How much of your current layout design is affected by childhood memories?

I was born in '52, saw steam, diesel and electric, and lived just blocks from the PRR's NE Corridor. But I'd have to say that the biggest design influence comes from: #1- Lionel Catalogs, #2 - the Bantam Book of Model Railroading and #3 - the seasonal layouts that were SO important to us kids at department stores and (in Baltimore) the Fire Stations.

I collect and run Postwar trains and accessories, so I enjoy toy-like layouts.

Steam locomotive servicing facility, and lots and lots and lots of steam locomotives! 

Oh wow.  What a question!

 

I would say all of it!  The PRR Panhandle is centered around my hometown, the railroad bridge across the Ohio River, and my memories of growing up in a steel town.

 

Please take a look:  https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...r-panhandle-division

 

George

I was born in 1990, so I never saw steam in action, but that's what I love to run.  My collection is heavily Lionel postwar.  But I suppose something that did influence me is we lived close to the MBTA commuter rail.  I could see it from my bedroom window across an open field.  I don't have any commuter trains, but I think it made me always want to run passenger trains.  Something about a long silver passenger train heading down a long straightaway, then watching as each car broke the line as it took the curve.

 

in the modeling side, my first "real" set was an HO model power lead by an SF F3.  So between that and the book "the mighty santa fe" (illustrated by angela trotta Thomas of course), a postwar Santa Fe F3 was a must have when I got into O-gauge which was at age 8 when my dad's second cousin gave me his 2026 set and extra cars/accessories from 1948.

A lot.  Maybe 80%.

None. My first train was an American Flyer. I got hooked into O Gauge with the first offering of the Lionel Polar Express. And the rest, as they say is history....

I'm too young to have lived the 50s (by a lot) but that's my main focus (but I do toy trains layouts with Plasticville, sawdust grass, lichen, painted roads, and Lionel operating accessories). I'd imagine many layouts are influenced by these memories, though. 

 

If we get some pictures rolling in here, this could become a fun thread!

I grew up in the MPC era.  I must have the improvements in technology and quality since that era,  but scale is less important to me.  I don't like mixing scale and semi-scale on the same train,  but will run both separately.

Other influences were the C&O buildings I remember as a child, near my house.  Plus anything Southern RR,  since my grandfather was an engineer with them.

John

For one thing the early roundy round circle running encouraged me into today's  prototype point to point operation.

 

My childhood train exposure set the theme, today's product versions reset the possibilities.

 

Two, I have been replacing all my cartoon scale post war items with accurate 1/48 scale trains.  Great nostalgia without having to dim the lights.

 

It was the free lance early Lionel sizing which drove me into scale HO in the mid

fifties.

You can look on my website linked below for more details, but my (On30) layout is based on a RR near where my parents grew up. As a kid, I would hear my parents talk about seeing it run (mostly the standard-gauge steam that ran where they lived, which was traded off to the SRR in late 1967). Growing up, all my relatives lived within about a 10-mile area in NE Tennessee. We'd go up there at least once a year (either in the summer or for Christmas; a few times, both) and a few times, they'd indulge my interest in the remains of the 3-footer line there that folded in the Fall of 1950. I was always into steam for the same reason most kids are; it's loud, dirty, looks cool running and there's plenty to look at in motion.

My very first train ride that I'm aware of was at the age of 3 or 4, on the Tweetsie RR, behind former ET&WNC #12. My first cab ride was at TVRM at Chattanooga, on former ET&WNC 207 (known to most as SRR 630). I was 11 I think at the time.

Seeing a trend here?

I grew up in North Florida, along a SCL main line which was less than inspiring. You could hang around the tracks all day and see only 3-4 trains. Where I live now in the Pacific NW, I can see than many in an hour. So, my RR dreams were focused on that long-abandoned 3-footer near where my parents grew up.

As for design, well, I never was a big fan of running in circles and never really understood the appeal of it (with the exception of a layout meant for public displays). I'd had such a horrible experience with an HO modular group in the 90s, I completely dropped out of the hobby for several years after I sold off all my G scale stuff. Bachmann making the prototype I wanted in a manageable scale (Bachmann ET&WNC ten-wheelers in On30) was what brought me back to the hobby. But I doubt I'd ever get involved in a modular group ever again.

