SJC posted:Short Answer: Yes and No.
Around this time, an interest in N scale and HO - more affordable for a kid like me at the time got my interest. The O Gauge trains were packed away.
We purchased a large, completed HO layout and dozens of engines and cars. I was out of O Gauge for good with no trains. N scale was put aside and it looked like I was staying in HO going forward, There was just too much invested in it to switch scales again and go back to O Gauge.
At the same time as the HO collection grew, I was gifted with a train I have always loved - an LGB. I have always loved LGB and only have one set. It is on display and just takes up too much room. I've thought about getting a few more LGB pieces for around the Christmas tree but the size and cost makes it very hard to justify for a few hours use each year.
Resulting family BS saw nearly all trains - and the HO layout lost. I was able to "rescue" many of the HO engines and LGB set. Nothing else. No layout was built, no place to run them with the local club shutting down as well.
I have read many of these type topics before, thinking I had never been given a train. I bought my first one when I was about 12. How dull my memory is. I had an Internet pen pal who was enamored by the Bachmann HO Shay, which that common interest is how we got together over the miles. As his health deteriorated, he lost his ability to even put the engines on the track. He told me he was giving all his trains to his nephew. I told him I thought that was excellent. He told me he had 21 of the Bachmann HO Shays, not to mention many other steam engines. Here one day there was a box at our door containing 6 of the Shays! I was floored!! He said they were in good hands, and I should do with them what I wanted.
By this time, I was having trouble handling HO trains myself, second bout of carpal tunnel and arthritis, plus poor eyesight. I had bought an On30 locomotive and a couple cars and an O gauge building kit. After he passed on at age 59, the Shays just sat. I had decided to go O gauge Hi-rail and had sold the On30 equipment. Both daughters were in college, and while they both received academic scholarships, and had applied for loans, we were hard pressed to meet other financial needs; laptop computer, arts materials, etc. I sold all 6 Shays to meet college needs. Now I wish I had kept one Shay as a memento to the man whose wife wrote me thanking me for being a faithful pen pal for 11 years.
