What brought you into Model Railroading?

I was drawn into the hobby at the age of six because I lived inside of what was considered one of the railroad capitals of the U.S, which is Chicago. The real thing drew me into the hobby. It was all around me.

In addition to being immersed in a railroad environment, there was ( back in the day) a remaining romantic aura about it, the billboard boxcars from distant and mysterious places, the waving conductor, the mysterious power of locomotion...I wanted to be a part of that as a very young kid. The variety of passenger trains, color schemes, back then were really impressive. The glistening yellow and green "400" at the bumper post in the old CNW terminal, the smells ( carmel popcorn, hot dogs, cigar smoke ) the steam escaping from the end of the observation car made it look to a six year old like it was a rocket about to take off. It was intoxicating and I count myself very fortunate to have had direct experience with all that....who would not ( at a young age ) want to be a part of that?

As a kid my dad had a Lionel train up for Christmas every year and at 10yr old I saved my money up for a whole summer to buy my own HO set on layaway. Only I gave it all away when I was going to Vietnam thinking I might not make it back.

It wasn’t until I set up a Lionel Christmas train for my own kids that I got back into, but I never had room or the money with a house full of kids to do anything permanent. They don’t have basements in Southern CA.

It wasn’t until my oldest moved on that I had an extra room, but it still wasn’t big enough for O-Scale so I built an N-Scale railroad even though I had accumulated a few Lionel trains sets by then. So now I have three Lionel’s running in my living room every Christmas and hop some day I'll be able to keep it up all year long.

A very smart Dad who knew how to select the perfect Christmas gift. I still have the passion that was created some 67 years ago.

My mom (Santa) around 1955-056. In 2005 when I was getting ready to retire I decided to get back into model railroading after a 40 year absence. My layout 1959.

Dennis,

   I have told this story a couple times, but I will tell it again.  I guess you could say I was born into it, my great Grandfather on my mothers side, was the engineer on the old time Stocking Leather Logging Railroad that ran thru the Pa Grand Canyon up to NY.  My Grandfather on my Father side drove and repaired all the Railroad engines and rolling stock, owned by United States Steel in the Pittsburgh, Pa area.  My Father worked for the Union Switch & Signal, for 50 years as both an internal auditor & Electrical Engineer, he along with another engineer,  invented the Magnetic Breaking used on all modern Railroad Trains today.  My Grandfather gave my Father a Lionel 263E Tin Plate work train for Christmas, when he was very very young, we still own and operate that train every Christmas.  I learned to build O gauge layouts and play with my trains, before I was 10 years old, it lead to my engineering position with NASA/Martin Marietta, as a SR (PWE) Senior Professional Welding Engineer, after serving in the US Army.

You could say most of my engineering career was made possible because my Father and Grandfather had a life long love for the railroads, and started my engineering career, playing and building O gauge layouts.  As I have indicated in the past, I have never met a SR NASA Engineer who did not start his engineering career, as a boy building O gauge railroad layouts.  Lots of my incredible memories of our family are wrapped around Christmas and O gauge trains.

PCRR/Dave

The 1954 layout you see under the Christmas Tree, was one of the 1st layouts I ever helped build, I was 5 years old, proud to say, I engineer and build everything because of that big guy holding me in his arms in the picture.  Lots of his incredible engineering talents were passed down to me.

My father, at age three.

Trains around the Christmas tree - a tradition in my family dating back to my grandfather.

Andy

Santa Clause and a Lionel 2245 Texas Special passenger set.

Steve, Lady and Tex

Early years in Ashland Ky with the C&O 3 and 4 track mainline running through town. I was fascinated by the huge trains. I asked for and got toy trains.....never left them....

Visiting my Grandmother and Grandfather when I was a little box and watching the trains go by. The lived about fifty feet from the tracks. The tracks sat elevated about the feet above the road and when the trains passed the house, it shook.

I guess I was facinated to be that close. This was in the early sixties next to the CNJ lines. At that time it was all diesels. My dad bought me a basic Lionel set in 1962.

Alan Graziano

I think it was the Romans or Egyptians. I wasn't interested in history that far back. When in school I would stare out the window waiting for a Pennsy coal drag to rumble by.

