Who or How did you get interested in Railway Modelling

[Earl Bathurst]

I often wounder how people get interested in our subject was it a friend or family member or just a memory that got you thinking i want to model railways. How did you get interested?

 

Mine was my grand mother of all people from a very young age told me stories of the mumbles train being that we are from swansea and her house backed on to the tram sheds and swansea victoria just across the road and being taken to the museum as a kid and seeing the remains of the front of the Mumbles train fueled my interst in becoming a railway modeller. A hobby that i must say inclueds most life skills you will need and i have learnt alot of new skills which i didnt know i had.

 

Scott

[Kris]

Very much from my grandfather.

[APOLLO]

1960, I was 8 yrs old, and my elder brother had a large tri-ang OO set up on an 8'x4' board. I wanted a train set, and at christmas I got a tri-ang TT gauge set, and a 4'x3' board. Different scales to save "arguments", dad said. !!.

 

What lit our fire was the ex L&Y Pemberton loop line (Wigan avoiding line) was visible from our house. In 1960 a constant stream of coal trains from Yorkshire to Liverpool. Nearly all powered by 8F's & WD's, stopped at nearby Westwood Park signalbox (Westbound) to get a banker on the back, usually a fowler 4F. Happy days.

 

Never been without some sort of layout since then. I still have the TT stuff, most is virtually worn out now so not used. Switched to OO in 1973 when we moved house.

 

Best hobby in the world.

 

Brit15

[Kenton]

My dad was a signalman before the war, we lived only a few 100 yards away from a bridge over the railway and spent too much time breathing in the smoke as the trains passed beneath. My grandfather (no known interest in trains) bought me a clockwork loco and a circle of track, like many kids I immediately dismantled it and then amazed everyone by putting it back together again... been building locos ever since - though they have electric motors now.

[pirouets]

First time round was because my Dad had a layout and the seed grew from there. That died pretty much until after I got married. My wife being the hard working Teacher she is, was sitting at home and the living room was covered with marking, the TV was on but in the words of Mr Springsteen, there were 57 channels and nothing on.

 

I found myself thinking I need a hobby for nights like this, and never been one for computer games got back to thinking about the fact that I enjoyed palying trains as a kid, so here I am around 11 years since that fateful night still going and trying to get my kids interested.

[sir douglas]

when my dad would take me with him down to our local model club each friday when i was a toddler

[Jol Wilkinson]

Frank Hornby and the man who designed the Hornby Dublo catalogues.

[Colin]

When I was primary school age there was a school friend's Dublo 3-rail layout (all on a board that seemed enormous at the time but which was probably 8x4 at maximum) which had a Duchess, a 2-6-4T and an EE Type 1 diesel running on double track with electric points and signals; ironically my friend wasn't that bothered about it, I reckon his dad built it for himself......... It made my unlined black Princess and single oval of Triang grey based track look pretty pathetic.

My other model railway memory is of the Gamages layout each Christmas - Lionel USA 0 gauge IIRC, which was changed to Continental HO later on (Marklin perhaps?)

For the real thing it had to be summer day trips to Southend and the endless procession of 2-6-4Ts on the LTSR line - the Standard 4MT tank has always been my favourite loco for as long as I can remember!

 

Frankly I can't imagine life without the hobby - I guess it wouldn't be much of a life!

[bike2steam]

Encouragement from my grandfather, and his brother-in-law, former driver, Robert Hornsby, at Stratford sheds who would always take me round the sheds when we visited him some sundays, and who gave me a train set for my fifth birthday.

[Colin_McLeod]

My Father taking me to see the trains at Lisburn station as a child, together with the Hornby Dublo set I got for Christmas aged four. My Father and Mothers on going support and encouragement for my interest.

[Ozexpatriate]

It's hard to say exactly. I didn't have any family members who were railway fans.

 

My first train set was a sad little circle in H0 with an SNCF diesel, Shell tanker, gondola (excuse the US parlance) and a double-container flat made by Lima which I received at about 11 or 12. It was modest but I loved it and have it still.

 

We lived very near what was the Brisbane suburban Lota branch and my mum's best friend was the wife of a local stationmaster, but I don't think that was the big motivation. I was somehow organically bitten by the model railway bug.

 

A year or so later, a high-school mate of mine bought the Hornby Albert Hall and two "GWR" (Mk-1) coaches in lurid yellow and chocolate. (He actually wanted Flying Scotsman but the local shop, which also sold bicycles didn't have it in stock.) Later (at about 15), I bought these from him when he wanted to buy a surfboard. This set me on the path of modelling the GWR.

[Michael Delamar]

my dad always had an interest in railways, mainly the steam era which finished in 1968 when he was 12.

he always had documentaries that he taped from the bbc on.

