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

I was 9 in 1954 when Santa brought my first Lionel 682 set. By then I had watched the C&O Kanawha 2-8-4 go past the house many times either with a long coal train or passenger cars headed to Cincinnatti or Virginia through Huntington WV. My entire layout is either coal or lumber and steam is the theme.

I was born in 1942, so steam on the Long Island RR was a common sight for me. The "good old RR days" for me was my last ride in back of a GG1 between Phila and NYC on a business trip. Although it was in Penn Central dull black, it was still impressive.

I don't think anything at all has been affected.  We didn't live near any trains, but my dad grew up in the depression and never got to own or play with a train.  My mom says he was determined that his kids would have a train.  So my childhood layout was on a 4x8 sheet of plywood that hung from the ceiling of the garage.  It was legal to bring it into the house and set it up in the living room the day after Thanksgiving, but had to be put back in the garage by New Years Day.

My current layout is in two connected rooms, 14 x 12 goes into a 6x20 converted porch.  The 30 inch doorway that connects the rooms is the layout bottle neck.  This was all used for storage of computers and parts until someone saw the trains on the walls and wanted to play with the trains.

I am hoping to get everything cleared out and be able to expose him to both steam and diesel, and hope he can carry the O-gauge torch in the future.

I will say the smell of smoke pellets, the smell of ozone arcing from the engine brush plates, and the sound of a properly tuned mechanical e-unit still resonate with me today.

Michael,

   Every bit of it!  Remote Control Tin Plate, I dream come true.

PCRR/Dave

Spence, this layout is great! I've been buying up postwar Plasticville and thinking about the great fun somebody else must have had with it so long ago. The postwar stuff (to me as an operator) provides a connection to the joy and fun of those kids 50 years ago who bought it new or received it for Christmas.

Like Dave says: almost all of it.

Thanks to all for some very interesting replies and great pictures.

The christmas layout we do reminds me of the train layouts of my childhood. Today the big lay out in the basement is the last forty years, however it is all based on the great memories and nostalga which I am sure the manufatures today count on.

Downtown Toledo Oh had some good size department stores with Christmas layouts. One downtown hobby shop had a permanent layout of Lionel and Flyer. Sooo I grew up with Lionel and Plasticville my layout reflects that. I did add two loops that I run scale on with some clearance issues that did not exist when it was laid. I am happy to say that rivet counting is not in my system. I get to enjoy anything I like without issues of oh no it has no whistle smoke, ect.

Jim

Childhood memories do play a part: I remember being very impressed with Dad's postwar outfit. 90% of what I have is Lionel Traditional. Also, I grew up in an area with a lot of light industry which was served by rail; I still like the cramped feel of an urban setting. And it complements the O and O-27 curves--making a virtue of necessity!

Yes.  My memory of our childhood layout ... an oval of track on a sheet of plywood with one siding.

So we built an "empire" when it was our turn to build one.

Kept my Dad's railroad name ... "Cabin Lake & Western" ....

It's just a lot LOT larger this time :-)

My childhood layout was an 027 oval with figure 8 utilizing 4 remote Marx switches.  The train set was a Marx 999 engine freight set. 

I still had it all when I started my layout in 1976 in Jamaica.  I started with the oval and figure 8 as I think it gives the best operation options with 4 switches.  I added a turntable in the middle of one part of the figure 8 as I had picked up 4 Lionel 242 style engines. I added another loop outside the oval and figure 8 and interconnected them.  I used two LW transformers for control. 

The layout has grown to 27 Marx switches and a L shaped addition loop connected to the existing outside loop.  A third LW and second control panel was built to control this addition.  One of the LW can control the whole layout.  The two outside loops are blocked and relay controlled to operate two trains on a loop therefore 5 trains can be run at a time. 

This whole layout was portable and put up for 3 or so holiday months and has been in 7 houses in 5 states plus Jamaica.

So I have incorporated my childhood track plan in my new layout and then greatly added to it.

Charlie