Happy post!!! What are you thankful for...train wise??

 

This is a great thread, as was posted earlier, I am happy for good health and the ability to buy trains at somewhat reasonable prices and for the ability to run them from any vantage point I desire. I am also thankful for being born in the best country in the world and most of all to worship my LORD Who loves me.

Ray 

sticking to what I'm happy with in the hobby, I'm thankful for my parents who supported my hobby growing up. 

I'm thankful that my wife supports my train addiction..............

I'm happy to have been blessed with 68 yrs in this wonderful hobby. While I'm no longer able to run trains. I'm fortunate to have many happy memories spanning almost seven decades.

 

I consider myself truly blessed to have this fantastic forum. To have so many wonderful friends. I'm forever grateful for the happiness it brings each and everyday. Thank you!

I have a lot to be happy and thankful for too.  Good health, great family, able to enjoy my hobby after 73 years, what's not to be thankful for.

 

Art

Thankful for my wife-she's the absolute best thing ever to happen to me.
Thankful for my education-civil and military.
Thankful I have a great job and family support.

Trains:
My collection. I have a nice UP collection with many hard to find pieces.
Purchase ability-I by items I want.

Friends:
Too many to list! Met so many nice members here!

Train deals off the forum:
Too many to list: I'm thankful for all the great items I've been able to buy at fantastic deals. Thanks!

I could not possibly list the many things I am thankful for in a post a mile long.

I am blessed to have a mom who gifted me with trains . . .

Blessed to have an endlessly supportive wife . . .

Just simply, blessed.

Thanks to Rich Melvin, Allan Miller, and the entire OGR gang for giving me a wonderful place to spend leisure time on the Internet.

Eliot "Scrapiron" Scher

I am thankful for the offerings available in O gauge. Sometimes I think why don't they do this or that, but when it comes right down to it I am happy that at this stage of my life the hobby is still here for the better. Also grateful that I can take some nice trips once in a while. 

Gentlemen,

    I am grateful for my trains and happy to have the memories they bring me each and every year, as part of my Christmas family tradition.  I am even more happy to live in a country where I am free to have a belly full of food, and nobody shooting at me, where I can worship in the manner I choose.

PCRR/Dave

I'm thankful that every morning I get up and nobody is shoveling dirt on top of me. I then can go and play with my trains. It's a great life. 

I am happiest because:

 

There seem to be an endless - infinite - number of interesting and fun projects to do on/for/around my layout and trains.  It looks like the fun will never end!

trains make me happy because no matter how fast or slow i run them, they always come back to me.  unlike beer that just runs out and thru me.

I am happy that I have been fortunate enough to have what I have. I have been collecting Lionel for almost 30 years (I am 38) and have amassed a giant collection of Lionel from 1945 to Current Production. When going through stressful or tough times, I always turned to my trains and magazines to help move on.

 

I am also happy and very fortunate enough to have my mom who has been there to help me get certain pieces back in the day that I couldn't afford, and was very understanding about my hobby. To this day, she still gets me a piece here and there!!

Thanks Mom!!

I had a conversation with my daughter the other night about "the collection".

Keep

1) My first set

2) The Chicago and Alton that I bought at the real Madison Hardware

3) The PWCC Santa fe set that I waited about 35 years for.

 

Keep  what you like and sell the rest.  I guess what I'm saying is those 3 sets would have been enough

 

rat

I'm going to keep my response focused entirely on trains because if I included everything I am thankful for this would become a terribly long post.  S000, I am ever so thankful to my Dad, Mom, Grandmother and Grandfather for introducing me to the train hobby when I was a very little boy.  They planted the seed and boy did it ever grow.

I am thankful for a wife who derives as much pleasure out of our hobby as I do and who works on the layout with me side by side. I am thankful for so many wonderful choices we have in our O-Gauge equipment. And, thanks to the folks at OGR for this wonderful resource.

The most important and the one train item that makes me the most happiest would be my first train set! I received my Lionel 1955 Lackawana set at the ripe age of one year old! It was a Christmas present from my Grandfather and Father, both railroad engineers, and although it was used over the years, it was always loved and never abused! I am also thankful that when it came time to go to the service, my Father carefully packed it away for my return. Now Dad and my Grandfather have both been called to the great station in heaven, and my time on this earth is probably not for much longer, Every time I see my old set, it reminds me of all the times the three of us would get together and "run the train".... I miss them both so much..... 

