Back in the late-1950s, I made the switch from Lionel O gauge to HO.
My first HO engine was a Penn Line "Midget Diesel Switcher", patterned after a Whitcomb prototype.
The switch was necessitated by our moving into a very small apartment in the Bronx. With no room for our Lionels, my father figured a loop of HO on a 2'x3' chunk of plywood was better than nothing. This was one of the few engines that could have negotiated those 10" radius curves.
Here in the present day, the little guy seems to be re-enacting his confrontation with the 2353 Santa Fe F3s and the 736 Berkshire he replaced. None are the original participants in that switch, but are train meet purchases made when the collector bug bit back in the early 1980s.
There are actually no hard feelings between these guys at all. The switch to HO led to many happy years in the hobby where the emphasis was on scratch building and kitbashing of both structures and rolling stock.
Later, when the postwar Lionel collector bug bit, and the larger O gauge became easier to work on, those skills developed in HO modeling were transferred to O gauge layouts.
It's all fun regardless of the scale or gauge.
Jim
