As the summer comes to a close and the first day of fall is 9-22-24 I was thinking that we don’t have an official date to celebrate the beginning of Train Season. Train shows will commence; displays will be planned; and our own efforts will increase as outdoor conditions change.
Perhaps we should select the 24th of September as the start. That’s three months until Christmas Eve which was always a timeline date for completion.
Your thoughts?
Jay
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Train season ends?
I thought that train season started around 0000 01jan and ended sometime around 2400 31dec.
Usually after baseball is over. Love or hate the yankees they usually play October baseball!
Train season is a 24/7 365-day holiday for me as well.
Check out my thoughts on this subject here:
Tis Train Show Season! (warrenvillerailroad.com)
and here: "Trains is a Winter Sport" - Not! (warrenvillerailroad.com)
BTW, the first train show (swap meet) since the spring on LI will be this Sunday, closely followed by another on 9/22
It doesn’t really end for me either….. I also go 24/7 punctuated by the Yorks in April and October.
However, for the local modular group it begins in August with the Chesterfield County Fair and ends in January when we finish our Holiday display at the Great Big GreenHouse. Between February and August, we usually have only two events: Ashland Train Day in April and the Keystone Tractor Museum in July.
On top of that, I’m a member of the National Capital Trackers and participate in their events when I can, even if it is just to show up for set up or take down.
Peter
I spend the same amount of time with my layouts, trains, and the OGR Forum every week - year round. The only seasonal difference for me is that there are more train shows to attend from September through March.
MELGAR
I agree with Marty. Thing is if you are to really consider those that are less into the hobby and maybe don't factor in things like maintenance, then you have an actual date. These fly by night people have tried grabbing their trains that need fixing, brought it to shops or called our fellow mechanics here on the forum and find out that it isn't going to get fixed because they're busy as heck. I have been told by my local train store as well as a few folks that they call in late November or even a couple of days before Christmas. No engine is going to get worked on and turned around that late in the game.
Good rule of thumb for maintenance and repairs is to inquire before summer ends. I'd even say contact whomever would be doing the work to see what sort of workload they may or may not have as well as planned vacations. I know I've avoided plenty of headaches that way.
Also, with September being here, local train stores should have increased business leading up to Christmas(and possibly after) before everything winds down. I know mine will get crazy busy even with flash sales and sidewalk sales(before it gets too cold).
Well, it was just a whimsical thought. Like many of you I’m a year round guy too. For me it was also the recollection, as a kid, that I always wanted our 4x8 layout up sooner rather than later.
I find that when I get busy with other things like work, makes me want to see more train action whether real or models. At best, maybe not the entire year for trains ATM, but we all know that changes.
Never knew it ended.
'Train Season' actually started sometime back in the early 1900's when you think about it. For many of us it probably began that 1st Christmas when we received one under the tree! I well remember mine on Christmas morning 1949 when I was 5 1/2...
Best one I've heard Sam.
@c.sam posted:'Train Season' actually started sometime back in the early 1900's when you think about it. For many of us it probably began that 1st Christmas when we received one under the tree! I well remember mine on Christmas morning 1949 when I was 5 1/2...
This hit home for me. Train season started for me on Christmas of 1976 when I got my first Tyco HO set at age 7. I promptly ran the Santa Fe F7 off the dining room table, but my father replaced it with and Alco Century series locomotive. Been in HO, N, and now O ever since. I didn't discover girls or cars in high school. I spent time every day in the attic working on the 16'x24' HO layout whether it was wiring, reworking a little track, kitbashing trains, building kits, my first awful attempts at custom painting, or watching 100 car freight trains do loops around the layout. In college it was an N scale layout built out of cardboard around my architecture studio desk. By my 20's I was back in HO kitbashing and custom painting HO trains for the PRR and CNJ. Not much has changed for me in that regard. I've always circled back to those roads. Discovered O scale by 30 and finally 2-Rail O at 40. Been slowing making the transition from 3 to 2 rail since then.
