wjstix I've long suspected there are generally two types of model railroaders, as far as how they got into the hobby. One group got a toy train set as a kid, and because of that, became interested in real trains too. The other group grew up near a rail line, or had a relative who worked for a railroad or was a railfan, and through exposure to the real trains became interested in model railroads. It would be interesting to research the two groups, see how their early years affected their layouts etc.
I've long suspected there are generally two types of model railroaders, as far as how they got into the hobby. One group got a toy train set as a kid, and because of that, became interested in real trains too. The other group grew up near a rail line, or had a relative who worked for a railroad or was a railfan, and through exposure to the real trains became interested in model railroads. It would be interesting to research the two groups, see how their early years affected their layouts etc.
I'm probably a little bit of both myself as well. Growing up in a town with a long history of railroads partially influenced it. (My town wasn't founded by the railroad as some were, but the railroads greatly influenced its development. [NP & CMStP&P]) Being able to hear trains running on an overpass also helped as well. (My Mom has told me that in my younger days that I would want her to stop under the underpass so I could hear the trains!)
It was also helped that my late maternal grandfather worked for the NP and an uncle also had a small model railroad as well. My late maternal grandparents also lived within a block of the old Milwaukee yards (the Milwaukee was long gone by the time I remember the yard and so was my grandfather). I even remember seeing the transfer table operate once between the shops buildings (at that time a railcar maintance company was using the yards).
I grew up in a railroad town and loved trains since I can remember. I had a few train toys, but didn't learn about scale model railroading until I was in my mid 20's when I ran a cross a model railroad shop with some nice operating modules and a layout in a permanent "flea market" in Kissimee, FL. I was hooked. Started buying MR and a couple other mags and books and started collecting HO equipment. Three years later, and still no layout started, I decided to try an N scale starter layout with the intention of coming back to HO later. nearly 20 years later I am still modeling in N scale and loving it. What kept me in the hobby is the multi-facted nature of the hobby--wood working, electroics, kit and scratch building, scenery, operations, etc. How could one ever get bored with so many different hobbies all rolled into one?
Ron
Owner and superintendant of the N scale Texas Colorado & Western Railway, a protolanced representaion of the BNSF from Fort Worth, TX through Wichita Falls TX and into Colorado.
Check out the TC&WRy on at https://www.facebook.com/TCWRy
Check out my MRR How-To YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/RonsTrainsNThings
Dad introduced me to trains (TYCO set) when I was a kid (late 70s). In later teen years and early 20s, I migrated to aircraft modeling (son of Air Force member). Still always found trains facinating, got back into trains in early 20s after seeing a new issue of MR (early 90s).
Even though I work for the USAF myself, I dropped the aircraft modeing and got back into trains. I think it's the full-sepctrum of the hobby beyond just model-building. Trains and planes are both pretty cool, but I needed something beyond just model building.
Mike
WOW! A number 5 iron, on top of it...
Gotta, hand it to yah! Bear.
Great comeback!
Frank
richhotrainAnd the news gets even better, JaBear!
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
When I was a kid I was into model cars, and I was good at building them. I had the tools and techniques. After a while it felt like a job - every couple of weeks I'd bang out another 1/25 scale hot rod.
Then one afternoon when I was 12, I was in the library and I started browsing through a Model Railroader magazine. I think it was the variety that hooked me. In model railroading you get to build models of everything - not just cars; you use a vast variety of materials and techniques, and the results are more than just models, they tell a story. It's challenging and rewarding and never boring. So, here I am, 45 years later, still loving the hobby.
Phil, I'm not a rocket scientist; they are my students.
Three years old: Dad builds a 4x8 (or something close to it) for the older brother. Brother says 'meh', little Stu runs it in circles until bits start falling off the locomotives.
Five years old: Oma T. takes little Stu on the Royal Hudson to Squamish. I still remember being fascinated by the coal smoke swirling in the tunnels.
Eleven years old: Dad takes Stu (less little now) to the Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan BC and greases a palm so Stu can ride in the cab of Mayo Lumber Co. Shay no. 3. Still my only footplate ride to date.
