Like many, many other model railroaders, it was my father who first sparked my interest
in model trains. During the early 60s, he began to build the “HO Railroad that Grows.”
He didn’t progress much past step two or three, but that 4 by 8 loop of HO track,
half a dozen cars, and Mantua loco lived out in the garage for years. I probably
took apart and reassembled those blue-box Athearn cars 10 times each. By the time
I was 10, I had taken over those 32 sq. ft. of real estate, had built a large mountain
in the middle and began a logging themed railroad, with a wild west town (buildings
by Tyco and, I think, Kibri) for good measure.
After I joined Boy Scouts, I wanted to earn my “Model Railroading” merit badge.
I became friends with the advisor’s son and spent many afternoons at his house admiring
his father’s train stuff—especially his large collection of bound volumes of MR—and
working on his N-scale railroad. When reading all those old MRs, I learned about
narrow gauge, and O scale; both of which were far out of my pre-teen budget.
And then I took an eight-year hiatus from the hobby. Ahhhh, puberty and adolescence
in the late 60s and early 70s.
After I got married, my interest was rekindled after a drop-in visit to The Iron
Horse in Brea, CA. I left that afternoon with the track to build a time-saver shelf
layout, a MDC climax, and a few cars. Soon however, the narrow gauge bug bit, and
I switched to HOn3. I began a layout in a spare bedroom in our apartment, built
a MDC outside frame loco, a number of cars (Railline, E&B Valley, Tomalco, etc.),
and began to acquire the tools of a model railroader. We moved twice and I moved
the layout along with us, but with divorce looming, I packed it all up and set aside
the hobby for almost twenty years. I ended up moving those boxes many, many times
over those years, but I never threw anything away—in fact, I still am using packages
of ground foam that I bought twenty-five years ago!
Fast forward to 2001. During a visit to Pasadena, my companion and I drive past
The Original Whistle Stop on Colorado Blvd. (at their new—well, new to me—location)
and we pulled in for a visit. That’s all it took! I brought home a bunch of magazines,
dug out the old boxes of train stuff—especially the box of old Gazettes—and began
the descent into the Model railroad maelstrom once again. I knew narrow gauge was
the way to go, and briefly considered Sn3, but quickly decided on On3, despite still
living in an apartment!
In early 2002, I posted a message on the Yahoo! On3 list about MRR clubs in SoCal,
and some guy—Jerry Lawrence—invited me to a Terrapin Rubber Gauge Society meet.
The rest, as they say, is history. The Terrapins are kind enough to put up with
me, even though I model Colorado narrow gauge, and they continue to be a source
of advice, inspiration, and most importantly, friendship.
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