I can't say that about any of my other hobbies.
I’m a year round guy also but my enthusiasm and excitement for me begins Oct 5th. That’s my birthday and that’s when I was allowed to put the platforms up and unpack the Gilbert American Flyer trains and get the Christmas Garden ready for Christmas Day. Oh the wonderful memories.
Got my October York pass in the mail a couple of weeks ago ✅ - Labor Day is behind us ✅ - PRR Legacy M1 is coming from Charles Ro ✅ -
Train season is here 👍🏼🚂😊
Back in the 50's, train season ran concurrently with the public-school Christmas vacation period of mid-December to the first week of January. That's when the 4 x 8 sheet of plywood with an oval loop, stored vertically all year behind the furnace, was laid down.
There was no train season through the 60's, 70's and 80's. I reentered the hobby in 90's after finding my original Lionel train set in the basement of the house I grew up in. And then I discovered OGR, CTT and York to greatly inspire and propel my interest. Now train season is all year long.
By about the age of three.
Bob
@Rollsington posted:Usually after baseball is over. Love or hate the yankees they usually play October baseball!
Though I am a BIG Yankee fan, I agree with the many other responses that train season is 365 1/4 days per year!
train season for me is almost everyday
when i'm not playing with my lionel stuff i'm on youtube looking at trains
I do train shows year around but actually working on trains starts with October York and ends with April York. Summers are short here and winters long and I much prefer being outside in the wind.
Pete
Train season? You mean that's a thing? .. Lol!!! Trains are the norm around my house 365 days per year.
The current train seasons ends at midnight Christmas eve. The next season begins at 12:01 a.m. Christmas day. Everybody knows that!
I’m in the minority, apparently. I still check out the forum a bit throughout the year, but my work on the layout grinds to a halt in the spring and doesn’t start again until mid- to late-fall. My boys still play baseball and our springs and summers are spent traveling to watch them play and just hanging outside here in the Midwest.
I am all about the Christmas layout. Started on January 20th two weeks after I took down and put away last years layout. Every year I try and top the layout from the year before.
I have been planning and gathering for my biggest layout ever. So my season begins mid January and ends mid January.
The NJHR starts in October and we just posted the schedule.
I’m always tinkering and running trains. Maybe Spring to Fall weekends are occupied by taking my classic to car shows; but that’s one day out of the W/E. Of course family comes first.
Year around for me, but here in Arizona in kicks into full swing between May and December, it's just too hot to do anything outside! December thru May is when you do the outdoor stuff!
Train season:
For me it's a temperamental thing.
That is, I can be hot, cold, lukewarm... but seldom consistent over the long term.
For the past many months I've been lukewarm. I've done very little.
Hoping the temperature will increase any day now and I'll indulge with abandon.
Andre
I have too many other interests so when cycling and gardening season slows down train season picks up. Train shows are now limited to both allentown shows. However since the layout is next to the laundry something is running while the wash is tumbling.
Train season has a starting and ending date?
As the folks at the bar say, it's always 5 o'clock somewhere.
It's year-round for me! But, knowing the intent of your question, I would say about Oct 1. At least, that's when train shops I've done business with over the years started having longer hours, especially on weekends. And getting in train sets and advertising them. Of course, that was back in the day when there were more brick & mortar train shops than there are now.
I have different versions of train season.
May to August I do big projects that might make the layout not be operational. I also leave time for cycling, golf and going to concerts/events etc.
September is painting season since the humidity is much lower.
October to February I run trains and do enhancement type projects.
March and April I typically take off.
Its not an on/off thing, more like a probability density function, 0.5+cos( (day-of-year)/(2*pi*365))
It never ends!
whenever I turn the juice on.
Marty
If locomotives can have fantasy paint schemes, then I can have fantasy train season. Train season starts after my yachting season ends as long as that is after my Ferrari collection has completed its annual concourse circuit.
I’m ridin’ the train of delusion. 
About the time trout season winds down — mid November onward
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