Who got you hooked?

[Anonymous]

Who was it that sparked your interest(addiction) for Model Railroading?
My Grandfather got me started initially, but when he passed away the fire dwindled, until my wife bought our oldest daughter an HO scale starter kit 6 years ago, and in the process of helping her, the fire got WAY out of control. Now BOTH of my daughters LOVE trains. Thanks Gramps, I think of you every time we run our trains!!

[Anonymous]

Well my case is liked that of MC229 I purchased a train set for my oldest son about 12yrs ago he kinda liked it but was fond of the video games so I just picked up on the hobby and everything just took off for me that is now I will be building a layout soon and far as my son goes he is married with 2 kids so now I'll have something for my Grandkids to see .

[Anonymous]

My dad.

---jps

[METRO]

My Grandfather worked for the NYC in upstate NY, and he got me started. My girlfriend actually is the one who got the flame alive again when I introduced her to the hobby she jumped in head-first lol. Althought it has lead to out great dissagreement of which is the better line, Canadian National or Canadian Pacific.

[Eriediamond]

I guess you would say that I hooked myself into this hobby. Modeling doesn't run in my family. I've always had an interest in trains, trucks and airplanes from longer then I can remember. I drive semi-truck for a living, fly airplanes, both full scale and r/c and model railroad. I was also fascinated by the machine shop trade, from shop in high school, spent ten years in the Navy in that trade, then spent a few more years as a machinist before the trucking blood started flowing and followed my dads foot steps driving truck. Anything mechanical turns me on and I guess thaose old steamers is what turned me on to trains. Diesels just make a noise and rolll on but those steamers, they would talk to ya and make a big scene, whether getting that train in motion or high balling down a main line. They got your attention.

[Anonymous]

Grandpa. He inspired me to do a lot of things but I really got myself started.
First in models than MRR

[n2mopac]

I did it to myself. I've been a train lover since childhood but never knew there was a hobby of model railroading until I was in my mid 20's and ran into a model railroad hobby shop at a permanent flee market while vacationing in Florida. I fell immediately in love. When I got home I went directly to my local bookstore where I found MR. I suppose that magazine is really responsible for my getting hooked as I have not missed an issue since that first one bought from the news stand 10 years ago. It was there that I learned my first skills and got my real intorduction to my lifelong hobby
Ron

[easyaces]

I was into it some as a boy with old Tyco stuff, but what really got me hooked was when my son was born, my dad dragged me to a local train shop in Hammond, Ind. and bought nearly 500 bucks worth of HO scale trains, and in no uncertain terms told me to have a layout built for his grandson by the time he was 5! Well, by then I was well hooked and had joined a good club, and built my sons layout!

[douginut]

My Mom and Dad lit the fire with wind up trains, then a Marx electric train, then Lionel and Athearn HO...
The greatest infleuence toward Train interest was Ed Johnson, a long time Milwaukee Road Railroad Policeman (Detective) with stories of the rails and of the business of railroading.
Doug, in Utah

[lupo]

I started off at 6 when I got my first trains for my birthday, and as my dad worked at a LHS and brought home a big box of "HO stuff " leftovers from the store my hobby really took off
then at 17 I had to sell everything and was out of the MR hobby for about 25 years, did some RC car stuff and and large scale ferraries,
Then some years ago I felt an urge to buy a trainset at a fleamarket, at that time I had no clue why, but I HAD TO HAVE IT, then some weeks later we found out that there was going to be an addition to the family, and my son was born in jan '97.
After his first encounter with a train at a grade cossing at the age of 2 HE was hooked: he talked walked, lived trains, he went as far that he kitbashed his Brio-trains for models he liked ( he "lent" my black paint and a marker and turned his Thomas into a big black BIGBOY )
and so he got me back in the hobby that we now share. he has his own 8 x 4 layout: and mine is in planning.

Lupo

[simon1966]

My Grandparents lived about 1 mile from a tunnel that exited into a cutting on one of the main London to Edinborough lines. As a very young child I would be taken to the road bridge overlooking the cutting for walks and would watch trains like the Flying Scotsman burst out of the tunnel. I was hooked. Purchased my first OO scale Hornby stuff in the mid to late 60's when I was a little older. Many years later and I am living in Central Illinois. My folks come visiting from the UK to see their young grandson and bring with them a suit case with all my old trains and rolling stock. I had not looked at them for 25 years. Went to the LHS, was thrilled to discover that OO trains ran on HO track and purchased and Atlas trainset with a CB&Q S2. My son was 2 at the time and was facinated by the trains. He is now 6 1/2 and has a 4 year old brother. We have a trainroom, 20 Locos, 200 pieces of rollling stock and a quickly developing layout. The bug has set in for good this time!

