Did your Dad get you into this hobby?

Grudgingly.  He bought my first Marx O27 set for ristmas 1951, and a lot of track over the first six or seven years.  He also bought a couple of freight cars.

Yes, in 1944.

Absolutely! And my grandfather did the same for him. Now I'm spending time with my boys trying to extend the fun to a fourth generation!!

There was a recent thread covering  this very topic: 2nd generation toy model train enthusiasts 

Grandpa and Dad

At first I thought it was Santa Claus but; as it turned out, it was my dad who got me started.  He built my first O gauge and HO layouts.  

Curt

no

Yes

Yes, along with mom.

Yes. He used to buy MR at a news stand to read during travel (WWII years) and turned the copies over to me.

Yes. He built a very simple train table in the basement for my bother and me. The table is now long gone, and my brother has no interest. My gain! But I still have the set from Christmas morning.

Chris

LVHR

Yes in 1949.

brr posted:

It's not the trains, it's the time. True for most hobbies. 

Amen, amen, amen! My grandson and I have spent HOURS playing with just cardboard boxes. The best box was one we turned into an elevator, labeled the floors, talked about who lived on each floor, which floor the trains were on, etc. You are so right!

And BTW, my Dad did start me with this train board he built me for Christmas, around 1951

George

No..grandfather built first layout, probably with prompting from my mother, and it, on a large sheet of plywood, appeared under tree.

Well it was Santa that brought my first Lionel set Christmas 1947.  And Santa kept bring Lionel trains for many Christmases. 

The engine from Santa's first Lionel set.

Ironic this thread should be posted today...  My dad passed away on 7/14/2014...  Yes, my dad and his mother bought me my first lionel train set, I am guessing 1963 or 64...  He wasn't a hobbyist or DIY guy, but I always got a modest addition to the set each Christmas....  He let me take up most of the unfinished part of the basement in our split level house in NJ.   Then after I started mowing lawns for folks around age 11, I started saving money and he would drive me to peoples homes, locally, who were selling trains in the classified ads in the newspaper....  Remember those !!!

At age 13 or 14 one of the homes we visited was a TCA member named Bill Lucy in Waldwick NJ... To make a long story short, he drove me up there alot of Saturday mornings, and  Mr. Lucy encouraged me to join TCA and sponsored my membership.  Whenever we had company visiting the house my dad would encourage me to do "train shows" and run the trains for family and freinds...   I was really blessed to have a father who was so encouraging, while letting me go in whatever direction I wanted to without alot of over bearing input.....  On the other hand I do wish we could have shared the hobby a little more, but he was involved in my life in many other ways, particularly teaching me to play baseball...  Anyway sorry for the long post, thanks for bringing it up as I have been thinking about all day long.   

Yes, my Dad got me started right before going into high school. I think to keep me on the straight and narrow. I still managed to get into a bit of trouble anyway, but the hobby stuck with me through all of the years. 

Nope. I got myself into model trains.  In fact, I can't remember when I DIDN'T like trains. Though Dad wasn't the least bit interested in trains, he was very supportive of my interest, which in itself imprinted memories of my Dad that I look back on fondly.

Yes, but it was my eldest uncle's hand-me down Christmas layout that he gave us when his kids grew up or he switched from S to HO or something.  My father did a fine job maintaining it and all the accessories.  At Christmas I'd help him line-up and assemble the two wooden platform sections without crushing the track, screw down the oversized O scale street lights, and once I cleaned the track (once was enough :-). 

But I only got to run the transformer once, unlike my brother and the neighborhood boys.  Not sure if it was because I was a girl or because I was the youngest. There were lots of wires.  So, I get to run my own trains now.  My father also taught me a lot about building and painting plastic models, putting decals on without wrinkles, how to use simple wood working tools and a table saw, soldering, and more.  He was AMAZINGLY generous with his tools and I seem to have accumulated quite a collection while he was still alive.  I've got so many that I have wonder what he was using? 

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Our first train was a hand-me-down Standard gauge Lionel #318 box cab with 3 cars which I still have and run. It went under the Xmas tree and I would beg to run the train but only the last day it was up before my Dad packed it away until next year. Finally it quit working until I got it. No, my Dad was no inspiration at all.

