My paternal grandfather worked for the B and O at Rossford Yard near Toledo, but died in the roundhouse before I was born. My maternal grandfather lived around the corner and alternated walking my brother and I down to watch trains there, and sometimes at the nearby Pennsylvania RR yard that fronted their old farm. The B and O had the roundhouse right up front so we preferred that. We visited relatives in Toledo each year at T Giving and Easter. I think that is where the fascination began. All of that said, I must have had the bug even earlier. My first life memory (age 3) is moving from NY to Chicago, waking from my sleep when Dad pulled in the driveway, and running downstairs to the basement to see if my Lionel trains had arrived....and they had! I vaguely recall taking a train in to a dark station. Mom tells me that was taking a train into NYC, which means that memory had to be at 2 years old, although it might also have been taking the CNW to downtown Chicago after age 3.
I am a toy train addict! It started as an adult to keep me out of bars and away from drugs........ sort of kidding there It was a way to relax from the extreme stress of my work. It turned into an addiction later in life when I left that profession and had a more normal type of life.
'Train Modelers Anonymous' kinda has a nice ring ! We will have to come up with our own '12 step program'... .
And I have to be the tea to-taller in the group. Actually that's a Diet Dr. Pepper aholic, sp intended. Funny but I could give you 12 steps to how to become addicted to Toy Trains. I like the 13th step best. Think about it!
I can remember being fascinated with trains as a tyke, with my hometown of Charleston, WV being split between the B&O (north of the Kanawha River) and the C&O south of the river. On the ride home from nursery school, my dad and I would get stopped frequently at the crossing on Stockton Street, we’d see the F Units go by. My dad said when I was smaller still, that I would play with his HO American Flyer 0-6-0 on the concrete floor in the basement. I can’t remember doing it, but the worn flat wheel flanges attest to somebody having done it. Coonskin Park had a retired C&O steam engine on display, it left for . St. Albans in 1972. Never saw it over there. Searched the internet a couple of years ago, couldn’t find anything. This thread prompted me to look again today and I found it: C&O K-4 Kanawha #2700, the first 2-8-4 built for the C&O. It’s in Dennison, Ohio, at their Depot Museum. Restored cosmetically. I missed that thing when it left for years even though I was only nine at the time. At ten years old, I got my first train set for Christmas- an HO TYCO set, a PRR Mikado with eight cars. We had slot cars prior to that, and we modified the layout and got a crossing piece to accommodate both. Somewhere in that era, our family went to Cass Scenic Railroad, took one of the rides up the mountain. Then the table went full railroad for a few years. Then in junior high, dad and I went full racing mode, and the train oval & siding became a short point-to-point line in the valley that the new raceway straddled. It also became our first diorama, with grandstand, pit lane , garage area, and rock outcroppings in the valley. That racetrack laid the roots of my career as an engineer in automobile racing, as I became a speed fiend, switching armatures, magnets and chassis among my cars, looking for the ultimate in performance. I got it, too, with my beloved Ferrari 312PB. Like a Can-Am car, but raced at the likes of Spa, the Nurburgring, the Osterreichring, and the like, in Europe. I loved that thing. Then came college, and career, and mine and my dad’s layout fell into a fate worse than disuse, it became the victims of the destructive paws of nephews and grandsons. My dad patiently bore the abuse of the equipment by his grandsons, like he did with his son, and the cars and trains passed into the great beyond of legend. My senior year at college saw the C&O 614 passing through town three days a week for a month solid. Borrowed my dad’s camera outfit, took and still have those photos - somewhere. Bitter cold month that was, great smoke & steam plume action in those photos. Years pass, and I had my own sons, and we got them into Thomas trains. The boys got to hear about their Papou’s and my trains and cars and tracks of legend, but they would never get to see them. When the oldest of my boys was eleven, I got them a Bachmann N scale starter F7 set. A few weeks later, an Empire Builder set, and a crossover switch; so two ovals, no waiting. Then came some enhancements with “Dad’s stuff, a Clinchfield Challenger with DCC & sound, a DCC system, etc. And it’s been on ever since. The story would end well enough there, but it has this epilogue: In 2015, I was laying down for a rest after mowing the lawn, it also happened to be my wedding anniversary. The boys were tasked with straightening up the shed, and they came into the bedroom with a box. “Dad, we think we found some of your old trains.” I looked in the box - HO scale, Atlas switches & track, Aurora slot car track. In the bottom, power packs, yes, even locomotives -and a shoebox, and in the shoebox - slot cars! Yes, even my beloved and unbeatable Ferrari 312PB! And one just like it that was my dads. It was far from everything, but at some point he pigeonhole away some of the best before destruction was complete. I’m not ashamed to say I cried in front of my boys and wife, and said that “on our wedding anniversary it normally falls on me to get a gift, but today you boys have given me a present better than I could imagine. You fellas have given me a pice of my childhood that I thought I would never have again.” To this day, I have no recollection of ever having taken or being given that box.
My brother (older by 6 years) also had an Aurora slot sar track (bent figure 8 with a spiral in one end) that my dad mounted on a sheet of plywood, hinged to a shelf screwed to the studs in the wall. This allowed it to be easily set up and put away in the small bedroom my brother and I shared. Fun times!
Loved those AFX tracks! Had one on a card table that actually had a three level loop! Go to fast and you would launch the cars in a very spectacular manner.
