# Why do you like trains?



## cjsrch (May 29, 2010)

really WHY?

For me i like old things. and for some reason trains are the symbol of everything pre 50s' they worked with out any electronics they needed so much maintance they had to of been like family.

but why model them? where is the joy in watching them go around and around and around. ( or even doing actual operations)

sorry i just caught my self staring at the train under the tree for 1/2 an hour before being yelled at " yeah just watch your train while i clean everything"


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## livesteam53 (Jan 4, 2008)

Watch a train.........or.....Clean. 

I'll watch trains.


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Dad liked them and grand-dad liked them. So I grew up thinking everyone had trains in their basements!


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## armorsmith (Jun 1, 2008)

My grandfather engineered on the Pennsy L1 Mkes, guess you could say it is in the blood.  

Bob C.


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

The only real memory I have of being 5 years old or that young at all was sitting in the middle of a Lionel set I recieved when I was 5 yrears old, watching it run around and around.
A tridition my father started, and even though I was in and out of trains I settled on G scale because they are so big and cool looking! 
My life is fiull of triditions my father started..shame none of my kids think they are cool!
Hopefully a couple of my grandkids will be interested in them..I hope! 

Just seems natural!

Bubba


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

When I was a kid growing up in the 1940s and 50s, trains were the primary form of transportation and cargo movement in the country. Living in Buffalo, a city that was once one of the biggest flour milling, steel making and railroad transportation hubs in the country, I got hooked at an early age, graduating from American Flyer and Lionel tinplate (later, plastic) to HO. I hung around the railroad and bummed cab rides. Then my life took a different turn, as did the world, and trains were put on the back burner or taken off the stove completely. My passion for cars--dragsters, hot rods, race cars, and finally sports cars led led me to a profession (car magazine writer) that became and still is a part of my world. But a few years ago, after seeing a Bachmann 10-wheeler in a store window, I was drawn back into my past life, so to speak. Why? Nostalgia, mostly. Because trains, especially steam locos, reminded me of a simpler time, even though I'm sure that, given my childhood angst, I didn't know it how happy I was. So going back now brings back fond memories--without all the problems. And, unlike my childhood, I can do what I want without having to clear it with my parents and without having to save up my allowance. 

But don't tell my wife.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I like trains because I like steam locomotives. I like steam locomotives because at the age of 3 and a half I was "scared airborne" by a steam loco suddenly appearing from behind a building, blowing the whistle and spewing steam all over, even under the car I was in. Some people like to go bungee jumping, sky diving, riding roller-coasters, or even just watching a scary movie to get an "adrenaline rush". Me?... I go stand next to a steam locomotive and that same "fear" that put me in the air (on my way to my Grandfather's lap, whilst I screamed "MOMMY!") overwhelms my senses and I quite enjoy it.

I always wanted to own a real steam locomotive so I could run it, but I also always knew I'd never do so because I could never afford it, nor the land to put track to run it. But then I found out about the Aster Mikado and that was something I could afford (barely) and I had the land to run it on. "Garden Railroading" is only a byproduct of the dream (or is it a means to an end?).


I like old things because at one time I needed a woodworker's "plane" and all I could find was a cheap, folded sheet metal one with a razor blade for the cutting element, or good Stanley planes that were 10 times the price I could afford. Then someone told me to check the local "Antique" shops (also known as 2nd hand stores or "Junque Shoppes"). There I found all the GOOD tools I could ever need, at prices I could well afford because they were just "old tools".

Then I found a vase I liked, and a lamp, and a chair, and a table, and, and, and, and... I got carried away "finding" things I liked. Sure was a lot of fun. And most of those things I bought are still very usable, whereas the stuff I have purchased "new", I have, for the most part, had to replace many times over. I found that the style of most of those things I liked and bought were of a late "Victorian" vintage (1890's). And that kind of goes along with my liking steam locomotives, although my preference for steam locos is from the 1920's to the late 1940's (same as my taste in music).


Then, at one antique shop I found a porcelain "Designer" (collector's type) doll that I really liked, so I bought it. Then I found yet another one and bought it. My living room is now FILLED with porcelain "Designer" dolls, all in Victorian garb.


