Don't laugh this is a true story.
I got into model railroading because I liked trains. Always have always will. Anyway I have a habit of biting my fingernails. MY parents said that if I quit biting my fingernails that I could get a trainset. A month later I had a brand spanking new train set.
I bite my fingernails again BTW
-Smoke
Santa brought a Lionel O Gauge train set. And, my grandpa worked for the Burlington for 42 years as a pipe fitter and a stationary boiler engineer; my uncle was in the traffic department of the Rio Grande for 40+ years.
Started my first layout around 1966. Still in HO gauge.
Yours In Model Railroading,
John
Littleton, CO
when i got married 38 years ago i was into model railroading but then i had 4 kids. so between the kids and the working 2 jobs to feed these guys model railroading went by the wayside. now the kids are gone and i have retired my wife said to me "Do you remember that thing you use to do trains?'. so i went to the local newspaper stand and bought model railroader and railroad model magazine. i was hooked once again. i am in the process of buiding a layout and i use dcc. it's fantastic
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Gavriel609 wrote: Anyone else NOT start off by a train set they somehow got?
Gavriel609 wrote:Anyone else NOT start off by a train set they somehow got?
Anyone else NOT start off by a train set they somehow got?
Yup, right here. If it had not been for my two-year old son's fascination with the choo-choos and "I Love Toy Trains" DVDs, I'd never have even thought about getting started in the hobby.
However, I intend to do my part to "corrupt" the future generations around me by giving my 4-year old (well, he will be by Christmas) nephew a train set come this Christmas.
electrolove wrote:I must blame Joe Fugate
I've had 3 starts in Model railroading. The first was as a kid, and it was my uncle's whimsical whole room Lionel 3-rail Xmas theme layout that captured my attention.
My second go around was just out of college. My boss, who was always doing HO locomotive maintenance at his desk during lunch hour, and talking to anyone who would listen about the new locomotive or rolling stock that captured his attention at the time. As it turned out his father was an engineer on the old Wabash and later NW that I grew up around.... and a model railroader to. His enthusiasm was contagious.
My latest and third start came from a meeting of extreme boredom, and ebay. Out of boredom, I was once again trying in vain to come up with an idea for using the HO stuff I'd accumulated, and had come to the conclusion that the only way it would be remotely possible to do anything in HO would require a lot of curved turnouts. I had just bought some computer components on ebay, and it struck me to look around on there to see what was available. Some how I stumbled across an auction for an N scale Kato Super Chief A set...I was hooked.
Reality...an interesting concept with no successful applications, that should always be accompanied by a "Do not try this at home" warning.
Hundreds of years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove...But the world may be different because I did something so bafflingly crazy that my ruins become a tourist attraction.
"Oooh...ahhhh...that's how this all starts...but then there's running...and screaming..."
Mister Sanders (rest his soul) who was a friend of the family gave me my first train set for Christmas when I was five years old back in 1969. It was made by Marx and was in S scale. It consisted of a NYC 0-4-2 steam loco, coal tender, box car, open hopper and caboose. It no longer runs, but I still have it and have restored it. It now sits on a shelf out in my train room. Anyway, that's what got me started in the hobby. Now I'm an N scaler - but an HO wanta be due to my eye sight not being what it use to...
Tracklayer
My story is different from all of yours. I was in the depths of Central Joisey (New Jersey), when I passed by Northlandz Resort. I went in there, and was inspired.
yougottawanta wrote: MilwaukeeRoad wrote:Grandpa and I went train watching with me and told me how a steam locomotive worked when I was three. He was in the Korean war and guarded the rail yards. He also bought me I think four train sets. For his birthday last year I made him a small HO diarama. That sure brought a smile to his face. Your response brought a little smile to my face and some sadness to my heart. It sounds like you have a great Grand father. My grandfather was crippled with arthritis and he used to sit in his shop and make toys for the grandchildren , he made a wooden stage coach for me (from memory of his earlier days) I love it and cherish it because of the love he poured into it for me. Sadly he has gone on to glory. I miss him much and wish my children could have known him. Dont waste time spend every minute you can find with him.
MilwaukeeRoad wrote:Grandpa and I went train watching with me and told me how a steam locomotive worked when I was three. He was in the Korean war and guarded the rail yards. He also bought me I think four train sets. For his birthday last year I made him a small HO diarama. That sure brought a smile to his face.
I am incredibly sorry to hear about your grandpa..I bet he's watching trains go by in heaven as we speak. As for me, I spend a lot of time with my grandpa.
billwinkes wrote: My father bought us (three boys) Lionel trains when I was about 6. When we moved, a couple of years later, he built an HO layout. After college, I built a couple of apartment layouts. Currently, reorganizing the garage to build a second layout with my son, he's 8. The tradition may continue. Bill
My father bought us (three boys) Lionel trains when I was about 6. When we moved, a couple of years later, he built an HO layout. After college, I built a couple of apartment layouts. Currently, reorganizing the garage to build a second layout with my son, he's 8. The tradition may continue.
Bill
Hi guys
Dad made a terrible mistake when I was 4yo he bought my first train set a triang pick up goods set.
My father two of my uncle's and now me are railway men so I guess its in the blood
I have had "OO" scale "N" scale and "G" scale layouts currently "G" in the garden and as soon as I can get a plan for Kings Cross station I will start on the winter layout in "OO" scale.