Yes, big-time. The trains made for great father-son time from the time I was a baby. I started going to York with Dad in 1979 when I was 10, and spent countless hours with him helping him build his tinplate layout. Wonderful memories that no one can ever take away. 

Yes! My dad was into trains as a kid and really did not push into the hobby, he just exposed it to me, which might have been the key to long term interest.

Charlie

Yes. Santa brought my first Lionel set for Christmas 1949 and I was born a week later. Each Christmas I'd get some train stuff, but the biggest Christmas was 1954 when he left a NYC F3 ABA under the tree. I've been a NYC fan ever since. Dad, aka Santa, built an 8x8 layout with me when I was around 9 or 10. I was always allowed to play with the trains, and while my dad wasn't a hobbiest, he always had an interest in Lionel and spent time with me playing with the trains.

My Dad got me into trains and 50 years on I am forever grateful.

Miketg

Mom and dad didn't have two nickels to rub together. It was my grandmother who bought the first train set, a Marx train set. My brother and I ran that thing to death. Btw I still have it, not in pristine shape but oh the memories. 

Mom and dad did not have allot but they were great parents who I think about every day.

My uncle (and aunt) bought me my first Lionel set - for my birthday -  in 1949.  It was a great set - and I have it to this day.  I also  fault him  , though deceased, for giving me my passion for baseball.  He was a pitcher in the St. Louis Browns organization.

Two of my great loves come from that man.  

Yes, absolutely.....with his 366W set received from his parents when he was a 'kid' of 26 years!  It was tradition to bring the set down from the attic each Christmas, set it up around the balsam tree, and mesmerize all who saw it.......like me.  A crackling fire in the fireplace across the room, the record player playing Bing Crosby, the gateman popping in and out as the train raced by, bubble lights on the tree, Mom's cooking bouquet drifting in from the kitchen....it was Nirvana.

Dad....and Mom...nursed this addiction to the max.  Cereal box cut-outs and trinket offers, stopping along a road to watch a passing train, going to little-known areas of the city overlooking the railroad yards and engine terminal just to watch the activity, riding the train each summer to visit Mom's family 850 miles away, stopping by Roadside America as we drove my sister to camp in the Poconos, visits to all the department store windows and toy areas at Christmas time,  building tables for Lionel trains, HO trains, reconstructing them from basement to attic, going on railfan trips, and, of course the birthday, Christmas, Easter (?), etc., get-well-soon trains.  

Etc.

Etc.

Etc.

What a ride.  

And it's not over yet!....as my wife continues the encouragement....and addiction!

KD

My grandparents bought a train set the year my dad was born, 1938.  My grandmother bought my dad another set in 1952 for Christmas.  The 671rr from 1952 was the first train I remember as a kid running under our Christmas tree.  As my dad fixed up his new house, the trains went by the wayside mostly due to lack of room.  The trains ended up at my aunt and uncle's house where my uncle set up a 4x8 layout for me.  I ran trains there until my early teens.  Some 15 years later, I was visiting my uncle one evening and noticed all the train stuff in a few boxes.  He was preparing to put them out for trash claiming they were junk.  I loaded them into my car and that is where my current obsession began.

So to answer the question posed in the thread title, my grandparents bought the trains, my dad introduced me to them at an early age during Christmas but it was my uncle that provided the play time that continues today.

Tony

Yes he did August of 1996 (I was born on July 23rd) 3 weeks from birth.

My Dad got me into trains before I was born.  The first set he bought was for my older sister when she was two ( Yeah right it was for her )  That was 1952 and the set was head up by the 2056 baby hudson.    When I came along in 1956 I inherited it by default.   When he saw how much I loved it he bought a used collection that had a 4x8 board with super O track on it.  It had four engines including a 2379 Rio Grande F3.  I was the only kid in the neighborhood that actually had a train board to run trains all year round  

My Dad, we always had O and HO scale trains growing up. He still has them, too. I still have my O - HO scale stuff as well.