Lots of neat stories in this thread. Basically, got a TYCO HO train set for Christmas at age 8, set up on a 4x8 painted green and ready to roll. That surely started the trains running around in my head, Going to the library in Omaha, and discovering MR magazine! Wow! First one I saw has John Allen on the cover, I think.And that surely set the hook in me to this day. Dad played with me and that a little bit, even took me to "The House of Trains' once, and bought me a small box of Preiser figures. After that, he he;ped me with it after our move to Carroll, IA on the C&NW main. Hearing the horns blow every day and even getting to watch them blow through town occasionally was a great part of growing up. Spent time at the depot, which is still there. Saw the old wood roundhouse, long gone. Walked the old CGW line that crossed over Hwy 30, and only ran at night. Chasing trains was just a normal part of life. Built in HO all those years, and built model cars, trucks, military and Navy stuff, too. Had a local store where my "pusher" worked, and we were able to order stuff or drool on what was there. We did set up out AFX track with the now L shaped twin 4x8 layout, too. By this time I had a good friend who also had trains and the model bug, conveniently right across the street. Then Navy time. After which I went to work for M-K in Boise, rewiring locomotives. That was a real kick in the pants! And lots of fun! Eventually as kids got older and we settled in Livingston, MT while working at LRC, I started in the club there and painting, detailing or customizing HO and N diesels for folk. Had an opportunity to buy a used N layout, so I did. Had a lot of fun with that, and even still have some buildings and trees from that layout. Now here we are, building trains and chasing them, too!
I love stories like this and I think after you've compared your story to others you'll find a pattern. We all got hooked pretty much the same way. I was lucky enough to meet and visit with John Allen. To see his layout. I think there is still two maybe three of us still alive that had such a privilege. Funny. My dad bought me a MR wig wag. He spent a lot of time reading the articles before he handed it to me. He said, "These guys don't know Railroading" but you might enjoy the How To Articles. I would hear him repeat that time and again with each new magazine he brought home. He brought home the same wig wag you mentioned with John Allen's layout on the front cover. I still have it. I think! Unless the mice made a nest out of it. Appreciate your story.
You're very correct, most of us had a dad or someone that introduced us, (or infected us!!), with the railroad bug. And taught us how to feed it, and feed it and feed it!! I had the fun of an uncle that worked at the UP roundhouse in Omaha, welder. And later in life Dad told me that he had worked for the UP for a bit as a crew boy! Didn't know that as a kid, probably so he didn't get 900 questions from a hyper boy! A neighbor was a retired telegrapher with a telegraph setup he used as a teaching tool for school field trips. Lots of influences on all of us. And then there is just the fascination of the BIG machines! And the whole John Allen thing. Just wow! I hear he was humble and very particular about the model railroad. As we all tend to be!
When I met John Allen, he was anxious to show off his railroad and share the particulars. I found it overwhelming but awesome. He was as you say humble but with an incredible sense of humor. He even stopped by to see my plywood central. At the time it was an up and over layout with a small receiving yard at the top. What a joy his visit was to a budding teenager. Nothing but cool. I have other things to do. Will visit more later!
I need to add. John Allen lived in Pacific Grove right next to Monterey, Ca. Known for it's Spanish Presidio. I live in Hollister, Ca. Barely an hour away from each other. The only thing he said about my layout was, "That's how I got started". See there's always hope.
Funny thing is, when you look at his first little 4x6, it was a very basic little plan, just very well executed. That was the artist/photographer side of him leading the way. Very inspiring work, that has affected the hobby in huge ways over the years. Oh, and I started looking at N scale while still in high school, even drew up lists of cars and loco's and track plans to fit my room. That is definitely when the N bug hit! It was so much easier to fit what I wanted into a small space.
While my original exposure was around the paper mill and farmers co-op. They wouldn't let us near the steam powered crane that unloaded the logs and then loaded them on smaller flats so the tiny utility engine could move them to the input pond and the crane would transfer them to the intact pond to go to the saws and chippers were my father worked. But when I was older I met the man who took his steam powered tractor to farm shows. One day at the start of the show in Oconto Falls he blow his whistle and pick me up for the 3 mile ride into the city and I helped him stoke the fire and blow the whistle. While it wasn't on rails it had to be much the same. With kids coming out an pulling the air to get the whistle blown I had to stock that fire a lot. And a lot of pictures taken.
The starting point for each of us has been slightly the same but ever so different. My basic layout was a 4X8. The same as many of you have mentioned. Actually it was the front room carpet against my mother's best wishes. The carpet a light brown or tan ended up with grease and oil stains. From the locomotive and diseasels. Sp intended. That never came out. The oild and or grease. Thick black stuff, in it's day. Today I could clean that carpet and it would likely change to a lighter color. Progress, what can I say. Then I discovered I didn't like the tight radius curves of my HO layout. Watching the progress and popularity of N Scale it hit me. I could have the same radius curves as in 15" 16" 18" and 22" and even 24" radius curves. Do I dare go for a 30" radius curve? Gone would be the unsightly over hang of full length passenger cars. Downside: If only we could get knuckle couplers like the three railers operating O scale, Lionel trains on 27" diameter track. Tight silly putty turns. Still those knuckle couplers were the cat's meow. Ask my cat's they know. They ask for them by kitty names. LOL Now, I've got a layout (when back up and running) will sport all kinds of trains. What a sight!
