Why do you like trains? Who turned you onto model railroading

My history with toy trains goes back to the late fifties. As MuEagel stated above my friends and I use to play "Sand-lot" baseball in a lot that sat next to the NE Corridor of the PA RR. On the other side of the tracks was the old Brills factory where they built Trolly cars.

 

I remember seeing GG1's, MU cars, GP-9's and every now and then an old steamer heading for the bone yard.  We would get the biggest kick out of waving to the engineers. There was also a Switch tower at one end of the field. The operators would let us go up to the control floor and get a drink of cold bottled water that they kept there. It was really cool, the switch men use to let me try a throw the "charley bar", but I was only about nine or ten at the time and never could pull it without help.

I remember the Congressional would go and I got to see her from the tower bay window.

 

But, what really grabbed my interest was when I first saw the TV movie put  out by Lionel, "the wonderful world of Trains". I think that was around 1959 or 1960, in any case I was hooked for good. A little older then most kids getting into the hobby and could not hope to own one of Lionel's top end engines like the GG1 or the Hudson but I had the worlds best LV 44 Tonner, pulling the best freight consits, around the greatest 3X6 layout in the world.

Some  of my earliest memories are trains.....

 

1. Being carried on my grandfather's shoulder to watch the #6 El train at Middletown Road in the Bronx?

2. My other set of grandparents lived in Larchmont and were next to the New Haven main line, before the Thruway was there. Black with orange-stripe MUs and speeding EP5s are seared onto my memory.

 

Since then, I've been hopeless!

 

Peter

My Dad turned me on to Lionel post war as a kid with my fist set. My grandfather turned me on to trains, though. A car inspector in the West Baltimore cut yards for the B&O , we spent every evening that I spent at his house, watching switching operations

My parents got me a 1061 scout set for Christmas, 1966 - I was 4.  The following Christmas, in response to "I wanna train that goes backward", Santa brought a #626 44-tonner.  My interest waned until Christmas (again) 1972 - this time it was a full blown MPC freight set headed by an 8020 Santa Fe Alco diesel (single A) with an orange Wheaties boxcar, green Burlington gondola, blue Great Northern hopper and Santa Fe caboose.  Shortly after the new year, dad brought home a 1972 Lionel catalog, even tho it was 1973... and a stack of postwar catalogs, various years from '53 through '66.  That was when everything changed.  There were "lulls" over the years, but the trains were always patient and I had the foresight not to sell them off to fund something else.  Still have those early childhood trains.

 

You asked WHY we like trains..?  I like machines in general, but especially trains.  There's that tie to the past, good times spent with dad and friends.  The gadget aspect plays heavily into it, too.  Bottom line, tho, I just love 'em and I won't bother trying to get to the bottom of that.    

 

Here's one: most traumatic train memory was dad coming home from a business trip to New York.. yep, he went by Madison Hardware.  He told me they had a brand new Congressional set and I just knew he got it, but was going to make me think he didn't.  He was that way.  The set was $800 and he really didn't come home with it.  Made me sick.  But we sure made up for it.  I miss him dearly....

WELL LIKE MOST OF US IT WAS MY DAD HIS FATHER BOUGHT HIM A SET OF LIONEL TRAINS AND THAT'S WHAT GOT ME INTO IT.

 

AS FOR WHY I LIKE TRAINS, THERE'S JUST NOTHING ELSE LIKE THEM, YOU SEE CARS AND TRUCKS EVERYDAY. BUT ITS VERY RARE THAT YOU SEE A STEAM ENGINE.

 

GOOD THREAD

ALEX

On Christmas of 1953 when I had just turned 5 years old, my father bought me a Santa Fe Warbonnet F3 A-B-A set with a ZW and multiple cars, the most memorable were the operating milk car and unloading platform, and the operation coal car and unloading bin. There was a fair amount of track but no switches.

 

As I grew older I became aware of the realism of HO and bought a set with my allowance money. The crowning HO loco was a Mantua Mikado that I assembled and was the pride of my layout (4'x8').

 

After I contracted an auto-immune disease that took competitive bodybuilding out of my life, I returned to the love of my youth, model railroading. I discovered TMCC and felt an area to redirect my passion.

 

I also expanded my railroad interests into G gauge, where I have five Loco Link operated locomotives, the grandest of which is Unitah's #50, 2-6-6-2T, with water tender and four realistic flatcars with gilsonite loads and a custom shortened four axle USA caboose.

 

I am in the process of a complete makeover of my small O-gauge layout that will focus on the operation of a Trackmobile. At work we recently constructed a rail system for removing limestone was from two boilers. The motive power we bought was a Trackmobile, which we recently painted pink on a month focusing of breast cancer. The NFL wore pink shoes, we use a pink Trackmobile.