Sure, it was Dad who tipped off Santa that I wanted a Lionel 2026 set for Christmas, in 1951.  But it was Dad who built the 4x8' train platform for it the following year.  Unfortunately, we didn't have the room to keep it up all through the year, but that platform and its Lionel equipment are among my finest holiday memories.

I still have the 2026, of course, as well as all of the Lionel and Marx accessories that followed.

Yes and no. He sure supported in - in many ways. I think most kids do or did get a train set at one point. Sometimes the "bug" sticks, sometimes it doesn't. It did for me and my father was a prominent fixture at many train shows, tourist RRs, the B&O Museum, etc supporting it. He never had trains as a kid, at least not that I know of. 

What further "cemented" it was the park train, about 1.5 miles from home. I can hear the whistle all day long in the summer. I was the operations manager and engineer from 2010 - 2013. I have hundreds of photos taken over the years and even more stories to tell. Many of those stories, however, shouldn't be repeated......

Once upon a time. Way back when kids played together I was born in Toledo Oh. Railroad tracks ran every which way. Watching trains and walking the tracks seemed like part of me. So NO dad didn't do it but my parents supported my love for trains. Being poor folk I only got gifts at Christmas or birthday but loved them all.

In those days passenger trains ran FAST, I get a kick watching our club members run theirs at a scale 35 MPH. That's not the way it was.

Jim 1939

No.  I enjoyed running pre-war Marx trains with my brother, but it was my father-in-law that got me hooked on operating trains.

Dad and my late Uncle Jim got me into trains with the trains at Christmas time. Dad only put his trains up at Christmas time, but not every year. Uncle Jim had a train board, set up at Christmas time, and I always looked forward to the Christmas visits to my Grandparents. And Uncle Jim always let me fire off the 6650 Missile car, and hit the 6448 Boxcar.

Dad passed his trains to me after I got married, and I inherited Uncle Jim's trains and platform when he passed.

Dad bought my first train as a kid in 1962-3 for Christmas. MArx O gauge and then a few years later HO tyco and then N gauge Arnold Rapido/atlas. Trains put away from 1973 until my sister bought me a 8E set with 2 cars in 1982-3 and for some reason and I had NEVER seen standard gauge before. Rekindled and became a raging fire of collecting and repairing and reproducing. Love the history and figuring out the stories behind the pieces

I have no idea when my dad bought my first train - it was always just there under the Christmas tree from the time I barely started recognizing things. After Christmas, back in the attic until next year. No board, no switches. Just the 610 Erie switcher and 3 cars.  I think I was about 7 when I was allowed to keep the trains year-round in my room. Still no board or switches. Run 'em on the floor. The Plasticville church and some fiberboard houses that you could stick a Christmas tree light bulb in.

YES he did, 19345 days worth so far ! i think i was born in a train car LOL. He had Lionel and S gauge before I came around, then HO started showing up...Mom says I was his excuse to keep getting more trains. I still have all my trains from the start. My bedrooms were always full of trains, to  where i had to pull my bed out from under the layout to go to bed, Mom didn't care for that much, having to duck under to change the sheets on the bed. Then the layout expanded into the closet, then the next room....guess that's why I like cutting holes in the walls, got that from Dad !  he helped me cut all the holes in the walls at my house. it was his idea to build a layout out in the "what was my garage full of cars" guess I have to build a new one for them someday....now it's the new train room. Hopefully we will have some trains running in there by winter.....THANK'S  DAD & MOM !

from this...my 1st HO Santa fe engine...with 4 passenger cars...

to this....fun never ending project...

soon he will be able to back his camper in and go out in the train room and run trains,

and Mom will be able to go out and enjoy her self in the yard....

Yes. Just not sure why?

Mom and Dad gave me a Lionel set for Christmas back in 1952. I sold them all in 1959 . . . for the princely sum of $100!

For more than 50 years, the bug lay dormant. Oh sure, there was always a "maybe some day" aspect that never let go. 

It burst forth again three years ago, with startling virulence! 

No, my father did not get me in to trains. He has been dead for 74 years and I am 74. He was an Army Air Corps fighter pilot  who flew a British Spitfire and was killed in action during WW 2 when I was 2 months old.  My grandfather liked real trains and got me to like them also. 