Bill

Sitting at home at age 62 in 2000,wondering what I would do with myself when I retired.(retired at 74 but that`s another story)anyway trains came into mind and after much investigation and thought I settled on O gauge.Built an 8x8 layout in basement.

Layout is now 30x14 ,24 engines,220 pieces of rolling stock,64 buildings,28 switches,24 isolated sidings,180 little people,76 automobiles,3 bridges and a lot of realtrax and I can`t stop.HELP!!!!!!!

After I retired and moved back to a small town in East TN where I was born I noticed all the trains coming and going in Erwin. I started thinking of my Grandpa and dad because both worked for the Clinchfield RR. Grandpa retired after 20 years and dad spent 10 before we moved South to Florida. Dad did have toy trains but at the time I could only look not touch, but I remember them well.

So, needing something to keep me from going nuts during the colder months at Christmas I bought a polar express set for the tree.

From there I went for 0 to about 100 mph with trains. It started with one oval then two then three and so on.

It continued to a new 16X34 foot separate building that's currently my mini man cave and my not completed layout.

And yes, my wife and sons think I went off the deep end sometimes. But I'm having a he$$ of a lot of fun fooling with them.

I don't think it would have gone this far if I had not stumbled over this forum. What I have learned from forum members has been the difference. It is such a valuable source of information.

Larry

That's easy.  For me it was the 1954 Lionel catalog.

Starting with the cover:  Santa Fe sold big back then and continues 60 years later.

That was the first time I ever saw a B-unit in the lionel catalog.  And it was love at first site.

"Santa" left me a Lionel train set and 5 x 9 layout when I was 8 years old. 

The layout was put away when we moved 5 years later.  I hauled it around with me in storage for 20 years before the rust monster took over and I disposed of it.

I still have the trains from my youth (a Soo line Yard Chief and a Chessie Steam Special) and some of my dad's trains too.  Santa left my 8 year old a 4 x 8 layout and a Santa Fe steamer several Christmases ago and the bug has been restored.

Now every year we have a holiday layout, the tradition continues. 

These moments...

..and this place...

...at home, in Pittsburgh.

FrankM.

This is very similar to the view from my bedroom window in Astoria, Queens for the first few years of my life:

...and this is the park where I played:

...and I got a Lionel Scout set for Christmas in 1947 when I was 1 year old.

I didn't stand a chance of escaping a lifetime interest in trains.

Jim

* Riding the Brewster Local to visit my mom's bros in Westchester.  In the early years the electric motor was changed out for steam in North White Plains.

* Riding the "Fisherman's Special" to Montauk.  Again, the electric motor was changed out for steam.  There is a magic to steam locomotives that is absolutely unequaled, especially to a little kid.

* The American Flyer 290 passenger set with those green New Haven coaches of the kid across the street from my uncle's place in Thornwood.

* The Gilbert Hall of Science.

* The Lionel Showroom.

* The outside third rail layout of the New York Society of Model Engineers located in the Hoboken Lackawanna Terminal.

* Polk's Hobby Department Store.

But it was those dad-gum smoke and steam belchin' dragons that did it, I guess.

Pete

The person who helped bring me into this world, brought me into the hobby, my dad. He was a model builder in a time when all the kit included was instructions and a block of wood. The builder had to supply most other materials needed to complete the kit. He used to make ships, planes and balsa replicas of family members' houses, and other local buildings. The buildings were placed on the platform under the tree at Christmas, along with the postwar trains. Unfortunately, everything is gone, except for some of the trains. 

My two brothers and I were inspired by his creativity and love for trains. We would spend most of the year creating new layouts in the basement, and then bring them upstairs at Christmas. Great times! We learned at lot of skills during those years of our youth. We would ride our bikes to a hobby shop on the other side of the river, spending the money we scrounged from cashing in soda bottles, or cutting grass and shoveling snow.

The only time I didn't have a train under the tree, was my years in the Air Force. I did however have a tree, when I lived in an apartment on a farm in Missouri. If I would have had trains with me, they certainly would have been under that cedar tree. 

