Hello all,
I just wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself.
As a child I remember spending countless hours operating a 4'x8' HO layout that my father had built in secret to surprise me with for Christmas of 1976. Although it was not a huge layout, some of my fondest childhood memories were of operating it. After about 5 years we had to relocate to a small apartment in NYC and not having the space the layout was taken apart and everything stored in three cardboard boxes.
Those three boxes containing loco's, rolling stock, track and other items were recently rediscovered while my dad was going through old stuff stored in his basement. He surprised me by bringing them to me at my own home.
That evening I put together a simple oval, hooked up the transformer, and to my amazement three of the 5 loco's actually ran having not seen the light of day for 36 years.
After so many years that spanned my childhood, a 20 year Navy career, 18 wonderful years (and counting) of marriage, and four children, seeing those trains running instantly brought me back to 1981. Even more importantly, I saw the same spark of excitement that I felt as a child in the eyes of my 8 year old son Michael.
Obviously technology has changed and I have a lot to learn, but I am so looking forward to the journey while building a lifetime of memories with my son while we pursue this wonderful hobby together.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to give a little history about myself and how I arrived in these forums.
Best Regards,
Nick
Welcome, Nick. You'll find a great bunch of people in here, from all walks of life, all ready to help.
Mike.
My You Tube
Hey Nick, Welcome aboard! Thank you for your service btw. Don't be afraid to ask questions, and also whip out some tools and build something.
Just remember the most important rule: Have fun!!
- Also Mike
Modeling whatever I can make out of that stash of kits that takes up half my apartment's spare bedroom.
Good to have you back in the hobby, Nick. You're probably aware that control systems and the quality of locomotives in terms of their realism have improved greatly. Some of us feel we're in a golden age in the hobby for those reasons.
Take your time, enjoy 'reading-in', and hold off on any expenses until you have a firm grasp of what you'll need/want in order to make your re-entry as rich and rewarding as it was all those years ago.
-Crandell
That's a great story, Nick. I've had two long hiatuses from the hobby. I had several train sets as a kid but lost interest as I grew older. I came across an issue of MR in a waiting room and it rekindled my interest. I got back into it as a young adult in 1977. I built a small layout in a spare bedroom in my apartment and a few years later I bought my first home and built a much larger layout. After getting it fairly complete, I was finding less and less time to spend on it and eventually completely lost interest and abandoned it. I knew eventually I would get back into it when I built my retirment home. During a second hiatus of over 10 years I was conceiving in my mind what my current layout would look like, occasionally drawing up track plans. I'm still building the layout but it is pretty much what I had in mind and I'm very happy with it although like you I am still behind the curve when it comes to the electronics. I went DCC but have yet to learn how to use a lot of the advanced functions. The good news is basic DCC is plenty good enough for me.
Thanks for all of the kind words. Much appreciated!
How of the time vault after 36 years?
Be prepared for both delight and shock. There are very excellent products now for model trains but the prices are much higher than they were back in the 1970's. That said, if you go to train shows you can find a lot of stuff on the secondary market for very modest (by todays standards) prices.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Hey Nick!
Welcome back to the hobby! I'm sure you and your son will have a blast!
Don't hesitate to ask questions!
All the best.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Welcome to the forum. I lost my layout in a divorce in 1999 and just came back after setting up a train around the Christmas tree for my grandson in 2015.
Some of your nostalgia for those specific locos might be more than they deserve in this day and age of detail and sound. If they were brass, that is another story, but my train set tycos aren't really worth the effort to convert to DCC.
Stop by Jeffrey's Trackside Diner, where we talk about off topic stuff like work, family, all aspects of health and trains.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
back to the hobby. It is great your son shares the same excitement you had with your father. Maybe the three of you can grow the new layout together ?
I would also like to invite you to Jeffries trackside diner like Henry did earlier. Hope to see you there .
YGW
Welcome!
.
I am new here too. Everyone is very nice, and willing to help.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
36 years, wow. You've got me beat. 28 years away for me.
Started with a Christmas train set in 1971. I'd always loved trains and had grown up 2 blocks from the then B&O's Shenandoah sub. Back then my favorite train was a 3pm mixed freight heavy on empty coal hoppers returning from a power plant some miles south. Our local hobby shop was owned by a wonderful guy who loved trains. My youthful budget didn't put me among his best customers, but he answered every question I had. When I was 12 my shop teacher was a model railroader and he taught me benchwork and moving beyond the plyboard.