I'm thankful for a lot beyond the obvious stuff. But as for trains, I'm thankful for:

• My Parents, for facilitating my love of trains. We'd always stop to see any railroad museum or a 'stuffed and mounted' steam locomotive along the road when on vacations, and Dad built the benchwork for my microscopic first layout in HO back in the 80s. Mom also talked with the people at Tennessee Valley RR into me getting my first steam cab ride on SRR 630, at the age of 11! They've been invaluable with my current On30 project, which takes place in the valley they grew up in, when they each would have been about 7 years old. They have very detailed memories of that time and place, details I never would have gotten otherwise. My layout in many ways is a scale 'thank you' for two of the best parents a boy could have had.
• My wife, for allowing me to move some tall stuff from the 'toy room' into another room to better fit the layout. There wouldn't be one if that had never happened, and it was totally her idea. I'm also thankful of her generally accepting the idea of getting back into model trains, especially since she knows why I got out of the hobby in the mid 90s due to some truly nightmarish experiences with a HO module group in Florida
• Bachmann, for making the exact locomotives I wanted in a manageable scale. If it wasn't for them, I'd never gotten back in the hobby as they made the exact loco I wanted, in a good scale, and even with the exact paint job I wanted. I wound up buying four of the things!

• My pal Robert Scott, who does a lot of writing for Trains and Railfan magazines. He got me into the 'inner circle' of the guys locally with running layouts with op sessions. This showed me how fun doing ops really as and how running in a circle simply wasn't for me. He also did a lot of help getting the bechwork I'd built in sections outside, into the room, getting them all together and getting track laid. Oh, he also designed the original track plan, which needed to changes once we got to laying track, but I don't hold that against him at all as I like how it turned out.
• Steve Carter, who also has been published in Trains several times, did almost all the DCC work, split all the wiring with Robert (really, I just stood back and watched as I had no clue of such things) and even got all the supplies for me before coming over the first day or wire work. Him and Robert have bene invited to my first op session which is coming soon!
• All the "Oly Ops" guys out of the Olympia, WA area who've welcomed me into the fold and have invited me to run on their layouts. Thanks especially to Chuck, Greg and Brian! These layouts taught me what to look for when designing my own for operations. Had it not been for these guys, my layout wouldn't be anywhere near what it looks like now, design-wise.
• And last but never least, my old friend Bob Sayes, from my days as a punk kid in Florida. If it wasn't for him taking a kid like me seriously, I wouldn't be the train fan I am today and wouldn't have had nearly the experiences with trains I had at that time. A lot of steam and diesel cab experiences were due directly to him! I just hope he comes out to see my layout someday.

Good thread, I'm glad to have added to it.

A good wife, a good life, great family, and lots of Lionel stuff!  Thanks also to this forum, a great bunch of folks, even though some of them take me to task sometimes.  

I am thankful for a very understanding wife and Legacy.  I would not have gotten into toy trains if this operating system did not exist.

I am grateful that I have 2 happy and healthy boys to share the hobby with.  Also that I can have something like this and that there is a forum such as this in which to share ideas and show what we all are working on.  So thanks OGR!..

Good evening everyone, I am thankful that Mike Wolf of MTH several years ago had the vision to produce O gauge trains that look like the prototypes, whether it was a modern day diesel or a steam engine from the past.

 

Without Mr. Wolfs vision and drive I really wonder where the O gauge market would be today.

Like others, I'll have to keep just to trains, as requested, because there are so many blessings that could be listed.

 

First, I have to say my wife.  She has always enabled me, taken some interest in the trains, gone to shows, made calls to my late favorite train dealer to ask what she could buy me for a gift, and agreed that we should spend money to create a special place for the trains.

 

My mother bought me my first Marx Santa Fe passenger set, and the old man brought home the first Lionel freight set - a good start at planting the seed.

 

I'm also thankful the prices on postwar have come down to where I can afford more of it!

 

I'm also grateful for this free forum, the guys who run it, and the ones who contribute to it.

Trains keep me sane...most of the time.

After 71 yrs I'm thankful that I'm still horizontal and thankful of my bride of 51 yrs.  Everything else is just frosting on the cake.

Trains wise, 14 X 40 building just for layout.  Next is Lionel's great customer service they just extended me on my Y6B.

wild Mary I think you mean verticle.

So many blessings!