I, too, remember the trains of the late 1940's and 1950's. I remember often hearing a steam locomotive, late at night, doing switching duties at a railyard about a mile from where I lived. I very vividly remember the slow and sharp chuff as it would start to pull a cut of cars, and then a muffled chuff or two as it slowed to a stop and then another chuff or two as it gave a gentle shove of one car off the end to put it on a different track, and then another chuff or two as the next car was shoved onto another track. Then it would do it all again to pull the consist out farther to again shove a few cars down other tracks. Sometimes there would be a loud "KaBang!" if one car was shoved a bit too fast causing a hard coupling. (Could always tell when it was an empty tank car!)

Sometimes between each series of these sounds there would be whistle signals, and I learned that, 1 toot meant it was stopped, 2 meant it was going to go forward and 3 meant it was going to go in reverse.

Sometimes I'd hear a train pulling out of the yard and the chuffing would get quicker and quicker, sometimes breaking into a wild rapid fire staccato as the drivers slipped. The sound would then nearly stop and regain the original steady increase in cadence as the train continued on its way out of town, whistling for every grade crossing.

Many years ago I was talking to an old retired RR Telegrapher about those night-time sounds and he said he would often lay down at night and put a tape recording of steam locomotives on a player and listen to them for a couple of hours. Then he said that sometimes he puts his hand under his pillow and scratched the pillowcase with quick strokes to simulate the sound of the chuffs and he would then go through an entire switching job, shoving cars into each of the ladder tracks to split one train into parts of many. I have tried it and it does sound very much like what I remember hearing on late summer nights in the 1950's. But I have to be careful, I might wear a hole in the pillowcase.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

We lived a block off of the South end of the Rock Island Blue Island Yard. My Father worked for the Catholic church. There was a 3 story school building. On the landing between the second and third story was a window where I could see the yard. I would watch trains switching cars for hours. As I got older I would ride my bike down to the viaduct where 127 Avenue/ Buroak av and walk to the middle of the viaduct and watch switching. There was a round house there too. I come off the viaduct and cross under it to get to the other side to watch what was going on at the round house. That is all gone now. Just a empty yard with no tracks. I remember some steam engines. I remember a guy hanging off the side of a car and the engine would speed up. The guy would pull a lever and the engine would apply breaks. Two or three cars would coast onto a siding. I remember the crash as the couplers of the rolling cars would hit ones that were standing still on the siding. I had a HO set I played with for hours switching cars. I toyed with the idea of 7 1/2 guage for a long time . Not to ride but to run like I do now with my G scale. But it was too expensive. Then I found G scale. I got a Lionel Set when I was in 5 Th grade. I still have it. My mother gave away my HO set when I got to 8Th grade. I came home from school and my 4 ft x 16 ft train table was empty. All my HO track and cars and power pack was gone. I was too old to play with trains. She was about to give away my Lionel set when I threw a fit. When I would come home on Leave from the Air Force I would aways check the storage room to see if my train set was still there. 
Now I play outside with my 1:29th set I just turned 65 last November. I just went into the closet and checked....Yup my Lionel set is still there


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

JJ it is a shame our mothers THREW away a lot of our stuff! My silver age comic books were all thrown out!
Not saying that they were in pristine shape but still old and simi valuable.

Never really got over her throwing some stuff away!

Bubba


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

At the age of ten weeks I'm sitting on my mom's knee on the first car behind a 15 inch gauge CPR Hudson. My next coherent memory is watching a little train going by from my grandparent's house in Wales - I was then three. Then standing by a loco waiting to be collected at Trenton Junction ONT at the age of four and a bit.............it goes on from there and has never stopped. 

On my memorial tree, they could well nail a plaque that reads - 'tac foley - he loved trains, birdies and his fellow Man, but not necessarily in that order.' 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org 
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

Tac what kind of birds do you have?

I have a Black Headed Caique parot, female 5 tyears old..only 25 more to go! BOY is she ornery!!!

Bubba


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

Bubba, I don't have any bird of my own - living out here I don't need them. We have kites [two types], buzzards [two types] n types of smaller birds of the usual UK countryside kind, and a big raptor population of the usual kind, hawks, kestrels, and so on too. Owls of all kinds, including a couple of escapee European Eagle owls. 

Going shooting a couple of weeks ago I came around a corner and saw a kite taking off with most of a roadkill pheasant. 

We 'own' a vulture in the local raptor foundation - we've sponsored birds there for the last twenty-something years. 

Have you read the amazing story of the African Grey, 'Alex and me'? 

