Hi Share your Father and Son modeling story: Laura and I have 8 boys between us, and only one of them has the railroad gene. Now working on the Grandchildren! Nathan, our number 7 son, is really just starting, though he has been interested for many years. He has collected a good amount of modern equipment and is in the planning stage of his Tehachapi inspired layout. Although he has a soft spot for Alcos, he prefers a modern prototype with intermodal trains. He does have a pair of Lehigh Valley C-628's, but not sure how he's going to justify those out west. As I don't have a layout at the moment, I may soon have a place to run some of my models. So, Alco's over Tehachapi, here we come. Cheers Steve
I might qualify as a second generation modeler. My father was given a Lionel train set when he was a boy, he kept it and took good care of it through the years. That set is around 55 years old and it still runs under the tree at Christmas. My dad built my first 4 or 5 layouts. The one that got me started was an HO Scale Life-Like set from around 1990. I was hooked from there on. He has slowly been working on an N Scale layout in a coffee table for probably 8 years. Likes to talk about it when he actually accomplishes something on it. He now has a 1948 Chevrolet Thriftmaster 3600 to occupy his time in retirement. Now that I think about, his dad might have also had some symptoms of this disease. My grandfather had a plastic G scale train that run under the christmas tree that he regularly set up and ran. After he passed I learned that he had a small collection of HO Scale cars, mostly "Collector" (yet not collector value) custom Athearn runs for special events, etc. I would have to say both my dad and my granddad had an interest in trains, but merely had recessive genes. I was fortunate enough to end up with my entire DNA made up of trains. Now that I have a son, I hope that he might take an interest in the hobby. Of course that is up to him and I love him regardless. Way too early to tell at 1 year old, but he did thoroughly enjoy watching my Dad's Lionel train run under the tree at Christmas.
Nope, first generation here, unless you count my father RELUCTANTLY building bench work for my brother and I circa 1963-1972 or so.........he did it though, cause he was a dad! From memory, my brother and I started, but never finished, preferring to upgrade to a larger layout well before completing even one, the first five of "6 HO railroads you can build", the Ma and Pa, and a self designed basement empire. Oh yeah, dad reluctantly tore them all down for us, too.....
My love's grandson is 4yo so does 'Thomas the Tank' count? No? Oh well, I'm trying. We have been train watching but it is all passenger. Still, his grandmother bought a car so maybe we can find a frieght place.
Let's count Thomas the tank engine, then I can include one grandson as well! Made a start on Nathan's benchwork this afternoon. An area to be used for an intermodal yard and one or two other industries. May have to tune up some Alco's soon, can't have the first train movement hauled by one of those less attractive diesels. Cheers Steve
I am a second generation modeler. My Dad got me into trains when I was 4. He setup a HO scale loop of track in the family room one night and I was hooked! In 1979 he got out of HO scale and went into N scale. He built a little 3X7 layout that we took to shows for years. Eventually we got a bigger layout that 8X12. We showed that layout until after I graduated high school and did so on a regular basis until I got into my 30s. Now it just sits in the train room at my Mom & Dads house. Me being 38 now and a house of my own, I need to get to building a layout so me and my 8 yr old son can enjoy it. I have been taking him to shows since he was a year old. He has his own locos and cars and is quite the little engineer. I not only take him to shows but I also take him to fellow Model RR op sessions with me. He runs anything from N scale to G gauge. Ryan
Well, sort of.... My dad had trains as a boy. Those were American Flyer Standard Gauge. When I was a boy, he had some HO and kits he built. Athearn, Silver Streak and such. But my mother, being the jerk she was, would never let him build a layout. After he retired, he had some N scale, but with his vision going down, that didn't work. I got into trains at age two, and dad was never really involved. But my grandfather, as they lived across the pastures the other side of the farm, did work with me some. I think grandpa enjoyed just watching me have fun with my Lionel, (and others), so that was satisfaction in it's own way.
I'm not sure how I would consider myself. My grandfather had a layout that then went on to my uncle(grandfathers son, my mothers brother), and then I've been into it as long as I can remember and my uncle did help with that with a train set for x-mas one year and then built a 4x8 layout for me to run on. So I could in a way be considered a 3rd generation.
By the way, if a 4yo declares that a box with a hole cut in it is the "Steam Works" does that qualify at 'modeling"?
I am a second generation modeler. I used to help my dad with his layout. Today my son is 13 and he is a third generation modeler. He has been helping build our layout this past winter. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
Why not? We all started somewhere. And, this shows your 4yo has a fertile imagination, so keep feeding that ember some fuel.
My dad loved model railroading. Started out with the Marx tin plate. He scratch built a baggage car to finish out the stock Santa Fe passenger train that my brothers and I played with. Then while stationed in Korea in the mid 1950s he picked up HO. He stocked up on Tenshoto and Tetsudo brass locomotives and passenger cars along with freight car kits. He totally scratch built a fine O scale C&NW pacific out of brass, even machining the locomotive drivers out of brass stock. After he retired, he built an HO layout to run the collection he had accumulated over the years.
I'm a first generation modeller and I have two sons that are modellers as well. They've received trains for Christmas and birthdays since they were born (24 and 27 years old now.) We try to go railfanning at least once a year and have attended N Scale Weekend each year. We watched Thomas the Tank Engine for a long time (I called them Trains with Faces for a while until I found out what it was really called.) I'll be working on my 6 yr old nephew to get him interested.
I'm a kind of third generation model railroader. My grandfather was an engineer with Pullman and designed coaches...my uncle was a raving railroad nut and so am I. It skipped my dad who was into sports and golf (whatever that is). My kids were into trains when they were young, now not so much. Hope it comes back to them as they get older and have their own kids.
My Dad enjoyed building models but he was more into airplanes and cars. He helped me build my first plastic airplane kits in the early to mid sixties, then moved into slot cars when they were big around '67 or so and then onto RC airplanes. I always had the train bug so he helped me build a Lionel layout at seven years old and then an N scale one at 12. My 24 year old son didn't catch the modeling bug but he's been a conductor for CSX for almost three years now and is heading to Atlanta for engine school next week. I'm very envious of him. Bob
If you have a layout or somewhere they an see the trains running etc they will come back. I got my daughter and wife interested that way. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