Although I had a Christmas garden at an early age, Lionel trains just didn't look real to me, and in 1955 I got my first O scale trains when I lived with my grandparents and set up a permanent layout.

Currently I have what I refer to as an O scale 2 rail Christmas garden that I keep up year 'round. I worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Penn Central, and the Steam Locomotive Corporation of America, and if I were younger I would do it again if only they existed.

My maternal grandfather and my dad both got me into it.  My granddad gave me a Lionel freight train set in 1954.  When I was older, my dad built me a small layout on an 8' x 4' piece of plywood.  He put coasters on it so it could roll under the bed in my room when I wasn't using it.  I still have the original train.  I had the locomotive refurbished and repainted in the Brisbane & Bushong  RR livery.  Matt 

Very nice Brian 

Like Curt, Santa brought mine in 1954. Never could understand why Dad liked to play with it too.  :-)

My dad worked for the SP when I was born, he was a signal maintainer and road on a speeder.  He was also a professional photographer and kept a camera with him at all time when out on the line.  My mom would take me North of town and meet him on his way in and I would ride into town on his speeder with him.  Sure wish I had that speeder.  Dad was also a model railroader but he was into HO and he had scratch built an SP AC-9 out of brass.  So he was mainly responsible for me and my love of trains, my uncle Larry had a Marx set, it had a SF warbonnet paint scheme two "A" units and 4 or 5 cars plus a caboose.  We literally ran the wheels off of it.  I always believed it was a Lionel set until about 10 years ago when he informed me that what he had was a Marx.  Those memories of those fun times are what actually got me back into O gauge.  My dad built me an HO layout, it was the one called an "HO Railroad that Grows."  He built it in my bedroom and then we moved it to the garage where he finished it and I could run trains.  He started the scenery but it never came to finished state.

I just love trains period.  What a fantastic hobby to be in.

No we were poor in rural Oregon and all my dads time was took up providing for our family. I do vaguely recall that I had a Marx set that i played with that I remember wasn't very real looking but I was grateful to have it. I remember playing with erector set more.

My Dad got me a Lionel O gauge Hudson set in 1939 for my 1st Christmas. I was 5 months old and have had trains since. I wish he was here to share the hobby with me in our golden age of choices and products. 

Miss you Dad and Thanks, David G.

My dad did, yes.  I found and played with his Marx 999 & 666 steamers and cars along with the AF596 water tower and Lionel #85 telegraph posts.  All those trains lived a hard life with me as a youngster and frankly did not survive very well.  I killed Tonka trucks as well... anyway that was my start.  Next came a Lionel DT&I switcher set in 1972 along with some Athearn HO trains in the same year.  I still have most all of it.

My dad did not buy me my first train, my Uncle did because he lost a bet that I would walk before Christmas '53, I walk at 9 mos old 2 weeks before Christmas, my uncle bought me the Lionel Silver Chief Set with a ZW Transformer and still have both and still use the ZW on my last layout. My dad would stay up all night Christmas Eve setting up the tree and my Santa Fe Silver Chief set and all of the Plasticville he had(I still have all of it today). In my teen years when we know it all and nobody can tell us anything My my dad did do was to grow his and my interest by getting me to go to local meets in Miami, he joined a group called the Gold Coast Train  Collectors. I worked at the same job he did making the same money so I bankrolled the hobby for him. It turned out to be the one thing he and I loved to do together. To this day I still pick up Post War Lionel that he always wanted and never acquired. My current goal is to complete the 6464 Series Box Cars in his memory. Last year I was finely able to pick up a Lionel Post War "J" for him. Sadly I lost my dad in 1984. I still miss him and think about him all the time. Love you Dad.

My parents bought my first Lionel set for Hanukkah 1955. My dad wasn't a hobbyist, but he was handy and he and I built the platform. The rest was up to me. I did all of it, scenery, wiring, purchasing, modifying...all of it. I'd get stuff each holiday, but mostly it was me going to the big department stores in Philly's center city after Christmas and buying all the battered and broken stuff that was used in their displays. These were really great deals! I'd make the repairs and they were good as new. They did buy me a new 2343 Santa Fe which was my most sought after object that I can remember in my whole live. I worshiped that engine.

