What Scale did you start in?

Bruce-in-MA Feb 28, 2002

  1. dmurphy

    dmurphy TrainBoard Member

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    I'll always been in N scale - since a few years ago - primarily because of space constraints. I'm thrilled with the quality and amount of what's available in this scale - though not much British outline this side of the pond which is my latest interest.
     
  2. doug

    doug E-Mail Bounces

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    started out as a kid in s-scale american flyer, then as soon as i could get away from my fathers s-scale on to n..... [​IMG]
     
  3. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hello Doug, welcome to Trainboard! I am pleased you 'escaped' from S and into N :D
     
  4. rsn48

    rsn48 TrainBoard Member

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    I started with the 1:1 prototype scale and have worked my way down to N at age 54. Probably in my 70's I'll take up Z scale.

    My grandfather and uncle were engineers on the CN and I used to ride the trains a lot, then when older, I would meet them when they came in.
     
  5. Hytec

    Hytec TrainBoard Member

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    IF I were to start over, and IF I lived in California, and IF I had money, space, time, and youth .... I would like to try my hand at Live Steam in 8:1 Scale. However, since ALL of the above are beyond reach, I guess I'm gonna stick with N-Scale 'cause it's just about the most fun I can have at my age with my clothes on! :eek: :D
     
  6. superheater

    superheater TrainBoard Supporter

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    Gang

    Gang I started out with 027 lionel when I was a
    a kid . Most kids in the neighborhood ran lionel
    I never new there was any other scale until a
    new neighbor move in . He was outside testing
    his radio control plane. He invited us To see a HO
    layout in his basement. The layout had a big
    mountain with tunels runing in and out of it. Little did I know ten years later would go to a
    store and buy a HO train set for my son and built a layout in HO. And then a friend would
    move and sell his N-scale layout and would take the HO out and built N-scale layout .
    Have Fun Model railroading
    SUPERHEATER
     
  7. randy shepler

    randy shepler TrainBoard Member

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    Started out in HO with a Lifelike set the aquired some Tyco and model power stuff later this was during the seventies.Mid eighties I bought my first nscale loco a NYC RS3 and a PRR RS11 from Atlas.I have been in and out of railroading ever since. Anyone else miss the commercials that used to start right after Thanksgiving for the new trainsets for Christmas?
     
  8. E&N Trainman

    E&N Trainman New Member

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    well i started off with an HO scale trainset on a 4' by 8' piece of plywood, from there i built another small HO scale layout which was to be my last. Now i have a 12'X11' around the walls N scale layout with a few new kato and atlas locomotives!
     
  9. BC Rail King

    BC Rail King E-Mail Bounces

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    I started with a wooden not to scale train that I pulled with a string. I later advance to a sit-on-it train that I pushed around the house. Next has HO scale, buying whatever I wanted, and what was cheap. I had everything from 6 Bachmann F7s in 3 different RRs paint schemes to a Brass Royal Hudson. I am now in N scale, due to space restrictions. I still go to an HO layout almost every Friday night though, and purchase some 'new and exciting' goodies when they come out in HO Scale. (I have 2 P1K RDCs in HO that I bought recently)
     
  10. Jerry M. LaBoda

    Jerry M. LaBoda TrainBoard Supporter

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    I started being interested in trains when I was around a year old... my dad use to take me into town (Palmdale, Ca.) to see the Espee derrick train (or so he told me... the agent was a poker buddy of his... lol)... anyways, this led to my first trainset, a Marx 027 set with a derrick and tender... in the early-60s.

    My interest in N-scale started soon after the scale was introduced though my modeling in it did not begin until the early-70s, and then it was split between scales.

    For the most part since the late-70s I have been committed to N-scale (although no one probably remembers it there was a letter of mine to Model Railroader back in 1979 that talked about being a "Dreamer" and I am proud to say that I have been seeing my dreams coming true for nearly 20 years... starting with Atlas' release of the RS3 and going until now...)
     
  11. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hello Jerry, welcome to Trainboard [​IMG] Good to see how many folks have been in other scales, but finally settled on the best one - N! :D
     
  12. Normand Paquette

    Normand Paquette E-Mail Bounces

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    Well, in the early 50's when I was 7-8 year old I got a Lionel set for xmas and set it up in my room, tore it down and set it up daily as 'mom' did not want it "all over the floor", ha! I used it for 2-3 years never adding any rolling stock etc.. Then passed it on to my younger brother. Then in the 60's when my own sons were 3-4 years old I got them a HO set, and guess who set it all up on plywood and seem to run it most?? right! Well it was in their room for a couple years and we gave it to their younger cousins etc.
    Then it really happened all over again in 1990, our kids grown and moved out and we had a large home all to ourselves.. A bit after thanksgiving the wife came home with a HO starter set to put 'under the tree' in a circle.. Well we both enjoyed this so much that after Christmas we decided to set it up in the huge finished basement.. Wow, a light went on.. "why not make a 'dream layout with all this room'? Well I did just this, using 4 full sheets of plywood, bridges, tunnels, mountains etc.. The wife got excited and built the mountains and tunnels and painted them and landscaped etc.. It was a lot of fun for 5 years for sure. As with any railroad there is never enough track it seems..
    We decided to move to a place where the sun shines 350 days a year 5 years ago and we are here in Las Cruces, New Mexico, 4000 ft. elevation, clear sunny skies etc.. hmmmm, well we bought a home on half acre and the back yard was begging for something so I thought with all the nice weather why not get into 'G' scale Railroading.. We set up a real mountain with 9 yards of dirt, set up a 225 gallon fish pond with a 22' long waterfall and then started laying track, bents, tunnels, bridges rail yards etc. and after 3 years of this and 436 feet later of 'G' scale rolling stock and many engines, staem and diesel, sound and smoke puffing etc. we are very pleased with it.. I just recently decided to put in an 'N' scale in a spare bedroom we have here for those nights and few days of bad weather I can be inside.. 'N' scale seems to have come a long, long way since the 60's.. I am running some quality Kato engines inside, they are too small to have to repair when you get older as I am now, ha!!
    Well, I didn't intend to write a book, but someone asked, soooooo.. ha!
    :cool:
     
  13. Jim Reising

    Jim Reising In Memoriam

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    Started with Lionel O when I was six years old. Built my first substantial layout using S American Flyer around 10 or 11. Went to HO after that and had the makings of a good size pike in the benchwork stage but discovered girls and tore it down making my folks very happy - they got their basement back!

    Got into N in the early seventies when I built a 4 X 8 for my son (very cramped situation, had to store it using rope and pullys near the ceiling of my shop), this layout was the most finished since the S pike.

    After a move 90 miles north in '84 (house with nice basement), and then spending ten years bringing the house to where we wanted it, including fully refinishing the basement (one room of which was dedicated to the layout), I began early design work on what is now The Oakville Sub.

    This one's pretty complete but lots of little things needed. Major project at the moment (which hasn't yet gotten out of the thinking stage) in an engine servicing facility.

    Retirement is five years away. If my health holds, we're planning a move south in search of a bigger basement!
     
  14. rich m

    rich m E-Mail Bounces

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    well started with ho my dad used to set up at chistmas on 4x8 plice of plywood then had a layout in moms basement for a couple of years with my brother same trains dad use to set up even use that old peice of plywood there where tyco/mantua then the wife and kids never had the room even for n-scale to we got this house :D
     

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