I went to pilot training at Moody AFB (Valdosta, Georgia) in 1968. It was the first time I had a chance to make a layout. Living in the BOQ with a room mate and expecting to travel for the next several years, I decided I would try this new N scale. By the time I left 53 weeks later I had two engines and about ten freight cars. I just packed it all away and started again in 1971 after Vietnam. Interestingly, I was able to subscribe to Model Railroader while I was overseas, so I did keep up a little.
Fluff- Welcome to Trainboard. I also remember Aurora. I still have a few cars in their original (now yellowed) plastic cases. I took one out the other day and sat it down next to a brand new Atlas freight car. I was astounded at the difference in the quality of painting and detail between the two. The newer one actually had reporting marks and everything and a crisply done paint job. The Aurora car ($1.09 tag still on the box) did not.
thanks for the welcome guys, glad to be here. i still have that set, like you said, n has came a long way. my set was the santa fe freight, with the passenger warbonnet paint on the f9. i always thought that was odd but i didnt care. i ran that set with those 7 1/2 in radius curves for years.....
I've really enjoyed reading all these stories. Especially the one about Marc's mother who built him a layout even though they lived in a tiny house. What a mom! My brother got an HO set of Union Pacific cab units one year as a gift, but I wasn't allowed to touch them. I loved them, while he really couldn't have cared less about them. It was my dad's interest as far as the rest of the family was concerned. But everywhere we traveled, I loved to watch trains. At 11, I rode the NP North Coast Limited from Seattle to Blaine and loved every moment. While in the Army and stationed in Germany in 1976-80, I rode the trains there constantly. There was a model train layout inside a glass case at a train station in Hanau. The trains were very tiny. You pushed one of three buttons to select a train. The trains wound endlessly around a mountain and through tunnels. I was captivated. Back in the U. S., I found a Marx set at a flea market and bought it on an impulse. I could only make a circular track, but I ran that sucker 'round and 'round, watching it smoke. In 1985, I rented a house with an extra bedroom. I visited a new train store in town and when I saw the N scale locos, I thought right away of those Hanau models. I knew I could have at least a tiny layout in my tiny extra room. I didn't know anything, and all I wanted was something frankly toy-like so I could "play trains." I wasn't at all serious. (Which was a good thing, because I was buying cheap Bachmann locos). I started building a bridge, though, and I couldn't believe how much fun I was having doing that. My Dad started sending me a gift subscription to Model Railroader around the same time LifeLike came out with really nice engines at affordable prices, and soon I was hooked on model railroading. My first layout, I still hardly knew anything. There was no Internet back then (not the way we know it), so the learning was slow. I focused on scenery and was still doing roundy-round. In '96 I started a switching layout, but since I had returned to college, I had no time left over for any hobbies. In 2006, I moved to a house with a big extra room, tossed the switching layout, and got started on filling up the new room with a layout, with plenty of operations built in. I couldn't have done this in HO or a larger scale. This layout will probably be my last. I figure it will take at least the rest of my life to finish this thing. Especially at the rate I'm going!
Middle school, which would have been around '69ish was given a set of "Aurora Postage Stamp" trains. The rest is history.
A purple container? Sounds to me like you have a budding graphic designer in your family. Remember Braniff Airlines? They did stuff like that and it worked well commercially. We old f*rts sometimes follow the stodgy railroads too close. Cool! Ric
My grandpa built for me a fold-down train board in my bedroom when I was five. It had a Marx Prairie-type locomotive and a Santa Fe boxcar, and a few others I do not remember. I was really into building flying models 8-13. In 1977 I needed a Christmas tree base, and for some reason I bought a cheap TYCO trainset at Walmart and made a 4' X 4' twice around. It was great. My (not yet) wife expressed her opinion the trains were too big, so I tried N scale. Around 1984 or '85 I discovered the new Atlas/Kato RS-3, and I was hooked. While living in north-suburban Chicago for eleven or so years I belonged to an HO club in southeast Wisconsin, and it was fun knocking out good Penn Central (not popular at the time generally and especially reviled at the club) models and working on the huge club layout. I even built an unfinished (no scenery) HO layout in my basement with all scratchbuilt track which functioned very well. But N always was alive between my ears. Now, I have just a little room, and N scale runs and looks as good as anything; 160:1 works well for me, and with forums like this and Nscale.net for guidance and inspiration, I am able to indulge my niche preoccupation with scratchbuilt track and the bad parts of town. Two years in Japan (2005-2007) were a revelation. Y'all are great.
My first N scale... I think around 1990 I picked up a Little Joe set by Life Like. Built the buildings, got some plywood and built my first very simple layout. I had some Lionel stuff but I never thought of making a layout before. But the Little Joe set had building kits 'n' such in it, so there was no point in not building a layout. I eventually got got a larger board bought more buildings, etc. etc. One thing that kind of sucks about the hobby today is that nobody makes a good starter set to introduce people to the hobby anymore. It looks like Life Like discontinued the Little Joe sets when Walthers took over, and they were priced something like $30 less than the cheapest Bachmann sets which don't even come packaged with building kits... It's hard to get into the hobby these days unless you're willing to spend hundreds of dollars - and that's a big commitment to make to something you haven't tried before.
I'll keep it simple: Got married in 1982. A couple months later found out we were going to have a baby. I immediately lost my mind and bought a N scale train set. Mental illness makes typically rational people do strange things. 'Of all the things I've lost in my life, my mind is the one I miss the most.' I don't know who's quote that is, but, it certainly applies to me.
