Why do you collect trains?

Back in the 80’s my cousin compiled this and a few other Lionel/ train related shows on a VHS tape for me. I’ll have to watch it again, especially since I’m within driving distance of Tehachapi! Its been a while since I’ve watched it. 

For me,
- It's a connection to my childhood
- It's a connection to my family
- It's a connection to my late father
- It's a connection to significant memories throughout my life
- It's a fascination with the real railroads
- It's a fascination with railroad history
- It's a fascination with machinery

There's some kind of romantic lore behind it all. An "X" factor that I just can't explain. It has always been there and will always be a part of who I am.

- Jason

Yes seayakbill . That would possibly my case too...

My uncle and one of their good neighbour pal had model trains "for their childrens", so my father did it "for me". It was this, exactly, in the mid 70s :





It was a low grade quality set, prone to derailment, dangling and fragile. But OK, it lasted enough for what it was, and I was happy with it.

When my childs asked for a model train, I re-opened that set and found it almost unusable, and of so poor quality, that I went for some items of the German brands Marklin and Fleischmann : what a change, of course, but it was not that... The stuff stayed nonetheless too small, too fragile to use for childs - at least independently and alone.

So I quickly sold the whole HO stuff that I had, and went for the scarcer O gauge 3-rails Tinplate, with used old stuff from France, Germany and England : that was just we expected !

After some to much TLC, the O gauge items proved plentifully playable, undestructible, reliable, ruggered and, most of all : compliant with LEGO, Matchbox and Playmobil stuff that could be loaded-full in gondolas, wagons and cars, for new adventures !

And last but not least : I was not forced to intervine each five minutes because of derailments, uncouplings, disassemblies of the track here and there, etc...

Just imagine them when I put on the track an imported from USA Lionel 221 and 2065 locomotives, plus their whistling tenders, whooo-hooo-ing while hauling (fully crammed) multi-colored plastic gondolas... All this temporarily set-up in the garden or in the house corridor : it was the Fest, the "True Train" game - nothing to do with the "look but don't touch" HO / OO annoying aspect !

As their interest for all this vanished - that's understandable as while ageing, childs have other interests - I sold the stuff to recover money to offer them, thinking that one of these days, I may have another O Gauge model train, but for me, this time... This was circa 25 years ago.

Now, and since I am posting here on OGF, you guess that O gauge time for me had arrived... Still Tinplate, of course : Who knows if our grandchildren won't be interested in ?

OACE

Oh, I remember, all right -- I *lived* through it all! And yes, even though I *was* a fan of the Howdy Doody show, I never was a particular fan of puppetry, and the idea of traipsing puppets all over a layout just seems dumb. But, you're probably right about Madison Avenue's ability to misread the intended audience . . . 

Very well said and I can attest to every one of the things you listed. My biggest regret is I never knew how much my dad was into trains till very recently. I always thought he did all that work for me. I recently had an interesting chat with my brother who is 15 years older than me. It was in that conversation I learned the love of trains my father had. Oh if I could only go back in time and share that with him instead of just me.