Make ya cry, guaranteed. 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org 
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund


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## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

Apologies, all, for the thread-drift above, but I DO have a train/bird story to tell. A few years ago, after six weeks back over in CN with our folks, we returned here to find that my USA Trains GP9 and a short consist had been running around the loop for almost four weeks unattended after a neighbour pushed the power switch to the UK-version of 'off'. I wrote this story up on this site a few years ago, too. 

The whole train was covered with birdy-poo, and to our delight, after it was cleaned up, we found that birds would take rides on the train for a couple of years until the 'memory' died out by natural wastage. 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org 
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund


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## Madstang (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By tacfoley on 03 Dec 2010 07:19 AM 
Apologies, all, for the thread-drift above, but I DO have a train/bird story to tell. A few years ago, after six weeks back over in CN with our folks, we returned here to find that my USA Trains GP9 and a short consist had been running around the loop for almost four weeks unattended after a neighbour pushed the power switch to the UK-version of 'off'. I wrote this story up on this site a few years ago, too. 

The whole train was covered with birdy-poo, and to our delight, after it was cleaned up, we found that birds would take rides on the train for a couple of years until the 'memory' died out by natural wastage. 

tac 
www.ovgrs.org 
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund 

Yes sorry also I just never run into people that have birds.

Bubba


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

I got my first train set when I was about three years old. It was a second-hand Lionel pre-war "Torpedo" freight set with a whistling tender. (The term "Torpedo" referred to the Raymond Lowey styled bullet-nosed locomotive that pulled the set. The prototype was a PRR K-4, but the set locomotive was a 2-4-2.) From that time on I was hooked. In summer of 2009, I found an almost identical version of that first set. It cost me $200.00, but I consider it a bargin. How often can you buy a tangible piece of your childhood back? This little set has bumped the large scale from under the Christmas tree. The set, a Marx whistling Girard station, and some Plasticville buildings help bring back the charm of the late 1940s to mid-1950s to our living room at Christmas. 

I was born 12/14/1945. Steam was already pretty well gone by the time I was really aware of what was running on the big tracks that went through our town, Palmyra, PA. This was the Reading RR mainline from Harrisburg to Reading. I think my first love for steam actually came from my Uncle Bill's American Flyer Atlantic-powered freight set (with smoke & Choo-Choo sound) that shared a Christmas train platform with that old Lionel Torpedo freight set. His set got me hooked on American Flyers. And later gave me a desire to run real steam locomotives. 

There was a brief flirtation with diesels, in the form of an American Flyer Blue Comet PA1 powered passenger set. It turned out that I really loved the American Flyer steamers better, and owned quite a few of them over the next twenty years. 

I learned how to fire and care for a live steamer at Hershey Park, where I worked during the summers between my college years in the latter 1960s. Most guys my age wanted to turn 21 so they could buy beer and liquor legally. I wanted to turn 21 so I could run the Crown Metal Products 4-4-0 on the park's Dry Gulch Railroad legally. Later I got to run two H. K. Porter saddle tank locomotives (an 0-4-0 and an 0-6-0) at the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern Railroad, a small tourist line in the Kutztown area of PA. 

When I moved to Roanoke, VA (to work for N&W Railway), there was not enough room for the American Flyers. They were sold, and for a while I had North Americal HO and British OO trains. I've also had some N scale and one Z scale set. 

Eventually I got interested in large scale (about the same time I needed bifocals). I have mostly 1:22.5 and 1:24 stock, but I have a few items in the other large scales. I hope to build another layout outdoors someday, but the next layout will be raised off the ground. Crawling around to work on a layout does not set too well with my aging joints. 

I also hope to get a small live steamer. In the past I was "spoiled," as I was able to ride in the live steam locomotives that I ran, but my hopes for ever running a full-sized steamer again are beginning to dim. Something simple, like the Regner Willie, will probably satisfy my steam "addiction" in large scale. 

All-in-all it's been a lot of fun, and still remains a "great ride." 

Yours, 
David Meashey


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## tj-lee (Jan 2, 2008)

> My life is fiull of triditions my father started..shame none of my kids think they are cool!

Ain't that the sad and sorry truth!

Best,
TJ


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## Robert (Jan 2, 2008)

My grandfather, who was very important to, me could hardly wait to buy me a train set. He had daughters and was of an age that would not have thought to give a "little girl" a train so he had to wait for grandkids. Well he hooked me right away. I loved playing with them with him. As I got older he and I began doing some rudamentary modelling which I discovered I really liked this aspect of the hobby. Finally, I also find that watching a train loop around a nice layout, much like watching fish swimming about in an aquarium, is very relaxing.


