Engineers and Model Trains

I’ve been in electronics since 1977 and have done it all.

Only a few more years to retire and I can’t wait to get out.

The majority of R&D, repair and production has been all sent overseas leaving little if any interest.

I’m in an FA group. The only reason we’re there is to support legal against lawsuit happy consumers.

EE at the University of Illinois, Urbana (ret)

When I was very young (less than 5 years old), the only thing I knew about my father's job was that he was an engineer.  I often asked him to take me to work so I could see what locomotive he drove.  He explained that he wasn't that kind of engineer, but to me there was only one kind of engineer.  It wasn't until I got older that I understood that he was an electrical engineer.

 

I went off to college at MIT planning to double major in Music and Electrical Engineering.  After a couple of years, I had a change of heart.  I dropped out of college, worked for a couple of years and then went to Lehigh University for a degree in Accounting.  I got my CPA and then moved into the IT field where I worked until I retired.

As a child I played with trains and Erector sets, and that, without any question, motivated my engineering desire - never a doubt of what I wanted to be when I grew up. 

 

Electrical Engineer retired after 50 years in a variety of jobs. Mostly spent developing and designing automation equipment and systems - both the electric/electronic design as well as the mechanical design, and later on, computer software. I also had several years as quality control engineer and corporate manager. When I got into management, I continued the engineering fun as a side line - and I still do!

 

Alex

 

Chemical Engineer, University of Pittsburgh...now retired...

GREAT THREAD. Operating engineer, millwright, shipbroker, all stemming from Meccano, Hornby, Lego and a desire to take it all apart! I was also sparked up as a kid by an retired Army colonel who scratchbuilt in 00 scale using wood, card,  tincan tinplate, brass and solder.

EE, then Biomedical eng. (Drexel Univ)  30 years as engineer, scientist and IT executive in the pharma industry.  Now, I'm "Pop-pop"; a much better and more desirable position.

Mechanical Engr Manhattan College Go Jasper's !
Always interested in trains my dad got old Lionel trains from his customers in the 1960s
My brother and I had many fun days playing with them
Still have them today
Currently armchair Lionel modeler hot rodder and 32 year Aerospace Engr
Trains definitely help start my Engr career path

Lots of great replies and many engineers seem to have roots in model train curiosity. A quick story I like to share is at about 8 or 9 years old, I tried soldering a wire on my milk car with probably a 100 watt gun, (more power!!!), anyway, I put a small burn mark in an oriental rug in our living room. The rug was mostly browns and blacks so I was hoping my mother wouldn't notice. Later, when she got home, she walked by the room and at a glance, spotted the burn mark. You can guess why I never forgot that! Thanks for the replies.

Also an EE, and Registered Professional Engineer in WI, IL and MO.  Spent 42 years in the utility business' the last 25 as general manager of a municipal electric, water and short line RR utility.  And fascinated with trains all my life.

BS in Civil Engineering then went on for a MS in Urban Planning which I practiced until retirement.  Other than trains, an early experience in leading towards this field was learning that you should unplug your electric clock before exploring how it works.

Graduate Mechanical Engineer, here, Purdue University. 

 

As for the matriculation date, well....I was from the earlier 'PC' era.  No, we had no idea what 'politically correct' meant....believe me!

 

Nope, my PC era was....Punch Cards.  Yepper....stood in line for up to hours to have your deck of punch cards run through the campus' only computer (Hamster-powered, I believe); Or, you left your deck to be run sometime through the night...returning the next AM to pick up your accordion-folded stack of green/white paper with all sorts of cyber-cypher all over it.  Oops....that one punch card had an error! (Death by 'Do-Loop', they called it!) Re-punch the card...insert in deck...stand in line...repeat.   ! 

 

No wonder I lost most of the hair on top.  I pulled it out, as I recall.

 

We also carried our trusty Post slide rule around.   Anyone else remember those?....how to use one?........anyone? Drafting boards.  T-squares.  Dietzgen instruments.  The stuff of museums, now.

 

But, I digress.  My neighbor, Mrs. Miller, had kept telling me from across the fence that my sandbox creations, homemade fruit crate/roller skate scooter-like gizmos on display meant that someday I'd be an engineer.  Well, duh!  Of course I'd be an engineer!....I loved trains!  From the earliest Christmas in memory, I had been a bona fide ferroequinologist-in-process.

 

The brain has a way of absorbing that neighborly banter through childhood.  Years later I found myself applying for admission to college/university....to become an engineer.