Parents.  Marx/Allstate Sears set.  666 with SP tender.  WICKED green smoke bottle and great Pepe LePew smell...........

When I was 3 or 4 years old, my dad drew a good chalk drawing, in perspective (I

have an oil painting I did in my twenties, of a vintage car coming out of a covered bridge..my perspective stinks!) of either a Southern consolidation or Mikado, he

fired both during WWII, on my easel style blackboard.  Later, when maybe 8 years

old, I lived across the street from a cousin,  ten? years older, and I was allowed to play with his prewar Lionel set with the "latch"? couplers..sorry, not into early Lionel.

Propaganda barrage I laid down probably resulted in me getting a Marx set for the holiday.

And, the race was on.......

My father would take me down to Penn Station and put me in the cab of GG-1s.

He worked for the railroad. Mom bought me a Lionel set when I was 3 in 1952. I still have that set.

 

Long live the trains !

 

Scrappy

I had trains in the early 50's when my parents bought a 2018 set for the x mas tree. As I grew     

I forgot about the trains till the mid 70's when I visited my older cousin who had a train platform. Well since then I have been hooked. Although all my trains from my child hood are gone I now run all 3 rail scale stuff from Lionel and MTH and some WBB. It has been one heck of a ride.

Parents got me a Lionel 2018 O-27 set when I was four. Still have the locomotive and caboose. Dabbled in N scale during my reckless youth. O gauge hit back with a vengeance 25 years ago.

My Dad told me that when I was little and too young to remember I got hold of some of his HO trains and played with them outside on the concrete. He said I ground all the wheels flat.

I never had trains growing up. Nobody that I knew of even had model trains -- which has got to ring as odd to the members of this forum. So I am an anomaly, I suppose. However, as a kid, I lived in Burlington Northern, Great Northern and Northern Pacific territory (S.E. Montana). So I loved seeing the real deals hauling tonnage through town. But I never caught the small scale bug because I was never exposed to it. Believe it or not, just two years ago (sometime in my 40's) my wife got me a RailKing starter set for Christmas as kind of a joke - the gift for the guy that you can't find a gift for. Now, in 2012, I am addicted and in need of some serious counseling or rehab or something. I have way, WAY too many pieces for someone who has never built an actual layout. But what a great hobby. I find that the seeking out of specific items (the thrill of the hunt) is strangely more satisfying than the actual running of the trains -- although I love that, too. There's nothing better than a late night session of trains -- some good jazz playing lightly in the background, the family all asleep for the night, and a fantastic bourbon close at hand. Life is good, my friends!

My dad had first given me several books on steam on the NKP and the N&W when I was 6 and I was hooked.  Then when I was 7 I saw Ross Rowland and the 614 scream by me during the Chessie Safety Express runs....that was something to see at that age, a big Northern running at speed.  And once I got to see the 611 for the first time....wow now we were talking, a big black streamlined race horse....my dreams came true, so now with my layout I am trying to create a world, or a time that I missed out on. 

As far back as I can remember trains have been a part of my life. My grandfather was a railway man, and steam trains were our regular method of travelling as we didn't have a car.  But I will never forget that wonderful christmas morning in 1964 when my Mum took me by the hand and led me to the front parlour and opened the door. Inside was a wonderland. On the carpet was a station that my Mum had made herself, complete with platforms,  advertising boards, trees and two ovals of track.  Sitting on the tracks were two clockwork steam engines. One pulling some goods wagons, and the other hauling two gorgeous pullman cars. I will never forget that glorious moment, and I can even remember the song that was playing on the radio as I gazed in wonder at this miniature wonderland that lay before me. Since that moment, I have never been without trains in my life. Thank you Mum, from the very bottom of my heart.

my grandfather and mother got me in to this hobby.  been with it ever since that was when i was 9.  i stay with this hobby because my grandfather loved trains also.  he died about a week before christmas that is when i got my first set.  

This will be surprising...my son, when he was three always wanted train related gifts to play with. That Christmas, my parents bought him the Lionel Polar Express set which blew him away when comparing it to all his Thomas the Train toy items.

 

Then as his interest continued to grow, he always wanted to go to the train stores to talk to the engineer or train doctor as he called him. As we added a few things here and there to his set like more carts, extra track, buildings, etc... I started to gain interest after seeing an MTH DCS demo.

 

Well my son will be turning nine this coming month and our collection is now on a 20 x 8 layout with two levels and a 4 x 3 train yard as an "L" on the one far side. Our engine fleet consists of 14 diesel engines and three steam engines from MTH, Lionel, and K-Line. Our rolling stock is close to 100 pieces and our road names consist of CSX, BNSF, Pennsylvania, New York Central, Wheeling & Lake Erie, Sante Fe, Canadian Pacific, and Alaska. The rolling stock is from MTH, Weaver, Lionel, K-line, and Atlas. We run the lay-out with MTH DCS, an AIU, MTH Z-4000, and six Z-1000 power packs all on Lionel Fastrack. Curves vary from 0-36 to 0-72.  

