Younger members?

Born in 1997, played with my grandfathers' Lionel sets as a kid. Got in to HO for a bit, then back in to O. Now I do 3 Rail Scale. Hoping my Atlas F3s will get made soon to complete my California Zephyr. 

1956  I wanted a train set for as far back as I can remember.  Dad said it was too expensive for a Christmas gift, so I saved my money and finally had enough to buy a cheap Tyco HO F3 set.  The brand new late postwar O gauge sets were way too expensive to save for.  I then bought a sheet of plywood and kept building the layout until I moved away after college.  Yes I'll say I am running trains more expensive than that $20 set!!  

1972.  O gauge.  I can't say what drew me into trains at 45 years old.  My theory: it's a hobby for old guys and now I'm officially an old guy. 

I dabbled with HO & N in my youth but since I got into O last year, I am off to the races.  I love it and I can't believe it took me so long to find it.  I'm building my first layout.  I'm most excited about getting some technology into this hobby.  When I first visited a LHS last fall and saw the Legacy remote I thought it unnecessarily complicated, antiquated, and clunky.  It looks like I got involved at the right time because Lionel went 100% Bluetooth in the 2018 catalog.  I hope/think it's the wave of the future.  If MTH adopts Bluetooth too, O Gauge will finally have a universal standard. 

I know that guys who grew up with O-Gauge in the 40's and 50's are worried about the future of the hobby.  I'm living proof it will be around.  I never had an O-Gauge train until I was 45 years old (and my dad didn't have them either).  And yet somehow here I am.  There will be peaks and valleys but this is too **** fun to simply go away.

1951. My parents and my Aunt Ruth bought me nice 027 Lionel trains and accessories as birthday and Christmas gifts. Throughout my childhood the trains always ran around the Christmas tree. When I was 11 Dad built me a nice layout with trestle on a 4 by 8 foot plywood board on saw horses.

Lionel trains were kept in storage from age 15 until 30 when my wife and I bought a house and I started putting trains around the Christmas tree. Trains around the Christmas tree continued for 10 years and entertained our son and daughter when they were toddlers as nd young children.

At around age 40 I made a basement layout on plywood boards on top of a ping pong table. My kids loved it.

In my 40s I would visit 2 local hobby shops at lunchtime  in White Plains, NY where I work. There, I discovered OGR and CTT Magazines and other publications regarding benchwork, scenery, How to Build an Advanced Layout, etc. This inspired me to build several basement layouts until the last one shown in the many Forum photographs and videos I've posted. It took me about 6 months to build the benchwork, design it, lay the track and do the wiring. I had great fun with my son and daughter helping me decorate it with structures and scenery when they were about 8 to 10 years old. For instance, they helped glue the Popsicle Stick baseball bleachers together with Elmer's Glue, paint the bleachers with blue acrylic paint, and paint the little people who sit in the bleachers.

For the next few years, my son would go with me to train shows where we had great fun hunting for the latest train treasure. I confess that although he liked it, I liked it more than him.

Around 1995 I took my wife and kids to York for a long weekend. They enjoyed the steam train ride through the Amish country, the Choo Choo Barn, the TCA Museum and the PRR Museum. They visited the York Show for 30 minutes and had enough; I scrutinized the merchandise for sale for several hours.

Throughout all this, my wife never got involved with the trains. but was  accommodating. She knew that the trains were a healthy escape for me from my stressful work as a divorce lawyer, and that it was much better to have me at home playing with the trains than being somewhere else succumbing to temptation. I believe women who think like my wife are very wise.

My wife says being married to me is like being married to 5 different men. This is because I periodically switch my leisure interests that include golf, archery (target shooting with recurve bow), playing guitar and singing, songwriting, TV baseball and football, as well as O Gauge trains. 

I have had a lot of fun and consider myself to be a very lucky man.

