How old and how long ??

30 and been involved in trains my whole life.

 

First O-gauge train at 12, before was HO.

 

Really into O since around 18. 

15 and I have played with trains since before I knew how to speak.

64 and had trains in the house as long as I can remember.

 

And actually, I think you can buy this stuff with earnings from paper routes, or working at Starbucks.  Maybe not a lot - but I know people who do . . . 

21 - Building my first O Layout over Christmas. Already got a small collection going. Had a N scale layout when I was.... 12 or so, but like you said, you cant buy this stuff cheap!

54,

and I beg to differ on the paper route deal.

I get stuff at train shows under the tables

in the "junk" boxes, that nobody else wants.

 

case in point, a few years back, picked up a

Lionel 2018 (same boiler as the 2037

girls train) for $18. it looked like someone

had tried to paint her with a paint brush,

terrible, just terrible.

anyway, I striped it and had to paint it anyway,

so I got a spray can of "ballet slipper pink"

(it was close to the pink girls train)

Painted her up and have been running it at shows

ever since. get many comments

"is that an original", even had a guy that wanted to

buy it, even though I told him I had painted it.

But you do not have to be rich too.

there is a lot of thing that money can't buy...modeling skill

I am 42 and involve with trains since 1982

AG.

39.  Had a HO layout when I was young and like most others at around Junior HS, girls and cars took over.  My 4yo nephew is a huge train nut, so that restarted the flame, along with my dad always enjoying watching trains.  We went with O scale for the size.  My dads eyes are not getting any younger and much easier to see details on the larger scales, plus you just cant beat the sound/smoke. 

47. Been into trains since 10mo. old, my first Christmas when Grandpop helped me throw the knife switch on his Std. ga under-the-tree layout. Mom's got the picture, and I inherited that very same set from Grandpop.

32. Was never into trains before but have a 2 year old son who loves trains. Has piqued my interest in restoring my dad's old Lionel train and his father's HO brass trains.

57 and have loved trains since I was a kid. Returned to the hobby in 1988.

I'll be 49 this month, been modeling trains since I was 8 with my dad. Started with HO, then n scale after the Marine Corp and got into O scale (for real) about 10 years ago. I've had an O scale train set since I was 12 or 13 but never thought of a full layout with it till about 10 years ago when I found a deal at a local garage sale been hooked ever since.

Wanted one as a kid, folks could not afford one. I bought my kids one in the late 70's, there was never any interest in trains from them. I got into the hobbv in 2010 and still learning and loving my trains (I'm 69)

 

Brent

34 & have been into trains since I was around 2 or 3. Grew up playing w/ my Pop's postwar stuff. 

I am turning 40 in a few days and I have been in this hobby for 36 years.

 

And this was the day it all started

 

 

My wife says I am over the hill and gaining speed every day...50,60,70+

Got my first train in late 1940.s more in early 1950,s back into trains 2006.

It all starts Christmas 1956. I was 3.....am 60 now.

 

 

Peter

 

 

I'm currently 20 years old. It was when I was 8 I got into O gauge trains (before it was all Thomas wooden railway).

I am approaching 81 and I had my own HO trains in 1946. My Dad had a train room in the late pre war era with Lionel O27 which was locked when he was not at home. I now have a small O two rail layout in a room just for the trains. It has been a great run!!!

Mickey

My father was given two train sets when I was five from my cousins. 66 now and still love running my trains.................Paul

Generally we're an old bunch; I'm 65, got my first set (with actual layout) in 1955,

blah, blah. Rapidly wandered away from it (I had moved toward HO) when my driver's license got in my pocket (1964). Back in when I got in my 40's, blah, blah.

 

Some of this stuff is very expensive; I have some of that. But one can get, especially

only gently used, beautiful and accurate 3RO equipment for very reasonable prices

now. Fully equipped, for a couple of hundred dollars, or less. Judicious shopping

can give a young guy a top notch 1/4" model railroading experience. Remember that 

$200 - $300 in many hobbies is actually chump change.

 

Just stay away from the "Limited Edition, One-of-a-Kind, fake Collectibles".

 

 

Nearing 82[Feb]. Took my first train ride on the N&W from N.C. at 6 months old in August 1932 to visit Grand Parents in Dennison, Ohio[I remember it well].

 

First toy train was a NYC Marx winder with 3 cars for Christmas in 1937. But never could afford an electric until buying a Lionel Southern AA  O-gauge set and pw ZW after college and new job in 1958.. But the AAs became a mantle piece as HO took over.

 

Suffered through my picky period in HO and too many derailments and too many $$ until the 1980s when I punted HO and tackled Garden Railroading at our Mountain Cottage. Soon learned that the terrain was too rough and the climate too harsh at 3500' altitude for effectively building a low voltage DC railroad[still have most of the large scale].