 

Thanks to him, my interest is at an all time high. He really gave me a reason to work harder and make more money....this is not a cheap hobby..LOL!! But in the end, I thank him for showing me the O gauge hobby and one day I'm sure he'll be passing his interest on to his own family. 

Some significant real railroads--Erie, B&O, Pennsy, and NYC--turned me on to model railroading in my very early years, primarily because I was exposed to one or more of them on pretty much a daily basis.  It didn't take much of a push for Josh Cowen's advertising to turn me into a toy train addict.

I have no idea. Guess I like to watch things go around and around. Btw, if you ever want to lose a girlfriend, tell her you like toy trains.

Santa brought me my first Lionel train (a 2026 and four cars) in 1951.  Then my family moved to a town right on the PRR 4-track main line, and that cemented my interest.

 

The Lionel equipment hibernated in my parents' attic after I went to college and then got married.  During that period, I modeled in HO, HOn21/2, and N.  Later, I picked up O scale.  I still have it all, carefully packed away.

 

Finally, I retrieved the Lionel and got it back in running order.  I was hooked once again, and started accumulating PW Lionel equipment (no digital anything). Now that I'm retired, I finally have my first actual Lionel layout, modest though it is.  And it's just as much fun as it was in 1951!

 

For me it was my Grandpa. 

 

He had an awesome postwar style Lionel layout that he built in 1956.

 

I am told that I was down in the basement with him hours as an infant watching the trains go 'round.

 

He also bought my my first Lionel set at Christmas when I was 8 years old.

 

He passed away in October 2010, but I still think of him every time I run the trains, work on the layout, or open a new catalog.

 

I don't remember any point of my life where trains were not involved at some level.

There are several reason's I got interested. At about age 10 my twin brother & I & 12 year old brother received a Lionel 736 freight set from out two single uncles. I also had another uncle that lived in the Mayfair section of Philly and the N.E. corridor was in back of his house. I remember the GG1's flying by. My grade school also had a great view of a freight yard atop about a 30 ft wall and I can still see the switchers going back & forth all day. I still share the 736 with my brothers today after. I really got started back in the hobby in about 1990 and have a 12x13 layout to run my trains on. 

For me, it was my dad and his father.  My grandfather gave me my first train set for Christmas 1974.  Apparently he noticed that I loved to watch the HO trains he ran around the tree at Christmas, so he gave me his first set - a 1930's O gauge Lionel set that I assume he bought right after he married my grandmother in order to run around their Christmas trees.  My father got a sheet of plywood and covered it in green felt to use as a platform for our Christmas displays.  When Lionel/MPC started producing quality trains again, he bought a NYC Empire State Express freight set, and in following years the MPC era Southern Crescent and Blue Comet sets.  I guess he figured that we had "enough" at that point.

 

In addition, my father would take us to see static display steam engines whenever he could, and I will never forget the day he dragged us down to the tracks in our town to see the American Freedom Train come through town.  That was the day I was hooked on trains for good.

 

Andy

My story began on December 25, 1956 when my grandparents didnt know what to give me for my first Christmas at 11 months old. Soooo grandma worked at JC Penney looked at their Christmas displays and bought me a Marx train set. The seed was planted and three layouts, 1000 cars, 200 engines, hundreds of buildings  etc, the seed has become a forest! Thank you to them and if they could only see it now 56 years later!!

Both grandfathers were railroad men (Erie) but the biggest influence was getting an American Flyer set one Christmas. Looking back I think Dad got it used since it wasn't in a set box per se but I didn't care. Some years later I got an Athearn set back when Athearn made sets; with a Canadian National F7 for power. Then there were the jaunts to watch real train pass through Rochester, NY on NYC's Chicago Line where I barely remember witnessing the last days of steam and those Pacemaker box cars we're so fond of. Once I actually was invited to ride a switcher working near where we were parked. The train bug bit and never left.

 

Jim McClenin

Thomas started it all. Then a port of lioel city train set then a new York centr. Now I'mgetting up to DCS. Im now loving and enjoying this hobby 

I grew up 1/2 mile from the PRR Ft. Wayne line in northwest Ohio.  As a young child I remember watching trains from our back yard.  We had quite a panoramic view of the tracks.  I especially remember the Focal Organge cabin cars.   My babysitter lived a few houses from the local grain elevator.  Every day she took me over to watch the local switch the elevator and lumberyard.  I was six when the Penn Central merger took place.  I don't remember the details of what was going on.  I do remember my dad talking about all of the troubles and heard new words such as bankrupcy.  All I was concerned about was watching the trains.  When I was a teenager, my best friend's father managed a local grainery.  We would sit on top of hopper cars and watch passing trains. (DON"T TRY THIS TODAY!!!)  The Amtrak Broadway Limited was quite a rush as was the afternoon Trailvan mail train.