The two girls that lived next door had an uncle who gave them the Santa Fe streamliner set and a Berkshire steam set which their father ran around the tree every Christmas. It was were I spent many hours drooling over theirs. I got my Santa Fe in 1957. It was produced in 1954, and was still new in the shipping carton at a hardware store about a mile from our home. I located it up on a top shelf and biked home with the news that I found it! It cost $20.00. Best 20 bucks my parents ever spent on me. I was missing a B unit. I found a 1958 version at those department store close outs. It was on sale for $5.00. The fixed coupler had been knocked off. I found it, and put it back on. I drilled out the portholes, painted the ugly black trucks silver and it matched my double A units. The early Santa Fes were painted silver and the later ones were silver-gray plastic, but I didn't care. I now had my own A-B-A Santa Fe.

My parents never gave me any trouble about the trains. They loved that they knew where I was and what I was doing. I had an uncle who was a mechanical engineer at Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, PA. One weekend (I was very young... probably 7) he took me to the plant where I watched steam and diesel engines being built. They were no longer selling steam in the USA, but were making them for export. I then had a ride in a diesel switcher in the yard next to the factory. I was totally, and in every other way, hooked on trains. There's the Santa Fe sitting on the never-finished high line. The mountain was chicken wire and paper maché. These were the only existing picture of my trains as a kid. Now I have several thousand pics from the new railroads I've built all thanks to digital photography.

Great memories!  One thing we all have in common it seems, is that we all had mentors that got us started. Not always Dad, but someone. 

Returning to the theme of  "what manufacturer will be left" topic, seems we all have something in common that isn't there anymore. No matter how detailed or what technology is included, it's our time with a mentor that brought us into the hobby. Buying a train set for a kid isn't enough. It goes in circles, and doesn't matter what noise it makes, or if it can go 1/8th scale mph. That's for us, not the starting out family, or single mom in 2017. The lack of a mentor is what determines how the hobby survives. 

Yes, my dad did get me into this hobby

Trainman2001 posted:

My parents bought my first Lionel set for Hanukkah 1955. My dad wasn't a hobbyist, but he was handy and he and I built the platform. The rest was up to me. I did all of it, scenery, wiring, purchasing, modifying...all of it. I'd get stuff each holiday, but mostly it was me going to the big department stores in Philly's center city after Christmas and buying all the battered and broken stuff that was used in their displays. These were really great deals! I'd make the repairs and they were good as new. They did buy me a new 2343 Santa Fe which was my most sought after object that I can remember in my whole live. I worshiped that engine.

The two girls that lived next door had an uncle who gave them the Santa Fe streamliner set and a Berkshire steam set which their father ran around the tree every Christmas. It was were I spent many hours drooling over theirs. I got my Santa Fe in 1957. It was produced in 1954, and was still new in the shipping carton at a hardware store about a mile from our home. I located it up on a top shelf and biked home with the news that I found it! It cost $20.00. Best 20 bucks my parents ever spent on me. I was missing a B unit. I found a 1958 version at those department store close outs. It was on sale for $5.00. The fixed coupler had been knocked off. I found it, and put it back on. I drilled out the portholes, painted the ugly black trucks silver and it matched my double A units. The early Santa Fes were painted silver and the later ones were silver-gray plastic, but I didn't care. I now had my own A-B-A Santa Fe.

My parents never gave me any trouble about the trains. They loved that they knew where I was and what I was doing. I had an uncle who was a mechanical engineer at Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, PA. One weekend (I was very young... probably 7) he took me to the plant where I watched steam and diesel engines being built. They were no longer selling steam in the USA, but were making them for export. I then had a ride in a diesel switcher in the yard next to the factory. I was totally, and in every other way, hooked on trains. There's the Santa Fe sitting on the never-finished high line. The mountain was chicken wire and paper maché. These were the only existing picture of my trains as a kid. Now I have several thousand pics from the new railroads I've built all thanks to digital photography.

 

Loved your story, I could sooooo relate to wanting the 2343 Santa Fe. Took me another 65 years to finally get one. Trying hard to make up for lost time now.....

Yes. 1955. I was 7. He was not a modeler, but he loved and understood anything mechanical - trains, ships, airplanes, automobiles, industrial installations. He was an Alabama Power Company electrician and steam plant foreman.

He ("Santa") built a layout for me for Xmas 1955 - 4X8, 027, one passing siding and 2 spurs, 2055 Hudson and cars, 1033 transformer. Uncoupling sections; Marx spotlights, Marx/Lionel crossing signals. Scratch built a station, stores, a house (our house), barn.

The layout was in the corner of the dining room year-round. I used it a lot - along with everything else a boy did in the 50's - 60's. (They bought me a go-kart in 1960. Even more fun than the trains.) It was easy to use. No tedium setting it up and the like.

So, yes, his fault. My mother also actually liked me and had no problem with a train layout in the corner of her dining room. For that reason, she shares half the blame.

Except for the actual layout wood, I still have every bit of it. Not the go-kart, sadly.

If you had the go kart, could you get into it...? More importantly, could you get out of it? Trains have better staying power.

Regarding kids and trains...

The problem is choices. When I grew up in the 50s when I was settling in on my interests, if you wanted the coolest toy in the world it was Lionel or AF trains... period. You had building sets, some great earthmovers in the likes of Deopke "Model" toys, and board games. That was it. There were no computers, a million addictive games, no quad copters, or RC cars, or RC anything. You could build rudimentary flying models when the Cox 020 engines came out. But it was a no-brainer. Trains were it. Besides, in the 50s steam and diesel were actually still on the rails. Passenger flying didn't really take off (no pun intended) until the jet age with the B-707 flying in 1957. In the late 50s plastic model building took off and believe me, I made a zillion of them (still love it). 

Kids are busier, have less free time, and what time there is competes with many enticing interests. Model trains is way down on the list. Kids don't have the exposure to trains in many parts of the country as more and more grade crossings are eliminated for safety reasons.

I grew up in Philly and remember seeing GG1s running. What can compete with that today?

That being said, both of my grandsons played an active and creative role in building my railroad. Both are now teenagers and all those things I mentioned above a stealing their 'train time'. We just need to be more persistent. The model train shows in Louisville do get nice crowds with young kids thanks to Thomas the Tank Engine.

Trainman: Love your post it took me until about 2 years ago to complete my Santa Fe set with a "B" Unit. I had to Post War Shells and one unrestorable PW Frame so I had the shells restored one with portals and one without and purchased  B unit frames and trucks from Lionel and built 2 "B" Units. Now the set is complete even have bot Baggage Cars Large and Small Door. In Honor of my Dad.

Yes, he would set up his AF Royal Blue set he got as a kid for me. Then when I was 8 he got me the RI 4-8-4 with a set of Williams PRR pass. cars. Been in the hobby ever since, he likes to joke he had no idea of the monster he was creating.

Bill

Yes, in the late 40' and early 50's, My Dad....Those were the days my friends, and I hope they never end....Great thread...

Nope. It was Santa Claus.

Yes my Dad in 1957 when I was 4 years old with a Lionel 520 set.

Yep no well Santa did in 1961 

Yes, for sure..as a Toy Buyer for a Department store, he watched me play with the train set in the Toy Dept at the Anderson Newcomb Dept Store in Huntington, WV. So Santa took action and in 1954 at the age of 9...I received the Lionel 682 Steam engine set...the rest is history. When I got interested in other things, he careful stored it all away and 30 years later got them out and I still run old 682 to this day.

My Dad and both of my Grandfathers in the late 1940s through the late 1950s.