I received my first train set, a Lionel work train, for Christmas 1949, a week before I was born. Each Christmas I got more trains. My dad and I built an 8'x8' layout in the basement. As a teenager I got away from trains, but not for long. I discovered N sometime in the '70s. The quality was not very good and I didn't stay with it. I dabbled in N over the years as I liked the size, but was never satisfied with the detail and operation. I got back to N in 2006 and was very pleasantly surprised to find that the detail and operation was as good as the larger scales. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
My Model Railroading Story... Like many people my first hands-on experience with model railroading was when I was around 5yrs old and we used to get out the train every year to go around the Christmas tree. Ours was an old Lionel HO rubber band drive CB&Q F Unit and an assortment of cars. Around the same time, I also would spend hours at the HO model railroad that was on display every year at the San Diego county fair. Additionally, at the Los Angeles county fair, there used to be a pretty large outdoor layout I used to like to watch as well (I think it was "S" scale). My first exposure to N scale was an old Model Power trainset that my oldest brother (who was grown and out of the house) bought my next oldest brother (who was 6 years older than me) somewhere in the early to mid-70s. I remember being absolutely fascinated at how small it was compared to our HO Christmas train. At that point I decided that N was going to be my scale if I was ever lucky enough to have my own trains. Fast forward to Jr. High (circa 1977). I bought my first N scale locomotive (a Model Power ATSF 0-6-0 Saddle Tank) at the model railroad store at Hobby City in Anaheim, CA along with a single PRR Heavyweight passenger car and enough snap track to make a small oval - all with saved up allowance and birthday money. At this time we lived in a double wide trailer and I actually got cork roadbed laid for a small 2x4 layout before friends got me interested in model rockets and my trains took a haitus. Then in 1978 we moved into a house and I made plans for a 5x10 N scale layout but could not convince my parents to surrender that much area anywhere...and I was asking about "any" place! Attic (non-finished), backyard shed, patio, anywhere... But it was a no-go for anything that big. Then I considered a door layout akin to the EZ&Quick outlined in the "N-Scale Primer". Financial realities soon set in as I realized I just could not afford to do a layout of the size and type that I wanted and the trains took another, much longer, haitus until around 1989 when I joined the San Diego HO Model RR Club in Balboa park. Thus began my breif foray into HO... Although I didn't have a home layout, I did enjoy building and weathering HO car kits. I had an MDC Roundhouse Consolodation kit that I never finished and some Athearn SP switchers. At one point I had even purchased an HO NMRA module kit to work on but that ended up turning into a workbench of sorts. While all this HO stuff was happening, I managed to finsh my Comp Sci Bachelors degree and ended up getting a job at Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix, AZ. While living in Phoenix, I bought my first house and having a little more disposable income, I started thinking about building a layout again. Because I wanted to maximize my space, I decided to return to N scalse and began to buy N scale equipment again. I was always partial to steam and I remember being quite impressed with the affordable, decent looking steam locos now available in N. I remember picking up a CN KATO Mike from the manager of a local hobby shop who was selling off his stuff. Around that same time I also got ahold of 3 KATO CB&Q E8s, some ConCor CB&Q passenger cars and I talked my wife into a ConCor Big Boy for my birthday one year. The first N scale Bachmann Spectrum (Consolidation) was added to the roster as well. With my new found enthusiasm, I joined the Arizona Model Railroading Society (AMRS)- specifically the N-Scale group who had a decent little 10'x12' layout. Since then I have stayed with N scale almost exclusively, but since AMRS doesn't limit you to one scale, I'm considering purchasing some HO stuff to run at the club... and that little 10x12 N scale layout is now a 20'x20' layout with a 3'x75' run down one wall of our club house. I still have'nt built a home layout... but I still plan to at some point! Don
I received my first train set for my 8th birthday(1971). It was an Arnold Rapido 0-6-0 with 2 cars and a caboose.Enough track to make an oval. An MRC power pack. I set it up on my desk. And the rest-as they say-is history. Barely dabbled in HO for awhile. But limited space brought me back to "N". Enjoy, Wolf
When I went to college, only thing that my room mate and I could fit under the bed was a small n-scale layout. Him being an engineering major made everything work off a computer. Me being a marketing major - sold it for a profit our senior year. We split the money and he went into HO, I got married and n-scale was what would fit in our little apartment. Over the past 21 years it has engulfed an entire upstairs, the entire family works on it!
Cool Thread!!! Growing up i had the different 027 Lionel trains One Gilbert 'S' and then switch to HO twice and the road race set to go with that layout...gone, but that is another story. In 1969 I got a Bachmann 'N' train set with a i think F7 and a couple of cars and i bought a station and a couple of cars and houses and built that oval onto a cardboard box and it worked with a sheet of grass, cork roadbed and brown sawdust for the road. Even strung very small thread onto the telephone poles and it traveled to my home on- base but during a inspection the Lt. found the board behind the locker and made a order to get rid of it...Must be a train hater... I don't know what happened from there to it as i sent it home. lost it out there somewhere. fast forward to our Motor-home. Need something small as i have more time now then when i worked. Now i have built my second layout and was working on it outside and we all the sudden had wind!! a micro burst at that!! It tried to make that layout fly but just tosed it around busting buildings and track and switches all over the yard and my back yard looked like one of those pictures from tv where there was a disaster....now i am working up another plan in N scale, and still am working on the details yet but the basics are in stone. Anyway that is it! have fun,smokey:mnerd:
