Twenty Five Years and Counting!

Hey, guys!

Today (December 14, 2011) marks my ** TWENTY FIFTH ** year of model railroading (I can't believe I'm old enough to say that!)!!! I was given my tenth birthday present a day early... an HO scale TYCO train set. (I can't remember the name of the set, but it had a Santa Fe GP20 locomotive and matching caboose, a Union Pacific gondola (with concrete pipe load) a Burlington Northern boxcar and an orange auto rack (double deck and open to show the cars being transported).

I still have that first train set (well, minus a few pieces...) and even though the engine doesn't run anymore (I burned out the motor), I plan on putting it on static display in my train room (... whenever it is that I can get my own place and have an actual train room!).


So, as I celebrate my "silver anniversary" in the hobby, I'm currious to know how long some of you guys have been in the hobby (if you dare admit it!) and how you got into the hobby. I'm just currious to know.


(Oh, and I DID get myself an Anniversary gift... I bought my first LIONEL set!)

My first train was before I was 8. It was a Marx key wind setup. Then came a Marx electric about 11. Then I saw my first HO layout in a bedroom two doors up from me. WOW!

Left off for a few years. Then I built a 4x8 for three of my sons about 1970. Another small layout about 1975 for two sons. Then I owned a hobby shop for a few years and about that time, I found that the layouts I had built for my sons wasn't because it was their hobby, it was mine. I have been building since 1983 in HO in my basement. It is a modest sized layout and now I am building at the Madison County History Society, Inc. in Anderson IN.

My first Marx layout was in 1948.

Congrats on 25 years and happy birthday!

For me, it was my first Christmas 17 years ago with the train around the tree. As for actual modeling, I started probably about eight years ago when the Christmas trains move to the basement year-round.

I've "had" trains as long as I can remember, starting with the Lionels that Santa put up every Christmas which only lasted for a few weeks each year. My first HO trains were a TYCO PRR Brunswick F7, which I still have, and an AHM caboose, plus a few cars which I don't remember which ran on a loop of snap track. That was 48 years ago. My first "layout" was a piece of plywood on casters that rolled under my bed when not in use. I've stayed with HO and have had several permanent layouts, the largest being an approximately 12x16 foot "P" shape with 3 - 2 track mains and operating catenary. Unfortunately that layout had to come down as family and space requirements took precedent and I am now back to a seasonal 2 track main / switching layout which gets super detailed from all the materials I had from the larger one. I lost count on the number of locos and rolling stock I have but I try to make sure every one of them gets run each year while the layout is up. It's a good thing that my grandson seems to have taken an interest in trains, he's going to have a lot to work with in the years to come.

Mine started 42 years ago on my second christmas. Dad bought me a Marx set which I stiil have right down to the original box . Still run it around the tree every christmas. This was followed by sets from Tyco (long gone) and my original lionel set(still own). Had a small break in durring the late 80s early 90s busy with school/work, never stopped collecting though. Picked it back up again with the birth of my kids, daughter not so much but the son loves it. Good thing too Ive got lots of stuff to pass on.

The first issue of MR that I ever purchased was March of 1962 when I was 15. Prior to that we had a Marx train set given to my younger brother for Christmas (I was not happy over that).

Tom

I just completed my 35th year of model railroading! On my fifth birthday my parents got me the Tyco Silver Streak set! I can't tell you how many times I loaded and unloaded those trailers with the overhead crane! I started modeling shortly after, I used my mom's bottles of nail polish to paint the tail lights and the 4 stripes on the tires that appeared on alot of trailers at the time. (I think they were to tell if they shifted during handling) That Christmas my grandmother gave me a Life Like Bicentennial F-7 that I still have with the original box. That year and the next 5 after that I asked Sana Clause for a 4X8 sheet of plywood so I could build my own layout! I've been hooked ever since!
Mike

My entry into the hobby was at the age of 6 (1970) with a Tyco trainset that was a Christmas gift. It had a CB&Q GP-20 in that gorgeous Chinese Red paint scheme. Over the years I had several layouts in HO, all in my parents basement. Since the mid 1990's I've been modeling in N-scale in my own basement and don't see an end to being involved in this great hobby.

Congratulations to all you "Old Timers".

My first train was a Lionel set back in 1953. It had a steam loco with a weird wheel arrangement, a 2-6-4 (what would that be, a Super Pacific?).
That lasted until about 1960, when the engine finally gave up.

I got into HO trains in 1968. Probably my biggest push was the January, 1969 issue of "Model Railroader". A fantastic issue, featuring "Local Passenger Run on the Gorre and Daphetid". That photo article completely blew me away! Kindled not only a lifelong hobby, but a railroad career.

1978: I got disgusted with the little HO railroads I could build in what seemed to be an unending stream of progressively smaller dwellings. Solved the problem by switching to N-scale. Still with it, although now I have much more room to work in.

Like some of you, I was taken with the Tyco HO GP-20. I bought a trainset with this loco, then was disappointed to find my truck-mounted-coupler Tyco cars did not perform well with my body-mounted -coupler Athern cars.

With only one truck powered, the Tyco GP-20 was not very powerful, but it was quiet and smooth. Yes, it was painted CB&Q red and gray. I liked it so much, years later, I bought a Life-Like CB&Q GP-20 out of nostalgia for the Tyco unit.

Les