Arnold

So what brought me to trains.... A Lionel 2231W Great Southern Frieght Set that I was given at age 3!!! I’m 23 years old and I’ve always remember having O scale trains. I’ll say they must have made an impression on me because I’m a TCA member, worked at a brick and mortar hobby shop to help pay for my secondary education, and now I get to play with 1:1 scale trains everyday at my day job!

Being that I call Pittsburgh Home I enjoy running any Pittsburgh related railroads (B&O, Pennsylvania, P&LE and my all time favorite Union Railroad) Im also a Lackawanna fan.

I’ll run trains from any of the O scale manufacturers (Lionel, MTH, K Line, Atlas, even Marx tinplate)

My next purchase you ask??? I’m picking up an MTH Imperial Tuscan Red Pennsylvania Railroad K4s tomorrow!!!

And yes I still have the 2231w with all the boxes, nothing can ever be better than that set for me!!!! 

Ron

1962- My dad had several tinplate sets that were reserved for Christmas duty only. He built me an HO layout when I was 8. Very nice, it was 4X8 with a 4X6 L for the yard. My first and still favorite set is my Lionel HO ATSF AB Alco with 5 streamliner coaches. I built a bigger HO layout in my early teens. Trains and train stuff were regular Christmas and Birthday gifts. It all got packed away when I got out of HS and we moved. I never set them up again and now that we are estranged I'm not sure if I will ever see them again.

I do have a few of my nicer pieces that did Christmas duty over the years. A pair of Rivorossi steamers, PRR Y6b and NYC Hudson and some coaches. Been trying to get my son into trains but they have too many distractions today (Xbox......UGHH!)

Jump to a couple of years ago- my in-laws were going through some boxes and found some old tinplate cars and O gauge track but no locomotive. Well it didn't take me long to find my first steam engine a Scout 246. Since then I built my first permanent layout since the HO layout in my teens. Nothing big but it's mine. I post often on What Did you Do on your Layout today. It was and is still one of the best hobbies around. Yea- you can spend serious cash on the modern stuff but just as much satisfaction can be had from running a PW 2037 with a KW transformer. I've really enjoyed building scenery and creating a little 1:48 world. The layout will have to do for now until I can negotiate for more space in the basement.

Would like to get to York one day and also find some time to join one of the local clubs.

Bob

1972 

My grandmother made sure my Dad and his brothers had trains growing up since her father and grandfather were both railroad men!  My uncle's on my Mom's side had trains too - though no railroad folks in that bloodline.

When I was a kid, most years my Dad would try to set some O Gauge up under the Christmas tree, I've kept that tradition alive and my daughters now pretty much think Christmas trees without trains are weird (proud daddy!).  

My own childhood trains were HO, received as gifts or purchased through dollars I earned via newspaper route and through other odd jobs - and they were often paired with green army men, matchbox cars, and Star Wars figures (not dolls!).

All our trains were lost in the early 90s when my Dad's house flooded due to a big storm, and sometime around 2001 my wife (fiancé at the time) made the worst move she could and purchased me a Lionel ready-to-run set, and I've been hooked on it again since.  Until last year my dad was running Bachmann G stuff under his tree picked up from a yard sale sometime around the year 2000, but he's gotten to the point where less-is-more so the Bachmann set is now in my basement, waiting for me to set up an outdoor line.  

As for my kids, my older daughter (14) likes going to shows with me and seems to enjoy the "collection" and "buy/sell/trade" portion of the hobby with me.  Daughter #2 (12) has her own LionChief RTR set which I have a table setup for her to run on - and also thinks I'm nuts when I tell her I am going to sell something.  She also likes to go to the club with me, overall her interest goes from high to low depending on how busy she is with other stuff.  Suffice to say, both will have plenty of trains to choose from when they get older and have family Christmas trees of their own to run trains around.  I also have a nephew that's been bit by the model train bug, though he's into Lego trains at the moment.