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Since I was about 2-3 years old, I have liked trains. Perhaps it is the clickety clack or perhaps it is the power of the machines that haul them. Whatever it is, I like it. The smells of railroading are generally bad for your health (creosote, coal smoke, diesel fumes), but I like them. I tried to work in the industry, but ultimately have made my career elsewhere. I decided I liked railroading as a hobby not as a career. 

I've had model and toy trains since I was 3. That was 1980 and the Lionel trains made then were not the robust models of the 1940s and 1950s. My original set is long destroyed and gone. When I was 8, we moved from GA to CT and in the town where we moved, there was a German toy importer. My dad went in there looking for Easter gifts (small things), and ended up buying me an LGB starter set and two additional cars. From then on, the HO and Lionel trains just weren't as much fun for me. I did build an Atlas snap track layout when I was 11 with my dad, and that was fun to build and learn to run. But, it was fixed and there was no modification. I still enjoyed running the trains, but mostly was alone doing that. In addition to all my school activities and athletic activities (I am a 4 season athlete), the train table became somewhat dusty. In 1992, my parents decided to finish off the basement, where all my trains were. That winter, my dad and I decided to build a garden railroad. He was the finacier and I was the engineer and construction team. I had a lot of fun building the garden railroad in the front yard and when the tracks were done, my mom got involved with the gardening part of it. When I went to college, that railroad languished most of the year, but my parents didn't make me take it up. When they moved to a new house, they allowed me to build a railroad there, too, even though I was still gone most of the time. Finally, in 2001, I pulled that railroad up and was without a real railroad until I bought my own house and set up the current railroad in 2004. 

I've stuck mostly with large scale, but I seem to have a little bit of HO still and some O gauge I've picked up over the years. Have an American Flyer S gauge train and a live steam OO scale Mallard. That Mallard is a beautiful piece of machinery but I honestly don't see myself building an OO scale layout. 


This is an interesting and timely thread. I was thinking last night about what my two kids are going to think of the trains as they get older. Almost no one is in to trains, and especially large scale. I've given everyone in my family a large scale train set at some point over the last 10 years. Perhaps those sets will survive, perhaps not. But, I know that everyone has enjoyed having them under the tree. All of my 'best' toys are trains. TV's, stereo equipment, even computers get outdated so quickly. The trains have a lasting appeal. Even my car, an 09 VW CC, which I really love, will one day become that car I traded in on xyz.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

I like things mechanical... Dad liked trains for his own reasons... 

Before my birth, he had a huge Lionel set up shipped to his quarters in the Phillipinnes.... The 6-8-6 Pennsy turbine and a long fleet of freight cars, plus the work train, 4 switches and a cross over.









As memories were formed we added the hand car with bumper reverse, but to my dismay we only got permission from Mom to run it through the house at Christmas time. Now in San Diego, we could also see the trains of the Santa Fe from our Mission Hills back yard. I vaguely remember riding a steam powered train from LA to Oakland Ca. The Conductor forgot to close our ventilation before a tunnel and we got smoked! Funny what we remember.









I also remember seeing a single loco pull 200 cars across New Mexico, a rich plume of smoke drifting across the land. Dad like to count the cars in a train and pace them along old 2 lane highways. 

My older brother had no desire other than Christmas play, so when we moved to Astoria Or. in 1958 and had a basement I petitioned to have them running year round and won!









3 years later he gave them away and converted me to HO! I cried at first..







.. but how can a child argue with; The Navy says they are to heavy to move.? Stoopid Ol' Navy!!!









More than a machine, a Train is a living thing as it snakes it's way across vast vistas..... or rumbles the earth. 

John


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

John, 

My grandfather bought the Lionel, Pennsy 6-8-6 turbine, just after the war-late 1945 or early '46. As a matter of fact, I STILL have it displayed now. That engine is indestructible! He ONLY had his Lionel out at Christmas. That was what made it such a long lasting memory for me and why I love trains now.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Posted By Gary Armitstead on 03 Dec 2010 11:09 AM 
John, 

My grandfather bought the Lionel, Pennsy 6-8-6 turbine, just after the war-late 1945 or early '46. As a matter of fact, I STILL have it displayed now. That engine is indestructible! He ONLY had his Lionel out at Christmas. That was what made it such a long lasting memory for me and why I love trains now. *ARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!







