Father's Day and Dad


stationmaster

stationmaster

Crusty Old Geezer
With Father's Day approaching, I thought it might be a nice gesture for us to offer a few memories of our Dads. Not necessarily train or modeling memories, but a reflection of fun times.

My Dad got me into this hobby(bought me my first trains for Christmas in 1959), was supportive of my athletic career, and would take time from work every Friday to watch my home football games.

Taught me how to play baseball, played catch whenever I grabbed a glove, even coached me in Little league and Pony League. I don't think he ever missed a home baseball game while I was in High school. I threw a split finger fastball BEFORE anyone had a name for it!!!

Got me into racing go karts and cars. I think that was him living vicariously through me.

When he passed away in July of 1999, I inherited most of his trains. More than tripled my inventory!!!

Still love ya, Dad....... You'd love the layout.

Bob
 
My story is alittle different. I only ever saw my real dad maybe 3 times tops. He came once to the house that I remember when I was very young. Brought me a guitar. I never really learned to play it and I'd have to say mom got my first train set at a sale and it was a new Marx set. I was hooked then at like age 6. My gram took me to see my real dad when I was older and I walked into his home where he had a whole display case of steam engines. He and a friend also built a steam engine out of a VW van that was driveable and built several scaled coaches for it. Very well detailed. They took it around to events and hauled the kids up untill insurance became to high. After my dad passed I found the train years later and it was for sale. Made the guy an offer but the owner of the pizza shop musta made a better one because he ended up with it. My dad was also in a band that was very popular in the area.
It just goes to show how even tho I wasn't around him, music and trains was in my blood. I went on to learning the drums myself enough to end up in 3 popular local bands and opening for a couple famous ones such as Warrant.
My step-dad who was a great carpenter/service repairman taught me allot in his basement workshop and even gave up 1/4 of his basement for my 1st layout. He has passed on too but I was able to keep his skills he taught me and some of his tools I still have makes me think of him every time I use them. Happy Father's Day to both of them!
 
My Dad is my best friend as a matter of fact he will be my best man at my wedding next year!!

He got me into this hobby from the day I born. literally!! He went to a hobby shop the day before I was born and bought me my first engine which I still have today a Athearn bluebox SW-7 with a regear kit, up until the last few hours before I made my arrival he was at home relettering the UP paint scheme for a shortline with my initial DP&K Lines and the engine was numbered for my birth year 1982!!

He was so proud and excited when I got hired at CSX! He always asked what kind of locomotives was I on and he is a Union Pacific modeler and likes to here about the UP power we sometimes get!!!

I couldn't ask for a better Father or friend thankfully he is still around and hopefully for many more years to come!!!

Now I just wish I could find him the original 1934 scheme Con-cor M-10000 in HO and watch him go crazy like a kid on Christmas!!!

I love you Dad

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DEVLYN
 
Though I started this thread, and have already given my story, I must add, Dad joined the Air Force after high school. I was born at Griffiss AFB in Rome, NY. He is also somewhat famous. Yep, I have a famous Dad, oddly enough. He was a member of the crew that serviced the very first jet powered aircraft in the world to log 1000 flight hours. Quite an accomplishment for the day, I guess. Probably not much thought about these days.

Some things I would do together if Dad were still here, go railfanning and to train shows, attend sprint car races, play with trains on my layout(he would love operating a switch engine in the large yard -- his dream for his never finished "new" layout. His yard is now a set of modules on my layout), go out to the gun range and "make some noise"(his euphemism for going out target shooting), and have a couple of cups of his UNDRINKABLE(now used as a paint remover) coffee with him. I might even be lucky enough to get him out on the boat. Maybe not fish, as he didn't care much for the activity, but we could get a bit of time cruising the waves. He would probably appreciate a "go-fast" boat but would have to accept my cruiser, not at all fast. Maybe we could even visit some of the old loading docks on the Great Lakes that once loaded rail cars onto the boats for crossing. I think he could relate to those.

Bob
 
My dad was fairly well known in hematology, but he found time to build this layout for me -- around 1955-ish. About 4 years later He built me a larger HO layout that folded down from a wall.

Thanks dad: for giving me a reason to 'stick to business' so I could afford a great hobby.
 
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i lost my father almost 5 years ago. Miss him alot, still feels like it was yesterday that I got that dreaded phone call. He was the one who got me into railfanning and model trains.
 
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My dad accidentally got my into model trains. Between the Tyco train set for Christmas, and the Railroad museum in Green Bay...

Him & I still talk about trains, I still have my huge collection, and he still dreams of making his own small layout.
 
My father got me into trains on my second birthday. He bought himself oops I mean me an American flier set. Lionel was a bad joke for trains. Everyone knows trains don't have 3 rails. He retired in 94 and him and my mother took off. They have been to 48 states, he was kind of proud of that. He loved trains and now I do. He started restoring antique tractors.

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Here we are with one of them.My grandson driveing
He passed away Jan. of 07
My oldest son passed last August. This was a hard fathers day for me
 
A day (or so) late, and seemingly always a dollar short :rolleyes: ...