 

me in 1985, the trains were my dads.

thomas the tank was a big influence too

 

[The Stationmaster]

My dad built me a layout before i was old enough to even know what it was - 3rail track in Peco Individulay on a hardboard baseboard surface with a homebuilt (by a friendly radio engineer) transformer/controller unit. I've still got some sections of the layout stashed away - not much use but I can't bear to part with them as long as I've got somewhere to keep them.

[alibuchan]

I got bitten by the bug when I was taken down to New Street by my Granddad.

 

I used to be connected to him by a coil of blue plastic connected to Velcro around our wrists. I still remember wandering of and getting as far as that coil would stretch out then looping back to him and collecting people in the loop (my first collection some would say).

 

It all snowballed from there, I got dads old 00 locos and stock then got some of my own. After a while I put them away whilst I got interested in cars and girls etc.

 

When Mum and Dad went away in 2004, I saw my old 'toys' sitting on top of the wardrobe. I decided to get them down and played. Since I have gone from 00 too N and O.

 

But I still have my 00 gauge stuff as it will hopefully come in use when I get a little one who wants to play trains like 'daddy'.

 

Alistair

[Allegheny1600]

Well, I got a secondhand Tri-ang train set in about 1970 when I was five! My dad was rather 'tight' you see and wouldn't ever have shelled out for new!

The thing was, it only had a half oval of track but it kept me quite happy for a number of years.

Then when I started getting 'pocket money', I decided to complete the oval but with different style of track as the original track was now unobtainable (for me!). Derailments galore as "Princess Victoria" and her two coaches bumped up and down the change of rail height, twice every circuit!

I guess it started from there - the challenge of getting something running and staying on the track has never really left me!

The continental interest is due to my travels from an early age all around Europe, rather than the better running models although it does help!

John E.

[peach james]

It started out with some Faller Play train, that belongs to my sister. She conned dad into giving her lion money (one pound) and fifty pence, and they went shopping. Smart!. That'd be 78, so I'd have been 2.

 

Dad started out with full sized steam, in the early 1960's. Granddad on mum's side was similarly involved, I understand he was involved with both Tal-Y-lyn and Ffestinog in the early days, if only as a birkenhead resident who had a little bit of extra cash to add into the pot. I have some of R.G. Collin's paperwork from when they had moved to Cockermouth, including specials on CKM metals. Dad had Sentinel Steam Tractor 7529, and then was heavily involved with 8122/OF until we left the UK in 1979. We'd got a fair amount of Faller by 1981, and went into John's Photo and Hobby in Toronto for more on a reasonably regular basis. I got given some north american "stuff" in around 83, and it kind of grew from there- I became disillusioned with X5F couplings, and wanted something that would, at the very least, stay together...so Tension-lock it was. I was given one of the two locos that had been RG's, that Grandmum had kept. Both are here now, two of the gloss Lord of the Isles (Tri-ang). (I've also got a milk wagon that was found much later). Grandmum commuted to and from the UK from 1983-1985, looking after another relative of hers, and brought back some more stuff, in the form of a Jinty and some additional waggons. I also had a subscription to MRC from 1983-1986 (well, until June, 1986!)

 

Somewhere in there, in 1981 I asked for a Lego train, which came in the form of 7710, the push train, from Noah's Ark, a toy store in downtown Toronto. Got my first motorized lego train in 1986, there's a birthday photo of me with it downstairs.

 

So, now with Long Marton in OO, 350 000 pieces of lego, as well as a 4" traction engine, I'm safely at the middle of everyones hobbies

 

James

[pH]

I started with Hornby tinplate on the living room floor at the age of 3 or 4. A couple of my cousins still talk about the fun we had with that set, nearly 60 years later! We also tried laying track out of the living room, into the hall, then into the front room, taking pieces off the back of the track and laying it in front, as the train ran along it - shades of Wallace and Gromit ! That was sold before the Christmas when I was 5 to buy a Triang Princess Elizabeth and a layout of an oval with a siding off it. The loco, tender, coaches and each individual piece of track were wrapped individually - I've never had so many presents at Christmas.

 

Someone else in the street had a fairly extensive Hornby 3-rail set which we used to set up and run on his garden path. One of his engines was 'Duchess of Montrose', and I remember being impressed when I saw the '12 inch to the foot' version in Glasgow Central.

[jamie92208]

It must be in the genes. My father built his own circuit of 3 rail O gauge track to run his LMC Jinty on, and a hinge down Hornby O gauge layout that was on the wall in the back room that he and my elder brother played with. From then on there was always an interest in trains, both model and prototype. It helped that from the age of 5 our kitchen window had a view of 2 miles of the Settle and Carlisle so breakfast was taken watchinbg the freights struggling uphill.

