Ok, "Why do YOU Model......Trains?"

Are you creative, artistic, or a bit of an engineer? Are you impressed by a steam engine or locomotive and train thundering past while you stand at trackside? Do you like to hear the mournful sound of a steam whistle from afar in the dark of night, or the clanging of a bell as a train enters a station? Are you willing to get on a train just to take a ride, look out the window, and see where it's going? Are you interested in American history, commerce, and far-away places? Did you have Lionel trains when you were a youngster? Do you appreciate models that are works of art and engineering? Would you like to share these things with your family and friends? Most of us do not have the opportunity to create a railroad in full scale. If these things appeal to you, model railroading is the next best thing.

MELGAR

In answer to the title question; because I was raised in a railroad family. My parents gave me my first Lionel "train set", under the Christmas tree in 1944. I've been "into" railroading and trains ever since.

Received my first train 55 years ago for Christmas, I guess you can say I got caught by the magic. There's a certain mystic about trains both real and model. It got into my blood very early on and has just stayed there.

I dunno.

Why do I race cars, fly airplanes, why did I box and wrestle in college, why did I play football and baseball why did I marry the gal I did???

For the joy!

Never think or thought too hard about these things. except the gal, of course, and she's still fun after 52 years.

I just dig trains and that's enough.

Granddad, his Brother and my Great Aunt were railroaders when young, as was my Dad in turn.

Dad was a Railfan his whole life:

As I am as well. How could I not be:

Big Bro and I at a Pennsy wreck scene.

That was. fast breakfast we had aboard the City of Portland.

Christmas Eve 1964:

Stocking hung by the.....window of the Capitol.

Railfanning coupled with an affinity from a young age with all things electromechanical made me a natural as a model railroader. I find all the motors&gears&wheels pleasing but when I operate a switcher on the Plywood Empire Route the Railfan in me sees a miniature train at work on a miniature railroad.

My father used to take me to watch the trains in Sunnyside Yard, New York City. And bought me a Lionel train by the time I was four. That did it.

MELGAR

Because they are:

Cool, nostalgic, mechanical, relaxing, fun, rewarding and challenging,  A great hobby and a great way to share time with friends or by your lonesome.

Actually My 1st love all my life is cars, I got into slot cars only a few years ago and built a nice track but I now find I hardly ever run them anymore.

I have been working on my layout for years and still no scenery, I'm beginning to doubt that I will ever get beyond only the beginning of scenery.

In the magazines these guys with large layouts finished they must work on them every spare moment. I marvel at how did they have the time for all that?

I love model trains and real trains took after my great grandpa on my mom's side and been into trains since i was five years old i was in ho and n scale back then now in 2002 i got into o scale!!!

Trains are just one thing. I like to use my hands. I have a hundred plus year old clock on my bench now that I have to make a new clicker for the main-spring and repair a broken cog to get her back running. Mostly I probably do the stuff that I do because I can do it to a level that I'm happy with.

...because model airplanes crash (ask me how I know that) and slot cars, although cool, just don't hold enough interest...

Mark in Oregon

Because they are cheaper and a whole bunch easier to store then cars.

When I was a kid many years ago  my brothers both had American Flyer S gauge trains that were set up under the Christmas tree each year,  and in the summer when it was too hot to play outside,  we set up the track in the basement. I got my first train in 1967 when I was about 12 years old,  a  Tyco HO  train set.  I had a 3X4 foot circular layout., nothing special . My family moved to the suburbs when I was 13 ( early 1969) and I had a 4X8 layout in a corner of the basement,  unfortunately my mom used the same space to hang out the wet laundry over my layout.  She didn't appreciate me "infringing " on her space so after a couple of years it came down.  I moved on to N scale for a year or two but model railroading interfered with high school,  college and work so I sold off all my "toys" .

My interest in model railroading didn't reappear until Christmas eve 1985 when my son got a Lionel train set. He had not  yet turned 2 years old as his birthday is on New year's eve.  We still have it,  a CNW Northern Freight Flyer.  I built a 8X8 "L" shaped layout in our first home the following Christmas. 

In the middle 1990's I  went to an open house at the Chicagoland Lionel Railroaders Club and was instantly hooked.  I joined the club the same week and have been a member since.  In my second house I built 2 layouts but never finished either one.  We moved to a new home in 2013 and I started my current layout in 2016 and have been working on it since. 

What I'm trying to say is that I have had a love of model railroading for over 53 years and it won't end soon. I enjoy all aspects of the hobby. whether it's the building a layout or weathering a car or locomotive,  designing a track plan,  adding scenery or watching real trains rolling down the main line.

My current interest is in steel mill modeling and that's the scheme of my latest layout.  In O scale everything has to be scratch built,  a challenge for me but I'm not building a museum piece,  just something that can pass for acceptable. My wife barely tolerates my hobby,  always asking when it will be finished. I'm 3 years into this build and it won't be done for at least another 5. Reminds me of the movie "The Agony and the Ecstasy " with Charleton Heston as Michelangelo painting  the Sistene Chapel when Pope Pius (Rex Harrison) asked him "When will you be done?'"---When I make an end to it!"