[Anonymous]

A guy I worked with, which became a good friend, is the one that got me into MRR. He gave me a Santa Fe GP38, a few freight cars, came over and helped me build my first layout (4x8) in 1985. The military moved me overseas in '87. I kept the engine, cars and a few things but sold the layout to my neighbor. The train stuff remained boxed until I was medically retired. A year after retirement and nuttin else to do, I decided to open the boxes. One look and I was hooked. I have been back into MRR now for about a year and enjoy every minute of it!

[tomwatkins]

Not who but what. I moved to the North Georgia mountains about eleven years ago. Shortly after moving up here from Florida, I discovered the Great Smoky Mountain Railway which runs on the western end of the Southern's Murphy Branch. One ride through the mountains in springtime behind a beautiful Baldwin built 2-8-0 turned me on to mountain railroading and steam power. It was truly cool.

Since I've been a model builder pretty much all my life (scale model aircraft previously), it was a short step to start researching the Murphy Branch, the Southern and the L&N, and thinking about what to do with my new basement. The rest is history and I'm having a ball.
Have Fun,
Tom Watkins

[Anonymous]

My father built a basic O scale Lionel train layout in the basement for my little brother, when I was a kid, I loved it, alhough I was forbidden to play with it, he said that trains were not a girl's toy [sigh] But I really wanted to build my own layout some day, in a smaller scale though, as I found that O was way too big and takes too much space.

But for years I had somehow put it asside, being too young, and everyone saying how silly this hobby is and how it's just for old retired guys. Anyway, the flamed was brought back to life not very long ago, when I first met the one who was to become, a few weeks later, my oh so nice girlfriend. We were talking about our interests, she mentionned that she loves building miniature houses, and so I told her about trains, and she just found it so cool. Ever since, I've been surfing websites and buying books about model railroading [:D]

[orsonroy]

My dad and his college modeling/railfanning buddies. When I was a kid in the early 1970s (the days before day care) they used to drag me all over Chicago chasing what was left of pre-Amtrak, pre-Conrail railroads. After about 1980, life got a lot more busy for my parents (they started their own business), so the railfanning trips and my dad's modeling basically stipped, except for the monthly issues of MR and Trains. My pop helped me with my first layout when I was 13, and gave me my first Mantua steamer kit, and taught me the basics. It's been downhill ever since!

Dad's got a layout again for the first time in over 20 years (25x3 N scale dogbone), and I've been returning the favor by introducing him to new techniques and equipment. He absolutely loves foam layout construction, modern scenery supplies, and Atlas diesels! I'm working on a batch of LV cabooses for him now.

[cacole]

In my case, it wasn't a 'who' but a 'what' -- living in a small town where the Illinois Central and Missouri Pacific both had large roundhouse facilities in the days of steam. Our house was only 100 feet from where the lines crossed, and their roundhouses were less than 1/2 mile away so I used to ride my bicycle to them and watch the hostlers at work.

[Anonymous]

I grew up one block South of the Missouri Pacific main line coming west out of St. Louis. As a kid I used to sit on the curb and watch a local switch Manchester Iron Works. To this day (40plus years later) switching is still my favorite part of operations!
When I was a preschooler we had a small Lionel layout, later an American Flyer layout. When I returned to the hobby about 35 years ago I went into HO and have been there ever since. So I guess the Missouri Pacific and Manchester Iron Works in Maplewood, MO got me hooked!

Ed

[Anonymous]

This Christmas will mark 40 years with trains for me.

Thanks DAD!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Dad got me started back when I was four or five, and now ten years later I'm about to build a 1950 Missouri Pacific layout in HO.

[CP5415]

My Dad.
He was into HO scale before I was born. I still have several pieces from his collection that are older than me.
He also took me to railfan CP's Agincourt yard on Sunday afternoons to see if anything was happening.