I recently joined a local model railroaders club and while most of the members are older guys, there are a few of us "younger" folks.  We even have a recent high school grad and a college age kid among us, so while most of the 40+ members are over 55, I'd say we have 6 or 7 of us who are younger than that.

All the best...Rich Murnane

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

1951

In my 40s I would visit 2 local hobby shops at lunchtime  in White Plains, NY where I work. There, I discovered OGR and CTT Magazines and other publications regarding benchwork, scenery, How to My wife says being married to me is like being married to 5 different men. This is because I periodically switch my leisure interests that include golf, archery (target shooting with recurve bow), playing guitar and singing, songwriting, TV baseball and football, as well as O Gauge trains. 

I have had a lot of fun and consider myself to be a very lucky man.

Arnold

 

Arnold, nice to see we share similar(archery/trains) interest. Balance, in life we need good balance. Good thing she does't consider you(5 different men) schizophrenic.....Lol

Walter Anderson posted:

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

1951

In my 40s I would visit 2 local hobby shops at lunchtime  in White Plains, NY where I work. There, I discovered OGR and CTT Magazines and other publications regarding benchwork, scenery, How to My wife says being married to me is like being married to 5 different men. This is because I periodically switch my leisure interests that include golf, archery (target shooting with recurve bow), playing guitar and singing, songwriting, TV baseball and football, as well as O Gauge trains. 

I have had a lot of fun and consider myself to be a very lucky man.

Arnold

 

Arnold, nice to see we share similar(archery/trains) interest. Balance, in life we need good balance. Good thing she does't consider you(5 different men) schizophrenic.....Lol

I'm also into archery with vintage recurved bows.

!952  Trains(Lionel) were still popular coming of age.  My divorced mom worked and provided for 2 sisters and I. She bought my 1st. set  around 8 or 9 yrs. old., I added too it over the next few years. Interest faded as a rebellious teen into the early 30's.  Got married, then at around 40, bought the Lionel Conrail SD 40 set. Man, freight cars were much bigger, the SD 40 is a beaut. Bought a house, sold the set(broke even on sale). Nowadays, divorced with a new girlfriend. Back into it heavy. Love these articulated steamers w/TMCC and Legacy.....ooooffffffaaaaahhhhh          Been to York last 2 yrs. with my cousin Tom. His dad had a setup in their basement with Super O track. So he's also quite a hobbyist/collector too.           Fortunate to associate with Harry Henning and Gun Runner John and members at their club, North Penn 0 Gaugers. This OGR Forum is a great asset for this wonderful Hobby. Now to enjoy the pleasure of this pass time and spread the word to all who listen.

Walter Anderson posted:

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

1951

In my 40s I would visit 2 local hobby shops at lunchtime  in White Plains, NY where I work. There, I discovered OGR and CTT Magazines and other publications regarding benchwork, scenery, How to My wife says being married to me is like being married to 5 different men. This is because I periodically switch my leisure interests that include golf, archery (target shooting with recurve bow), playing guitar and singing, songwriting, TV baseball and football, as well as O Gauge trains. 

I have had a lot of fun and consider myself to be a very lucky man.

Arnold

 

Arnold, nice to see we share similar(archery/trains) interest. Balance, in life we need good balance. Good thing she does't consider you(5 different men) schizophrenic.....Lol

LOL

1951, First set was a Marx wind-up steamer, 1952 graduated to a Lionel 2026 steamer.

     Bill T.

Bill T posted:

1951, First set was a Marx wind-up steamer, 1952 graduated to a Lionel 2026 steamer.

     Bill T.

I just remembered that I also had a wind up steamer with a few tinplate cars and 2 rail track as a very young child. Don't know if it was a Marx. I played with it all year long and it ultimately ended up in the garbage. I was also born in 1951.

1949. Grew up in Chicago with real trains everywhere, including steam locomotives. Loved it. Received a Lionel set for Christmas in 1954 or 1955. Went on from there.

Walter mentioned he was born in 1952 and went through a rebellious teenage period when trains were irrelevant. I had a similar experience being born in 1951.

Did any of you become rebellious teens when interest in trains was suspended?

Did any of you have a role model during your rebellious years? I did. Mine was Jim Morrison of The Doors. Now, I have Jim Morrison, The Doors and Whiskey a Go Go, where that rock band got started, featured on my layout:

Common baby Light my Fire!

LOL, Arnold

1963

Back in the day the drinking age was 18. I was a tall 15 year old and was able to buy beer at a few local liquor stores. I would trade beer for trains if I was at someones house and saw orange boxes. A case af beer for a box of trains and my collection grew!

In my mid 20`s the traction bug bit and I sold all of the 3 rail stuff to buy trollies. Now in my mid 50's the trolleys are gone and 3 rail is back. 

Mike

Guitarmike posted:

1963

Back in the day the drinking age was 18. I was a tall 15 year old and was able to buy beer at a few local liquor stores. I would trade beer for trains if I was at someones house and saw orange boxes. A case af beer for a box of trains and my collection grew!

In my mid 20`s the traction bug bit and I sold all of the 3 rail stuff to buy trollies. Now in my mid 50's the trolleys are gone and 3 rail is back. 

Mike

What an enterprising man you are, Mike.

I was born in August of 1948, I have always had railroading in my blood, my dad worked as a signal maintainer for the SP when I was little and motored around on a speeder.  As I got old enough to start to know what trains were, my Uncle had a Marx set that we literally ran the wheels off of it each and every Christmas and many a time in between,  I always wanted to have a Lionel train set of my own but that never came about.   We would go to Sears and look at the big Lionel layout they would always have out before and right after Christmas.  My parents would shop and my Uncle and I would walk around and watch the trains and also look at all the boxes of trains.  I got my first train set when I was around 6 or 7 and it was HO, that was what my dad had at our old house and that was what he felt would be better for me.  Needless to say, I ran the wheels off of it too.

I agree with GV's statement, I now have money for trains (not as much as I'd like but.....) and I'm hoping to start enjoying them in the near future.  I've started putting them on shelves, if I can't run them right now, I might as well be able to look at them and not just the boxes.   Someday, I'll have a layout, may not be a monster like some have but it will at least give me the opportunity to run the wheels off of them and be able to see them run. VBS

I'm also hoping to get my new baby granddaughter interested in my trains too.  We need to keep this hobby going one way or another.

Cheers,

Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Guitarmike posted:

1963

Back in the day the drinking age was 18. I was a tall 15 year old and was able to buy beer at a few local liquor stores. I would trade beer for trains if I was at someones house and saw orange boxes. A case af beer for a box of trains and my collection grew!

In my mid 20`s the traction bug bit and I sold all of the 3 rail stuff to buy trollies. Now in my mid 50's the trolleys are gone and 3 rail is back. 

Mike

What an enterprising man you are, Mike.

I always believed in helping people get what they need.

Mike

1952. My mother told me that when she found out she was pregnant, she decided it was going to be a boy and that he'd love trains. So she bought the set of Lionels that I still have. 

J. Motts posted:

I was born in August of 1948, I have always had railroading in my blood, my worked as a signal maintainer for the SP when I was little and motored around on a speeder.  As I got old enough to start to know what trains were, my Uncle had a Marx set that we literally ran the wheels off of it each and every Christmas and many a time in between,  I always wanted to have a Lionel train set of my own but that never came about.   We would go to Sears and look at the big Lionel layout they would always have out before and right after Christmas.  My parents would shop and my Uncle and I would walk around and watch the trains and also look at all the boxes of trains.  I got my first train set when I was around 6 or 7 and it was HO, that was what my dad had at our old house and that was what he felt would be better for me.  Needless to say, I ran the wheels off of it too.