 

Try as I did, I never found the train.  They did give me this piece of paper in a 25-cent frame four years later.  I tried interviewing at EMD...one last attempt to find a train...but the first question they asked me was 'Are you planning on getting married soon?'.  Boy, talk about a no-no in today's context!!  But, the only job they had to offer was as a 'trainer'....you'd live out of a suitcase for the next few years, travel the world, fill out expense reports, deliver EMD product, train the local staff on operation/maintenance, etc..  Somehow, it just didn't seem right to tell my fiancé that the wedding was off....in order to be close to trains.  The interview ended as quickly as it started.

 

25  years later, after the divorce, I finally kicked myself.

 

So, all the frustrations....and rush to happiness...are embodied in this great hobby.

 

New (17 years) wife also into the hobby.

 

We're happy!

 

KD

 

 

Man you're old!

Oh wait...I used to wait for my stack of cards to get run on the 7090/94...

And I still have my Post...bamboo was best, eh?

Guess I've been young a long time too.

The first computer I learned to run was a 7090 later converted to a 7094.  The memory cycle time was reduced from 2.2 usec to 2.0 usec.  Big deal in today's environment.  At that time, core memory cost $1 a big.  A 1 gig stick of memory at that price would cost $9 billion.  Things have definitely changed.

 

I used punch cards until the PC came out.  They were a vast improvement over paper tape which I also used.  

 

In 1966 I went to work for a company that made analog and hybrid computers.  The analogs were smoking fast, much faster than most modern computers.  In 1968 we had an analog computer that would solve differential equations with eigenvalues as high as 10 kHz.  It would solve the differential equations in real time.  Try that today on your PC.  I have done a lot of analysis in the last several years using Simulink, and it is very slow compared to the analogs of the late sixties.  I used analog computers for 12 years and really enjoyed it.  This country would never have gotten to the moon without analog computers.  Analog computers were commercially available in 1949.  Goodyear and Reeves made analog computers in that time frame.  IBM's first digital computer was available in 1955.  

 

If one ever laid claim to use the original Antikythera mechanism then they'd be really old. 

I have to join the ranks of old timers.  I too had to wait for my punch cards at the IBM 360. I also used a slide rule and a T-square. Bought my first calculator (TI 4 function plus scientific notation) for $150. The HP 35 (had trig functions) was going for $400. Remember Fortran? 

I am a mechanical engineer with most of my career spent in various manufacturing plants.  

I spent a number of years working for Black & Decker where I was involved with many of the aspects used in model train manufacturing, such as injection molding, pad printing painting, assembly etc. Eventually the plant was closed and operations moved to Mexico and China. 

Now I am working in the Biotech industry as a facility/plant engineering manager.

I have done everything from paint manufacturing to power tools to cigarette packaging during my 33 year career.

 No doubt that playing with trains, chemistry sets, Lego and meccano sets were a big influence on my career choice.

And here I  thought you were asking about train engineers. 

-Greg

 I used an analog computer as an undergrad...can't think of the name. It used opamps with three tubes in them. Not the Philbrick opamp ones, earlier than that. EIA sounds right. Then later we had solid state analog computers, Pace I think. They were fast and easy to set up an equation. I think my first program was a field strength pattern of two vertical antennas...changing separation distance and phasing while plotting results.

For 8 years in the '70s, I managed an engineering simulation lab at Martin Marietta here in Orlando.  I had 10 large scale analog computers:  EAI 231R-Vs  They used vacuum tubes in the 100 volt amplifiers.  I had a total of 17,000 vacuum tubes.  The machines were made in 1963 and the lab was closed in 1993.  The analogs ran for 30 years.  We had done some serious modifications to them to make them more reliable.  They never gave us a problem or any significant down time.  I have wonderful memories of those machines.  

Pat Kn, I forgot(senior moment) in my response to this posting the Post Versalog slide rule, manual drafting tools, Burroughs Mechanical Calculator and log tables at work. Still have the slide rule and Kueffel and Esser compass drafting set, engineering text books new were $20.00, always tried to buy used.

MS Manufacturing Engineer, NYU. Spent 13 years in a Six Sigma manufacturing environment specializing in injection molding and CNC Programming.

