Trains with Dad

Fantastic layout!

Peter

Love the story and the layout!  Great job.

Wonderful story Chris!   I enjoyed the video  Thanks for posting

What a wonderful family tradition you have, Chris, with O Gauge model railroading.

Very much enjoyed your video. Arnold

@Chris1985

Chris:

Thank you for sharing your father's layout with us. His love for the hobby is obvious in the care and scenic detail that he has put into his layout over the years. Your love for the hobby comes through, not only in your meticulously planned and executed layout, but, also in hearing your enthusiasm as you speak about model railroading and your father's great influence and support in the hobby.

I plan to subscribe to your YouTube channel. Bravo to both you and your father on your great model train displays!!!!!

Thank you all for the comments! This Hobby has meant so much to me over the years and was especially important in helping me maintain sanity over the past year. Looking forward to posting more videos from dad's layout as he has much to see. Again, appreciate all of the support, ideas and guidance from this forum.

That is really cool! I love the scenery, it's something we can all easily see ourselves doing on our layouts, a lot more than the green Homasote but not overly detailed and scenicked to the point of being too intimidating to try it. Hits that perfect middle ground!

Jerry

Wow, I watched your other videos and what the rest of us tinker around on for weeks, you knock out in a night or two.  Very fast work on your scenery.  I wish I had your ambition.  Great layout and look forward to watching your future videos.

Good to see a fellow young guy. There aren't many around that aren't aarp eligible. (No offense to the older guys that pioneered this hobby)

@baltimoretrainworks thanks! You are right. Dad was able to create some nice scenes with minimal materials.

@towdog thanks for checking out the videos! I lack patience and definitely rushed a bit of my scenery but I wanted to get back to running the trains. Luckily I had enough ideas from the tips on this forum that I knew what I needed to do to get where I wanted to be which saved some time!

@Csxcellent It is great to meet other younger guys in the hobby! I do think it would have been special to be a kid during the Post War era. So many cool stories on this forum from the folks who grew up during the Golden Age of the hobby. I like to think we are heading for another Golden Age with all of the online buzz around O Gauge trains these days!

@Csxcellent posted:

There aren't many around that aren't aarp eligible.

WE PREFER THE TERM "CHRONOLOGICALLY CHALLENGED" IF YOU DONT MIND !

Jerry

Chris, what a great video of your dad's layout! I can see where you get your dedication to trains! I also noticed that your dad and I have something in common. If I am correct that is a picture of John Wayne on the wall If so the were both big fans of both trains and John Wayne! Thanks again for sharing!

@baltimoretrainworks, LOL! I am still trying to find a way into the 48 Club. May need to submit my Christmas Village layout.

@mike g. Dad is a huge John Wayne fan. I am pretty sure he treasures that clock over the trains! So cool you guys have that in common, along with the dedication to this hobby!

Have not posted to this group in a while but wanted to share this overview video of Dad's layout. This is the layout that inspired me to make my own! Enjoy:

Great post Chris, I have become a avid watcher of your channel and you have a great layout. My dad definitely is the one that got me into this hobby many years ago, Picture below is where it all started circa 1976. our current layout can run 3 independent lines and is 27'x33'.

@NickPDX4449 thanks for your support of the channel and for posting this great photo! Wow! 27’x33’ is a MASSIVE layout! Great that you are able to share this with your dad.

That was a great video tour of “Dad’s” layout. Chris needs his own show on cable tv. He’s a natural.

Chris, IT is great seeing your video of your Dad's layout!  I had HO for years, always ran conventional.  Your reaction to that first TMCC Southern Pacific engine was similar to when I saw my first O gauge command engine fire up.  It was an MTH PS2 CSX engine.  Even though I don't model modern trains, I had your reaction.  I was hooked.  After 50 years of no sound and just a headlight, I couldn't go back.  Great influence your dad had on you.

Chris, WOW what a great story and tour of your dads layout! Between your layout and your dads it give me so many ideas on how I would love to change up my layout! I also love how you can pretty much reach everything without having to get up on the layout. Something I need to change on my layout. Please keep the videos coming as it gives me more and more inspiration to make the needed changes on my layout! Thanks again for sharing and tell your dad I just watched the Alamo with John Wayne and its as good as the first time! LOL

Chris, thank you for sharing your story with us. Also enjoyed the videos of your father's layout. I'm sure a lot of us can relate to great times with dad and trains.

