How were you introduced to the Hobby as asked by " Alan Arnold"

These 2 books got me started. At age 2, in 1944, I insisted that my mother read them to  me, over and over. When my father got back from WWII, he got me Lionels for Christmas.

Indulgent and wonderful parents with a MARX set at about three years of age. Later, LOTS of Gilbert AF (5 engines and 28 cars and multiple Lionel and AF accessories) over the years until age 16.

Gentlemen,

   I was born into a Railroad family, my Great Grandfather was an engineer on a small Railroad in Galeton, Pa.  My father worked for the Union Switch & Signal.  I received a 263E for my 1st birthday, given to my father from my Grandfather when he was a boy.  Handed down to me in perfect shape it is one of my prize possessions.  It just would not be Christmas without a 263E Tin Plate train.  I also have the MTH P2 263E also, one fine piece of Tin Plate!

PCRR/Dave

Started with a  Marx NYC winder circa 1937. An uncle brazed/filed the broken spring a couple of times- it then had a decided lope in its git along as it raced around. Still had it as a static round--about Christmas tree decoration when I left for the Navy in 1949 but while my 10 year younger brother used it as bulldozer in his dirt pile for its demise.

After Korea I got into HO about 1965 plus a fake Southern decorated O-gauge Hudson on the mantle.

Later when I could afford it, I traded for a used real Southern F3 and bought a pw ZW from Inside Track (Greensboro) plus freight consist and gave HO to sons, by then a Southern brass collection. 

 In 1989 Southern brass O-gauge Williams plus Lionel's 1990 Southern Mikado accelerated my O-gauge hobby ( when the Domestic CEO could be blind-sided). Many unfinished layouts followed as jobs relocated me and after 3 finished operations it all came to an abrupt stop at my small attic operation (photos) in February 2010 for a health event. trains ran however. Lot of fun building running and displaying trains over time.

 My finger is tired!

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

I was born with a ZW in my hands. LOL

 Arnold

Arnold, Sounds like the beginnings of a new rock ballad. 

Tom

After WWII, my dad worked for the New Haven Railroad as a fireman (steam and diesel), but was bored and complained that he had no time to spend the paychecks he had crammed in his pockets! All this was before I was born, so I was not consulted about this changing, diminished (to me) lifestyle of his which I could have enjoyed. 

He did build my first Lionel layout for me...a plywood 4x8 sheet. I'll always remember the many times this silver/aluminum flashlight would cross the tracks somewhat accidently, and those sparks were cool. 

Dad would also take me to the Stamford Model Railroad Club's layout http://stamford-downtown.com/e...-house/#.Xfqe0mRKhaQ and also to the Model Railroad Equipment Corp in Manhattan. 

Thanks Dad! 

Tom 

I was three in 1951, which was when Santa brought my Lionel 2026, plus three freight cars and a caboose.  I haven't been without miniature trains since then.  And yes, I still have the 2026 set.

1954 Christmas....Mom and Dad bought a 027 Lionel train set for me from Sears & Roebuck. I played with that till I found out about cars. Then in 2002, I had a heart attack. My doctor told me to find a hobby. I pulled out my 1954 set, and with a lot of help from you all, and several Thousand dollars later, I am in train heaven. I love this hobby and the great forum. Hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas.

CSXJOE posted:

1957,  received as a Christmas present.

Still have it. That is my sister learning the hard way to keep her hands off the track.

 

I certainly wish I had some color films when I got my first train. Unfortunately color tv hadn't even been invented at that time (1951) Very cool piece of your own history, and if I may guess, that of your sister's.

Joe Hohmann posted:

These 2 books got me started. At age 2, in 1944, I insisted that my mother read them to  me, over and over. When my father got back from WWII, he got me Lionels for Christmas.

Interesting that I very much remember The Little Engine That Could but I never heard of Tootles which after reading about it, is a pretty popular book for children.    

Fairly straight forward for me.  A grandfather on my Dad's side of the family who started playing with trains prior to being drafted into WWII and passed the hobby to my father, two uncles, and aunt as well as my Grandfather that rode the mighty NY&LB during the 1950's and had the most wonderful stories to tell.  It was probably inevitable.

Railroads permeated my atmosphere.  My dad was a fireman for the Southern and one grandfather built cabooses for the L&N before buying a farm overlooking the Southern.  My dad was training to become a Southern freight engineer when WWII rudely interrupted that.  We then lived in an old harness shop on the depot lane in  a tiny tank town.  It was rented from my aunt and uncle, across the road, whose son had a Lionel set that l discovered and was allowed to play with.  I asked for and got an electric train, a 999 Marx set, for Christmas...and the race was on.

I was gifted an mpc starter set for my first communion, set up initially with by my Dad and my Grandfathers.  I think they bought it piece meal as there was no set box and the transformer I ended up with was a model power unit made for ho trains that didn't match anything else.  It took me well into my adult hood and some questions to my mom to realize what the occasion was that I got the train for.  

I ran it constantly as a kid and took care of it too.  I got a second engine in 7th or 8th grade with snow shoveling money, not sure how I ended up the ac transformer to run it.