I agree with GV's statement, I now have money for trains (not as much as I'd like but.....) and I'm hoping to start enjoying them in the near future.  I've started putting them on shelves, if I can't run them right now, I might as well be able to look at them and not just the boxes.   Someday, I'll have a layout, may not be a monster like some have but it will at least give me the opportunity to run the wheels off of them and be able to see them run. VBS

I'm also hoping to get my new baby granddaughter interested in my trains too.  We need to keep this hobby going one way or another.

Cheers,

Your love of trains is very apparent from your comments, JEM. We are rooting for you to have a layout when you can once again run the wheels off of them.

Arnold

Arnold and Guitarmike.

Are you a Fender, Gretsch or Gibson man?

Just for the record, I have been to the Whisky in its heyday.

GVDobler posted:

Arnold and Guitarmike.

Are you a Fender, Gretsch or Gibson man?

Just for the record, I have been to the Whisky in its heyday.

 

Martin with nylon strings.

Arnold

artyoung posted:

1952. My mother told me that when she found out she was pregnant, she decided it was going to be a boy and that he'd love trains. So she bought the set of Lionels that I still have. 

My mother also loved Lionel trains and bought most of my childhood trains. As I mentioned before on the Forum, she forbade me from selling or trading any of my Lionel trains when I was a child or teenager, because she believed they would always go up in value. I am now 66 years old and to this very day, I have never sold or traded any of my trains, not because I think they are such good investments, but because I love all of them.

LOL, Arnold

Thanks Arnold, I plan on trying to do just that. : )

1986  I grew up at the wye and yard in Harrington,DE.  Everyday the was plenty to see.  All of the engineers and conductors were so friendly.  I also had a great uncle who retired from the PRR who loved to share stories.  He operated the interlock tower in downtown Harrington.  Plus I just like mechanical things and anything with lots of power.

1962. My parents introduced me to model trains when I was 4 with a Tyco HO set featuring a Santa Fe F9 (powered A and dummy B units), a B&M operating hopper, a Kahn’s woodside reefer and a Santa Fe bobber caboose.

A year later, I received a Tyco Baltimore & Ohio Mikado as a gift from my grandfather.

I don’t remember my first layout (pictured), but I do remember my second and third ones, as well as the joy of rediscovery of the train set in the closet in between when I was old enough to set them up on the floor and play with them by myself.

My interest was reinforced with an AHM Union Pacific C-Liner and Life-Like trains we bought at E.J. Korvettes after Christmas in 1972 and with a Tyco Spirit of 76 set I received as a Christmas gift in 1974.

From that point forward, with my fourth layout, which I had a hand in building, my trains became my hobby.

While in college and living in a one-bedroom apartment, I redirected my interest to N scale, which I had discovered on that after-Christmas trip to Korvettes a decade earlier. My N scale world expanded dramatically over 15 years, in part funded by my first hobby shop job.

While I still occasionally run my N scale trains on the 2-by-8-foot layout I built in college, I switched whole-heartedly to O gauge, which I began dabbling in the summer of 1992, in 1998. My 3-by-8-foot O gauge layout (pictured) is now 16 years old, and I also run my scale-sized O gauge trains at a club.

I have retained my first two HO train sets and that Mikado, almost all of my N scale trains and all but a handful of the O gauge trains I bought over the years.

Well I grew up in the 70's all the other kids in my neighborhood were still playing with trains. Mostly in the winter. We spent our summers outside. Nick

Born 1979

My dad was always into trains.  He was a signal maintianer on the New York Central when he got out of the navy.  I think he lost that job sometime around the merger.  Growing up he would take me down to the north end of the NS yard to watch trains he also let me play with his old trains as I grew up.  I think it was a mix of seeing the real trains, playing with toy trains and time spent with him.

 In 2007 when he died I got back into them.

Jim R. posted:

1962. My parents introduced me to model trains when I was 4 with a Tyco HO set featuring a Santa Fe F9 (powered A and dummy B units), a B&M operating hopper, a Kahn’s woodside reefer and a Santa Fe bobber caboose.