 

My uncle had Lionel trains.  He had a layout at another Aunt and Uncle's house.  When my Aunt would watch me I would spend hours at the layout pushing trains made up of dummy locos and "cheap" freight cars.  When I was 10, my family got me my first Lionel set; the IC Cross Country Express.  I literally ran the gears off of the locomotive.  Still have it sitting on a shelf.

 

I still live about a half mile from the Ft. Wayne line tracks, only about 20 miles east of where I grew up.  Gone are the PRR, PC and CR trains.  CSX ran a couple of years after the CR breakup.  Now CF&E runs mostly locals on the now single track line.  I have come to appreciate RR history and enjoy researching the various lines that ran through NW Ohio.

 

Tom  

Can't remember,  I start my first layout at 12 , a long time ago 

I guess I was born that way. I had an uncle who worked for the N&W in Columbus, Ohio, but I liked trains before I knew where he worked!

Anymore, I'm not too interested in current version of railroading, preferring the late steam era, the stuff that was mostly gone by the time I was born. LOL

When I was three years old, that was in 1938, my Dad figured that I needed a train and, during the depths of the depression, he went out to buy one.  I'm sure that he got it at Woolworth's but it was a Marx Commodore Vanderbilt freight set and I loved it!  I would lay down on the floor for hours and just watch that little train go around the Christmas tree, past a station building that my Uncle had made with the name "Fargo" at the top.  (I thought that "far-go" is what the train did; it went far.  Had not heard of a place of that name.)

 

The next Christmas I wanted another train and lo and behold, even though I was too scared of Santa to approach him, I got another train.  This time a Marx M10,000 red and silver streamliner.  Man, I was hooked!  Certainly the luckiest kid in my neighborhood with two trains running. 

 

I never wavered in my love for trains, although there were times of automobile enthusiasm and racing, antique boats, but always trains in some form or another.  Now, at the age of 77, I'm still hooked;  love trains, have a great layout, follow real trains, make train trips when possible, will have a train interest to my dying day.

 

Paul Fischer

I was born into the model train hobby as my Grandfather and Father always set up the 5'X9' Christmas layout in our basement before I was born.  As I grew older the trains connection with the festive Christmas season made it exciting to look forward to.  The smell of the ozone, the smoke, the sounds and motion got me hooked on the hobby before I knew it was a hobby.  Initially to me it was a Christmas activity.  And since some of my friends and cousins also had trains around the tree or in the basement, it added to the excitement to see their set ups too!

 

It wasn't long, before I was a double digit age, that I hounded my Dad & Grandfather to set up some of the trains during the summer.  My Mom allowed a 4'X4' area layout with an O27 and Super O circles with no scenery at all.  But with my imagination I loved running the trains in circles with the ZW.

 

Although I lived only about 2 miles from the Northeast Corridor, my only interaction with real trains was seeing tank cars lined up at chemical plants in Philly on the way to visit relatives.  It wasn't until the early 1980's that I correlated the toy trains as being models of the real ones.  I always knew they were, I just rarely saw real ones of my models.  Unfortunately, I didn't discover or think of railfanning until the mid 1990's, so I missed out on a lot of varied locomotive color schemes.

 

But now I'm all in and learning new things through this forum and the internet to help build and improve my current 54' X 32' Penn American Railroad layout.  Oh, and I still have those post war Lionel sets my grandfather bought. 

I grew up in a Air Force family, which you would have thought made me an airplane fanatic.  However, while we were stationed in the Territory of Alaska, my Dad bought a Lionel Scout set for me when I was 3 yrs old.  Been at it ever since.  Even took the trains along to assignments in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Germany.

 

John

My grandfather on my dads side was a railroad engineer for the Chicago & Alton. My grandfather on my mom's side ran a trolly when he lived in Germany. My older brother had a foot locker full of prewar Lionel that he would run under our beds in the garage my dad made into our room in Pittsburg, CA. In those days my mothers parents lived with us in a small house. I'm still reliving my childhood at 68 years of age. If I could only go back in time. Those were the days my friend. Those were the days.

I was born loving trains. My great grandfather on my mom's side was retired engineer from the B&O railroad and he loved trains but he passed before i got to know him i think who i took after of loving trains . When i was 5 years old i asked for train for christmas my first train was a battery operated train