Who can you thank for infecting you with the train bug?

A 1999 , I think, MTH catalog ( had no idea who they were) with a picture of the Jersey Blue Comet on the cover.

My Dad.

During WWI, he worked on the Atlantic & Yadkin Ry Bridge Force under the Tie & Timber Foreman. He bought me a NYC Marx wind-up for Christmas 1938 when work was very scarce and he probably couldn't afford it. It lasted until my younger brother introduced it to his sandpile while I was in Korea saving the world from communists!

It is amazing how many times my Uncle brazed, filed and wound the broken spring during the 1940s. The  engine had a hitch thereafter but still could git along.

"Cardstock", in the form of a shoebox was the primary scenic structure of my railroad empire. 

 

Also an Uncle, one of 6 brothers on Mom's side [Dennison, Ohio] who braked on the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie---I have his P&LE Lantern.

Model Railroader magazine - which I discovered in our local public library. After reading 5 years of back-issues, I got an N scale set. Then I discovered OGR and CTT in a local bookstore and moved on up. That was 22 years ago!

Dad, every christmas morning the Hiawatha champ set, circa 1936, also my birth year, was set up on a 3'X6' platform next to the tree, it was a passenger set, no reverse but it was GREAT!

   And I guess watching trains on the DL&W from our front porch in Gouldsboro,Pa. also played a part in my love for trains.

  Also when they passed out brains, a bit of a mix-up there, I ended up with trains Oh well I'm having fun. Geez you guys are all so young!!

 

Neil Kresge

I understand I was unhappy when my dad came off the troop train after 3+ years of combat and didn't have a train for me.. He made up for at Christmas 1945. So for our family a train around the tree has always been a must have. The photo is of my son James who has just returned from a 2 year assignment in Japan, and  flying off the CVN George Washington.  Starting to unpack items that had been in storage for years you can see what was important, and look  who is being infected. My 1 month old granddaughter and 6 year old grandson. This is a FARR #5 that we used when James was was a boy

My dad bought me a Lionel set(no longer here)and a neighbor that had a super layout. Plus I loved trains and trolleys(buses too).

My Grandfather.

 

My Mom has a pic of Grandpop lifting me up to watch his Std ga Lionel #42 and two day coaches run around the tree for my first Christmas at 10 months old.

 

When Grandpop passed in 2001, I got his collection, including the items mentioned above.

 

 

My dad all the way. For Christmas of 1966, my parents got us an uncatalogued set at Lit Brothers in Camden NJ. The collection slowly grew and my brother and I looked forward to going to Ted's Engine House to pick up something for the layout. my children were also introuced to the hobby early on. Right now the bug is dormant, but will come back.
I miss my father dearly and realize that he stares back at me when I am getting ready each morning.
Great thread,thanks.

My dad all the way. For Christmas of 1966, my parents got us an uncatalogued set at Lit Brothers in Camden NJ. The collection slowly grew and my brother and I looked forward to going to Ted's Engine House to pick up something for the layout. my children were also introuced to the hobby early on. Right now the bug is dormant, but will come back.
I miss my father dearly and realize that he stares back at me when I am getting ready each morning.
Great thread,thanks.

My Grandparents didnt know what to get their first born grandson for Christmas sooo they got me a Marx train set and added to it every Christmas and at age 10 my first Tabletop RR built with the help of my grandfather and after that my family when they come to the basement all say if he could only see46 years later what he started, but Iam sure he is looking down and smiling from above! Happy Railroading!!!-Don Klose

 

Check us out

www.bellevueandschenectadyrr.com

My Dad.  At first I was allowed to play with my older brothers postwar Lionel engine & a few cars.  Christmas (I think it was in 1971?) Dad picked out a Lionel New Jersey Central set with "the Amazing sound of steam".  That was it for me, although I always wanted a diesel engine.  It wasn't until after my son was born & I had the money available to purchase my first diesel -a Great Northern RS unit.  Haven't bought a steamer since.

 

Thanks Dad. 

I really miss you!

My father was a train collector, so he gets credit for starting my passion for trains but that was in my youth. Then one day near Christmas in 2000, I happened into a hobby shop in Laurel, Maryland. In the window on a layout was an O-gauge Santa Fe F3 powered passenger train with three streamlined passenger cars, but it was sitting still. I pushed a few buttons on the edge of the layout, but nothing happened.

 

Nearby a salesman was watching and it wasn't long before he came over to make the train run. Then I heard the cab chatter and the departure announcement. I was blown away and commented to the salesman, "This must be very expensive." "No," he said, "The set with track and transformer ready to run was less than $300, and it was made by Mike's Train House!"

 

"Who the heck is Mike's Train House?" I replied. Well I didn't buy that set because I fancied steam locomotives, but I was hooked. So thanks to Mike Wolf I now have a layout with over 300 feet of track, 14 switches, a roster of 32 Rail King locomotives, way too many pieces of rolling stock and DCS.

 

I love this hobby! So like my father, I have given the passion to my grandchildren. They have Rail King O-gauge trains too.