I'm trying to pass the hobby along to my three sons, but they're all at that age when other activities take precedence. Hopefully, some day they'll carry on the tradition.

Don

Some unscrupulous train pusher got me hooked by assuring me it would be quite inexpensive.  

Christmas 1949  a piece of plywood, figure 8 on it one engine, five cars and a caboose

four castors on it so it could store under my bed

if memory serves me the engine was blue and yellow letters that said santa fe

A Lionel set at about age 5 started it all.  And I used to love seeing the diesels at the Binghamton, NY DL&W depot.  Their size, sound and power intrigued me and reinforced the interest in miniature trains.

watching Dad's 2023s and 623 under the Christmas trees, and my Uncle's 2020 and that red Keystone sealed the deal.

I am in my 30s and grew up in an area where model trains were not prevalent.  So I never even asked for one as a child.  I have no doubt that if I saw them around the Christmas trees of relatives or friends, I would've been asking my parents for them (not that they could've afforded them anyway).

Fast forward to 2004 with the Polar Express movie.  Here I was, a grown adult, totally blown away by this children's movie.  That got something started inside of me.  But when I walked into a JCPenney one holiday season and saw the Santa Fe steamer locomotive display unit they had out, I was sold.  They had the locomotive out tethered to a security line so you could handle it.  I was blown away by the heft of the die-cast locomotive.  I was sold on O gauge and that started me into the hobby. 

So I am a prime example of just how important that movie was -- and still is -- to the hobby. 

Some really great stories here fellas!

I remember having a little silver passenger set of some type when I was about 3 or 4 when we lived in Miami. Really liked that train. When our family went to the beach my dad taught me to draw trains in the damp sand with a stick near the water and I would take off happily drawing locomotives and cars on down the beach for a pretty far distance.

Our first Christmas (1949) after moving to New Orleans I spotted the trains at a department store during the season and became infatuated. I remember standing alongside my dad and we were admiring an American Flyer steamer coming by. The sound of the choo-choo and puffing white smoke cemented in my mind what I wanted for Christmas that year!  Was so pleased that Santa also liked the two rail trains as well...

My train "career" started in 1951 with my father buying a 2035 set and a plywood 4x6 layout. The last time I ran them was in the early 70s and from then on.....they traveled with me to the attic and basement of every house I lived in (in boxes packed away). My wife was always after me to......"set up the trains for Xmas". I had no interest and just let them sit out of sight, out of mind. One day, however, while driving upstate to see my mother who at that time was in assisted living.....I got a bit nostalgic. When I got home, I told my wife that I was going to get them down and get them running. But I wanted to first buy a ZW because it was something I always drooled over as a kid. The seller introduced me to Jeff Kane for parts and I was off to the races. Everything I owned as a kid is running perfectly and my collection expanded exponentially. The original plan was to set them up, get them running and then put them away for Xmas. After months of work to get everything running, I had no intention of putting them "away". The cool thing is, though, that 4x6 original piece of plywood is right in the center of my greatly expanded layout.  I wish my father could have seen what his efforts morphed into. 

Roger

Moonson,

   Frank M those 50's black and white pictures of you and your Christmas train layout are just fantastic, glad you kept them to post.  Great stuff!

PCRR/Dave

I have a photo of my older sister and I, in 1937, standing next to the Xmas layout  while our big Standard gauge engine goes by. I don't know if that was the first or not but  still have the train plus more. I think my Dad bought it in the local saloon where he stopped for a beer on occasion. I know I got other Xmas gifts from there.  Beats Black Friday !!

What drew me into the hobby?  This idea still fascinates me.

At age 2, I was in the floor lining up any small object into a line and calling it "my train".  My parents took me to a variety store to get a Lionel starter set (still age 2), and I promise you, I can remember it. 

So that is how it started, but who can explain how that "spirit" gets instilled into a person?

It's a little backwards in our house.

My son got me into the hobby.  At age 2 he liked Thomas.  So we got an O gauge Thomas set because we thought the bigger trains would be easier for him to handle. 

Shortly after that we bought the Polar Express for the Christmas tree.  He would spend hours laying on the floor just watching it go around.