I'd toyed around with various layout track plans but never found anything that really did it for me. But I got in with some of the local guys who invite one another to their op sessions, and none of them had any loops on their layouts. That alone did more for my ideas than anything. I wanted 'out of the box' thinking so I took to looking at track plans in British and European hobby magazines.

So, now I have a point-to-point that sort of looks like a folded question mark. For the most part, I'm pretty happy with it.

None. Although I was also born in the early '50s when steam was still going, we have lived by the tracks (now BNSF) since the mid '70s and I prefer the modern diesels I see every day. For about a year in 1973-1974 we lived in the third house down from the tracks, probably 100 yards or less. You could not only see the trains go by you could feel them and the house could as well. 

 

Don't currently have any steamers, but I may add a couple smaller ones some day, as a tourist line or something. I do like motor vehicles from times past and have some of those on the layout.

 

As far as the trains themselves and my layout, the influence from my childhood would be the O gauge trains. O gauge is what I had back then and one of the many reasons I have a layout now. That and command control, grandson, retirement, reading about, and watching videos of the trains we have available today is what really got me hooked again and back into the hobby.

I love steamers and always have.  I was born in the late 60s so I didn't get to see a lot of prototypical steamers but I've always had a "toy" train or more since the time I could crawl and most were steamers.  So I guess you can say my childhood did influence me.  

Nothing on my current or any other layout has been influenced by the railroad near my home as a child. We lived along a nasty, run down Penn Central branch from Bellefontaine, Ohio to St. Mary's, Ohio. If a train was on the branch you could pretty much count on it derailing at some point, at least once on its trip! 

 

I have always tried my best NOT to replicate that derailment prone line! lol

I'm currently tearing down my layout to build a new one but both are heavily influenced by my childhood layout memories:

 

- steam engines with whistles and bells

- operating accessories

- recreated my original AF train from when I was a kid

 

--Greg

All of my current layout is affected by childhood memories

Loved super o track and dealer display layouts
Saw lots of them late late 50's / early 60's as a kid in the Philly area

My layout is basically a large super o dealer display --- right down to paint colors / felt mountain / 919 Lionel "grass" / etc

However
I do use Legacy command along with postwar ZW's

Thx
Joe S

My 2 most vivid childhood memories:

 

Watching the trains of the number 6 EL train in the Bronx from my grandfather's shoulder.

 

Watching McGinnis liveried engines whizzing by on the New Haven 4 track main line in Larchmont NY.

 

A subway and New Haven nut ever since........

 

 

Peter

Do you have any photos/threads on your layout? That's right up my alley.

 

Also, not to derail this thread, but what felt did you use? The 920 Scenic Display felt, or a currently available one?

Makes sense.

I knew of a guy who created an HO layout which had some serious operating challenges, done on purpose. The builder was a big history buff and he had a locomotive that the boiler was spring-loaded and had a remote control that could launch the boiler (firebox first) off the running gear. He's do it to anyone who missed a water tower stop, to simulate a crown sheet failure boiler explosion. The 'crew' would then have to sit somewhere until another train was made up for them as they were then 'dead' from the event.

The layout took place in the Deep South before the end of Jim Crow, so if you could see an African-American figure in a window where it didn't belong, you had to stop the train. You also couldn't run from a depot where the wrong race of figure was seen at the entrance to the wrong restroom. This was done in the name of illuminating the nature of the time period to crews, not because the builder was racist.

You also had to stop any trains where hobo figures were spotted in or on the cars. He'd place them in open cars to see if anyone was noticing.

He's also 'kill' a brakeman every now and then (he had a figure of one that looked like he'd been cut in half) and ask the crew what they were gonna do without a brakeman.

The point here is that the 'good old days' weren't good for everyone and people have a tendency to gloss over the ugly parts. Nostalgia, the builder of that layout used to say, is a view of how you wanted a timeframe to have been, not how it really was.

None - I never wanted a Lionel layout. It was great for the carpet, but nothing was ever scale, including the radii.

 

Not until recently with the advent of scale equipment and better track did I make the change from HO to O.

 

Absolutely correct.

None by "childhood" memories.  In the early '80's (I was in my early 20's), there was a gentleman in town, Al Kuelbs.  He was an old timer then.  Had a separate garage upon which he built a second story which housed the 20 by 20 Chicago and Dallas railroad (he was from Chicago, living in Dallas).  It was an around-the-walls double decker, had over 100 switches and powered by 8 ZW's.  It was designed for prototypical rr functions (manifests, timetables, etc.) and heavy on switching, which he loved - absolutely no scenery on nicely finished tables.  It was ALL postwar Lionel (switches and controllers, too) and a paradise of engines and rolling stock.  These days, we've seen all kinds of magnificent, HUGE o-gauge rr's - but, at that time, I'd never seen anything like that. That setup is my inspiration. Side note:  he bailed out of prewar after the war, in favor of the "new" stuff).

Zero. My childhood layout was an O-27 loop around the Christmas Tree. Not that it was a bad thing, but my tastes have changed over the years and since it has been difficult obtaining sufficient funds to take over the world and subjugate humanity, I must be satisfied with building a 1/48 world to play with.

i grew up railfanning along the Harrisburg & Pittsburgh lines during the Conrail years. I still love going back to visit & watching NS up there. My current layout tries to replicate NS in PA w/ an ex PRR flavor.  While I don't have the time to make it super detailed enough to be accurate, I think when I'm done, it will give off a a nice 'northeastern' feel

Are you keeping the postwar-inspired layout as well, or is the one above a replacement?

No pictures, W-10 ate my computer (and back up drive) , this is borrowed. 

 

  I dont know what its like not to own a Lionel.

   The train was bought when the wedding was announced, and it waitied a few years for me to be born .

 

My childhood was filled with trains by the other collectors of my family, and there isnt too much Lionel made PW, that I didnt get to handle, even if I didnt own it myself, Gramps likely did at one time.

 

My purchases are usually replacements for something I liked as a kid.

 

  I liked them, and was showered with them because I played with them(hard) while others just brought them out at the holidays.

 

 I'm influenced by the surviving pieces, and later gifts (PW-Hi rail by default).

2037-(#1) steam...............................water tower. I never had one

 

Virg. Rectifier and coal train....gotta have a hill another first.

 

Modified giraffe car on a siding over a UC track. Happiness is a warm #90

 

A chrome Genral, passenger cars, bashed flat, boxcar, bobber & a 50's gunfighter car

Too heavy!...............doubleheaded chrome generals now

 

One of every L-PW type track, KW, and 1033's.

 

175 and a rocket launcing car eventually spawned another little layout and military trains.

 Having them "made me" buy the Looney Tunes Marvin the Martian Earth disintegrator car and a cartoon space layout grew out of that.

 I still have small Tonkas, Marx, Corgi, Auburn and other toys near O, still around from when I was a kid, as they got mostly got played with during train sessions.

 

 

Real life influence? That would be I want ornate cantenary arches like the old Henry Ford line had. I can still see some around here.

Childhood memories of real trains? Or of toy trains? Or both. I don't have many of either. While I had a HO figure-8 on a ping-pong table growing up, I didn't play with it much and it vanished when the room it was in was needed. I backed into the hobby as an adult by discovering Model Railroader magazine at the local library, and my layout has always been influenced by my current interests - which changed over time -- trolleys and interurbans, tinplate, circus trains, British outline scenes - both real and imaginary...  

Matthew, this is a protected planet, you will leave it and its inhabitants alone!

 

 

 

Jerry

Not much really.  I had an O Marx set that I sold for HO, and had a nice enough HO layout for a teenager with no real money.

 

On the other hand, I learned something about the look of the track plans that I like, and view of rolling trains that I like.   So there is an influence:   Wider curves: no sharp corners like O-27.   Smooth track and train-running.   I still don't care much about switching.

Andrew B
Thanks for the interest
I will be posting some photos / video shortly
We just got an Apple desktop--- getting everything set up now

I'll take some pics with my iPhone---I think I can post directly from that

Lots of dealer display info out there
Some really knowledgeable guys on this forum
Thx
Joe S

I've posted this photo before but I think this is a good thread to repost it. Me & my layout 1959.

None.  My layout design is point-to-point, and my brother and I in our childhoods had two large loops on two pieces of plywood, connected by a pair of switches.  The other pair (one pair Marx 0-27 manual, other pair Lionel 0-27 manual) was used

for a passing siding on my plywood sheet.  Before this,  I lived on Depot Road to a Southern Station and hung around the station watching the steam locals switch coal hoppers for the general store, through the third grade, when we moved.  In my teens,

the family began camping trips out west to Colorado and neighboring states, and

I became enamored with Colorado narrow gauge, and, later, its standard gauge.  This

last is what I model, and those memories are from my teens.