 

Cesar

Civil Engineer  BS and MS University of Kansas.  Still have my Post Versalog, and Lionel Scout from Christmas 1949.  (Runs great).  Now retired after 43 years with a dedicated 17' x 20' train room.  I like it best when the three little ones ask to see Granddad's trains run.  My wife runs her own Texas Special and Texas and Pacific passenger sets.

Calculators, eh? I had one of the first HP35. I never got used to algebraic TIs. I still use RPN. When we got the HPs, a theoretical chemist down the hall stuck with his Marchant. He pointed out that the HP only had 13 sigificant digits and his Marchant had 22. HP's argument was that there were no natural constants known to more than 13 places. Didn't sway him.

I was a Nuke power plant/steam plant operator in the Navy and got my degree in ME when I got out.  Spent a few years teaching at Purdue Calumet and then went back out to industry.  I've worked for EMD, Flowserve, and now CAT and had a hell of a lot of fun.  And yes, I fit in best with my buds from where  ever I worked at.  Doesn't matter what it is, if it has parts, I like it

Chemical Engineer, University of Washington.   Like several others on this forum, have a drawer full of slide rules, a fist full of Hewlett Packards, and a board and track drafter which mostly gather dust.  Time and events may have changed the methods that we arrive at our engineering solutions but at least, HP still makes a fine plotter.

This year will be 50 years since I graduated from Penn State, Univ. Park with a BSEE. We had 3-10 week sessions rather than 2-semester system. I think my total education cost me about $4 to $5K. I recall that the prof in our 1st day semiconductor class started out with Schrodinger's wave equation and that caused us students to get together with the EE dean and have a practical class done (prof replaced) and we used the RCA Transistor Manual.

Other comments brought to mind are the punch cards, fortran and sllde rule which I still have.

Fortunate to have worked at same location in semiconductors for 47 years. But as I recall, when the first HP calculators came out-1972?, it was the HP4 and cost $400 and there were 6 of us to share it. I think I still have an HP35 somewhere.

So did my Lionel train set in 1950 lead me to EE -certainly had to have an influence.

Though I'm not an engineer (physicist) some of my best friends are...  Growing up in Nebraska I got to see a lot of steam engines - mainly UP - and I always thought I wanted to be a 'real' engineer, like the guys driving the UP 9000 class engines (sometimes doubled headed - the earth shook) though the little town in NE Kansas where my grandparents lived.  I got my first electric train - American Flyer - when I was about 6 or 7.  A layout and set that expanded every Xmas and birthday.  I have no doubt that building and wiring layouts, and performing maintenance on the open-frame universal electric motors Gilbert used led to my interest in (experimental) science.

 

Like all of you that came of science/engineering age in the 60's and 70's, I too have stories about punch cards and bowing and scraping before the computer acolytes on the other side of the counter who would run your deck through the card reader (and then sneer unhelpfully when you got a core dump...).  When I first arrived at the cyclotron at the lab, we had a couple of Marchant electro-mechanical calculators that would do multiplication and division (this for when you didn't want to write a Fortran program, punch the cards and then walk up the hill to the computer center).  Wow, talk about lots of whirring and noise and flying carriages.  All I can say is that I continue to be amazed (truly) everytime I go to Costco and see the prices for 1 and 2 TB hard drives dropping well below $100.  We'da given various body parts (and did) for a million times less storage for hundreds of times the price.

BS in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University, '04. Yes, I am a rocket scientist...well, sort of.
I actually became and still am a Flight Test Engineer with a well known aerospace company in the PacNW.

 

So I get to mess around with large planes professionally so that I can afford to play with small trains recreationally.

I have a BSEE degree that evolved into a software architect for a large consulting firm.  My father also was an Electrical Engineer and as a kid growing up in the 60s and 70s with the space program well under way, I was always helping him fix my trains, toys, and other electrical and electronics around the house with him teaching me everything from reading resistor values color codes, to soldering, to basic circuit theory, what each component can do.  I still remember tubes and transistors!

 

My Lionel trains definitely got me interested in learning about electricity, and my Dad always had little electronic projects for us we could work on together (not always train related).

 

I had several heathkits that I really enjoyed as well and built many projects myself.

 

By the time I entered college, I was way ahead of my classmates.

 

Now I used my Electrical Engineering skills only for my own train hobby and fixing stuff around the house.

 

 

 

BSME, Gannon University. Thirty seven years with a well known locomotive manufacturer and retired since 2001, although I will admit to going back "on assignments" eight or nine times.....

Dad worked for the New York Central, and my childhood was filled with Niagaras and Hudsons.....the real ones.

