Why model trains?

[Anthony P2]

I always like to hear how other people got started in the hobby. How did it all start? What was the fascination? Have you introduced anyone else to the hobby? I started out with Thomas, and O gauge set then moved to Bachmann's HO line. That lead me to move to British 00 scale.

[jbrock27]

I got an AHM trainset when I was 5 and have always thought there was something cool about seeing an electric train pull cars around a track.  Used to like to build military models as a kid and also had Aurora/AFX/TYCO slot cars.
Now, I like the mechanics of getting old locos to work well and the details of both locos and frieght cars.  Still have lots of freight cars from my youth and have enjoyed progressively updating them (all horn hook couplers will be extinct for me, that is a goal).  I also like putting a layout together which is fun to me just like running one is.  I do not have the detail skills like Wounded Bear, Jonathan, TM203, TMB and that dude whose name escapes me who has the bigger than HO gauge (I do HO gauge) minning layout, have, but have recently enjoyed stripping the paint off old locos and repainting them with spray bombs as well as weathering some frieght cars.  Started doing dry transfers as well.
I model/play with, HO strictly.

Thanks for asking.

[jonathan]

First saw my grandpa's layout in the mid-60's.  I was hooked from that day forward. Hope I can pay it forward with my own grandkids someday.  My own kids do not share my fascination.  I Pads and smart phones rule for now.

Regards,

Jonathan

[jbrock27]

...kids do not share my fascination.  I Pads and smart phones rule for now.

Ain't that the truth!

[bapguy]

It started before I received a train set at age 7 or 8. The house my family lived in until I was 6 was next to the Butte, Anaconda and Pacific RY. My mom's uncle worked for the RR as did a friend's dad. My family moved to a bigger house that was a block form the same RR. So I had the best of both worlds, a model RR and the real thing close by.  Joe

[Trainman203]

My dad was the local examining physician for both the T&NO and the MP in the early 1950s in New Iberia La.  They were both still largely in steam at the time.  He didn't miss a chance to take me down to either depot to see the steam engines. My mother would go out on errands taking me along and we always passed either railroad then too.  One of my uncles had been a fireman on the T&NO and spellbound me with cab stories.

The T&NO had a branch line diverging and the MP was a branch itself that came down fron the mainline 50 miles north so both roads  had branchline engine facilities and live steam engines were always around. They were all oil burners and I recall well  the oil fire flickering between the driver spokes. Both roads had water tanks and I saw the engines being topped off with water running down the tender sides.  My mother went to a beauty  parlor on a street that the T&NO mainline ran down.  I'd hear that whistle screaming around the curve to the east and run out to see one of the MK-5 mikes stomping down the street with what I later realized was time freight 241 westbound.  Late one afternoon we saw what I much later realized was one of the last mixed trains in the state pulling out behind steam, the smoke rolling back in the sunset.

But what really got me was the whistles.  We lived about a mile from either line and the sound of those screamers would float in on the wind day and night. Late at night especially, it was riveting, no other word is right.  To this day 5 chime and 6 chime steam whistles put a huge lump in my throat.

We.'d go on car trips to see either grandma and we'd follow either the T&NO or the NOT&M (MP) depending on who we were visiting.  We paced steam freights many a time on those rides. I remember the valve gear churning like an old mix master.

After all that, how could it not be trains? I was given two Lionel 0-27 sets when I was 5 and 6.  I got into airplanes for a couple of years but at age 11 got an HO set and that was it, been model railroading rver since.

[jward]

I never had a chance. both my father and grandfather were railfans. and that's where it all started. while playing with model trains can be fun, the real show was and still is going on in the real world.

I was raised on horseshoe curve, and sand patch. and the last days of the western Maryland as a mainline railroad. vacations were spent tracking down obscure shortlines in the south and east, like the yancey and the graham county. my dad was fond of photographing lines where nobody else ventured, and we often got invited to ride the cab of these trains. most of them are now gone, or substantially changed from what they were in the 1970s, but I am glad for the experiences I had.

[charlii]

Got my first train, 027 Lionel for Christmas in 1944 at age of 5.
Since then, I have modeled in S gauge, TT gauge, HO gauge, N gauge and ON30 gauge.
Currently model in N, HO and ON30.
I have always had a fascination with anything rr.
Especially steam locomotives, such as Maryland and Pennsylvania steam.
Have lived 49 years within sight of NorfolkSouthern.
Do a lot of scratch building.
Charlii

[Woody Elmore]

My godfather had a Lionel layout in the basement. He laid his own track with outside third rail and mixed equipment from Walthers and All Nation with his Lionel stuff.