Since I have the Flying Scotsman and the Hogwarts Express in "OO" scale this seems a logical terminal to find out about even if its only represented by platform 9, 9&3/4 and platform 10
regards John
Well, for me it all started when I was around 5 years old in the mid 90's and I saw my first train. Big, loud, and powerful. That's what got me hooked. I asked for a train set for my next birthday and sure enough, there was a cheap Life-Like HO scale set wrapped in sports car wrapping paper and a newly built 4' x 8' table in my basement at my next birthday. Been hooked on MRRing and Railfanning ever since.
-Brandon
Our first train set was a Marklin (my father was station in Europe. Then a couple of Lionel for my brother and I. It wasn't until my son was born (25 years ago), that I got back into it in HO. I'm now working on my 2nd layout as an adult. This time it's for sheer relaxation and enjoyment.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
I got started in 1963 at age four when I got two Mantua/Tyco HO sets for Christmas--The Blue Ribbon, with a UP GP20, M&StL boxcar with an animated brakeman walking on the roof, a C&O gondola with pipe load, Hooker tank car, and a caboose; and a PRR "F-9" with three passenger cars. For those of you who only know Tyco from the 1970's and think it is junk, the early sixties version was of higher quality--all of the cars had metal underframes and trucks, and Dad was steered away from Athearn at the Hobby Shop he bought the sets at because they used rubber bands for the drive whereas Mantua/Tyco had a geared drive. The engines and cars lasted for years.
I begged my parents every Christmas to let me leave the trains up all year, and finally when I was 14, they agreed to let me have a 5 x 4 foot layout in a corner of the basement. I think they thought I'd get tired of the trains and that would be the end of it. Wrongo. I only grew more interested, was able to expand to a 4 x 6 layout the next year, and haven't looked back.
Mr B&O
what got me started in trains?...
it would have to be a Presidents Choice (IHC?) 50th anniversary train set with 4 cars, a caboose, and a camelback locomotive lettered for the CPR. i forget when i got it but i remember practically destroying it because i was young (and i had a hard time understanding because i was so using to pushing it along), so it went to the grandparents house for many years (5ish) before it was brought back due to them moving to a different house. i never realised it until i was cleaning my room, when it shifted on the top shelf. the box is gone, couplers missing, yet surprisingly the engine was in great condition except for missing a few handrails. i still have the original equipment along with a whole lot more. Today, my layout resides on a foldaway board attached to the wall by hinges. my rolling stock has hit around 20 cars and my best locomotive is a P2K S3 switcher.
i think i just said my railroading history...
Lionels, as far back as I can remember. My Dad bought them for me, of course, but they were never his, always mine. I had to laugh about taking the engine apart to see how it worked. I suppose I did that, and put them back together again, when I was young. My Mom used to tell the stories about me taking apart the door locks to see how they worked.
I built my layout up to 2 4x8's in an L, and then made the transition to HO. I wanted the "realism" factor, but it was a big mistake to sell the Lionels to finance the HO's. Those trains would have been worth a small fortune today.
After high school, I was ordered to take down the trains, because I wasn't living at home anymore and realistically I wasn't running them any more, either. I packed them up, and carted them from attic to basement for 40 years. Finally, my wife suggested I pull them out to get me away from the computer.
She didn't know she'd created a monster....
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Gandy Dancer wrote: yougottawanta wrote:What got you started? And which scale do you model N, HO, O, G On30 ? Nothing got me started. All I can figure it was in my blood from birth.
yougottawanta wrote:What got you started? And which scale do you model N, HO, O, G On30 ?
LOL
I can related to that. I have "always" (or at least for as long as I can remember) loved trains. Small wonder - I was born into a family that had worked on and with trains for a long time by the time I was born. My great grandfather started on the RR back in 1885, and there has been family members on the RR ever since, ie for the last 122 years. My dad was born in the upstairs apartment of a small rural Norwegian railroad station, where his dad was stationmaster.
Great grandpa was on the railroad, great grandpa's brother was on the railroad, grandpa was on the railroad, several of grandpa's brothers-in-laws, three of my uncles (my dad's brothers). Later a couple of cousins and my brother, plus my brother's wife and my brother's father-in-law.
I started riding commuter trains daily myself 26 years ago, at age 16, when I started senior high school in a neighbouring town. I used the long distance trains when I went into the army for my army service, and kept using them when I went to university in another part of the county. Came back to commuter trains when I started working after the U.
So I have always been interested in trains. Railroad modelling was a more gradual process - got my first start at age 7 or so, a long time ago, when my dad and I built a layout in our basement of the Norwegian army base house we lived in when I was a kid, a second start 5-6 years ago when my oldest kid became interested in trains, and a third start about 2 years ago, when my youngest son turned into a total train nut and I also had been reading model railroader magazine for 3 or 4 years and decided that I wanted to build a realistic looking 1960s american diesel train layout set in the Twin Cities that could be operated in a prototype-similar way for myself.
What scale ? H0.
Grin, Stein
An American Flyer Royal Blue set for Christmas.
My dad had a pretty substantial O27 layout that he'd started when my brother and I were toddlers. I added to it when I was a teenager. In his later years, he sold it (no, don't sob, it was OK)--last year started back in the hobby (nostalgia for the Frisco in Missouri where I grew up, toys, stuff to do with hands--crafting, etc.) in HO (more realism, more availability in my road name, etc.).
Jim