Thirteen years old: Dad takes Stu to a family friend's house and shows him the eleborate (and completely scenery free, for some reason) layout of Dad's friend Tony.
It goes on, but it all boils down to the same theme: Dad's fault. The current project involves delivering food from the outdoor kitchen to the picnic table via Fn3 motive power. And Dad's the first name on the guest list.
Stu
Streamlined steam, oh, what a dream!!
Dad has had a Lionel "layout" since he was a kid (he's 60 now.) We used to beg him to run it when we were kids, my brother and I. Dad would always take us to modeling clubs and actual live train events to see trains. My parents got my brother a HO train set when I was about 12 and I dabbled with it but he had more fun with it than I did. Years down the road I found a HO set, this was about 1999/98, and my parents got me that for christmas. I dug out all my brothers old HO stuff because he gave up on the hobby, and started my own layout. I've been building on it ever since. He's since given up and gotten into model airplanes. My modeling has evolved in recent years to improving trackwork, buying better cars/trucks/couplers and locomotives, and making it era/road name specific vs buying anything HO that I thought was cool around the late 90s. A big part of continuing to persue the hobby has been atlas flex track. It solves so many problems that sectional track caused.
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.
ripvanwnklAt age 3, in the Panama Canal Zone, Dad, a career soldier, got me a Lionel set for Christmas which he really wanted to play with. I promptly dropped the steam loco out a second story window onto concrete. He never bought me any more model trains.
Neat! I was also a dependent in the CZ, 58-60. Dad was in the Air Force. I loved the mules, both the ones that tugged ships through the locks and the last Army unit that had them. Seeing the barns one Sunday on a cruise in the family car, I absconded while outside playing one day. Mom was frantic, the jungle was at the end of the street, and she called the MPs. They found me outside the wire, headed up the road to see the mule barns.
I remember riding the CZ RR a little, I wasn't yet in kindergarten, so memories are hazy. My wife's dad's family is from the CZ, some still live there, but granpa was apparently a dredge operater for the Corps of Engineers before moving back stateside to run the rivers up here.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
There were some early influences. Several railroaders in the family, I always like seeing trains, and I inherited a Lionel Santa Fe set when a relative went off to college and got interested in women.
But what really got me started was that a crashed model train never gets lost, unlike my model rockets. I gave up on the Space Age and reverted to modeling earlier technology.
What's kept me in was a focused interest in Colorado narrowgauge, a good long-range layout plan, and the fact that there's always something interesting to do -- I can get back to boring stuff later or not at all.
Growing up within 100 feet of an Illinois Central main line through World War 2 and until 1960, in a small town with two steam era roundhouse complexes; one Illinois Central and one Missouri Pacific.
At age 3, in the Panama Canal Zone, Dad, a career soldier, got me a Lionel set for Christmas which he really wanted to play with. I promptly dropped the steam loco out a second story window onto concrete. He never bought me any more model trains.
From ages 14 to 16, I frequently traveled on French passenger trains while Dad was stationed in Paris. But model planes were my passion throughout my preteen and teen years.
From ages 18 to 22, I traveled on Union Pacific, Wabash, and Norfolk & Western passenger trains from college in Manhattan, KS to Moberly, MO, St Louis, MO, and Chicago, IL to visit my grandparents and parents during school vacations.
From ages 23 to 44, I traveled on trains in Korea, Denmark, and Norway while in the Air Force for four years and Air National Guard part-time for 18 years.
My full-time career with the Veterans Health Administration for 31 years had plenty of air travel but no trains.
At age 60, when I started collecting my military pension, my oldest grandson convinced me to buy some HO and DCC model trains for both of us. My wife encouraged me in the hobby because she liked seeing the bond forged between my grandson and me. She also liked trains because her grandfather had worked for Southern Railroad. We also frequently railfanned with our grandson.
At age 64 my wife and I toured Europe entirely by train for our 40th anniversary. At age 65 I fully retired and my model train "empire" grew exponentially with the extra free time I had.
Now, near age 70, I have very nearly acquired all the model railroad equipment I could ever want and my grandson and I still enjoy our modeling and railfanning time together. It has been and continues to be a great experience.
Dave
USAF (Retired)
Good One, Richie!
