Why do I run/own the trains that I do? The obvious answer is that I love trains - we all love trains. But there's a deeper sense of satisfaction witnessing my O scale trains run through a scene I've created than just the love of trains. Beyond that love for trains I find my primary motivation is the sense of nostalgia that the hobby brings. I'm transported, if only in my mind and for a brief moment to another time and place - and all from the visual stimulation of the trains.
The focus of my nostalgia with trains has not remained static but instead evolved and grown over the years. Like most men my age I grew up with Lionel trains at Christmas. Years later, as an adult, getting those post-war Lionel trains out and running them again reminds me of my earliest childhood. After a few whiffs of ozone and smoke pellets plus the sound of the air whistle I can almost smell the pine needles from the Christmas tree and my mom baking cookies.
As I grew, the focus of my O scale collection turned to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Notably, steam locomotives and 1st generation diesel and of course, electrics like the GG1. Growing up in Maryland I felt obliged to add the B&O, then the C&O and the Western Maryland. All of this was an attempt to recreate the train watching I was doing in the 1950's. My train world by then was completely dieselized and electrified so I only saw steam once or twice and almost by accident. Still, I stood trackside and watched Sharks and GG1's and box cab electrics and pretty much everything the PRR had out there except steam. Rode the B&O between Baltimore and Washington DC often. Saw the WM in action when visiting relatives in Reisterstown and Westminster, MD.
Of course the 1950's lead to the 1960's and even more diesels. At the same time my familiar railroads - notably the PRR - began spending as little as possible on paint schemes. Pin stripes and gold leaf were replaced by big black boxes with as little adornment as possible. They became a lot less interesting visually with some exceptions here and there. Regardless, this era meant many more diesels, the official end of steam, the end of the PRR, the Penn Central debacle and a decline in railroading in general.
My current nostalgia "phase" is for the northeast railroads of the 70's, 80's and 90's. I was living and working in Baltimore at the time and if you were train watching - like me - you saw one of three railroads: Conrail, Amtrak or Chessie Systems. I even started working for CSX in 1991. These were, I thought great times for train watching. Gone were the old, drab paint schemes. In their place bright, shiny even gaudy colors. Wow, you couldn't hardly miss a Chessie System logo'd locomotive coming down the track! The Conrail bright blue and white was another standout. I thought Amtrak got it right with the red white and blue and silver look - Phase III I think(?). Conrail & Amtrak shared the same trackage and the sight of a lumbering Conrail freight being passed by a speeding “Amfleet” train was quite common. Everything else that had been B&O, B&O, WM etc was now Chessie. I lived not far from Bay View Yard – also not far from the recent train derailment in Rosedale – I fell asleep at night listening the sounds of trains and saw the brightly colored Chessie System equipment regularly in my travels.
The 70's, 80's and 90's were a formative and exciting time for me. Got married. Went to college. Got divorced. Graduated college. Started my 'career' in IT. Got my pilot's license. Had a lot of fun with a lot of people. Sadly, in the world of real railroading by 1985 two milestones of note: 1) The last runs of the GG1 anywhere. 2) The end of the caboose. Not coincidentally, this is about where I cut off the time line for locomotives, trains and equipment on my layout. I won't run a freight train without a caboose. It just doesn't look right. Nothing much newer than 1985 for me. That marked the end of “traditional” railroading as far as I'm concerned.
That's my story. What/when do your trains remind you of?
Where/when do they take you back to?
Here's a bit of my current nostalgia: