My Railroad History

 

Like most model or toy train people, my parents gave me a wonderful gift of an O Scale Train set.  Mine was a three-rail set made by Marx.  A figure eight was the plan and I had a neat stop light that was more like an automobile highway stop light than a railroad signal.  The set contained two trains, a steam and a diesel.  One train automatically stopped while the light was red and let the other train pass, then it would proceed. 

I also had a Lionel switch tower and some Lincoln Logs with which I built a tunnel for the trains to pass through.

My dream back then (around age eleven) was to build a layout representing a theme park like Disneyland, which I had the privilege to visit when I was ten years old.

That was it for my train layouts until I got married at age 23.  My wife and I purchased a 40’ mobile home (in the dark) J and I built an HO train layout in the spare bedroom.  Later we built a nice brick home and my wife assisted me in building a 64 square foot HO layout…four 4*8 tables together.  I worked at several more HO layouts everywhere I’ve ever lived.

Finally God blessed us with a wonderful home in the Ozark Mountains where we reside today and I am really blessed with a 16 by 24 foot train room!!!  See “my toy and train office” on Railroad Destinations.

I have had the wonderful blessing to travel to the beautiful state of Colorado and ride “THE SILVERTON” train three times!

Along with that, my railroad inspiration comes from Malcolm Furlow (one of the best, if not THE BEST) model railroaders in our times. He built many layouts including The “Denver and Rio Chama” which is my favorite.  You can read about his articles at “Trains.com”.  Also George Sellios (I have a link to his railroad pictures) is a great inspiration.  Both gentlemen are geniuses at detailing a railroad layout.

I love trains of all scales and models.  My wife, my daughter, my sister and my mother have all bought me trains through the years… some HO, N, O, On30 and G Scales.  I do not intend to let any of these marvelous toys and models just sit in the boxes.  Well, I probably won’t use the HO and maybe not the N scales as these are so little that figures of people and animals are harder to see than their big brothers of On30, O and G.

 

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