BSCE & MSCE Clemson University, '07 and '09 respectively. 

 

I design railroad bridges, something I didn't start my career doing but knew that's where I wanted to go. While we use modern computer software for very complex things, it's interesting how much we still do by hand. 

 

My first train set was an O27 Lionel NJ Transit passenger set given to me at Christmas years ago. As it turns out, I have had the opportunity to design a new through plate girder for NJ Transit. It all comes around. 

MSEE Johns Hopkins 1989, BSEE Univ of Maryland 1985. Currently work on microwave and antenna systems for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico. I grew up with both parents working for NASA, so space & electronics have always been in my blood.  My family always had trains at Christmas.  My grandfather's Lionel 616 Flying Yankee was still running around my tree this Christmas.

 

Jim 

I'm a Manufacturing Engineer (Electronics), Program Management, started involvement with model trains in High School.  Then retired STILL with model trains and then 4 years ago started working Part Time at an amusement park operating a Steam Engine.  (Denver Rio Grande #41, a C-19, 2-8-0.  (Also work as a Fireman, and still do model trains).

The best thing I ever did was join a modular group with 2 engineers:

1. Gilly@N&W

2. Kanawaha

 

 

Peter  

A lot of engineers here, me included.  

 

So, does it matter?

 

1) If you are an engineer, how do you think being an engineer makes you involvement/enjoyment/approach to model trains different?

 

2) If you are not an engineer, how do you think engineers you know who are into model trains are different than you.  

 

My answer.  I don't like to do engineering.  I get too much at work, so I actually avoid using digital control systems and run only conventionally (because that's what I do all day at work) and approach many projects in a very non-engineering way.  

Yes, I have the instincts and intuition of an engineer to help me. And that makes a monster difference.  I often just know and feel things that will work, and not, but . . . 

 

---I think it goes the other way, too.  I have a good friend I met on the forum who is an MD - a pretty good one I think, too.  He is smart and good with his hands and he loves to work on the Legacy electronics and such as much as other things.  The non-engineer doing the engineering stuff while I don't.  But he doesn't do it all day so it is an escape and different and fun for him.  But I doubt he likes to do "surgery" on his models and trains, etc. 

Lee,

This is one of the rare occasions where I disagree with you. I think being an engineer has a lot to do with my (and your) approach to model railroading. Engineers are problem solvers. They tend to think outside the box. They are usually somewhat intelligent practical and inquisitive. These traits make them better engineers able to find real practical solutions to solve technical problems using experience and the tools they learned in school and on the job.

 

My observation of you is that you are clever and imaginative. Your projects are unique and somewhat non-mainstream. you research your projects and have a purpose for every detail. Your space train, for instance, is unique. It's the result of a lot of research. You use a practical application of what is available to you (dowels, models) to create accurate models of the spacecraft. This is using your engineering mind in your approach to model railroading. 

 

I'm similar if not as talented as you. I like to focus on the Pennsylvania railroad. I research the Pennsy and create trains that reflect my understanding of how the Pennsy works. In my club I work on projects that allow me to create unique items for the club using a practical approach. An example is I made an observatory for the top of a mountain using the round bottom of a plastic soda bottle as the dome. Yes, I am the electrical guru for the club (I'm an EE). That reflects my expertise where some others don't have as much. My approach to model railroading reflects my engineering background and experience.

Sadly, I guess ..... I never had trains growing up.

 

It was the excavation of our backyard with shovels and Tonka trucks, and then a high school science teacher that turned me on to geology ... that brought me to geotechnical engineering.

 

I'm in quarry operations. We have some neat equipment, but .... as hard as I try, I can't justify getting some railroading equipment onto the site. Dang it!

 

A $2500 Stafford Loan and a part time job took care of everything for the year at Rutgers Engineering back in the early 80's, including beer money. Man ... how things have changed.

 Wow!  Want to help an Eagle Scout rewire an 11' x 17', three level MTH layout?

Near Lakewood.

I am a Purdue Alumni and that is precisely how Purdue ended up with a steam engine as a mascot.  In the late 1800s and early 1900s they had a steam engines on campus that the ME students would run on a dynamometer (SP?) to learn how the engines work. Schenectady #1 and #2 both spent time at the Purdue campus.

 

I'm only partly engineer, I have a BS in Aeronautical Engineering Technology.  I am a contractor for the Navy working on the mighty T-45 Goshawk!