I have a fond memory of one of his GG-1s pulling Madison passenger cars around the layout. Plus he had not one but two ZW transformers - very impressive to a ten year old kid! I had to have my own set. I eventually got a GG-1 of my own but never was able to build a big layout like my godfather had.

I went from there to Ho then On3. I have been collecting On30 equipment to build a little narrow gauge empire. Time and age work against me!

[Jhanecker2]

I got into HO scale model trains sort of accidentally . I have several hobbies and am a difficult person to by a gift for . I made a comment to a relative that i had had a deprived youth : i had not had an electric train set .  My younger sister heard  about the comment and decided to grant my wish . I now have a good number of electric  trains  starting with several  Harry Potter sets .   I was a Quality Control Inspector for Pyle National Company who manufacture Railroad  Lighting , connectors and made electrical  cables both for freight cars as well as passenger cars .   A good number of my fellow inspectors were also former railroad employees and some were  model railroad enthusiasts as well .  I was also a model builder in my youth and just love to build things in general. John2

[WoundedBear]

I've been an automotive modeller for most of my life. The trains offered a chance to try a whole new set of materials, skills and techniques.

As a kid, we didn't have trains where I grew up. They were kind of a mythical beast that you read about and saw in books or on TV.....once we got TV. None of my friends had train sets......none of their parents had trains. I never saw a real train until I was 17 years old. I was floored by the sheer size of the thing. I think it was a GP9.

But, like I said, as a modeller, I am drawn to anything that lets me create and express myself in miniature.

Sid

[ebtnut]

My folks would farm me out to my grandparents in Warren, PA for several summers when I was very young (4-7).  The Pennsy had what was then a heavy duty double track main line coming out of Erie and it was all steam back then.  Used to bug my playmates because when I heard a whistle for the Rt. 6 crossing at the Allegheny River bridge I would high-tail it to the tracks to watch the trains go storming by.  Got my first Marx train set at about 5, later graduated to American Flyer S scale.  My first HO piece was an Athearn Hi-F drive Pennsy F-7.  After doing different things like car models and model airplanes, I got back seriously into trains in my late teens.  Resurrected the old Athearn diesel, which was soon joined by an Athearn 0-4-2T (terrible runner!) and USRA 0-6-0.  Built a Mantua Pacific kit, which taught me all about valve gear rivets, and my first piece of brass was a Ma and Pa Ten-Wheeler on sale for $29.95.  Moved up to O/On3 in the early 1970's so sold off most of my HO stuff. 

[Jerrys HO]

I found it very relaxing to go and work o my layout after school and then when I started working full time it was even more pleasure. Kind of like stress relief.
As Sid stated it has a lot of different skills, techniques and challenges to keep you entertained.

[NarrowMinded]

My great Uncle French worked for the railroad and designed some light rail switches, my Uncle Bill was a railroad policeman so there was a lot of railroad/train set presents as a kid.

Along with that was an obsession with the miniture city at the end of the old house of the future ride at Disneyland has fuels my interest.

I loved the little animated cars on the streets, model railroads was a way to add life to my miniatures.

I'm hoping to get my hands on some Falller  cars sooner or later then my Dream/obsession will be Complete.

Nm-Jeff

[Desertdweller]

I got a Lionel 0-27 set for Christmas in 1951.  In 1953 it went onto a permanently mounted sheet of Masonite.
A little extra track and cars, and some Lionel action accessories rounded it out.  Eventually, the loco quit.

Fast forward to 1968.  I was in college and used passenger trains on a regular basis.  I decided to try to model in HO some of the trains I was riding.  I traded the Lionel stuff for used HO equipment.  Added one used and one new HO train set, some extra engines and cars, and I was in business.  I built a 4x6 ft. railroad that was small enough to survive several moves.

Jump to 1978.  With a new family, it was hard to afford a place to live with enough room for an HO railroad, so I switched to N scale.  I built an N scale railroad that lasted until 2006, and several cross-country moves (keep it small to survive moves).

Bump to 2009.  I was getting tired of the N scale railroad, so I replaced it with a new one in what I intend to be my last house.  Changed the focus from freight operations to passenger trains.  It is my current railroad.

Les