 

Then in 1990 came Williams O-gauge brass with green SRR Pacifics, workhorse Mikados and Souhern A-B-A diecast F-7s. So, my Lionel AAs came off the mantle, then came Lionel 4501, Weaver brass and then of course MTH,K-Line and the rest.....Gargraves Flextack and Curtis switches.

 

I had a great time building and playing in O-gauge for 25 years. Dismantled 14x32 mountain operation in '08 and 15x23 island layout upstairs here in '09. Now its time to dispose of all but a few engines/cars for relaxed running round and round on my little very simple attic layout.

 

42. Been in the hobby 37 years.

I'm 72 this year. Got my first Lionel set in the early 50's. Into HO as a teenager and later when the kids were growing up.

Health and age issues have sent me back to three-rail and I'm slowly filling half my basement with track and really enjoying it. When I was in HO I worried too much about "rivet counting". I've learned that watching the inexpensive trains go along the track is much like enjoying impressionistic art.

Having fun again like when I was ten.

Scotie

age 3.and im 45...thanks to my grandpa..a big lionel man....with his 2020 S2 turbine santa fe warbonet..and 318 tin plate...if he was still alive he would soil his pants to see how far model trains has gotton..he passed away in 87 year id graduated..he broke out the trains when i get very sick too...He was a ww2 marine vet in the pacific theater...used to work for Erie RR and GE

38. After years of wanting one. I got a Bachmann HO scale Union Pacific GP20 powered set and the December 1988 Model Railroader Magazine with the North Conway station on the cover. I also got the Dec 1988 Railroad Model Craftsman. I read those issues until they fell apart. I built a 4x8 layout in the basement by myself because my dad has never really been much of a builder. He also gave me his 1950's era double Santa Fe FT powered Marx set the same year. My table is still in the basement under a pile of stuff. I kept buying and reading train magazines in college hiding them from my roomate like other people hid other kinds of magazines. I always have gone to whatever hobby shop I live near to look around and buy a magazine if nothing else. So I've been a model/toy train guy since 1988.

Since 4 1/2 years old, now 62. I still have the original Marx train and tunnel given to me by my Grandfather. 

23, and have been running Lionel Trains since I was about 3. My love for trains goes back much farther than that though, as my first word was "Toby" (a character from Thomas the Tank Engine)

61 and 61 - still have my original set and still run it.

In the 60's I used my paper route money to buy trains, even though they were HO.  I'm on a fixed income (retired) and still manage to budget enough to get what I want.

Age 70, been in trains since age 4 (Christmas, 1947). Still have my first set, a Lionel freight set.

Just turned 50. Got my first Lionel set when I was 6 (gift from Memaw), got into HO a bit as a young adult, then flew model airplanes seriously for 20+ years. Rediscovered trains a year or so ago when my grandkids got us into Lego, and I got into Lego trains.

 

Was for sure rekindled when I found some pre-war Lionel trains in the trash dumpster(!) and brought them home, where they are proudly on display. In the last year have looked into and gotten samples of every scale out there, Z, N, HO, O, G, and Lego. Also bought just about every Craigslist O scale RTR set in the area too. "Decided" to go "O" scale about two months ago. Now, I'm signed up here, got magazine subscriptions in place, and am absorbing every factoid I can get to see where the hobby has gone in the last 40 years.

 

Parts of it does seem a bit pricy, but I've spent WAY more on top line RC radios, 1/3 scale airplanes and competition aircraft in the past. It's all the same money-wise. You can spend as little or as much as you want.

 

I look forward to getting to know people here on the forums (used to be all over RC Universe) and I've got my membership app to the Austin TinplateTrackers sitting here on my desk. We've got a room dedicated right now to a 7x7 looping layout (with no scenery), a ton of Lego in the form of a town (that mostly is done by the spousal unit), and I'm currently building in a new home in Buda, with a 15x22 bonus room upstairs (we don't get basements here in TX) that will be All Mine! Can't wait to cover it up in train goodies....

 

That's a good first post for now.

 

 

Phil In Austin

 

I am 60 be 61 in March and got my first train a Lionel Santa Fe Pax set when I was 9 months old and have never been with out since.

47, and as long as I can remember!

I've been involved with model trains so long that the I am part of a study trying to isolate the train gene at the university's medical center L.O.L.

I can't remember when I got my first train. I'm guessing two or three. I'm 55 now and I never stopped, nor do I plan too! 

I am 63 and got my first train set the Christmas of 1954. It was the 682 Pennsylvania set. (Notice the position of the valve gear linkage in the pictured ad and the position on the engine itself leading to many an argument as the "correct" position). My set is still up and running. I added TMCC through TAS electronics to run by command.

 

 

Nessmuck,

    May Grandfather got me started in 1949, that is 64 years this year for me.

In reality my professional engineering career was due to building and running

O gauge train layouts, it spurred my imagination as a child into something much bigger.

PCRR/Dave

I am 60+(classified) but when I run trains I am 10 years OLD.

I am 66 years young and have been addicted to toy trains since the tender age of 4.