tank Engine toys. I gave him more than just train toys but he seems to prefer the trains over the dinosaurs, cars, and airplanes. He is too little for video games and bikes so I hope when he gets to that age he still likes trains enough to learn more about them.
A Veteran, whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."
My first memory was of the Lionel train that went under the Christmas tree, and I loved it. Had two track switches, the milk car that throws out the milk cans, and the big Lionel Trainmaster transformer. I can remember begging to have it left up after Christmas. When I was probably 5 I got to keep it in my bedroom for maybe an extra month! I got my first HO set when I was 6 - a Varney Little Joe docksider (which I still have - and it runs!), two cars and a caboose. After some months of sectional track on the floor, Dad built a 4x6 layout from one of the track plans in the Atlas layout book complete with block wiring and remote switches.
I still have some of the rolling stock from those early years and memories of trains that have gone to the great boneyard. I remember the Christmas after the train layout was built - a three car Athern PRR passenger train with the rubber band drive F7. I loved that train. Dad took the time to build some kits with me including a Bowser Pacific (which he built!), so I think that's where I first learned the trade, so to speak. He was handy with tools but wasn't a model railroader - this was just something he did for his train obsessed kid so I guess I was pretty lucky.
That was almost 50 years ago and I've been at it ever since except for 6 years in the Navy and few years here and there to renovate the houses we moved into.
George V.
It started with train watching with my father, next an American Flyer set, and then first of many passenger train rides in 2nd grade; later, I built HO layouts "for my sons".
I've had the good fortune to know a couple of steam locomotive engineers and fireman, and hitched a ride in the cab once.
One of my sons worked as a conductor for a steam excursion train.
Now I model n-scale to get "more train in less space".
By the way, that American Flyer layout is still running in my brother's basement!
It's been fun to read all these stories!I find that if you're like me, they are treasured memories of days gone by, but it's always fun to take a trip back down memory lane once in awhile!
Happy MRRing!!!
Ed
Most certainly train-watching with my grandfather (dad's dad). I stayed with them most weekends when I was a kid (<8 or so) and we used to drive from place to place looking for trains crossing the road. This was in Smyrna, GA in the early- to mid-70's.
Later I got an O-scale hand-me-down to play with and then some HO-scale cars and a diesel from my brother. In 7th grade I made the mistake of tacking down some flex track and switches I had bought at the LHS to my bedroom floor (hardwood) - didn't hurt the floor any, really, but it got me driven to the model railroad club every Sunday for the next couple of years. I built an HO-scale module for our club layout and a few pieces of rolling stock and a new diesel - but, truthfully, I didn't learn as much as I could have and abandoned it during my late teens.
I've been buying Model Railroader and such over the years, though, always meaning to get back into it. Back in 2000 I had another round of yearning and picked up a great many how-to books from Kalmbach and other publishers. I wasn't quite ready to build something then - but I think I might finally be ready to take the plunge.
I'm actually kind of glad I waited...modeler forums, DCC, and other modern conveniences are, I think, going to make my first layout a very fun experience.
Cheers,M