I have always loved real trains and am trying to model my layout accordingly.  My first Lionel layout was a lot of fun at the time, with the biggest thrill being creating the scenery with my mom.  We installed Plasticville buildings, painted streets and yards, and had so much fun doing it.  Great memories!  But, I also remember how quickly it became very boring to run my train endlessly around in circles.

 

I am wanting to model as many vignettes as I can that have special meanings for me.  Examples are;

 

• The Coast to Coast store where I bought my first train, bicycle, and etc. 
• The Bandbox movie theater we used to go to on Saturday afternoons to see cowboys movies for a dime.
• Watching the Milwaukee Road "meat train" switch reefers while my parents played "500" cards with friends that lived three doors from the railroad tracks.
• The local H & N Chevrolet dealer where I met my wife for the first time.
• The main street of Ruthven, IA my wife's home town with a parade on it.
• Chicago Union Station and the BNSF "racetrack" between it and Aurora, IL.

I could go on, but all these elements in my layout greatly increase my enjoyment of model railroading.  Good thread!

 

Art

Yes, for me, my layout is all about memories.  I grew up in Milwaukee in the late 1930's, 1940's and early 1950's.  I witnessed the transition from steam to diesel, although I didn't really recognize the finality that meant to steam. 

 

So my layout represents 1950, when both early diesels and the survivors of steam were still running.  Wish I had more room to really make a large layout, but I'm stuck with about 22' X 24', but that runs on four levels, all connected.  So, the Orange and Maroon is prominent all over the layout.

 

Also had the Chicago and Northwestern run within earshot of our house and I also felt an allegiance to that road, but there isn't room to run both, at the same time, so I have, on occasion, replaced all the Milw Rd with C&NW.

 

While I do have great memories of the toy trains I had as a kid, examples from Lionel, American Flyer as well as Marx, my toy train collection, which is limited to the trains that either I had as a kid or friends had, is simply on display and never gets operated.

 

Paul Fischer

My layout is all about memories. Some of the businesses recreated, even have several Plasticville buildings that were under our trees. Those were good times, as is my layout.

I doubt few people could have a direct correlation like this on their layouts, supported by photos...

Me, in 1981 at Newland NC. The coach used to be ET&WNC coach # 23:

My (representational) model of the same coach, circa June of this year:

Sadly, the Tweetsie diner burned to the ground a few years after the first photo was taken.

The first train that was run over my layout to each end of the line was with locomotive 12, and coach 23, which represent rolling stock I've seen in real life:

Needless to say, almost no other rolling stock exists from this railroad today.

My layout incorporates several accessories that I either had when I was a kid, or wanted and never got. My original piggyback platform set is installed on the layout. Accessories I wanted but never got as a kid include the icing station, the coal ramp and diesel loader, and the barrel loader., all of which are now on the layout. My layout is in a fairly small space, so the accessories, especially the coal ramp, were a major factor in planning. 

 

The other childhood memory is watching the Milwaukee Road trains roll by in front of my grandfather's house when I was a kid. This was early diesel era so my memories are of orange and maroon F units, black and orange Geeps, and the orange and maroon Hiawatha with its distinctive Skytop observation car. Those particular trains figure prominently in what I run on the layout (and at the toy train museum). 

What specific childhood memories and recollections have you incorporated into your layout?

My Lionel trains of my youth growing up in the 1960's were frankly a bit bland. I had a plastic steamer and a Texas Special FA diesel.

My current "layout" is the oval on my workbench until I rebuild. My current locomotives and website all have aa heavy Pennsylvania Railroad theme. I guess it goes back to summers in the 1960-1970's visiting relatives in Western Pennsylvania. While steam switchers were already long gone from serving on the Pennsy, other sights made an impression, hanging out in Wilmerding (home of WABCO and my aunt) with the Pennsy main line, Pitcairn yard, passing Horseshoe Curve coming and going...all of that created my obsession with the Pennsy and especially their steam switchers leading to my obsession with Lionel's prewar semi-scale steam switchers. 

 

Tom

I grew up in Upper Darby Pa so mine is based on Philadelphia in the 1950s.

Pretty much all of it. I'm stuck in a time warp when it comes to toy trains. And happily so!