In the very beginning, I don't know who got me started in Model trains, because I received my set at 2 yrs old.  I was told it was under the duress from my mother's friends that a baby that young and little didn't need a train set so early but my mom and dad stood their ground.  I remember running the trains every Christmas for a few weeks and waited for the next Christmas to come around because our apartment was too small for the 4x8 board to remain in the living room however when we moved finally into our new home after a couple of additional Christmas runs, my father all of a sudden put together a nice size train table for me.  Sad to say, I was already caught up with martial arts, basketball, girls, partying at clubs,etc.  Eventually when I got married and joined the military, they were put away and I saw and touched them from time to time. They somehow always remained in the back of my mind in their own little corner; my mother hid them from me because she believed I wanted to sell them when she had a conversation with me on their value and how much they had appreciated.  With time and my parents passing, I was able to rediscover them (they needed a little TLC) and I'm happy to say I now have the original set and a rather nice sized collection with which I'm about to start my layout with.  Both of my parents started my on this journey and in their own way they established what I've done so far, my mom, I believe in wanting me to have the trains because she loved electronics, cameras and all sorts of gizmos and my dad because I believe he was instrumental in making sure I had them out every holiday and eventually building my first train layout for me.  I'm blessed to have had them both.  MARSHELANGELO

It was my dad's 1950's Lionel UP PA set that I first was interested in trains.  The closest tracks were 20 miles away and closed in the 70's before I could really get interested in the real thing.  Mom bought me a HO set pre teen but I lost interest as we never built a layout.  Always other work to do on a dairy farm.  Many years later, my Dad and I happened to visit a train store near Seattle.  About 2 years after that for Christmas, I bought him a MTH UP Turbine set.  My father tested as a genius and love physics and mechanical engineering, as do I.  We had a falling out when we left the farm and really didn't have a relationship during my adult life.  After that Christmas, we always could talk about trains and baseball.  He had become my best friend by the time he passed late last year.  He suffered from dementia in his later years towards the end, could not even manage a conversion about either.  I now have our collection, and struggle with the decision to continue in this hobby or leave it. 

This is one hobby where sharing makes a big difference. 

That's for sure! He's holding the camera. I'm doing minor "layout detail work" , and my mother, who helped him craft those houses, considered the layout also hers, of course, is off-camera saying, "Move out of there, Frankie."  But I wasn't moving, obviously.

I would not have know about model/toy trains except for this layout, having had hundreds of other toys, esp. cars & trucks, to play with. This layout shown here was not my playpen. It was only a Christmas special treat and got removed from the dining room after New Years.

I esp. enjoyed laying flat on my back under it, behind that brick-paper skirting, looking upward and listening, when my father ran the trains. I also liked pretending I was "running things". He would let me dump that load of sticks in the dumper-car, and then go and retrieve them for the next re-load.

Frankie M.

Moonson posted:

I esp. enjoyed laying flat on my back under it, behind that brick-paper skirting, looking upward and listening, when my father ran the trains. I also liked pretending I was "running things". He would let me dump that load of sticks in the dumper-car, and then go and retrieve them for the next re-load.

Frankie M.

That's a good reminder - when my grandson appears to be laying around just watching, it's important to remember he's probably day dreaming and imagining all kinds of things ... or just simply enjoying the sound! I know I do 

GeoPeg posted:

Moonson posted:

I esp. enjoyed laying flat on my back under it, behind that brick-paper skirting, looking upward and listening, when my father ran the trains. I also liked pretending I was "running things". He would let me dump that load of sticks in the dumper-car, and then go and retrieve them for the next re-load.

Frankie M.

That's a good reminder - when my grandson appears to be laying around just watching, it's important to remember he's probably day dreaming and imagining all kinds of things ... or just simply enjoying the sound! I know I do 

Yes, GeoPeg, and I remember the peace of it, laying under there, awash in all the sights and sounds and the joy of being in the midst of something that was important and joyful to both my father and mother. They were so very happy when sharing their layout with friends and family that I felt included in something very, very special.

And now, with my own layout, the same is true for me. I love when my wife and I have guests in our home to enjoy the trains, which we consider everybody's. And in some cases, I mean that literally, as you can see on this cousin's face when I gifted him with some cars directly from the layout...

FrankM.

As a young child during the 1950s, I remember the excitement of the holidays and asking my father to take me to see the trains layouts in the major department and hardware stores of the  time.  I also clearly recall a vacation trip to Chicago and visiting the Museum of Science and Industry to see the model train exhibit and spent the better part of the visit being mesmerized by it.  I visited it again some 50 years later and had much the same feeling.

