Am I The Only Person Here Who Likes Electric Trains?

[Teasing the Korean]

Just Curious...

[BillF]

Just Curious...

Do you mean the sort I used to run around the floor as a boy or the sort I now travel on to London?

[BruceH]

Just Curious...

Do you mean the sort I used to run around the floor as a boy or the sort I now travel on to London?

I like both.

[Soulstation1]

My friend built an extra 2000 square foot room to his house for his train collection room

[Teasing the Korean]

I have HO trains. I don't have a layout, but now that they make that track where the roadbed snaps together, I can run it around the Christmas tree for hours and it never derails. The newer track never comes apart.

I have all steam-to-diesel era freight cars, most of which are vintage Athearns. I have a two-piece diesel engine.

I hate taking down the tree every year because I have to say bye bye to the train.

[BillF]

I have HO trains. I don't have a layout, but now that they make that track where the roadbed snaps together, I can run it around the Christmas tree for hours and it never derails. The newer track never comes apart.

I have all steam-to-diesel era freight cars, most of which are vintage Athearns. I have a two-piece diesel engine.

I hate taking down the tree every year because I have to say bye bye to the train.

The one I had as a boy was OO. It was a Hornby Dublo. The one to London is 4' 8 1/2" gauge.

Edited December 19, 2009 by BillF

[Man with the Golden Arm]

you must must must check out a friend from Cleveland's creations!

Monster talent ... the trains on the blog are just a sampling. HUGE things - three to six feet in length - all hand built, machined parts, distressed paint jobs. The guy is simply amazing.

My favorite is his Captain Nemo:

http://jmelliott.blogspot.com/

[Teasing the Korean]

you must must must check out a friend from Cleveland's creations!

Monster talent ... the trains on the blog are just a sampling. HUGE things - three to six feet in length - all hand built, machined parts, distressed paint jobs. The guy is simply amazing.

My favorite is his Captain Nemo:

Wow!

I love those art deco steam engines too!

[Chalupa]

My son is totally insane for all trains. Last Christmas my mother got him a Lionel Pennsylvania Flyer set. The engine is all metal w/ smoke, horn, and headlight. It must weigh 10 pounds. This year she is buying him an expansion pack(4 freight cars & more track) and a crossover piece which will allow us to make a figure 8 layout. He's going to FREAK on Christmas Day.

[Teasing the Korean]

My son is totally insane for all trains. Last Christmas my mother got him a Lionel Pennsylvania Flyer set. The engine is all metal w/ smoke, horn, and headlight. It must weigh 10 pounds. This year she is buying him an expansion pack(4 freight cars & more track) and a crossover piece which will allow us to make a figure 8 layout. He's going to FREAK on Christmas Day.

And he hears jazz in the house!

[Jazzmoose]

I get on these "serial obsessions", so I find it much cheaper to have books about some hobbies rather than engage in the hobbies themselves. By the time I'm through deciding exactly what I want to do in a hobby, I lose interest and move on. The model train books are right there next to the aquarium books...

[Free For All]

My dad was a big time model railroader. He was into the O gauge size, and the whole basement was a continual layout-in-progress which he never really completed. I had a Lionel train set- I remember the little tablets that you put in the engine stack to create smoke and the smell of the rheostat as it got warm. Also the little animated mechanical people and crossing guards. I would spend hours looking at the accessory catalogs. I got way into building scenery and using an airbrush. I was also into slot cars- I had a Strombecker 1/32 set that I loved.

We (me, my dad & an occasional train buddy or two) used to travel to various locations to watch trains go by, and my dad would take super 8 movies. I remember feeling the excitement as the train would approach and the loud rumbling sound of serious power. We stopped at Horseshoe Curve (eastern PA) on a vacation once, that was a pretty spectacular view. When possible we would take trips on the train- I remember how cool it was to eat in the dining car. The waiters never spilled despite the unpredictable movement of the car. For some reason pancakes always tasted better in the dining car. I also remember sitting in the observation car.

Wow, I haven't thought about this for a long time. Really vivid memories.

[Teasing the Korean]

You should digitize those super-8 films and put them on Youtube. There is some great train stuff on Youtube.

[Free For All]

You should digitize those super-8 films and put them on Youtube. There is some great train stuff on Youtube.

I wish I could. I don't have any of his train stuff, and the reason is a long & sad story.

[Teasing the Korean]

It's so boring now when you stop at tracks for a train. Everything is CSX. There is no variety in the car designs or logos. There are all these cars - I don't even know what you call them - that are kind of like flat cars with these boxes stacked on them.

It's not like when you used to see box cars from all different railroads with different slogans in brush script, like "The Peoria Gateway" or "A Smoother Ride" or "The Katy Serves the Southwest."

And there are no more cabooses.

Edited December 19, 2009 by Teasing the Korean

[Brad]

I used to collect them (O Gauge) and had a layout. Trouble was I didn't have a lot of room and you need a lot of room for a decent layout. It's a great hobby and the trains they make today are amazing. When I was interested in the hobby, Neil Young was one of the owners of Lionel. Don't know if he still is.

[peterintoronto]

I used to work within the public library system. Our branch had a subscription to a periodical called 'Model Railroader'. We never saw a single person pick it up or check it out, but we kept getting it month after month.

Someone must have been reading it though!

Edited December 19, 2009 by peterintoronto

[Alexander]

you must must must check out a friend from Cleveland's creations!

Monster talent ... the trains on the blog are just a sampling. HUGE things - three to six feet in length - all hand built, machined parts, distressed paint jobs. The guy is simply amazing.

My favorite is his Captain Nemo:

http://jmelliott.blogspot.com/

Even before I saw the words "Captain Nemo," my first thought was "Wow! Totally steampunk!"

[porcy62]

Probably the first time I opened the huge family's atlas depends on those fabulous steam engines with exotic names on the tender: Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe, Baltimore and Ohio, Erie, that I used to gaze in the toy shop. My forbidden dream was the Union Pacific's Big Boy, needless to say that I never got it.

http://www.rivarossi-memory.it/Riva_Loco_Americane/Riva_Big_Boy.htm

Along with John Ford movies, that was America for Porcy as kid.

edit: I guess that my love for "The City Of New Orleans" of Steve Goodman, singed by Arlo Guthrie, lies in those old memories.

Edited December 20, 2009 by porcy62

[Free For All]

I used to work within the public library system. Our branch had a subscription to a periodical called 'Model Railroader'. We never saw a single person pick it up or check it out, but we kept getting it month after month.

Someone must have been reading it though!

Yup, my dad had STACKS of those.

[GA Russell]

<br />...and the smell of the rheostat as it got warm. <br />

<br /><br /><br />

Thanks for the memory, FFA!

I had American Flyer trains when I was a boy. My dad like them the best because their tracks had the realistic two rails while the Lionel had the third rail.

I used to take the train from Pittsburgh to York and back to visit my sister, and I remember riding the Horseshoe Curve!

[Quincy]

It's so boring now when you stop at tracks for a train. Everything is CSX. There is no variety in the car designs or logos...

It's rare to run into the unusual, but it looks like railroadforums has a handle on what's running on the rails.

[marcello]

I still have a 1957 Lionel train set.

I'm going to donate it to The Strong National Museum of Play if they'll have it.

[JohnS]

I like trains. Despite being in the UK I have a thing for American trains. I have some very nice HO models packed away.

When in the US I love watching trains. Waiting at grade crossings never bothers me.

[BillF]

You reminded me of this one.