* 
I loved that loco!
Dad had a fellow Navy man bring it to Subic Bay at that same time.
He virtually gave it away, something like $25 for the lot of it! 
I can stilll hear that rumbling whistle today.... oh for the scent of white pill smoke!
Dang now the memores are flooding...









John


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## SRW (Jan 13, 2010)

Why do you like trains? " really WHY?" 

Real Trains? or Model trains? 

If you drew a time line of mankind's engineering endeavors going back to discovering that you can start a fire with friction tools or flint and steel and listed all the other inventions up to the modern day then I guess railroads would only occupy about the last tiny segment of that time line just slightly longer than airplanes and spaceflight. Our engineering curve as humans inspires me with awe. From the first inventors just trying to use steam to pull two or three passenger coaches more effectively than horses to this day when railroads bring us every single product we consume in our daily lives from Corn Flakes, Washing Machines and Automobiles...they're AWESOME creations of man's imagination and ingenuity. That's why I like to look at them. 

Model Trains? Well, that's; "similar...but completely different" as my best friend likes to say. 
They're model representations of the real life engineering marvels to be sure, but they cause nostalgic synapses in the brain to fire on many levels as do other sensory sights/smells/sounds that harken us back to childhood. 
As others mentioned before me, maybe they remind us of how our Fathers or Grandfathers made the family income on the railroads or the trains that ran by our childhood homes. Maybe watching a toy train run around a simple loop on the floor or under the Christmas tree triggers memories of simpler childhood days when running our trains, playing Cops & Bandits, building with Lincoln Logs, etc. was the biggest project we had to worry about back in those days and that gives us respite from the daily pressures of our office or factory jobs and familial responsibilities. Maybe we enjoy immersing ourselves in building a total 'world' of our own creation in our basements or backyards, complete with every tree, bridge, tunnel, building, factory, train station, just where we think it should be...our own peaceful, prosperous world where everything makes perfect sense. 

To answer your question...I don't know why I like trains. I just think they're cool.


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## work4fil (Jan 4, 2008)

I can't really tell you why I like trains, because if I did, your head might explode. My mother will tell you that when I was in diapers (or high school), I would "nut up" everytime I saw or heard a train. I still "foam," when I get a chance. Some things are better off left unexplained. 

I got my first train when I was three. I still have it. When I was four, I got my uncles' Lionel Pennsy 6-8-6 Turbine. I still have it too, despite Yakima County's attempt to destroy it in 1996, when they flooded my house (I am not too bitter, though they deny responsibility). 

Anyway, there are N-guage, O27, and HO lurking upstairs in the Man Cave North, awaiting their place in my "Garage Moment,." which will go into the Man Cave South. But the feature creature will be G Scale, once I finish my honeydews (or fraction thereof). 

All in all, it is best I like trains. For one, it is easier on my body than the alternative of cigars and whiskey. Most of all it is cheaper and easier to explain to my reason for life than it would be if I was spending the time and money on "other women." 

I am not sayin'... I am just sayin'... 

Fil


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

As far back as I can remember, I’ve had trains in my life. We played with trains, we rode real trains, we watched real trains and we regularly visited various hobby shops as far away from WV as Pittsburg and even NYC. My Grandfather and an uncle both worked for the B&O. My uncle was an engineer running the trains in the mountains of WV. At 3 yrs old I had an HO layout in my bedroom. Later my father built several HO layouts in the basement of our house. In 1959 when Aurora brought out the HO Slot car sets, my dad didn’t just buy one and turn it over to my brother and I, he incorporated it into the train layout. In 1965, my grandfather died and I went to live with my grandmother for the summer to keep her company. During this time, my grandmother gave me the American Flyer trains that were my late twin uncles. I can remember running those trains in her basement and the smoke being so thick you could hardly see across the basement. I still have those American Flyer Trains. I also still have a small Penn Line brand switcher from the early 50s and still run it occasionally. Lucky for me, my parents never threw away my stuff. 

I got into G-Scale by inheriting my fathers G Gauge trains. Dad like the LGB European stuff. I had bought him a Big Hauler RC set and a 2-4-2 Bachmann Steam Loco. So when Mom gave me the trains I sold the LGB stuff and bought a 2-4-0 LGB Santa Fe Steam Engine. Being from WV and working in the coal mines, I wanted some coal cars to pull being the little steamer. Some, turned into 44 coal cars. While I’m not in the position to set up a permanent layout, I have a temporary layout where I can enjoy pulling the coal cars. 

