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!)

 

1989. LGB D&RGW Starter Set. Christmas Day none the less. 3 years to go on this end. Unless my math is off, which it usually is.

 

My first train was plastic battery-powered steam locomotive and thee cars on a circle of track, that was about Christmas 1988. I got my first HO Scale layout in Christmas of 1991. So either 23 years or 20 years for me.

 

From the photos I have (dad photographed everything... _everything_), it seems that I got my first trains on Christmas of 1970. Yikes, 41 years. Guess I'll have to paint up a Geritol box car...

Here I am the year after (1971) with my first N-scale layout. I still have some of this equipment, and now my son uses some of it.

 

Oh, the memories of my own first train set - Christmas 1973, and I also was ten years old. The magic of that first "layout" - the track "laid out" on the floor of the living room, and watching the Model Power sharknose going around and around. I still have that loco, and it still runs very well. I restored it somewhat with parts from one I bought cheap at a swap meet.

Congratulations on your quarter century of model railroading!

 

Christmas 1964, well - a few days prior. Spent some time the previous summer watching Uncle John Santa Fe running his trains on the left coast. Had to duplicate my last view of some Santa Fe warbonnets on a freight train. Could do so at the only hobby shop in town. Did so, right after Christmas, the 3/4" 4x8 sheet of plywood on top of my '56 Chevy. While I'd bought kits, etc. at about age 9 or 10 - and had my first Lionel at age 7, my first real layout.

Then, the discovery (at least for me) that I liked SP's "Black Widow" and "Daylight" scheme even mo' better than Santa Fe's equivalent. So, more and more S.P. Solidified when their PR Department in response to my requests - sent a bunch of photos and info on said S.P.

I could go on about re-kindling my love for Local roads, ACL, SAL, and SOU. My freelance period and finally, bless you P2K for your GP-18s in SAL followed real soon by the GP-7/9/30 in same. Yeah, could go on but it might bore a lot of people.

 

25 years
Yes, time flies if you have a hobby. :angel:

Next year my modul Naumburg will have 25 years of service for FREMO and participation in more than 40 meetings.

Wolfgang

 

Lionel 685 and cars here. Handed down from an older cousin in 1961 or 62. Still got it but got into HO at Christmas in 1967. Still got that set, too- Rogers ten wheeler and short passenger cars to be reworked and used on the present layout

 

My parents had an Lionel train under the Christmas since I can first remember. I got my own train at the age of 6 or 7, probably to keep me from bugging them to bring out the Lionel. It was a Varney trainset with the Dockside loco, gondola, flatcar and caboose. I still have the loco and caboose. My dad built a 4x6 "train platform" in my bedroom a few months later following an Atlas snap track plan. That was in 1959 or so. I watched my father build a Bowser K-11 maybe a year later. It wasn't long after that he watched as I built my first boxcar kit. Been at it ever since. My sister wound up with the Lionel train, but I can't complain - she's kept it running and is looking for replacements for some of the Plasticville buildings that have given up the ghost.

George V.

 

Well, Let me think, my first issue of model railroader was I think one of the last issues of 1983, so I'm going on 28 years now. I think my dad bought that when he got me the Bachmann commorative Zenith Electronics U36B trainset.

Still have a lot of that set. The U36B has a new mech under it and is getting new handrails.

But really, it might be even longer than that, because I really started out with my Mom's American Flyer stuff prior to 1983, so it's probably going on 30 years for me now.

 

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.

That first Marx layout was in 1948.

 

My first trains were bought in '75 and I was 25 years old. I've had trains off and on since then. My other interests get in the way some times. Mainly motorcycles followed by raceing autos and photography.

 

For me, it started Feb. 18th 1971. My 8th birthday. Arnold Rapido 0-6-0 a couple of cars and a caboose. So- it's been a great 40 years of n-scale model railroading. With a sprinkling of HO and my Lionel Polar Express.

Wolf

 

My brother and I were given Lionel freight sets for Christmas one years. I believe I was 7. Which means it was almost 12 years ago I think. He got a New York Central set, I got a Santa Fe set. I always loved the ATSF. They had some of the coolest looking trains. Anyway, I was hooked ever since. He grew out of it, I didn't. Ironically most of my o-gauge Lionel sets have been of the NYC brand.

Since I began my college career though... I've had to store the trains. I'm hoping I can work my way into a bigger apartment next year though. I'm going to transfer to a college in my home state to save $$$ with in-state tuition, so I'm thinking with my extra excess cash I can maybe afford a place with a space for trains. The compromise is that there is virtually no railroad presence in my home state save for the occasional Alaska Railroad tourist excursion. So while I'll get to work on my Lionel world, I'll have to give up watching the big orange diesels of the PNWR roll by campus.

 

I still have my original 4-4-2, and it runs. It lost its tender and some of its cars, but its almost whole. As for the good old ARR, that expansion is going to be primarily far North of me in the interior. The college I'm going to is in South-central Alaska. I'll probably be following it nonetheless. I'm hoping to maybe even get some sort of employment by that road.

 

You've all inspired me. Since my first trainset was an older LGB Starter Set, I decided to give her some run time around the christmas tree this year. I did lose a lot of parts on her but I've been modding her and bringing her up to speed. My latest edition is a matching powered tender that needs some coupler help (Don't ask, long story). I held onto my first train set because i fell in love with a german version of what they think was "american"