what made you get into model railroading?

[sledgehammer]

My question is what made you get into the hobby.

I reason I got into it was dad hade a train layout when i was a kid and got to spend time with him. I am doing the same for my two kids amd I like to watch the trains run throught my layout, I'm hoping soon to have aDCC so I can hear the trains go throught . I enjoy that as well. I mostly enjoy building the layout and laying the track the most. Its very enjoyalbe hobby I think, I keeps my blood pressure down as well because it relaxs me.

[chrismay]

I became interested when I was very young after seeing a friend's fathers layout and then slowly forgot about it until this past Christmas when I set up my nephews GeoTrax system, and got totally hooked in and figured I should probably get myself started with "toy trains for big boys" hahaha.

[cwclark]

because it's fun?

[johncolley]

Treasurer wouldn't let me park a real one in the driveway! LOL
Actually I got a wind-up Marx freight when I was 9. The following year I got the electric version. When I was 12 I got a Lionel set with a Pennsy S2 steam turbine loco and I was off! I kept adding to that thru high school and senior year I went to work graveyard shift oiling freights on SP. My step-dad was a 22 year conductor on SP when he passed away in '48. I have always loved trains. Now retired, I live in the NW and model GN thru the cascades circa '47 to '50. Go figure?

[Anonymous]

I was naturally exposed to trains at a young age. I was often taken to my fathers business, and it was close enough to the tracks that you could see the whites of the engineers eyes as the train went by. I watched every CSX train that went by. Then we took a trip to washington dc. There was a train store with a huge thomas the tank engine display. My parents bought some thomas stuff and I was hooked. THe flame grew when my dad bought a cheapo life like F7 set. I was obsessed!!! My dad had over 3 years worth of RMC and of course, Model Railroader!!! I discovered the pile of mags about 5 years ago, about the time I got my first MR issue as a gift frrom my aunt. In 2003, i recieved a gift subscription, and in 2004, another one! My current gift subscription expires in January 2006. I am now in the process of building my first serious layout.

[RMax1]

I liked trains as a kid and modeled armor, airplanes, ships etc. etc. One day I was going thru the modeling section of the local toy store and found a long blue box. It was an Athearn Amtrak passenger car. Cool I have never built a train! I bought 1 every week for weeks. At that time they were just as expensive as the German panzers I was building. I then found a place that sold Bachmann F's for $3 and started packing them away. Didn't know exactly what I was going to do with them but hey for $3 a piece. 20+ years later I bought a house with a big den and started a layout.

RMax1

[ac4400fan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by sledgehammer

dad hade a train layout when i was a kid and got to spend time with him. I am doing the same for my two kids

Basicly the same for me...when i was a kid ,by the old house,i used to watch a burlington northern go by ,when i was about 9 or so ,,that also got me hooked....

carl.....

[Anonymous]

Pretty much the same here. When I was about 7 or 8, I got a "Silver Streak" train set for Christmas one year. I thought that it was just the coolest thing!! But you know how kids that age are, it was broken in less than a month. I never got another train set, but that old Silver Streak never left the back of my mind. A couple of years back ( when my wife & I were living in an appartment with no where to put a layout ) I started checking into the hobby again via the internet. We knew we would some day have a house, and now that I was old enough to build a real layout, and not just tear up a "toy train", I thought it would be cool to get back into it. So here I am now, my wife & I finally have a house, and she was kind enough to let me use one of the bedrooms, so I am working on building my first honest-to-goodness layout!

[jeffshultz]

The SP&S/BN in my front yard from birth until age 3... a series of toy train sets through my youth.

A lot of MR and RMC's.

A father-in-law getting into the hobby a couple years back.

[SpaceMouse]

My son got a Hogwart's set for Christmas.

[loathar]

Got to drive an F unit coal train when I was about 10.Pretty Cool!
Been hooked ever since.
loathar

[Anonymous]

My son has been enamored with trains since about age two. We have gone through the natural progression of things starting with Thomas and are now beginning to model in HO.
The World's Greatest Hobby dvd opened the door as well as several of the shows on RFD-TV that are train oriented.

[Anonymous]

What made me get into model railroading was my first train that I got for Christmas back in the late 60s. The rest is history...

trainluver1

[railroadyoshi]

The MBTA running near my home and the comeplete support from my parents

[simon1966]

Had trains when i was a kid. My folks dumped my old trains on me during a house clean out and the bug bit again.

[Anonymous]

Age 5 - first Lionel 027 train set at Christmas
Age 11 - bought first issue of RMC [August 1966] at a hobby store, learned that even adults do this stuff!
Age 13 - first HO train set, started buying Athearn BB's thereafter...

[timthechef]

My Dad used to model HO and when we were kids he built us a large Lionel layout. We moved when I was 5 and I've wanted another one ever since. So I started building my own at 40!

[Anonymous]

Because I cannot afford a real one (I'm serious).

Anyway, I love making models (Buildings & bridges).

I get a tremendous kick out of seeing those colossal diesels followed by a very long train. This sends me into a frenzied haste to get home and re-enact the days experience.

I also endeavour to replicate those old RS-8 DL-532B that trundles by my house, hauling trains 32 cars long contain acid and bauxite. I want to capture even the most minute details.
Richie

[BN U30C]

QUOTE: Originally posted by verse2damax

Because I cannot afford a real one (I'm serious).

A friend.