Then shortly after that ( I think around 3 yrs old) he wanted a GG-1 and his twin sister wanted a steam engine.  The layout was born and we have been having fun with trains for 10 years.

Ron

When I was tiny, my dad chalked a drawing of his locomotive on my blackboard.  He

fired Mikados and Consolidations for the Southern. I was given a childhood book that

showed color pictures of rail cars, including a yellow caboose (most of my model

cabooses are yellow). My grandfather built cabooses for the L&N, and had a book

on Colorado narrow gauge.  I would reread that book on visits, and I never tire of

visiting Colorado narrow gauge.  My cousin across the road had a prewar Lionel

train.  I was allowed to run it, I was hooked, I begged for and got a Marx 3/16 set

for Christmas, and I went through HO, learning to build models, and then discovered

people actually collected the old electric trains of my childhood.  I was trapped.

I got in it for the chicks...chicks dig trains!

I got my first train when I was fifteen days old on Christmas Day 1941,still have all of my dads trains,never to be sold.

Mikey

You could say it started with the Lionel 2026 set that Santa brought me in 1951 (I was three).  But having been born in an eastern Pennsylvania coal town served by the Reading, the Lehigh Valley and the PRR exposed me to railroading right from the beginning.

And when my family left, it was for another PA town, with DL&W and Reading trackage running through it, and the PRR not far away.

Then, when my father graduated from college and got the job he would hold for the next 35 years, we made our last move -- to a town right on the 4-track PRR main line, where I spent many hours watching the Standard Railroad of the World in action.

By the time I got married and left home in 1969, a fascination with trains had sunk into my genes.  It's still there.  And so is the 2026.

Well, my original hobby was megalomania with the goal of conquering the earth and subjugating humanity, but that didn't work out so well. Needing to control some world, I found model railroad much more achievable.

I liked big trains since I was two years old.  Got my first wind up train at age 3 and my first electric at age 4 in 1956 .... a Lionel 2065 Hudson steamer with operating milk, log, and box car, plus a Sunoco 3 dome tanker and a Lionel Lines port hole caboose.  I still have this same set and run it on my layout once in a while.  

I've loved model trains ever since!!

As far as I can tell, I have always been a train nut. The little penny toys I picked out  would always be trains. One of my first memories is of playing with an HO wooden/paper Strombecker model of the UP streamliner. Yellow is my favorite color.

Then it was a Hafner windup, plus somehow inheriting or poaching upon my brother's old Marx Canadian Pacific loco with six inch cars.

The big deal came Christmas of 55 with an American Flyer GP-7 freight set.

Christmas of 59 brought an American Flyer Frontiersman passenger set, and then a 4x8 layout in the basement.

Things really got into gear when I became a so-called adult and could buy what ever I wanted, as long as I could afford it, of course. 

When I was a kid I used to watch Shining Time Station all the time. It was one of my favorite shows. My parents used to take my sisters and I to ride on the Heber Creeper and take trips out to Promontory Summit to see those Two beautiful steam engines in action. I loved trains.

When I was 6, I found my Dad's 2018 postwar steam engine set. I had no idea how it worked so I took the 2 bare lockon wires and shoved them into a socket. The black thumbs were hard to hide and my dad found out what I had been up to. That year for Christmas my parents bought me the 2026 postwar steam set, and my dad built me a small layout to put under my bed. For the last 20 years these engines have been primarily on Christmas duty. 

In 2006 I got a summer job working in Skagway Alaska. I fell in love with that place and worked there another 5 summers. I worked closely with the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad and spent a lot of time up close and personal with those beautiful steam and diesel engines.

Every time a train would roll through town I would stop and watch.

Last Christmas after the birth of my son, I got out my old set and put it around the christmas tree. My son loved watching it and he would crawl after it while I tried to keep it just out of reach. The Christmas tree came down but the train stayed on the living room floor(well the track at least, that kid could move). My wife later bought me an MTH White Pass tank car and I was amazed at the detail for the price.

Since then I have collected White Pass rolling stock and even started making my own.

My Grandfather was an engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad and my father always had trains in the house and took us to see real trains as much as possible.