Toy trains aren’t the only interest I have. In WV when I grew up the roads were all two lane and there were lots of R/R crossings. From watching those trains speed by as we waited at the crossings, I came to love the roar of the engines the whistles and horns. I’ve been to Cass Railroad several times and just can’t get enough of those whistles blasting away in the mountains. We’ve also rode the Durango to Silverton train, the Verde Canyon RR, and the railroad to the Grand Canyon. We plan to ride the Cumbrees Toltec RR the next time we’re out west. We had plans to ride the trains across the Canadian Rockies on out 10th wedding anniversary, but after we both lost our jobs, that trip is on hold. 

Following are links to some videos of my trains. 

Enjoy 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyZk7H_TbMs 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxR1ONwmbRo 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdbnOcUZ9ew 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay-YRA-FPp8 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1HNrB5cPqo 
Randy


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## tmtrainz (Feb 9, 2010)

Nice videos Randy.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

In my case? Imprinting.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Like Randy, I've been involved with trains most of my life. Loved riding the steam pulled passenger trains from Rockford, Il to Chicago as a kid, overnighters from St Louis to the East Coast, from bedrooms from St Louis to Seattle, down the coast to San Diego and back to St Louis on the Chief. Many First Class trips in England, all over Europe and the bestest one of all







, took the Lunatic Express First Class from Niarobi to Mombassa in Kenya. That was a fabulous trip.

Been in American Flyer, HO, N and now G gauge.


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## eheading (Jan 5, 2008)

Hmmmm - I'm not sure why I like trains! As a kid growing up, I had Lionel trains 0-27. Over the years the layout grew to a permanent status and was pretty good sized. When I was in high school though, I decided Lionel trains were for kids, and sold my Lionel stuff for a pitiful small amount, and started with HO trains. Never could get them to run well, and when I went off to college, that ended my involvement with trains. My wife Kathy knew I had been interested in trains, so she kept after me. Finally I started up with N gauge trains because they were small and wouldn't take up much space. Didn't like them either though - too small, and again I was always seeming to have conductivity problems.

After we retired and moved to Florida, Kathy again, prodded me to try G scale trains. So I got a starter set, and started out with a small layout in the side of our RV garage. As it grew, I eventually expanded outside, and made the decision to convert all of my engines to battery power. For me personally, that was the best decision I could have made. I have enjoyed these trains more than I can describe. I'm primarily into diesels, although Kathy has a couple of steam engines that I have to run for her to keep them in good shape (heh, heh). I think one of the reasons I prefer the diesels is that when I am running my trains, I'm inside that engine - and I can understand how to run a diesel-electric engine. All of the valves etc. in a steam engine just boggle my mind!!!

I know many of you have been involved with the "real trains" for many many years. I have not, although now I faithfully read each issue of Trains Magazine and have learned an immense amount which has changed my viewpoint on my railroad, and enriched my model railroad experience. Sometimes I wish I had gotten started at an earlier age, but all I really know is that I am really enjoying them now, and plan to continue to as long as I can.

Ed


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Stan, I didn't know you were from Rockford. I grew up in Freeport. Well, from age 12 on.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Torby on 05 Dec 2010 07:06 AM 
Stan, I didn't know you were from Rockford. I grew up in Freeport. Well, from age 12 on. Yup.... Born and raised there, Tom. However, I left there in '56 just after High School graduation and haven't live there since. Been back a few times but not permanently. Still have a bit of family there.


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

I have though a bit on why I am doing what I'm doing, afterall I have been around trains all my life, Gramps was a retired SF engineer, their house was right next to the SP mainline between San Pedro and LA so everytime we visited I spent the day train watching, and indeed my earliest triansets were mainline standard gauge items, had O and HO stuff, Lionel, Tyco, Athearn, but I do have to believe my current obsession with little engines on twisty narrow tracks comes directly from my childhood visits to Knotts Berry Farms and the many trips I spent riding the full size steam train there, real-life DRGW equipment dontcha know!, and the Mine Ride, which if you think about it, is a perfect prototype for a small train layout, I think the seeds were planted way back then. Back in the 80's I discovered the Gazette and after unsuccessful boughts of modeling in HOn30 (crappy drive mechanisms spoiled hobby) My first LS purchase on an LGB Porter just refueled the long embering fire.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

hehe You left Rockford before I was born.


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