 

This Forum would be near the top so THANK YOU publisher, management & staff and all you guys (gals) who contribute to make it such an interesting place. Its really the only forum I frequent and have learned so much from all of you over the past several years.

 

Am also thankful for our country, our military, and the (albeit diminishing) freedoms we enjoy...

 

Thank you most of all to our Lord Jesus Christ for His love and forgiveness!

I am thankful for an understanding friends on the forum.And also thankful I left ho behind due to my eyesight.All locomotives pull well and very greatful to mth,kline,lionel.A great group of people here on this forum.

EVERYTHING in all gauges and scales regardless of age - it's all good! 

Happiness is derived from within and from my strong Christian faith. I am thankful for having great parents (now both gone) a wonderful family, my lovely wife, our good health, terrific friends, caring neighbors, financial security, a nice home and many hobbies that we can enjoy worry free. As for trains, I've been buying them for quite a few years and have more than I could ever run. 

I am very thankful for being here to add to this post.  Two years I went through prostate cancer surgery and long term radiation.  Thanks to Dotty, and all my OGR forum friends for the support they gave me I kept on going.  My Doctors are happy with things and I will be around to share my trains and layout with everyone on this forum.  

 

My layout is where I wanted it to be at when it (not me) reached the finish line.  My layout is 32.5 years old and still running.   You will hear people say a layout is never finished.  My layout is finished and I have achieved all the layout goals I desired at the start.  Make a plan and stick to it if possible.  

 

I have collected a very large number of trains and share the layout with everyone.  In my book, having a large layout like mine is no fun having unless it can be shared with friends.  

 

I am very thankful for living in the greatest country in the world and living among Boston area hospitals.  I served in the Navy like my Father and Grandfather.  I am very thankful for all the great people at OGR Railroading and all Forum members who have supported me.

Thankful for my grandfather that splurged on a 260E set during the depression.  Thankful for a father that would take that train out and run it when I was a boy.  Thankful that I have a son (6) to share the same (and more w/MTH reproductions).

Love every second we play trains and put our ideas into action.  Thank God for such miracles and opportunities we have every day.    

I am thankful for those who replied to my post.  Some times the forum can be negative, but this post brought out the good!!!

 

Marty,  I agree that a layout should be shared with others. If we are blessed it's our responsibility to share it!! 

I'm thankful that the Lord has been watching over me for a number of years. He has given me the talents to envision and having the patience to bring a layout to life with the animations I build. I started a Christmas display in a fire house almost 35 years ago. When I started it I dismantled my layout in my basement so that we had most of the materials to build the display. One of my goals was to teach the members how to build the display if something would ever happen to me.

 

One night as I stood back and watched the people who were admiring the display. Well I had brain storm of putting a 6' walkway through the middle of this 44' long display. Well the next year we had the walkway right through the middle and the bottom of the display was 7' high. But the great thing of it was watching all of the faces of the people and the joy of it showed on there faces. Last year was the 1st. time that I went back and helped them out after not being around it in 9 years. And I must say that they did one hell of a job.

 

And he also allowed to work in the fire dept for over 40 years, with no major injuries so I thank him every day & night for what he has blessed me with. My family and friends and of course my trains.

Thankfull for the Hobby of Model Railroading. It has kept me active and doing things I thought no longer able to, especially my hands. As some may have read from my post, I am having medical problems with crippling arthritis. But these past weeks, maybe not as fast as some, I was able to completely wire, add new motor,add cruise and sound system, new tether connections, and even replace the broken off bar from the locomotive to attach the tender. My wife was even surprised, (she helped in holding etc.) that I could do it. My self, considered several times in just dumping it.

 

... trainwise

• The Lord for salvation, a keen mind, and healthy body.
• I'm thankful for a father that set an example I'm still trying to live up to.
• My wife. Without her, who knows what or where I would be doing it today.
• Scott Mann for manufacturing a model of the N&W 2300.
• My friends in River City 3 Railers and on this forum.
• A blown-out disc between L1&L2 @ age 19 that redirected by working life.

 

Gilly

 

A beautiful wife who is wholly into this hobby!

 

...good health,...

 

...no debt, ....

 

...two loving, rambunctious Goldens, Millie & Daisy, ...

 

...daily blessings, ...

 

...a heavenly home-in-waiting, ...

 

....and lots of trains for the moment!!

 

....!

 

And that's just for starters!

 

KD