A year later, I received a Tyco Baltimore & Ohio Mikado as a gift from my grandfather.

I don’t remember my first layout (pictured), but I do remember my second and third ones, as well as the joy of rediscovery of the train set in the closet in between when I was old enough to set them up on the floor and play with them by myself.

My interest was reinforced with an AHM Union Pacific C-Liner and Life-Like trains we bought at E.J. Korvettes after Christmas in 1972 and with a Tyco Spirit of 76 set I received as a Christmas gift in 1974.

From that point forward, with my fourth layout, which I had a hand in building, my trains became my hobby.

While in college and living in a one-bedroom apartment, I redirected my interest to N scale, which I had discovered on that after-Christmas trip to Korvettes a decade earlier. My N scale world expanded dramatically over 15 years, in part funded by my first hobby shop job.

While I still occasionally run my N scale trains on the 2-by-8-foot layout I built in college, I switched whole-heartedly to O gauge, which I began dabbling in the summer of 1992, in 1998. My 3-by-8-foot O gauge layout (pictured) is now 16 years old, and I also run my scale-sized O gauge trains at a club.

I have retained my first two HO train sets and that Mikado, almost all of my N scale trains and all but a handful of the O gauge trains I bought over the years.

Very nice looking scenery, track and ballast using traditional tinplate track, Jim.

Arnold

Born in 2002. Thomas and TMs I love toy trains got me into trains and a CSX line runs in front of my moms work. I mainly use O gauge lionel and MTH. I did HO for a year but Mostly O gauge I do have a prototypical N scale Pennsylvania railroad. My next purchase is a postwar Pennsylvania turbine and track to finish my layout. 

GVDobler posted:

If you were born after 1990, what brought you to trains and what do you run and what next purchase are you working towards?

The group born between 1960 and 1990 is interesting as well, as to their interest, because everything but trains was new to them.

Those of us born from 1900-1960 are probably enjoying stuff we didn't have money for back in the day.

Share your story if you like.

didn't some of you read this????

"If you were born after 1990..."

the op is trying to see why young people are getting into trains and if this can be applied to other youngsters.

GVDobler posted:

Arnold and Guitarmike.

Are you a Fender, Gretsch or Gibson man?

Just for the record, I have been to the Whisky in its heyday.

 

Charvel and Kramer guitars, Marshall amps.

Born 1990.  At age 3 my grandparents gave me a Model Power HO set.  That developed with my father's help on a 4x8 sheet of plywood.  Extra cars, track, buildings.

Around age 8, a distant cousin of my father's gave me his Lionel postwar set from 1948 which had some extra cars and accessories.  My father dug out his boyhood Lionel set which was headed by a 242 that didn't work, so he ended up selling it.  By age 10 or 11 I was completely focused on O gauge.  I liked it because I could teach myself to work on it, and that it was actually fixable; HO stuff always seemed to have small parts snapping off.

A lot of new stuff we bought came from K-line as it was affordable.  Layout moved to a few different rooms over the years, at it's largest was the 4x8 with a 4x4 extension making an "L" and a "trestle" completing the square.

When I went to college, the trains were packed up and came out each year for Christmas.  But I satisfied my hobby needs by buying Lionel Postwar car and accessory lots off ebay, fixing them up, keeping what I wanted, and selling the rest.

Another layout made a brief appearance on the same 4x8 sheet for about a year when I moved back home a few years after college.  Now everything is in boxes again, some stuff comes out for Christmas.  Both my parents have been very supportive over the years, but they finally wanted their basement back.

About to start a new job which will give me the means to start looking for another place of my own, which will be sure to include ample space for a layout.

About a year ago I purchased about half my Uncle's collection, and this Memorial Day weekend I will be picking up a large collection I am purchasing from a Lodge Brother who is moving and downsizing.

So as to a purchase I'm working towards?  A house with space for a layout! 

When I do, I might actually have to use a new sheet of plywood; still have the original from 1993 but it's gotten little warped over the years!