My father, seeing my keen interest, purchased a Lionel switcher work train set for me the following Christmas.  It was pulled by a 1615 steam switcher locomotive and had a Bucyrus Erie crane car, gondola with barrels and caboose.  He set up a loop of track along with two manual switches on a 4X8 sheet of plywood.  Scenery was a pressed cardboard tunnel, a bridge and a few Plasticville building.  Two years later for Christmas, I received a Space and Military set with a missile launcher car, exploding box car and two flats cars, one with US Navy helicopter and the other a miniature submarine, all pulled by a NW-2 switcher.

It was apparent that the layout needed to grow.  It just happen that following this holiday season the local hardware store decided to eliminate its toy department and had a large amount of Super O track to sell at a bargin price.   My father, being a remodeling contractor at the time, also had a client with two heavy-duty regulation size ping pong tables that no longer went along with his wife's idea for a makeover of the family recreation room.  Out of these two events was born my 10'X9' Super O empire.  It reigned for over five years until my father's new job as a construction supervisor required the family to move regularly over the next four years during which  time the trains went into storage.

Other than periodic and partial resurrections at holiday times the trains resided in storage at my parent's home.   With the passing of mother six years ago, my father now gone for 30 years, I moved them to my own attic.  Surprisingly upon unpacking, I found them in remarkably good shape given the time that had passed.  I began the task of restoring them, thinking that building a new layout might be something enjoyable to do in retirement. 

Now in semi-retirement I enjoy  revisiting this interest of my childhood and remembering times spent with my father building a Super O empire.  The arrival of a grandson two year's ago has also spurred my passion to play with trains again.  I am purposely rebuilding my new layout in modular format, so to make easier the ability to hopefully pass along my trains to another generation. 

My father definitely was responsible for my interest in trains, both real ones and models. He was born in Cincinnati in 1897 and around 1906 he received a Carlisle & Finch electric outfit (made in Cincinnati starting 1896) powered by a special C&F water turbine/generator that could be attached to the faucet of the laundry tub in the basement, because his parents' house did not have electricity and was still illuminated by gas. He told me his mother allowed him make two small holes through the living room floor so that the wires from the generator could be brought up to the rheostat for operation at Christmas (and maybe other times). My father indulged me with a substantial American Flyer layout in the living room at Christmas, and then later in a spare room in a permanent setup. After college (late 60s) I became interested in O-scale and eventually had the space to build a 2-rail system. Like many others on the forum, I remember happily lying on the carpet while my AF trains ran around the Christmas tree, day-dreaming about my future railroad empire. My dad also read to me a book about I.K. Brunel and the Great Western Railway, and I spent some of my early years thinking I would become a civil engineer (didn't happen).

My dad and my grandfather got me into this hobby as my grandfather started collecting trains prior to serving in WWII.

No,my dad wanted me to like the "normal" things he liked and did.Such as recreation league softball and basketball (going to all games and practice sessions) and golf,plus any kind of sports on TV. My love affair with trains started when I was 12 in 1980;that's  when a Southern steam special with Royal Hudson 2839 stopped behind my church as I was about to enter Sunday school. In the consist of the train was a Southern FP7 diesel and Amtrak super dome car on the headend. Well a couple of weeks later I was in a Toyland toy store and spotted a Lionel Amtrak  Lake Shore Limited set and fell in love with it.  I asked for it  and luckily I got it for Christmas two months later. It was my mom who followed up and got this for me. I remember when visiting the big toy store with my little brother and my mom that my dad would usually wait in the car as he had no interest in any toys.

Yes my dad did, but unfortunately they didn't have model trains back then in Communist Eastern Europe so my grandparents weren't able to buy such toys for my dad.

Some great stories!

Yes, he did. His intent was for his sons (four of us) to develop an interest in things mechanical and the like. He knew carpentry, masonry, repairing cars etc. Trains were supposed to be the start. Unfortunately for him, I never progressed beyond trains. However, I do elements of what he liked within toy trains, so his memory lives on.  He was also good in mathematics, had a subjective ability with numbers. My speciality , however, was in words. So it goes.