Througout the 1970s my interest stayed strong and evolved. One Christmas my grandmother gave me H. Reid's classic book The Virginian Railway. She didn't know exactly what it was, but figured since I lived in Virginia and liked trains it would fit. So by 79 when I finished high school I had a hodge podge eastern coal hauler layout that paired B&O and Chessie diesels (and a Seaboard in bicentenial paint) I'd gotten early on with a fleet of Virginian and N&W coal hoppers that came later. No, I can't explain how that fit together, other than that I was 18 and in my mind somewhere in West Virginia it all did.
My interest faded during college but by chance I stumbled upon the Jan 84 MR anniversary issue and that was all it took. I was preparing for a move to Arizona at the time and back then John Olson and some others were doing work heavily laden with southwest scenery. So I took the Jerome & Southeastern track plan, spaced it out a bit to widen the curves and made it the centerpiece of an otherwise around the walls point to point shelf layout and traded Chessie/Virginian hauling coal for an SP branch hauling copper. Lasted a few yrs until my next move. Never decided to NOT build a new layout, but 28 years passed without doing it.
Back in my hometown now and living closer than ever to the now CSX Shen. sub. Traffic has lightened and changed, but a quary generates an 80+ car gravel train and that's fun. Watching trains from my front porch is part of what's brought me back.
I've got more space to work with than before and I'm sketching out ideas of where to start. I'm going to finally do the Virginian, this time with VGN Trainmasters rather than Chessie Geeps. Setting it in the 50s so I can have some steam on hand. Never owned a steam engine other than a little 0-4-0 so it's time. There's a lot of nostalgia involved. I want to get something up and running quickly, and as I still have fond memories of much of what I did with my 4x8 way back when so I'm rebuilding some of it at one end of the room first, only instead of closing the outer loop I'll keep it open and expand from there. There's a grade crossing on the old N&W about 10 miles from here I used to love watching trains, partly because of a huge black warehouse and a feed store the N&W served. I want to condense the warehouse and replicate it and the feedstore at a grade crossing somewhere when the main expands. And after all these yrs I could still remember part of a track plan that appeared in MR April 74 for a mining branch that intriqued me. One of the first things I did with the digital archives was search it out and refresh my memory. There's a section I want to use, though getting that far along is a few years out.
There's also a LOT of catching up to do. I'm seeing a lot of things that are new to me. It's very different returning to a hobby vs starting off in one. I've browsed this forum some and everyone seems very helpful and willing to answer questions. I've wanted to introduce myself first, I'll probably have a lot of questions going forward.
Welcome back. If you decide to build a layout, join MR video plus and watch one of many project railroads. They will show you step by step how to build a layout from benchwork, track laying wiring and scenery.
Glad to hear your back and thank you for your service. This forum is great and has a lot of knowledgeable railroaders, how to videos and visits to member railroads. If that's not enough go on eBay and see if you can find a copy of John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid or just do a google search. When your head starts spinning looking at DCC and other wiring there are people here that can help. Christmas is only 10 months away ...
Gary
Welcome back to the hobby. And nowhere does it say you have to go with the latest and greatest products to build a layout. In the current show scene, estates of modelers who have headed for the roundhouse in the sky provide a great selection of older products for pennies on the doller compared to the new and many times expensive items. I can buy brass models that I yearned for as a teen, for less than most modern steam models. Just scorred a PFM/United SP narrow gauge 4-6-0 #9 for $100 at a show yesterday, even has its original box. Older kits are also great value for the doller. Its an excellent time to be coming into the hobby, the choice and selection between your LHS(if you have one), ebay and the shows is excellent right now. If being able to run your train via DCC and using your smart phone with an throttle app is your thing, thats possible to! Mike the Aspie.
Silly NT's, I have Asperger's Syndrome
I love the forums and how helpful everyone is. I also have my MR print, digital archive, and MR Video plus subscription. Lots of info to get through before designing a layout and starting benchwork and laying track. I'm figuring that by summer I should be starting to put the design ideas into action.