who are your influences?

[jward]

i am posting this as a sort of a fun topic.

who most inspired you with regards to model railroading, and what is it that caught your eye?

[jward]

i am going to be the first to answer my own question.....

1. my grandfather. he was a die hard railfan who loved heavily trafficked mainlines. when i was young he often took me to visit signal towers and busy junctions. his model railroad attempted to capture that in HO scale. it was the first railroad i was able to play on...

2. my dad. also a railfan, but with a different set of interests. he avidly sought out the smaller railroads and shortlines. i had many cab rides in various locomotives while out with him. his model railroad attempted to recreate several western maryland branch lines in west virginia. i learned how to build benchwork and handlay track from him....

3. john allen. one look at the layout he built takes your breath away. tall mountains, towering bridges, tunnels, a fully detailed city complete with docks.....and then you read more about it and find out it ran like a real railroad as well. he was the first i knew of who really put it all together....

4. allen mcclelland. while john allen put it all together, mcclelland's v&o railroad looked like places i had actually been. dawson springs could have been somewhere on the clinchfield or c&o......

[ACY]

I have ridden in the cab of locomotives from the following railroads: the Youngstown and Austintown Railroad, the Youngstown and Southern Railroad, and the Akron and Barberton Belt Railroad, the last time I rode in a cab was 1996, as the rules were enforced much more after that and they could get in more trouble.

[Jim Banner]

My Dad used to like watching trains.  He would take me to the station in Calgary, only a couple of blocks from his office, to watch the passenger trains pull in and pull out, and the freight trains run through.  I remember being a bit scared and a lot fascinated by the great panting monsters that moved these trains - usually Pacifics but occasionally Selkirks.  I still remember my first train ride, a day excursion to Banff in 19th century colonist cars, pressed into excursion service.  I particularly remember the return trip in the cold and dark as the gas lights and stove would not work - somebody had forgotten to fuel them.  But the lack of light inside the car made the lights outside the car all that much more interesting.  And some sixty years later, I still wake up at every small town to watch the lights when traveling by train at night.

As far as model railroading went, my parents bought me a Haefner windup train when I was five.  I suspect my mother had grown tired of me forever pestering her to tie my toy cars and trucks together with bits of string, and me then getting frustrated when they wouldn't follow the lines on the carpet.  Two years later, I got  a MARX electric train for Christmas and that was the time model railroading began for me.  My Mom died just before that Christmas which didn't leave my Dad much time to help me with my railroad.  He managed to build me a 4 x 8 table and pretty much left the rest up to me.  But whenever I need just a couple more sections of track to try a new idea, they would magically appear.  And relatives never had to wonder what I might like for Christmas or my birthday.  Anything for my railroad made me happy.  I had a lot of fun arranging and rearranging tracks and turnouts and buildings and other accessories.  Somehow I learned the difference between series and parallel circuits and that you don't wind electromagnets with bare wire, all without burning the house down.

Then my Dad died.  I went off to live with an aunt and uncle in an apartment that had no room for a train.  That was when I started reading about model railroading and spent time train watching.  A few years later, I fell in love, both with the woman I married and with the work of John Allen.  While my wife has never been a model railroader, she has always supported my passion.  Soon after we were married, we moved into a house with a basement and I have never been without a model railroad since.

This has been the long version of the answer to the original question about who are my influences.  There were three - my Dad, John Allen, and my wife.

Jim

[Doneldon]

My influences? Three. First, my Dad who worked as a dining car steward for the New York Central and the Santa Fe. He died on Christmas Eve when I was 13 and keeping him in my heart cemented my interest in trains.

It started with Lionel, however. My brother and I had two 4x8s with a few switches and two locos, a Prairie and a Magna-Traction diesel of some kind. We had some friends who also had O-gauge trains and I recall trying to duplicate the exciting near misses portrayed in TV commercials around the holidays. We weren't very good at our recreations, unfortunately, but we were saved by the remarkable durability of the cast-titanium/molybdenum/concrete/iron Lionel locos and indestructible metal rolling stock. We chased steam engines, watched the many steamers which ran through our home town in Indiana (especially the Nickel Plate Berks), and hopped freights for impromptu trips with the hobos. We also rode trains legitimately many times, especially the Santa Fe, sometimes in the cab.

I was fortunate enough to meet the late John Allen and briefly run trains with him when we lived in California. He was my third influence and his work continues to amaze and inspire me today.

Still and all, I'm not sure I'd still be a model rail and and a rail fan were it not for my Dad.
                                                                                                                                   -- D

[rogertra]

Those modellers who strive for realism.  Those who's model railways look like real railways, in a real setting, with a realistic track plan that's designed to operate like a real railway, with locomotives and rolling stock that all fit together as a homogeneous one, even though they may not be detail freaks. 

Not those who strive for the Disneyesque approach, even though they may be great modellers in themselves, their model railways just don't look real enough.

[jonathan]

My grandfather introduced me to model railroading when I was around 7 years old.  I have been smitten ever since.

While I waited 40 years for the opportunity to build my own railroad, I never lost the dream.

I remember watching many of those videos, produced and hosted by Allen Keller (late '70s and early '80s).  Got many ideas from from them.  Sometimes I think my wardrobe was influenced by those guys. 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the great influence and knowledge I have gained from the gracious members of this forum, these past four years.  Thanks, guys.

Can't say where my passion for the B&O came from.  Just happened on its own.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Joe323]

Well my best friend growing up had an extensive Lionel layout.  As I got older I always wanted to get back in to MRR, however it wasn't until I met my wife's cousin(who also also has an extensive Linoinal set up) that I was motivated to get back in.  The excuse was so he would have something to play with when he came over.  Lionel is way too expensive for me (and too large) so I went HO. 

Of course this meant I had an extensive (and somewhat expensive) learning curve but it was worth it.

Joe

[CNE Runner]

Carl Arendt - without his influence, inspiration, and information I would be still 'armchair' modeling. Frankly, I never thought I would have the space to construct a viable layout (the fold up creation, in our garage, just didn't work out). It was Carl, and many of the other talented folks on his website, who got the Monks' Island Railway (and its additional section - the village of Sweet Haven) going.

In addition to Mr. Arendt, my association with fellow Bachmann Forum members has been of untold value. Of special mention are those contributors who convinced me to purchase the Bachmann Spectrum GE 45-ton locomotive. Thanks for the advice...the locomotive runs as well as you said it would.

Regards,
Ray

[Terry Toenges]

My dad, who had built a Lionel layout on an old door on legs when I was born. Guess who always got wind-up trains for Christmas? He was a trucker and sometimes worked the rail yards.

[NMWTRR]

Great stories shared by folks.

In my case two people close to me and some others already mentioned by others.

My Brother and Dad.

My brother who was quite a bit older had health issues was cheered by my parents when he was given an American Flyer train. Then I came around a few years later and he encouraged us to move onto HO scale. Several years and many tables built by my Dad kept it going.

Surviving the teen years in the late 60s and early 70s by reading Model Railroader magazine and seeing what John Allen created always inspired.

Lastly and most recently really inspired by the regular contributors to this forum. Glad to have Bachmann host it too!

[poliss]

The railway art of Terence Cuneo inspired me the most. His paintings are so atmospheric. It's also fun trying to find the little mouse he has hidden in every painting. :-)

[Jhanecker2]

 I always liked to build models .  Had a wind up train as a kid.   Worked at  Pyle National , a manufacturer of Eletrical Connectors and Lighting .  They made several  lines of  Railroad connectors  and cables .  I inspected there for 19 years and discovered that a good number of inspectors  were former railroad employees and several were model train collectors . I went to the Illinois Railroad Museum in Union , Illinois to see where Pyle Products were used and found a good number of lines installed on the rolling stock . Also my brother in law was a member of IRM and had been model railroader. Marengo's train station was moved to the IRM  some years ago and is still in use .

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

As someone who is presently living without a permanent layout, I've gotten a number of good ideas for "portable scenery" from Robert Schleicher. He wrote the first little book--booklet, really--on model railroading with EZ-Track (the only track shown is with the black roadbed). He's also written a number of other books on model railroading.

My grandparents got me my first HO set (a Revell 0-6-0T with two log cars and a caboose) when I was so little I can't remember not having it. Grandpa taught electric shop at a trade school. A few years later he had the boys in wood shop build a 4 x 8 table (nicely framed, homosote surface), and he himself built and wired a layout with a double oval main line with a double crossover and a long spur. Unfortunately, the block wiring was far too sophisticated for a kindergartener  and even as I grew older I never really did learn to operate that layout properly. Eventually it was given to the neighbors for their grandson.