We also lived near the Reading Society of Model Engineers, RSME and would go there pretty regularly.  I was an active member through high school and college.  Living within striking distance of the Strasburg didn't hurt anything either.

Lionelski posted:

Sorry guys/gals but I can't figure out how to paste here from a WORD file, and I'm not gonna retype how I got started 'cause I type with one finger, but my story is in the FAQ section of my website. Please check it out there.

This has to be one of the best threads ever, Love it

I'm with you, @Lionelski this is indeed a great thread!

I just checked your profile to grab your email to send a very short process on how to copy and paste your text from a Word document into an OGR comment - this is the way I roll too! Problem is your email is incomplete - it says LIONELSKI, but there is no "@whatever.com" following it - necessary item, that! Also your link to your page doesn't work, is the page still active?

George

I was born in August of 1990. When I was 4 months old that Christmas and my dad put up his trains around the Christmas tree. Mom and dad would put me in a battery operated swing and I'd watch the trains run around. As I got older we always played with the trains and yes, we watched Shinning Time Station and Thomas the Tank Engine. I forget how old I was but I got my first set for Christmas, an Amtrak Alco passenger set. I got the extra cars and dummy diesel later for my 7th birthday. I still have all my trains and I'm one of the rare ones who didn't pack the trains up for girls and cars! I'm getting married next year and I'm looking forward to introducing my wife to more of the hobby and building a layout with her (with the help of my dad and uncle). I've been very lucky to have others to share this great hobby with and so thankful to have a father that set the trains up on my first Christmas. 

Guessing it was Christmas 1959. My dad still had HIS trains from the 30s. I remember it was mostly all Lionel with some American Flyer thrown in. On Christmas Eve he set it all up on the basement on the floor of a spare room. Classic 4x8, green paint with black roads.

Came down on Christmas morning to find it all running and what a surprise. Still remember the smell, the air whistle, and especially the red and green lights on the switch machines.

Nothing better than to turn off the room lights and lay on the floor watching it all go by.

Last but not least, a real memory was the Log Loader. Could play with that for hours. Can still recall the noise from that thing and the joy of successfully dumping logs into the waiting dump car.

Not sure if I was introduced to the hobby the way most of us think. I got my first Lionel Set at the ripe old age of 9 months a Burgh version of the Santa Fe Silver Chief with a 275 Watt ZW.  I have told the story several times in this forum so won’t repeat again. But being from the Burgh and not ever remembering a Christmas without the Lionel trains under the train as a kid growing up in the 50’s. So I guess I was never formally introduced to me it was just part of my life and still is. 

First set was in 1963, a Lionel Rio Grande Alco with 3 freight cars and caboose. Remind my dad about the $16.95 price tag on the set- it is displayed on the wall with the rest of my collection.  Over time, bought a few pieces here and there. Still have my Aurora racing cars with loads of track and controllers, transformers. Had some Ho and N gauge back then but O gauge is what I have. 

O gauge train bug bit me real hard around 1985 and I went bonkers on a buying spree and never looked back. At this time, I have enough trains to keep me happy as I am done buying unless it is something that pops up that is unique and I wanted it. I did inherit my uncle's postwar trains but only wanted the 1948 GG1 and passenger set, his bascule bridges, type V Transformer and the 115 station. My father still thinks his brother took his trains as he could not find them when he returned from military service.

When I was 5 or 6, I had a Marx set, but it strangely disappeared when we moved about 1959.  I remember being envious of all the kids who had LIONEL trains,  the best ones I thought, but out of reach for my parents financially.

In the 1980's, with he and I in our 30's, my brother in law got into HO.  He never really did anything with it other than buy locomotives and cars, never set up a layout.  I however fell in a big way for HO, and built 4 layouts in HO that never ran- I found myself being very discouraged by the difficulty of track work, so I would quit for large blocks of time, then we would move and have to tear down what I had.   

Forward to February 2017- I stopped in to a train shop in Ft. Myers FL while on vacation there.   The shop had a Lionel LionMaster articulated steamer for demonstration.  The shop owner fired it up, and I was hooked.  I asked if he would be willing to develop a track plan using Lionel Fastrack if I gave him a drawing of the space I had for a layout- he did.

Then I contracted with Matt Hewitt of Benchridge Benchworks, who agreed to build me the tables (modules) for the track plan.  He delivered the benchwork (26 modules) in early May, set it up over about 3-1/2 hours,  and I was running trains within 3 days.

Now- I have scenery done on about 2/3 of it - see the pics below.  Great fun!!!  And no more "neverun" layouts!!

1978 I was 4 and my parents got me my first setup. Santa gave me a 442 lionel lines 8800 engine and tender, 4 cars and NW caboose.  the best ever! dad gave me his KW he had to run it and track.  he set it up under the tree from then on until he finished the basement and we started the empire when I was 6.  so much fun building with dad.  we added the Rock island and Pioria set.   my uncle got us good deals working at Tri-state hobby in pittsburgh.