I guess my Dad did it to me too.  I was only 14 months old when I got my first HO set for Christmas 1955.  It's been a lifelong passion ever since then.

HOWEVER, it was OGR forum member 'tracktwo' that converted me to the world of 3-rail Lionel back about 1984.    It was like re-discovering trains all over again!  Thank you Neil!

 

AF

I can tell you exactly who it was and when. They are off-camera in these shots - my parents, every Christmas until I was ten. I was given full-reign to stick my fingers and nose any where on and under this layout, even when they were not in the room.

 

That's a Lionel 1666 and a Lionel "Scout" you recognize, there. I still have the track, switches, metal RR signs, and the undersized houses which they made by hand.

If I get to go to Heaven, this is exactly where I want to be, once again.

Moon's son, Frank

Lets see....

 

1.   My Dad.

2.   Lionel Train set 2167WS

3.   Growing up within walking distance of the P.R.R/PC/Amtrak NEC.

4.   The Market/Frankford EL (P.T.C/SEPTA)

5.   Conrail in the Philadelphia area.

6.   Any amusement park with a ride-able train. (Knoebels Grove in particular)

7.   My Dad swapping the Lionels for HOs.

8.   Strasburg Railroad.

9.   New Hope and Ivyland Railroad.

10. Black River and Western Railroad.

11. My two sons.

12. Swapping Dad's HO collection for Lionel Train set 2167WS

 

A list of train things from my early years.

 

1. A battery operated tin plate free roaming bump and go stream engine. (1970)

2. Mattel Putt Putt wind up wooden/plastic train set. (1971 or 1972)

3. "The little engine that could" (Favorite first book)

4. Lionel MPC Cannonball set (1973) -Age 5

5. Trips to scenic railroads / Amusement park train rides.

6. 2 minute bike ride to Maine Central's Waterville to Bangor mainline. (Benton, ME)

7. MEC Waterville engine shop school field trip. (Late 1970's)

8. MEC Waterville yard railfanning.  Playing on the #470 steam engine. 

9. Switching to HO in my teens.

10. Then N scale in my 20's.

11. Switching back to O gauge in my mid 30's.

 

 A big thanks to my parents for fueling my train obsession.

 

Mike.

Ready for this one... MY WIFE.

 

I love aviation and am in the RC hobby.  She came from a railroad family and wanted to get our son a train set when he was 2.  It's been 7 years since and my son and I are in deep.

 

It's a blast.

My oldest Grandson, Caleb about 10-11 years ago. We lived by the BNSF main and cannot go anywhere without waiting on trains. He loved them. Dug out my brother-in-laws Marx set and it's been full steam ahead since, except he is no longer interested. That's Ok, his younger brothers are filling in.

 

Steve

Does Knoebel's still have the train?  I haven't been there since the late Fifties, and I was afraid it might have been abandoned by now, especially after the flood problems they had a few years back.

My parents who made Christmas mornings so spectacular with the Lionel ORANGE boxes under the tree. How many hours did I play with my brother, who seemed to like to run them at 20 volts whenever possible!  And yet they run to this day! What a GREAT HOBBY!! Thanks eternally!

http://www.knoebels.com/index.php/family-rides

 

It's still listed on the website.  $1.50 a person, what a bargain today.  And you get to scream inside the tunnel, as everybody else does spontaneously.  I rode it summer of 2008.

 

There was not too much damage in the 2011 flood, I think that park was open the following weekend.

My Dad- on Christmas day 1958. 

Like 90% if you related, my Dad figured that I needed a toy train and so when I was 3, in 1938, he went out and bought a Marx Commodore Vanderbilt freight set and put it around the tree.  Dad always said that when I first saw it he knew he made a mistake; I was enamored with that little train and could watch it run for hours on end.  But the next year, I wanted another train and he bought a Marx M10,000 pass. set for me.  I was in 7th heaven!  No other kids in our neighborhood had TWO trains.  This was in the depths of the depression and I doubt if Dad spent more than $5 bucks on either train.

 

Many years later I realized that my Dad and his brothers had trains when they were kids.  And today, I have the duplicate to his #150 Lionel set, along with those two Marx trains from my early days.

 

The train hobby, for me, has grown exponentially over the years!

 

Paul Fischer

For me, it was Joshua Lionel Cowen and those doggone irresistible catalogs, advertisements, and in-store displays that, thanks to him, were so prevalent in the late 1940s and early 50s.  Cementing the interest was the everyday exposure I had to real trains as a boy, and capping it off was the first 2343 set that my dad bought for me.

For my third birthday in 1992, My dad bought me the 1975 Lionel Thunderball set from The Trading Post in Cleveland.  Still have that set and run it to this day.  I've been hooked ever since.

The greatest father a son could ask for

This gentleman: http://www.tcaetrain.org/artic.../timken/timken02.jpg

 

The late Glen Uhl, longtime owner of Glen's Train Shop in Akron, Ohio. Visiting his store was infectious. He definitely kept me on the right track!