Frankie
Rich - you´ve made my day!
Good grief Rich a non whinging and whiney thread, and on page two as well, what on earth are you up to!!! You keep up this sort of nonsense and next you’ll be deluded into thinking that those great wads of Fuji War Bonds are actually worth more than the rice paper they’re printed on!!!!
And the news gets even better, JaBear!
Rich
Alton Junction
Weeeelll,
Thios kinda sounds like one of my "philospy" Topics! Good one!
It goes like this:
when I was 3 I had a windup Marx O-27 on two rail track. Then at about age 7 or 8, the neighbors had a garage sale { and I found a box{es} of Lionel trains underneath the tables.} OH, how I wanted those trains, BUT, My father said "maybe for Christmas".
Fast forward to Xmas: there it was! Besided the tree! A MARX NEW O-27 Steamer! That lasted well into oh, about age 19, that fizzled out, but did include a small {pardon the pun} foray into some N scale stuff, two. {cars, work, Life experiences got in the way}.
Fast forward to 2006, nad the local Auction house down the street has a train auction. Lots of Lionel, A few Lionel HO products, a lame 4x8 layout, but nothing really caught my eye, so we went away.
MOH {My Other Half} was getting into the train Idea with me! How Lucky can I be? MOH is a train nut too! {Makes it easy on vacations we always go to a Steam tourist line or RR museum}. ONLY MOH wnted N scale,and i always wnated HO so I got into HO. MOH got into N.
I built me a small HO layout 3.5x5.1 feet. I recently tore it back down with the idea of making it larger, but that idea has fizzled as unless there is MORE ROOM!
WHat keeps me here? {or rather what keeps me COMING BACK?} the creativity that goes in "creating your own world"! And the likeness you can {hopefully} achieve. ANd I LOVE trains!
Now, I guess I be a "armchair modeler" though i do have the realistic "in it" mentality and experience!
MY next foray {when ther is a financial support} is to TRY Z scale, I can build a whole layout in an under-the bed box!
Oh, the POSSIBILITIES!!!
Oh, The RAPTURE!!!
Oh, the insanity!!!
{Whew I had a moment there}
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
richhotrainWhat influenced you to get into the hobby, and what has kept you there?
In a nutshell:
1) Lionel train set for Christmas at age 5;
2) August 1966 issue of RMC at age 12;
3) Clubs, excellent LHS, fellow train lovers, and railfanning;
4) Forums like this one;
5) DCC and scratchbuilding;
6) Hosting op sessions;
7) ...and a gazillion other things that I don't have time to list here!
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
The official story: My maternal Grandfather used to set up a large Lionel layout in his basement every year. He and my Dad would set it up every Thanksgiving, and leave it up til the beginning of February. When I was 5 my Dad made me my own, smaller HO layout which grew with each larger house. My 1st apartment had a 4x8 layout in the dining room, because bachelor me didn't have a Dining set!! Wife #1 made all that go way, til years later when sons 1&2 came along. With a new house and 2 boys, it was time to get started again! Its "for the boys" right??
Fast forward more years..2nd wife, 3 more kids, ..Model and 1:1 railroading are still a facination for me. Facination in gears and wheels and electric. It's a retreat. A world apart from daily strife, where I am King, and the world is as my eye sees it. It is also art, 3 dimensional art. Its also magic. Magic in the way it apears to you and maybe others. It's also magic in a childs eye, and your inner childs eye. Maybe that is what keeps most of us in the hobby. As my friend Howard is so fond of saying" Its never too late to have a happy childhood." However, if we want our hobby to grow, we must "grow our own" next generation. So I did that on Christmas of 2012, when I gave the grandsons their own layout to pass the torch! Kept me involved on a more basic layout, and formed a bond between me, the grandsons and their Dad that we did not have before.
Thats the long version
Short version: If I go to the bar one more time, SWMBO is gonna kick my butt!! So I might as well play with the trains!!
Karl
NCE über alles!
I'm a mixture of the two as I grew up in a small railroad town and the tracks were less than 400ft from my house and a wind up train set that my Dad got me when I was 4.
That was over 50 years ago, and as to what keeps me in the hobby, the same thing that started me in it-fascination!