[BillLading]

Always interested in trains. First train ride: Marshfield OR to Ptld. in a sleeper. (Too young to remember.) Subseqent trips when older: Astoria to Ptld.several times, Ptld to Seattle several times, Ptld to Spokane, Pltd to Mpls several times. Worked a short stint for the SP&S. Worked in Traffic for private industry. Received first Marx electric train at 8, then later a Lionel. And then finally had a place of my own with a basement and went to HO. Now retired and President of my own little railroad empire, the CH&C.

[jeffshultz]

Someone asked as an icebreaker at a gathering, "If you won the lottery, what utterly frivolous thing would you buy?"

My answer was "An SD40T-2... which I'd probably turn around and lease to the power hungry PNWR."

[MudHen_462]

Because of so many relatives who worked on RR's... L & N, C&EI, Southern, and the Monon. Later on, I worked for the NYC (Indiana Divn., and after the merger... the "Pennyless Central" !

All that got me into model railroading, and then I just never quit liking trains.

Bob

[howmus]

Woke up on Christmas morning when I was 7 to find Santa had brought me a Lionel. For some reason it was all set up and running when I got down stairs. My dad said that Santa brought it like that, but I knew better. My dad always got up at 4:30 in the morning to go milk the cows. He put it together I bet. Every year for the next several years Santa brought me more trains until, by the time I was in High School, I had quite an empire upstairs in an unused bedroom. Then, of course, I found out about girls and didn't do much on the railroad (should I say) for a few years. Went to college, got married, had kids (basically in that order) and got back into the hobby when a fellow teacher and friend told me that Model Railraoding is a good way to avoid the "Honey Do" list and such........... Got out of the hobby for about 15 years after my wife died. Traveled with my Boy Scout Troop to Steamtown in Scranton PA a few thousand $ ago.... Hooked again! [:D]

[AggroJones]

Being repeatedly exposed to the SP railyard in Roseville during childhood.

Waching "Tracks Ahead" on PBS during the teen years.

[Anonymous]

Going to the LA county fair as a kid and seeing these 2 layouts every year:

North America's largest garden railroad: (it used to be a larger, purely scratchbuilt scale)

http://www.trainweb.org/girr/gjrr/gjrr.html

And this 2-rail O-scale indoor layout:

http://www.citrusempire.net/index.html

Somewhere around that time my Dad aquired a used HO layout, then he got us a figure-8 layout - Tyco or something. We had several attempts at layouts but never got past the track on 4x8 plywood stage.

Hoping to get further this time...

[Anonymous]

I think my wife regrets buying me that Lifelike train set when I turned forty. She misses having a basement. I also had a Triang set as a kid and my grandfather in England used to scratchbuild cardboard and shellac scale models of British steamers. Super cool!
Andy

[Ibflattop]

Going with Grandma to pick Grandpa at work when I was 4. He worked by the mainline of the N&W (ex- Wabash) thru Ft.Wayne. While waiting for him the trains would go by. I would sit there and wait for the caboose to pass and wave at the guys riding on her. Well Grandma and Grandpa first got me an O27 trainset. We set it up on a 4x8 sheet of plywood in the basement. Three years later H.O. came into the house and the O-27 got put away. From there it has been a hooby of mine along with HW and Matchboxes, Building 1/24th and 1/25th scale autos and trucks, 1/35th scale Armor and Figures, and also collecting 1/6th scale Joes and Dragon action Figures. Wife says when she goes into the basement she goes into the "Neighboorhood Hobbyshop"!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Seeing the Long Island Railroads hotshot montauk branch commuter trains go past my house led by GP-38-2's with FA-1 cab units on the rear

And Thomas the tank engine.

[TrainFreak409]

My model railroading enthusism started when I was 5 years old, and Santa Claus brough me a Bachmann Rolling Thunder HO scale train set for Christmas. From then on, I have been creating a good collection of HO and now N, with the majority being Bachmann.

My train enthusism I cannot explain anyother way other than I was born like that.[:D] My first words were "Choo choo." I grew up with Thomas the Tank Engine, after my grandfather found out he would take me to a nearby railroad station and we would talk with the conductors and so on. I would read any train book I could get my hands on (That hasn't changed!), and I was constantly drawing trains on everything.

But now, I enjoy model railroading because it gives me time to just get away from the hassles of school, and moving, and stuff like that. I'm only 16, I shouldn't be this stressed out over life. And, add in the fact that there is no limits to this great hobby of ours!

~[8]~ TrainFreak409 ~[8]~

[trainchris]

I remember going to my grandfathers house on the weekends to go swimming. At the end of the day when all the adults were sitting around talking, I would sneek down into the basement to his layout and have a blast making his trains go around and around. I always got caught because I would make them go to fast. After he died that was it for some time. My mother took us kids a few times to a place called Turntable Junction ( http://www.brwrr.com/Links/Links.htm ) in Flemington NJ, and the black river railroad system ( http://www.brwrr.com/ ). I then got older and moved on to other things. My brother and I got into car racing for some time but went are own ways as well. I got married,found a house,had a son,and all that good stuff. Now I can't afford racing, also my 5yr son really was not able to be apart of it so that ended. Old memories of my grandfarther's trains never left the back of my head and now I wanted to share the fun of the real railroad, as well as the hobby of MRR with my son. Were working on getting our first layout started now ,while also enjoying the fun of riding the old trains around where we live. Hopefuly one day my son will share with his kids all there is to see,and the enjoyment of riding as well as modeling the rails!! One of the best things about this hobby for me is that its not just an old guy thing ( no offense to any one). I get to spend good quality time with my son, and the whole family in some way can be involved and or get enjoyment out if it.