Trains are in my blood and building a model railroad gives me some dominion over something I can control,  even if it is just an imaginary world.

https://ogrforum.com/...4#152477234182020074

Hey Strummer,

I would enjoy a story of flying planes,,,,,,,, Are you saying that your walk to the scene of the crash is a short one? Apparently you are experienced.

@third rail posted:

When I was a kid many years ago  my brothers both had American Flyer S gauge trains that were set up under the Christmas tree each year,  and in the summer when it was too hot to play outside,  we set up the track in the basement. I got my first train in 1967 when I was about 12 years old,,,,,,,,,

That's a great story Bill. I appreciate your tag as well. Everyone has they're style and since my eyes are going i might as well stay in O-Gauge. ( There's no scale but O scale. It is easier to receive forgiveness than permission.) I've also found that boxes appearing on the porch addressed to the grand kids............ agrees with your Karma.....

I appreciate your thoughts. Well played Bill, great story

"(midnightwrecking) Mostly I probably do the stuff that I do because I can do it to a level that I'm happy with."

Ahhhhhhhhh, Great thought. Perhaps that's the reason that I tell my wife that I am "5 1/2 years old". Acting my  age is HaRd..

Appreciate ya

"geysergazer"

Thanks for your story and sharing the photos... I often think that flying to Portland and then taking the train to Seattle would be fun. It runs in your blood. Salute

@Ron H posted:

I dunno.

Why do I race cars, fly airplanes, why did I box and wrestle in college, why did I play football and baseball why did I marry the gal I did???

For the joy!

Never think or thought too hard about these things. except the gal, of course, and she's still fun after 52 years.

I just dig trains and that's enough.

Well said. Congratulations on the gal.... I can relate,

'For the JOY" well played Mr RON, well played

Because otherwise I would have been interested in fast cars and faster women.  (Hmmmm...)

Rusty

I got my first train in 1947. Christmas day. It was a Lionel 224. I still have it and it still runs great. Got my second train in 1949. A Lionel 2026. I got that one because it smoked and the 224 didn't. My father had bought my uncle a 1700 in the late 1930's but my uncle was a jock. He boxed, football, basketball, So when he realized I loved trains he gave me the 1700. It was red & chrome. So it was my father who really was the toy train person and his messing with them rubbed off on me. I've had a small layout all my life. I'd come home from school and go straight to the basement. Run the Lionel trains until supper was ready. Every year at Christmas my father would give me something for the layout.

Wish I had not lost the 1700? Don't know what happened to it. Like I said before I still have the 224, 2026. Plus they still run like new. Lionel made some really great things back then.

Jack

I was a late bloomer in model railroading.  For most of my life, my 1953 Lionel train occasionally set up on the floor was all I desired.

However, in 2000, when I saw scale sized, well detailed O gauge 3-rail trains, I was hooked.

My model trains all represent the early 1950's era, and, when I turn on the power switch, I am transported back in time, to the finest days of the Santa Fe Railway.  That's what model railroading does for me.

@Number 90 posted:

I was a late bloomer in model railroading.  For most of my life, my 1953 Lionel train occasionally set up on the floor was all I desired.

However, in 2000, when I saw scale O gauge 3-rail trains, I was hooked.

My model trains all represent the early 1950's era, and, when I turn on the power switch, I am transported back in time, to the finest days of the Santa Fe Railway.  That's what model railroading does for me.

Well said sir, thank you

@Jack Simpson posted:

I got my first train in 1947. Christmas day. It was a Lionel 224. I still have it and it still runs great. Got my second train in 1949. A Lionel 2026. I got that one because it smoked and the 224 didn't. My father had bought my uncle a 1700 in the late 1930's but my uncle was a jock. He boxed, football, basketball, So when he realized I loved trains he gave me the 1700. It was red & chrome. So it was my father who really was the toy train person and his messing with them rubbed off on me. I've had a small layout all my life. I'd come home from school and go straight to the basement. Run the Lionel trains until supper was ready. Every year at Christmas my father would give me something for the layout.

Wish I had not lost the 1700? Don't know what happened to it. Like I said before I still have the 224, 2026. Plus they still run like new. Lionel made some really great things back then.

Jack

Jack, thanks for a great story.... hope those seeds sprout interest in the next generation....

@Rusty Traque posted:

Because otherwise I would have been interested in fast cars and faster women.  (Hmmmm...)

Rusty

ROFLMAO ;-)

Sometimes one addiction saves us from another.......more dangerous... wait... I forgot what the topic was, I just saw a package-arrive-on-the -porch (for the grandson ..grin)

thanks Rusty

I received my first train for Christmas in 1954 and American Flyer 307 Atlantic log car coal car box car a cabose.  I have collected and ran trains over the years.  I have found it very calming and soothing after a hard day.  It has been a great source of pleasure. 

@Rusty Traque posted:

Because otherwise I would have been interested in fast cars and faster women.  (Hmmmm...)

Rusty

I tried fast cars with my friends when I was in college,  they broke down quicker than some O gauge locomotives. 

Like cars, women were only fast when you had gas  (money ) in the tank.

A diversion from life as it is.   And glad that I can. 

@Doug W. posted:

Because they are cheaper and a whole bunch easier to store then cars.

Plus when you get old cars are a lot of hard work, you don't to be jacking up and crawling around underneath.