Carey
Keep it between the Rails
Alabama Central Homepage
Nara member #128
NMRA &SER Life member
What got me into the hobby.
As a child in the 1970s I remembered going to Woolco's department store and drooling over their merchandise consisting of AHM trains and accessories. When I got my first AHM train set I would find ways to earn extra money to expand that train set into a small railroad empire.
What keeps me into the hobby.
The selection of products available is un-fricken-believable. What excites me the most is FSM and SRMW craftsman kits; Westerfield freight cars; Scenics Express products and Fast Tracks turnout jigs.
I was sitting by some tracks as a kid, and a train went by.
It still works on me today.
When I was in High School my best friend had a large Lionel layout. He got me into Lionel but when College came along I sold my trains. Fast Forward to 7 years ago when my wife and I were dating. I met her cousin Adam who has quite a bit of Lionel. When.he came to visit he would play with wooden trains. I suggested we get a train set that he could run when he was here. We had neither the space or the money for Lionel so my wife bought one of those cheap shop rite setssets with Life Like junk. Any how it got the bug back on me. I still have the shop rite loco.
Recently I wen back to my roots by buying a post war Lionel set from a friend selling it on the cheap. It will be good for round the tree use.
Joe Staten Island West
Rich,
Nostalgia is powerful stuff.
Have fun,
Richard
This subject has been touched on before but at the risk of boring some I see no reason not to tell the story again.
As a young kid I was allowed to watch my brothers play with their Marx O gauge but never allowed to touch it. They burned the motor out before I was old enough to be allowed to run the train set.
Years later, long after I had moved out of the house, my mother asked me if I wanted what was left of the train set and I said "sure". The locomotive was in parts with the motor being a total write-off, but I managed to find a replacement motor at a swap meet, and next I had a crude layout up and running. Unfortunately I found the tin plate stuff to not be as interesting as I thought it would be.
That led to HO with my wife buying Hogwart's express for me for Christmas and I haven't stopped since then.
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
My first layout was a 4x16 foot lionel. I had it until fast cars and faster women came along. After my son was born, I decided to build an HO layout. I purchased the biggest piece of junk ever made, the Chatanooga choo choo.
While Tyco got me back into the hobby, they almost drove me out. After a trip to the LHS, Atlas locomotives replaced the junk Tyco. Atlas track was installed and Athearn trucks went under the Tyco cars. The derailments stopped and life was good.
Jim
Wow, I just read through all of the replies to this thread, and I didn't realize what I had started.
Great stories, guys !
The Train Under The Christmas Tree!!!... it was Dad's (departed 2009) S-scale, a little more than a circle as I recall. He had some diesel models and a streamlined 4-6-4, but it was "Blackie", the 4-8-4, or maybe it was a 4-6-4... I don't remember. But anyway, it was the non-streamlined steam loco, with all it's moving parts and gizmo's... then the "smoke" when he would add fluid to it!
A while later and I was old enough and I got a Lionel 027 set for Christmas, and each year after for a few years I would get another piece or two to add to it. Somwhere around teen years I got some HO stuff and I built a small 4x6 layout that saw all kinds of abuse with all kinds of "stuff". That layout had a "HO" slot car track on it too which saw a lot of racing as I was a NASCAR fan by then (this was around 79-80+)... this was okay as it got me into scratch-building, as I remember scratchbuilding a service station for the layout... of course, this was as "full serve" was in it's dying days. Incedentally, several of my first jobs were at "full serve" stations; I remember all too well (and miss the days of) checking oil, coolant, tires and cleaning windshields!
The hobby got packed up and put on hold for years with not much thought till I bought the land I am on now about 9 years ago, moved my mobile home there and added onto it. The "train room" I built actually started as a "music room", but quickly turned into the train room with the thought of "I finally have somewhere I can actually build a layout"!
I've sinced received Dad's S-scale stuff, still in boxes after going through it, ashamedly, as I would dearly love to display it. Unfortunately, space and budget do not allow for the nice display cabinets I feel they deserve, but someday that will happen come #e11 or high water!
Happy RR'ing!
Duane
Modeling B&O in the early 50's.