I've been into O gauge for as long as I can remember, it first started with pulling out my uncle's old # 1107 Texas Special freight set out of my grandmother's attic once in a while when I would stay with her during the summer months. The set still exists and I kept it at my house for a decade after she passed away, but my uncle wanted it back a couple of years ago, which I was more than happy to do (it was his, after all). Eventually my grandmother she bought me my own set (the first Black River freight set MPC came out with). That set is long gone after I went into more scale sized stuff back in the early/mid- 80s (Weaver, Lionel Std. O, etc.). Even had a tabletop layout set up in an empty bedroom before I left home.
Like a couple of others stated here, I also got into scuba & sky diving (still do scuba whenever I can), and I also used to build computers & set my own LANs up, even using the fully robust but now quaint Novell Netware servers (I'm also in the IT field). I also enjoyed travelling, visiting state parks, going up & down the CA coast line, explore old ghost towns, etc.
But even when other interests took up my time, I never fully got out of trains; I'd still set up a temporary loop on the floor whenever the mood struck me. I now have an 8 X 16 layout downstairs. I run primarily scale 3 rail trains, but I still have a somewhat sizeable collection of MPC (mostly from the Famous Name RR series) and some of the billboard quad hoppers and I also have some postwar and I'm still having fun.