Gordon

[Anonymous]

I to like most people got started in the hobby by my father. who in turn got start by my grandfather. my grandfather had a small lionel train he could run around the tree at christmas. When my dad and his brother started their families they both had a model railroad at christmas.
My dad let me run the layout whenever I wanted. I had the layout in the basement for a couple years until we ran out tof space and had to put it up for a couple years. What got me back into the hobby was this year my sister moved to mass. from our hometown in ohio and would come back to town via amtrak. This about the time my grandpa got real sick and I helped care for him and my grandma during the day. I decided to bring out train again. To help cheer up my grandpa during his failing health I would describe my progess to him. Always made him smile. This christmas after 6 months of caring for him, he passed away in the middle of the night. That night I ran trains until morning and realized the bests way to remember him was to always have a model train. My father has watched my progress and said that this is what made these difficult times more bearable. Being able to take my dads old cars fix the problems and show him the finished weathered product is one of the greatest feelings you can have. It has also brought me and my father together and we attend train shows and layouts whenever one comes to town. To me it's more than justs a hobby for me it's a memorial and that is why I named my yard the DM yard after my father and my grandpa, Dan and Don Miller
Andy

[CBQ_Guy]

Short answer is my Dad. I think he did what he couldn't have when he was a kid, through me. Then he got it out of his system but it got into mine. Now he has absolutely no interest at all. He recently turned 80 years old and when he saw pictures of my layout in the old house, and I told him how many boxes of stuff I had for the new layout, and that it would fill the entire basement, etc., he was amazed.

I told him it was all HIS fault....

[Anonymous]

My Dad, He got me going at age 5 I'm guessing by the photo of me opening it on X-mas. In are house we had a "Train Room" (At age 5 I thought everyone did) kind of like a dinning room. My Dad gave me his old AF set 3 yrs ago and I've been at it ever since. He still has all his Ho stuff in boxes but has shown no real intrest other than my newly rekindeled intrest. I think I can bring him back though.[:D]

[on30francisco]

I received a huge collection of Lionel "Super O" trains, track and, scenery from my uncle when I was a kid.

[Anonymous]

I't al started because of a turtle ,made a house one day then boom , hooked
go to my web

[cisco1]

Grandpa got me hooked at age two when we would sit on the front step of the grocery store in our little town. The Burlington ran right down the main street and he made sure we just happened to be at the store when the trains came through. Later my Dad bought me my first trainset and a neighbor took me with him to work a few times after the BN merger. My turn to spread the joy came twenty years later when my son arrived.
Though he's now in college he e-mails me weekly with news of his railfanning adventures. Fatherhood-it's not just a job- it's an adventure![:D][tup]

[Anonymous]

cisco1, You said it! Father is an adventure. In the regards to trains part of fatherhood it's a "Traditon"!

[Anonymous]

My Dad and my Grandfather both were very much the reason I got into trains my Grandfather had a very passionate interest in steam and when I was about 8 years old he took me on a trip to see steam trains we spent an entire day driving around to catch the same loco at every crossing we could, I was hooked. then my Father who worked for a flour mill had some buddies that worked fro the railroad and they took me on a trip to do some car switching and from that moment on there was no stopping the fire. I had to take some time away from my hobby as I went to the ARMY and had to do other adult things(that didnt allow timefor my interest ie Paramedic school. fire training). Now that I am married and have a 6 month old son and a house with a basement I am construction my first layout bigger then 4x8. It will be all deisel with one Steamer in memory of my grandfather.

[twhite]

May great Uncle Tom, my namesake and a brakeman on the SP infected both me and my cousin ***, who was 15 years my senior. Uncle Tom got *** and I a ride on an AC-6 Cab-forward helper between Truckee and Norden, CA on Donner Pass, and I was hooked like crazy! Up until his death, a couple of months ago, my cousin *** would always bring his locomotives over to run on my layout. He was an avid model railroader that never got around to building a layout.
Funny thing, though, although my dad always encouraged my hobby, he never participated in it until I hooked him after he retired. Went into N scale, enjoyed it right up to his death. So you might say that in the case of my father and myself, it was a reverse addiction.

[Anonymous]

Thought I share this with you all.
About a week ago I was going to sell my 8 year old daughter's Lionel Pennsy Flyer, we had already taked about doing so and was O.K. with her in order to purchase some "G" stuff for outside. I was also going to sell one of my AF Locos,this would be a joint venture. Anyway the morning before a garage sale I printed a picture off the net and put everything in the box properly, she watched... then the tears started to fall...Deep down inside she wasn't able to give up her first train! I told her it was O.K. and that I understood. I feel my responsibility of passing on the "tradition" is done. She adores going to the shows with me, I'm so proud![:D]