It would have to be my dad and My great-grandfather.  Dad had my G-grandfathers postwar lionel layout set up in the basement of their first house, i remember watching the trains go round and round.  Now, I have the lionels, and I make them go round and round for my monst- I mean kids.

No doubt about it. My father. I'm told my first train set was his first 'major' purchase with his very first paycheck as a member of the NYPD in '57.

I will credit Ron Hollander.  He was in an television episode of Trains Unlimited in 1997 which discussed toy trains.  He talked about the connection of toy trains with childhood memories.  I still had my 2026 set I received in 1948.  I set it up and it ran well.  I decided I wanted to add to those memories.  When I purchased the Santa Fe F-3s and ran them I knew I had "arrived".  I had added many Lionel items since. Thanks Ron. (He also wrote the book "All Aboard".) 

My Grandfather and my Father. During WWII we lived in Galion, Ohio, a town blessed by both the Big Four and Erie Railroads, so there was always some train stuff going on. Galion is a short drive from Crestline, then a major Division Point on the Pennsy. On a couple of occasion we used precious gasoline rationing coupons to drive over to the roundhouse. This being before society's infestation with ambulance chasers, we were allowed inside to see the huge Pennsy steamers being serviced. I was about six years old..I never outgrew the fascination that the experience developed in me.

My Pop used to buy Model Railroader magazines and passed them on to me; I still have them.

There was a large (I think) HO model railroad in a museum in Dayton and visiting that was another formative(!) experience.

Dad bought me my first set was I was 1. It was a 2046 Hudson/engine/tender set and it had a milk car and a cattle car that dad might have added as extras. He paid about a weeks salary to buy that set and I grew up with it, setting it up each Christmas and receiving new pieces, until the early 60's when it was put in storage.

All through my college years through my early 20's the trains just sat in boxes.  When I got married we rented a home with a basement. I took the 5 x 9 layout board out of my moms basement in Brooklyn and brought it to NJ to set it up in our basement. That was around 1978. My wife had a friend that she met at work named Kathy who had a boyfriend named John Sasala that was into train collecting big time. John told me that Lionel was still in business and that there were train shows in NJ for Lionel collectors. John invited me to go with him to the "biggest train show in NJ" that took place in a firehouse hall in Wayne NJ. It was not a big event but it was very crowded. Later I joined the TCA and went to my first York meet around 1979 or 1980. I've been hooked ever since and early on I collected everything that I could get my hands on, but I am now an operator/layout builder and have little interest in collecting.

I must thank dad for getting me my train set and John for reintroducing me to the hobby. This hobby has been a good experience as the hobby is interesting, relaxing, enjoyable and through it, I have been blessed to meet and befriend some of the greatest folks in the world.

My Mom and Dad for getting me a HO set when I was 8. But then my Dad for buying me a lionel  O gauge set later on. Now I have the chance to get my family involved and love it. My wife, son and daughter help me out with our layout and love going to the train shows. That is the greatest part of this hobby it doesn't matter how old you are to enjoy it.

David

That would be my father at first. He had some older post war Lionel steam engines that he would put up around the Christmas tree. Eventually he would allow me to add houses and my matchbox cars. Once I was a little older he let me run the trains and eventually it was me putting the train set up around the tree every year. One year he let me put up a carpet central in my bedroom with his trains. From that point on I was hooked. Eventually I went off to college and moved around a bit to Europe, DC, and then Philly all while the trains sat in storage at my Uncle's house.

 

I purchased my first house in the suburbs and wanted to put up the trains around the Christmas tree. I got my dad's old trains out of storage and put them up. My step father gave me some Union Pacific Alco's from the 50's and I got them fixed. It brought back a lot of good memories that I wanted to find a place to put them up around the house full time. I have a custom built 20' x 3' entertainment center against my basement wall and put up the old trains.

 

Then I knew I had to get some new engines and found MTH.

 

Ironically when I was 10, my father was driving an industrial snow plow truck and was hit my a Norfolk & Western. He survived but somehow that did not deter me from enjoying trains.

It was my dad.  When I was born, he just happened to be into trains, and it carried on!

My mother.  When she was pregnant with me the doctor prescribed long walks.  She would walk along the PRR near Ft Meade, MD.  Apparently, I loved them from the day I was born.  I'm still loving them at age 69.

I've been on the FORUM since Nov. 2009 and I think this has been one of, if not the best post that I've seen yet.  I really enjoy seeing the different things that got us into this wonderful hobby.   Thanks for sharing.

 

Killian

 

Union Pacific Big Boy - http://youtu.be/e9LRVWq_exE

 

VETERANS HOME - NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

 

 

My Father ,my grandfather, and his father all worked for the New York Central.  At a young age,in the mid fifties, my Father set up a Lionel layout that fit under my bed, it was a Christmas surprise.  He went to the trouble of making marks in the snow on the porch roof outside my bedroom to simulate Santa's sleigh. I never had a chance. Fred B