My father went we me to train shows in Pittsburgh, Altoona, West Virginia and Maryland.

I re-watched the video......even better on the 2nd time through!

Peter

Chris, Great work on both video's. All of them has been fantastic and really enjoy watching them. I'm so glad that i can share this hobby with my Dad. We have a great time working on both our layouts. I look forward  to the  time my Dad and I can spend working on the layout and going to show's.

David

Outstanding!!!

chris I just put two and two together when I saw this thread title. just realized that was you. did not know you were on here.I have been watching all your youtube videos since I found your channel. I think they are great. I subscribed as soon a I watch the first one.  you have a very nice layout also.

watching your layout overveiw video had made me decide to stick with fastrack when I expand my layout. witch is what I have on my small layout now. those 072 switches seem to work like butter in your videos.

i recently bought 2 used tmcc ones off the bay to test the waters and they work great. as you know fastrack is noisey,but given I want to use the lcs app on ipads around my layout as control pannels and not to mention they are already command controlled. it just made more sence to stay with what I have already started.

also the way this world is going it will allow me to build my next layout in have the time. plus I am lazy when it comes to ballesting track.plus as you well know the fastrack will still need ballest to look good just not as much.

I am so happy to hear how others have bonded with their father's over this hobby.  I am a 3rd generation model railroader going back to the late 1930's when my grandfather shared the hobby with my father who in turn shared it with me.   

@Chris1985

Chris:

I really enjoy this thread and your YouTube channel. Your videography and your polished, enthusiastic commentary are wonderful! I have subscribed to your channel and seen most of your videos. Both yours and your father's layout are OUTSTANDING!!!!

One of my favorite videos is your presentation of the MTH, Premier, Blue Comet. The detail on the locomotive is stellar! The sound system and the great MTH smoke unit are superb. I am a true Blue Comet junky. I have done much reading on its history. I also own and recommend the video, "The Tale of the Blue Comet" produced and directed by historian Robert Emmons.

Keep your great videos coming. You are a fabulous ambassador for the O gauge hobby.

I agree with all the raves you are getting for your channel.  It is so refreshing to see a young person who is obviously so intelligent and so well-spoken, to be so passionate about the hobby.  I am sure you are an inspiration to others of your generation.  Your dad should be rightly -proud.

Best,

Robert

Thank you all for the comments and kind words! I think that one of my favorite parts of this hobby is the community. With all of the shut downs last year I turned to this forum, social media and YouTube to connect with fellow hobbyists. It was well worth it and has given me the chance to meet so many new and inspiring folks.

I enjoy hearing all of your stories and experiences. So many of us were inspired by our parents at a young age to get into this Hobby and it is even more fun when I see photos here from the folks who grew up in the Post War or even later Pre War years. So great to see.

Thank you for the support of my channel and for including me in this great community!

@Randy Harrison - I will check out that video. Need to see if I can find it on Amazon.

@Lionelzwl2012 - I hear you on the Fastrack. It has it's pros and cons but has worked well for me and I know it will work well for you. I have had good luck with the switches thus far and it simplified wiring quite a bit!

@GG1 4877 - I think it is so neat that even your grandfather was in the hobby.

@David S - I hear you! I look forward to getting back out to the shows as well.

@jim sutter - I always enjoy going to the train shows with Dad as well. Hoping we see more of them soon!

@mike g. - Thank you and I will be sure to tell him! Loves those John Wayne films

@Chris1985 posted:

@Randy Harrison - I will check out that video. Need to see if I can find it on Amazon.

@Chris1985

Chris:

The The Tale of the Blue Comet is only available from Professor Robert Emmons' web site. Here is the link. It is no longer available as a DVD, but, is available for download.

http://www.robertaemmonsjr.com/store.html

It is only $9.99. Also, I gave you some false information. Robert Emmons is not a history professor. He head of the film making and mass media department at Rutgers University, Camden, NJ.