what made you get into model railroading?

[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.

[loathar]

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

[SpaceMouse]

My son got a Hogwart's set for Christmas.

[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.

[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!

[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.....

[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

[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.

[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?

[cwclark]

because it's fun?

[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.

[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.