I've always liked the opening to Hertz's book Collecting Model Trains:
Scene: A local hobby shop. Mr. Smith enters, exchanges greetings with the proprietor, nods to Mr. Jones, whom he knows by sight, and idly watches their transaction as he awaits his turn. Mr. Smith notices that Mr. Jones evidently has just bought a new HO gauge locomotive kit, and then Mr. Jones’s other purchase catches his eye. It’s a big old model locomotive, which doesn’t really look too much like a prototype locomotive at all, and is rather scratched and dented, yet Mr. Jones evidently regards it quite proudly and can hardly keep his eyes off it while it is being wrapped.
After Mr. Jones has left, Mr. Smith’s curiosity gets the better of him. “What on earth was Jones doing with that piece of tin junk? It looks like something one of Noah’s kids must have played with in the Ark.”
“Why, don’t you know? He’s a collector of old model trains. He’s got one of the best collections in town. That engine was quite a find.”
You mean there are people who actually collect that stuff?”
“Sure, lots of them.”
At this point, more likely than not, Mr. Smith raises his eyebrows, thinks somewhat pityingly of Mr. Jones, and may even make a spinning cartwheel motion with his right forefinger close to his ear.
Scene the second: The same hobby shop, a few weeks or so later. Mr. Smith again, speaking somewhat hesitantly: “You know, I’ve been thinking … I had an electric train when I was a kid, that my folks gave away afterward. It was O gauge and had a black engine with the headlight socket sort of sunk into the front of the engine body.” He pauses and looks a little sheepish. “You know, I wouldn’t mind getting a train like that again to sort of stand on a shelf over my layout. Do you think you might be able to find me one? I don’t remember the number. I had a lot of catalogs I saved when I was a kid and threw them out just a few years ago. I wish I’d kept them.”
“Well, we might get in an engine like that sometime. You never can tell what we’ll pick up or get traded in. The only thing I can say is, you check with me every so often and see what’s come in.”
Scene the last: The same hobby shop, several months later. Mr. Smith again; this time he rather bustles in, with rather an air of eager expectancy on his face:
“Got any old trains?”
….and so, for many, such as all of us on this forum,…. it began.
In my case it was a little different. I was 6 when I visited a neighbor’s house to see a large Lionel layout that belonged to the older brother of my friend. We went into the basement and I got the shock of my young life – the layout was just gone! In its place was an under-construction HO layout. In a somewhat disappointed voice, I asked what had happened to the Lionel trains and his older brother said, “Those are just toys. I traded them in for these. This is real model railroading. Don’t worry, you’ll be running trains like this before long.” I remember staring at the HO trains and thinking, “I’ll never do anything like that.”….and I never did.