 

 

Jamie

[Chris Chewter]

I think when I look at it, its a combination of influences. I think the main influence came from my father as well when he built a fairly massive 10" x 12" in the loft. Put that together with Thomas and living next to Exmouth Junction, and you can see the influence was varied. I always remember being impressed by the fact that little loco moved on its own at your command, almost like a miniature version of reality, and the fact you could have it in your own home meant that I was captivated.

 

 

Regardless of that, the hobby has been shelved on a number of occasions, but picked up again when I found a like minded friend who had a massive garden railway. The interest was again shelved whilst I was at Uni, but picked up again when I started work and I saw the quality of a Hornby Q1. Been at it ever since, although I just need somewhere to build a bigger layout than a shunting plank!

[James]

In my case it was very much my Dad who got me interested. A house full of books, trips to preserved railways and the NRM - in the latter case the family joined the FNRM as I wanted to go so often it was costing a small fortune in admission fees! As time went on my Dad rediscovered 'spotting' with our trips to Doncaster, Warrington, Crewe, etc.

 

My interest in models was no doubt helped by my Dad's attitude - being encouraged to try and make things and, most importantly I think, there was never a hint of the "Don't touch that" attitude which I think may put some kids off. Perhaps unlike many children my interest in models has always, it seems, come from the desrie to replicate what I've seen 'for real' or, later, in books and through research. This does seem to contrast with many examples above and in magazines when people's interest comes from the train set they had and then finding out about the prototype.

 

I have no doubt that my Dad's hobby was enhanced by a small person joining him - after all it's much easier to justify spending when it's for your child too! Seriously though I think that shared interest has been a great thing. Plus cricket too!

 

I hope Thomas is interested in at least one of the things which interest me! I'll not force anything on him but will encourage any interest he shows!

 

http://eastmoor.blogspot.com/2011/05/under-cover.html

[10800]

Two things really - in 1957 when I was three we moved to a house overlooking a railway line in southeast London, and the following year my grandfather bought me a trainset (Triang green Princess Elizabeth). He wasn't a railwayman himself, but his father had been a Divisional Civil Engineer on the GC with a name plaque on his office door at Manchester London Road. My father helped build early model railways for me, although he too was not a railway enthusiast as such - but he says he did 'spot' Schools and Arthurs during the war. He also had a teacher colleague who was an accomplished modeller and had loads of Rivarossi HO, mainly Italian outline but some American (which he later sold to me).

[Tim V]

I was given a Lone Star set for my 5th birthday, and later for my 7th a Hornby Dublo three rail set. Meanwhile I read the Thomas books, and I loved the stories of Skarloey and Rheneas working up in the Welsh hills. This culminated in a family holiday to include a visit to the Talyllyn in Centenary year (1965). A walk up the mineral extension to the quarry, plus the purchase of a couple of MRNs from Towyn (as it was spelt then) and I was hooked. I read those magazines cover to cover many times, and the Lone Star came out from the cupboard to be the narrow gauge feeder. A bit of plasticine for chimneys and domes and my imagination did the rest. You don't need much age ten!

 

Since then, there has usually been model railways around, clearly a lifetime hobby and a good one.

[steve fay]

My dad and grandad.

My dad delivered a local paper around pontypool road engine shed and has been a fanatic ever since, he opened a railway museum for 14 years.

My grandad started as a fireman in 1947 at pontypool road for 3 years and then went to the permanent Way for the next 35 years. He also has a keen interest as well. So there was no getting away from it for me. One of my first words was intercity apparently . 30 years later and it's still going strong!

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

To be frank it was a chance Xmas gift from my wife. I went with her to choose it ( as one does at our age ) and was sort of going to buy a Smokey Joe set when I spotted the VSOE set. Beautifully boxed and the sight of US Lines brought many memories of the real thing flooding back.

 

I just had to have it. I still have it. Then they launched the Q1 and I had to have that as well.

 

Of course I had a Hornby set when i was young and I bought some bits for it but the limitations of budget and lack of interest or encouragement made me put it away...forever.

 

Nevertheless, I had inculcated a lifelong love of steam engines that has never left me.

 

It was that combination of memory and the sight of modern models that hooked me. Add in the cerebral delights of general model making and electronics plus a lifetime of experience of how to avoid bodges, a patient and understanding wife and a move to larger premises added to a fair degree of disposable income added to by packing up smoking and here we are.

 

So not a lifelong modelling career at all. Fortunately this has enabled me to start with all modern kit and DCC and sound ( a passion with me ). All a far cry from the original Hornby set on the floor. The gap between then and restart is about 50 years and I have some memories going back that far of both modelling and the real thing.

[Coombe Barton]

First set was a Hornby O gauge clockwork circle at age 5, then at age 9 Hornby Dublo ona 6 by 4 board (that's how I know it's heavy) with a coiuple of tank engines, a Castle and a class 20 diesel.

 

After that it was increasing fine scale top P4 but a lapse of 30+ years until a couple of years ago.