NEW POLL: when did you start?

[Summertrainz]

New poll here
i would like to know
1.when did you first have intrest in trains and what was your first model train set,
2. Who has a 4/8 board/ half/all their basement or their entire house devoted to trains?

1.i like trains since i was about 4 when i saw them at a trains show.
my first model train set was a life like set with a mix of bachmann with hook couplers. (still have it mixed in with my other new ones)
2. i have a 4/8 bored. i'm 12 so i guess i'm in model "training"

[ebtnut]

FWIW, I've been in trains since before your parents were born.  I know I had an interest from at least age 2, when I escaped my yard to go see the trains down the street.  That was in 1948.  I went through the usual changes in modeling interests during my childhood--autos, boats, planes, etc.  I returned to "serious" model railroading in the early 1960's towards the end of high school.  I was in HO for many years; converted to O/On3 in the 1970's.  I have a 20 x 21 foot basement devoted to the model pike--mostly On3, but with some standard gauge as well.

[nhmanhere59]

My first train set was a christmas gift when I was 7 months old from my grandfather who was a locomotive engineer. That was in 1938. It was the tinplate version of the "Flying Yankee/Burlington Zephyr in O-27 by Lionel. I still have it in running condotion. Since then I have had various model railroad layouts in HO and N scale in every home I have had. Currently,I have a large scale set up om my patio. It consists of all Bachmann equipment.

[pdlethbridge]

Like ebtnut, I started a long time ago and grew up watching the B&M change over from steam to diesel in the early 50's. I saw the last steamer make its run in 1958 (3713, a lima superpower 4-6-2 currently being restored at steamtown, Scranton, Pa ) I currently have a 2' x 12' shelf layout.

[SteamGene]

I had Lionels starting with a Christmas present, probably in 1949.  Being an army brat had a serious impact on my ability to work with trains.  In college a friend of mine and I had HO trains in the dorm and tried to build a layout in my garage at home (my house was about 20 miles from college).  I got back into HO about 1989.  I'm currently builing a 26x17 late steam pike centered around the Shenandoah Valley of Virgina. 
Gene

[Paul M.]

New poll here
i would like to know
1.when did you first have intrest in trains and what was your first model train set,  I first had an interest in trains when I was 2 or 3. My first train set was Bachmann's Silver Streak, which I got when I was seven.[/i]

2. Who has a 4/8 board/ half/all their basement or their entire house devoted to trains?I have a 5x9 foot layout that I'm building in my room. I'm trying to get an expansion shaped like a peninsula to connect with the layout.
1.i like trains since i was about 4 when i saw them at a trains show.
my first model train set was a life like set with a mix of bachmann with hook couplers. (still have it mixed in with my other new ones)

2. i have a 4/8 bored. i'm 12 so i guess i'm in model "training"

[Stephen Warrington]

I got my first set when I  was 2 years old in 1977 A Tyco Chattanooga Choo Choo set still got the 2-8-0 now on display on the TV. Then for a few years had Lionel in the 1980s but during HS went back to HO in the 1990s in 1998 I helped on a shortline Railroad and owned a 1:1 scale fairmont M9 motorcar and derrick and had part ownership in a 1942 GE 45 ton Center cab. Now I am disabled and collect HO and LS and still got my Lionels safely stored in their boxes.

Stephen

PS I got started railfanning at 6 months  old when my uncle grabbed me and placed me on a ICG SW9 switching  the yard in Jackson,MS in 1975.

[Craig]

Posted by: Stephen Warrington

I got my first set when I  was 2 years old in 1977 A Tyco Chattanooga Choo Choo set

I had the same set the same year. When my parents sold the house and began to move out, the new owner's children destroyed my model trains. I found them in the back yard, scattered. 3 years ago I built a model railroad for my children, and have built three more since then. I'm currently building a 18'x11'x7' HO layout of my own.

[Jake]

Ive been interested in trains all my life! And I got my first set when I was 5, I remember that it was bachmann becuase I couldn't put the EZ-Track together! 

^And craig, just asking, why do you always give us that 3rd dimension? Is your layout 7' high? 

[Craig]

Jake,

I'm still laughing at your question. You make a great point though. Actually my layout has a center walkway/control area. The freight yard is 18' long and attaches to the main layout which is 11x7.  The finished product  is sort of U-shaped so I describe it using all three sections of the "U". Technically, since the freight yard is 4' wide, the dimensions of the bench work are 18'x11'x14'. If it were 18'x11' I'd have to have one heck of a duck under.

Maybe I should have just posted a drawing 

Craig

[Dusten Barefoot]

I first started when I got back from Tweetsie Railroad when I was 3 1/2. I thought my first train set that Christmas was a Tweetsie engine, I rember it being a HO, Green and Red Great Smokey Mountian Ry, you can see why I thought it was tweetsie, but hey, it was still Ry from my home state of NC and that was great.

[Woody Elmore]

My godfather had a basement filled with O gauge hi rail trains. It was all handlaid two rail with an ouside third rail. His Lionel GG-1 pulling a train of Madison cars left an impression on me. His Lionel NYC F-7s pulling a streamliner was also very impressive. My favorites of his were the Walthers PRR MU cars that he had converted to more resemble Long Island Railroad MU cars.

After that I was converted. A neighbor's American Flyers were very nice but they didn't have the appeal of Lionel trains even though they were two rail.

A set of Lionel trains for Christmas from my godfather was all I needed to get involved in a great hobby.

[conradin]

I was raised next to the train station from my old country.  The train station is my neighbor.  Now the train station has become the national museum of the old country.


I probably did anything and everything that a kid would do with a train, train station, handcar, tracks, trying to uncouple couplers, signals, station master, station employee for fun and drive the adults nuts.  I did not get inside the ticket office and mess with their paperwork though.




I started model trains this year because I want to share it with my cat, who as it turns out, loves train.   1/4 of the spare bedroom now devoted to the layout, which in effect becomes Buzzie's room.  You can check it out by clicking on the link of my signature.

[Stephen D. Richards]

Summertrainz, I have been interested in trains since I first saw my Uncle's O-27 layout in his attic!  I was six or so then!  I never lived near any trains nor have I had a train set while I was growing up.  I am 51 now and started a small collection (small didn't last very long though) in the Spring of 06.  This past Winter I had the pleasure of being able to "drive" (operate) a passenger train.  It had seven passenger cars, two of which were Pullman beavy weights.  The locomotive was a GP7.  Not very modern but that hooked me forever!  lol  Now I have more "stuff" than I can deal with and should last me through my life!  lol  Just have fun!    Stephen

[#94]

About 1 1/2 yrs old I would stand and look through the back yard fence and watch the Western Pacific Rail Yard in Portola, Ca. Christmas 2nd grade I recieved a Life Like Train set. I have big ideas, but currently have just an 4'x6' oval of track to run trains on. I have two 1/87 scale models of local bridge and trestle and am working on a third that are part of my "big" idea. Big ideas but small/slow progress.