what made you get into model railroading?

[Paul3]

I was born into it because my father is a model railroader, and has been since he was a teenager. We've always had a layout...it's something that I simply grew up with. Heck, I had a handmade wooden train from my grandfather waiting for me when I got home from the hospital.

I didn't get "serious" as a model railroader until I was 15, when my father took me to a train show at a railroad club. We hadn't been to a show for ages, and I was amazed at the size of the show and the detail and size of the club's layout. We both joined the club that year (I as a junior member), and we're still members today.

Of course, it didn't hurt that the New Haven's old Shore Line (now Amtrak and MBTA's North East Corridor) runs right by my house...

Paul A. Cutler III
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Weather Or No Go New Haven
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[leighant]

Lionel trains, reading Carsten's Toy Trains magazine at age 7, and the neighborhood of Houston where I grew up...

[trainboyH16-44]

A combination of Thomas and a Duplo train set. Ever since then, My interst has grown, bacause in my spare time, when I can't golf, it's the only thing to do.
Matthew
P.S. Doctor who on tonight!

[ARTHILL]

When WWII was over I tired of airplanes and decided to model an iron mine in Minnesota. My dad thought that was cool and bought me an English Yard bird to build. I have been hooked off and on ever since. Just started 4th pike this spring after 25 years away.

[1shado1]

About 33 years ago my mother told me my other hobby would result in blindness.[:D]

[Anonymous]

I think that I was just born being crazy about trains. Sure, CP goes through our town, but really I don't think that there was anything major that would precipitate someone else to end up in the hobby. Ever since I was a toddler, all I could think about was trains. My parents tell me about the countless trips they took driving with me just to try to find trains. They joke that the train crews must have wondered how come that car was out driving all the time. I was far too young to remember any of this now.

When I was little, I naturally had various toy trains. My first electric train set was a Playmobil G scale set with a red diesel switcher that I got when I was about 4. Extra track, rolling stock and accessories were added to it.

At the age of 5, I got my first HO set. It was a Bachmann circle set with a chrome Warbonnet F9. It was bought on a trip we took to Minot, ND in the summer. For Christmas that year, I got another Bachmann circle set (CP this time), plus extra cars, track and an Atlas station kit, as well as a piece of plywood covered with astro-turf to set it all up on. My HO collection continued to grow and when I was about 8, my dad built a permanent layout. It was L-shaped and could run three trains simultaneously. Things have just grown from there.

[tommann]

MY mom's dad worked as a machinist for CN. My father took my at a very early age for walks in the CNR yards in Moncton NB after Sunday school every Sunday. I fell in love with the steam engines working the yard. I also took the train from Monton to Winnipeg when we moved there in 1945 (7 years old). Shortly thereafter, my dad got me started with 027 Lionel. In high school, I took over a 13 by 13' room in the attic and built an HO layout, subscribed to MRR magazine, and got the bug seriously. The bad news is that after I started working ful time, and got out in the real world, I couldn't find time for trains until I retired last year and was able to start an N scale layout. Now, I'm in my second childhood and enjoying trains once again. :)

Tom Mann,
Littlerock, CA

[KKEIFE]

When I was 10 or so my older brother gave me a Lionel "Navy" train that had a submarine car, a flat car iwth a helo on it an an operating missle launching car that could fire 4 missles. He set up a basic oval with a secondary track within the oval. He also had about five plastic buildings that made up a city. It also had an operating signal crossing.

I spent hours shooting missles at the town and "destroying" the buildings. It may have been the best gift I ever received for Christmas.

That spiked my interest in railroads as a form of moving goods from one place to another and I rode my bike down to the local tracks to watch trains when I had nothing better to do.

I have also always had an interest in minature villages and the like so that together with my interest in trains and my early train set got me going in the last ten years or so.

[countershot]

I Like trains so that go tme started

[Anonymous]

I can't remember ever NOT being inot the hobby. My great Uncle worked for the C&NW from the 20's until the late 60's. His father worked for the C&NW from 1892 to 1942. My great uncle owned the duplex we lived in when I was born, and there was a large HO layout in the basement. When I was three, we moved to the suburbs and my dad built a 12' x 24' layout in the basement, and that was there until I moved out when I was about 20. After another 20 years of wandering lost in the wilderness, I finally had a house with a basement and began my own HO layout. My two brothers also had layouts in their houses. Now my son is the next generation of train lovers...

Paul August

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cwclark

because it's fun?

This, and also my cousin had a really cool DRGW layout, which got me into model railroading.