Train memories from our childhood vs adulthood ones

"Memories from our childhood vs adulthood ones".

Interesting discussion topic. From my vantage point...

As I matured as a modeler (as well as in age) during my journey in this hobby, here's a few of my observations I've learned along the way that that deals with your discussion topic. These thoughts primarily have to do with my HO involvement, namely:

My childhood and youthful HO memories are fantastic. The modeling was much simpler, including the layouts, the engines and rolling stock, and rudimentary scenery. Imagination abounded and supplied the lacking elements in my mind for the layout and models.

However, trying to recapture the essence of my youthful HO modeling by having a layout depicting such, doesn't work for me. As my modeling and expectations refined, I now see many of the older HO models as being quite crude. Plus, those older HO engines, though laden with nostalgia, don't run anywhere near as good as what I have now.

The above current perception has been shaped over the decades because my tastes in my HO modeling have evolved and refined to the point that I demand more fidelity out of myself, as well as the models themselves.

What this results in, is that my "nostalgic" model's (select HO models purchased to replace those from my youth) for the most part, live in boxes and remain in the boxes as a boxed sets, such as this:

Now, when it comes to my original HO Lindberg Line set from Christmas of '62 (the train set that really set the HO hook in me), there's only one true "survivor" that toils on my current layout: A lowly Lindberg Line C&NW 40' boxcar:

Now, I have found that some of the Lindberg Line cars will blend right in with my other rolling stock (Lindberg Line rolling stock was way ahead of their time), so in addition to my original C&NW boxcar, I also have additional Lindberg Line cars that I've acqured running about the layout. These cars replace the missing original cars (but lost to time) of the same type/livery that were in my original Lindberg Line, namely: A Rock Island flatcar, an SFRD reefer. Along with these, I've added some additional Lindberg Line cars: Another C&NW boxcar that I renumbered, another SFRD reefer that I've renumbered, and a quite rare Lindberg Lines IC 40' boxcar. All of these are mixed in among my current rolling stock fleet and fit in nicely among the more contemporary car offerings.

The Lindberg Line engine (there was only one model offered in only four liveries) are another story: They are quite crude in detail and execution compared to today's offerings, and by today's standards, run awful. However, I like them, so I have "collected" one of each (and have some duplicates):

SO, to bring this in perspective to your discussion point:

* My childhood/youthful memories are very special to me, models of same hold a lot of nostalgia for me, but I have zero desire to model in vintage HO on a vintage-type HO layout.

* Today's memories of my current HO layout are an ongoing experience. Already I have many great memories during the construction/track work phases, and now that it's been 100% functional for a couple years, I am imprinting wonderful new memories spent with friends operating it.

Between the two, I'll take the new experiences and new memories over trying to relive my previous.

Andre

Hi Andre

Well said,especially your last line, I agree

All of the  train cars of my youth that I have purchased thru the years I run with my modern stuff .

Another modern memory story

In the early 2000s we stopped  at a local hobby shop that had a going out of business sign out front,Also the sign said everything must go including the light fixtures. I went in with my wife and over in the corner I saw a plastruct plastic center product holder.

I walked right by a postwar 6362 flatcar with trucks that was on my radar at the time to get.My wife said" O look it's the flatcar you want." I kept going,i had my eye on the plastruct display {that I could use to hold all my plastruct stuff}

Anyway I found one of the owner's  and asked  how much they wanted for it ,and he was kind of dumbfounded by the request. I said the sign says everything must go,i will give you 35 for it. He kind of reluctantly said ok, I gave him the 35 and told my wife let's go before he changes his mind. And out the door we went.

Month's later on my birthday,my wife gave me a preset, I opened it and it is the 6362.I asked her where did you get that?

She said I bought that right under you nose at that hobby shop. You were so focused on the plastruct thing, that you didn't watch what i was doing.

The flatcar is in the bottom left of one of these pictures

@Transman posted:

"And between all my engines most were some kind of a gift from my wife,which also makes for very nice memories of when i received them."

Well said Joe, many my RTR sets and separate freight cars are gifts from my wife. She is also great at the train shows helping me track down items on my must have list.

Every year one of our forum sponsors is kind enough to send me each new Lionel catalog as they come out. My wife likes to go through them and pick out stuff she thinks that I should have!

All my childhood memories from the fifties are now my layout: postwar and MPC, with just a little MTH and modern Lionel.

@Transman posted:

We had a boat on the Cheasapeake bay and on the way home from the bay we would stop at the old Just Trains and I was looking for a Red 6560 Bucyrus Erie crane car,anyway right in front of us  was a Railking i think crane car with the Chessie logo.My wife said "O look at this a Chessie one,I like this one, get this"

This is a timely post for me. Funny you should mention Bucyrus Erie.  I was about to mention my memories of the Bucyrus Erie plant in another post.  I grew up in Erie seeing the equip sitting waiting for transport from the 12th St plant.

Train tracks intersected Erie at a number of different places. Getting stopped by a train once a day was a common occurrence.  My layouts back in Pennsylvania incorporated what I saw growing up.  Unfortunately I never got to finish the “big” layout when I purchased a house with a great basement space because I relocated to North Carolina.    But I do have the opportunity now to get back into the hobby and will be incorporating my memories from sitting in the backseat of our 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Cruiser Wagon watching the blue Conrail engines pulling the trains.

I am that odd person who got into this hobby with my first Tyco trainset at age 7 and never left the hobby.  I don't see my train memories as childhood vs. adult ones but rather a continuous evolution of learning and enjoyment in the best of best hobbies.  I just old enough to have experienced riding passenger trains on the CNJ, Penn Central, and the Southern yet young enough to enjoy memories of riding Amtrak all over the country.

My first permanent layout was a 16'x24' layout in HO that I shared with my father all the way through high school.  I built several small N layouts up into my 20's and discovered O scale around age 30. 

My modeling interests haven't evolved as much as grown.  I used to be very focused on the PRR and CNJ with their successor roads.  However, as I moved across the country, I have come to appreciate roads I never have modeled.  During college in Muncie, IN I got to watch Conrail, CSX and NS run all day and night through that town. When I landed in AZ, I started watching the SP and the ATSF trackside.  Any day watching trains is a good day.

One item that has not evolved is my interest in scale trains.  Even when I got my first Athearn Amtrak cars at age 12 they felt too short.  When I got some Rivarossi ones that became even more evident.  I never took an interest in Lionel trains because they didn't look like the trains I saw in real life.  What gained me an appreciation in tin plate and postwar trains is my TCA membership.  While I may never be a collector of most of those items, I can now appreciate them for what they are.

As a kid, I thought Lionel trains were great- I’d spend hours looking at catalogs and magazine ads, seeing MPC and LTI’s offerings.  The BN unit train, PRR passenger sets, A-B-A F3’s, etc.  Most of those were out of our reach then, but I did get a couple sets, cars and engines for Christmas and birthdays.

Sometime around age 13 or so, I started to realize how crudely proportioned and detailed most Lionel trains really were.  They didn’t look like the Conrail trains I saw almost every day, or the models I saw in Model Railroader magazine.  HO was better detailed, scale proportioned, and WAY more affordable.  So the Lionel stuff was put away, only coming out at Christmas, while I collected and ran HO.  I had a modest 4x12 layout all through high school and until we moved when I was 22- it was a simple loop with sidings and a small yard, and I ran it like a branch line/shortline, sorting cars and doing industrial switching.  To this day I’m not a “rivet counter”, but as fondly as I remember those days of dreaming about Lionel trains, I still see them as toys.  I still lean toward HO (and a little bit of N lately) for realism and operation.

I guess it’s true what they say, you can’t go back.