Hi folks, well a topic I can join. I don't quite know where I got the bug, maybe it was a ride in the cab of a steamer, from the freight house (close to home) to the roundhouse a few miles away. The walk home was worth it I was about 10 years old then. Next was in the coal mines, I saw a mining loco and I knew that was the job for me.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/nibbs/12Collery-1.jpg Well after five years of that (suicide jockey) I left the mines for the RCAF and to get a trade. Hey that's when I started getting rides on passenger trains.Seen my first FP9. Forgot about trains then until I got married and started raising a family. No modeling yet but I loved to watch the displays in the stores during the Christmas season. (getting hooked now) When my son was about six we got him a train set, in fact we still have the engine and cars, but alas no time for hobbies. When we moved to NS it turned out my next door neighbor had a layout. (OK I think the hook is getting set now) and I even got to build a layout
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y135/cbcnsfan/GGN.jpg but due to job demands spare time petered out. One day I found the little darlings playing smashup derby with the locos so I dismantled the whole thing (I'm a Grouch!). About this time I sold the boat, and got into motorcycles, at one time we had five of them. During this time of life I was always planning the dream layout (impossible dream). Then I decided to stop smoking, there were no patches or aids so it had to be cold turkey. As a target/ reward or whatever I decided I would put all the money I'd spend on tobacco toward model rail stuff, and to date, there is much stuff still downstairs that hasn't been opened in many a year. Until finally I retired, a layout was out of the question, so in Dec 91 when I was put out to pasture, my thoughts returned to the home layout. I find that the winter months are the best time for me to get something done as there's little to do outside on the property. I'm looking forward to getting started on the layout again. I've warned my offspring and their offspring that the days when I could do everything for them, are now over, it's time for them to learn and for me to have a rest.
Would I change anything, well you can bet I would, I'd have started earlier, take more time and enjoy the hobby as I plan to do soon. There are many challenges to meet when modeling, and I'm beginning to believe there is more satisfaction in meeting them then there is to meeting a challenge in the 1 to 1 scale world, and it's not as tiresome either. So theres a new leaf starting in my history beginning next month, it's about time I started doing something I like doing. It's more that a hobby, it's a way of life.
Cheers Willis