As long as I can remember, I've been "nuts" about trains. I could see the Illinois Central's "main line" from Indianapolis to Effingham from my front yard, and there was a spur that went past our front yard -- that spur served a furniture factory, an LP gas dealer, a grain mill, and a combo grain mill / lumberyard / coal yard (which Dad and my uncle owned and operated). That spur got switched two or three times a week, and there was no way I'd miss those GP-7's and -9's when they switched! There were box cars of furniture, lumber, grain, LP gas in tank cars, refrigerator cars with bags of fertilizer, and coal in hopper cars (and always in N&W hoppers, so they're my 2nd favorite, next to the IC).

Christmas when I was four years old, I wanted a train set so bad... Mom and Dad said no, but Grandpa (who'd been a railway mail clerk on the Illinois Central) thought otherwise, and got me an American Flyer "S" gauge set. I was in hog heaven! Two years later, Mom and Dad got me an HO gauge set from Athearn... and the rest, as they say, is history...

Years later, after college and moving out on my own, Dad would go with me to train shows, and sometimes we'd go railfanning. We even did a couple of rail excursions together. All of those were always great days for me (and I hope for him as well)!

Dad passed away 15+ years ago -- and to this day, I still miss him, as well as Grandpa -- Happy (belated) Father's Day to two men who most assuredly shaped my "hobby" life!

With best regards to all the Dads out there,
Tom
 
I am glad to see the response and the stories all have shared. I thought some may think the thread a bit "cheezy" and not respond. I'm glad to see I was wrong.

Thank you all.

To add a note, my sig was one of my Dad's little sayings, my way of paying a bit of homage to the man that got me started in railroad modeling. When he passed away I inherited most of his trains, including 397 coal cars in the mix and his unfinished layout which are now modules on my layout. Elements of his layout and his trains live on.

Bob
 
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When I was 5 or so, Santa (Dad) got me this cool Tyco racing car set from the JC Penny catalog. Unfortunately, it worked only on Christmas Eve, during the set up, and then didn't work right for the next 6 to 8 months, despite constant contact with Tyco and sending stuff in for replacement/repair. To put this track down, my father had gotten a 4x8 sheet of Masonite chip board.

After about 8 months, my dad asked me if I'd like a train instead. I said yes, and he asked if steam or diesel. I chose diesel. He returned from Hobby Corner with an Athearn SOU2400 SW7 (still have it--being converted to DCC), Athearn Railbox, MDC ATSF Thrall gon, and a Tyco ATSF caboose with operating conductor (that grabbed train orders off the platform) and some track. I had that layout for about 10 years until I went off to college.

A couple of years ago, my father in law gave me his Lionel freight set from the 1950s, and asked me to share it with my daughter. She hasn't taken a big shine to it, but I did, and grabbed all my stuff out of storage and now have been back for a while.

I know I talk my father's ear off about trains in Mississippi, but he does find some stuff interesting because of the historical aspect.
 
I miss my dad very much. He was not a train modeler, but he bought me a Lionel set and mounted it on a 4X8 sheet of plywood for me when I was just 5, complete with some signs and lamposts. Together we drew in some roads. That was about as far as it got, but I ran the trains for a long time. Later he bought me an HO set with a SW7 and some cars. I ran it to death. When slot cars came out we got some of those and he really enjoyed that, but I always liked the trains. We fished and hunted together a lot. He loved music but couldn't play a note, yet I became a music teacher. When I played my sax, he was my biggest fan. Dad passed away in 1994 just before I became an Army officer. He was proud that I was in the Army because he was not able to serve during the Korean War. My own son, a mechanical engineer, isn't into trains, but lately he seems interested in my layout. Thanks for the thread. I think all dads appreciate being remembered for their hard work and how they tried to help their sons enjoy life and work.
 
Gotta start some where....

In 1973 Christmas morning I had received the Tyco/Mantua train set NYC. A dockside steam switcher. It came with a B&M boxcar, a green flat car with 3 different colored DC9 tractors I think it resembled, blue Phillips 66 tank car and a red NYC caboose. It ran around the Christmas tree with a simple circle. I still have the set today. I was fortunate enough to get that gift. My grandfather worked for Alco out of Schenectady, NY. My father worked for GE in the same city. Later dad was offered a job in Milwaukee, WI for Allis-Chalmers in West-Allis. I used to go with dad on Saturday when he worked and I watched the switchers and other trains/locos come through there. I was lucky I felt at the time and still feel the same way to have had that time. My father then later continued to work for Siemens after they bought Allis-Chalmers. He worked for 40 years before he retired with Siemens. Yep they built traction motors etc...my grandfather when at Alco built the steamers and diesels from start to finish with the company until he retired too. There is no way I can put into words the amount of influence these men had and have on my in life. I can only imagine what it been like for a boy to have been a railroaders son but I will settle for a grandson of an Alco builder and a son of an Engineer for traction motors, large diesels and turbines. I was lucky enough!
 
One of the fondest memories I have of my dad was the Christmas morning that I woke up to find that he had spent the whole night building me a ferris wheel from the Erector set he had bought me for Christmas. That was a very monumental task and I loved playing with that set and building stuff. I wish I still had it, but it got lost over the years and all the moves.

As to trains, one year I got a Marx O gauge set, most of the cars were of the tinplate style as I remember. I still have the steam Locomotive and tender from that set, and I think the caboose. Another year I got an Allstate Diesel set (made by Marx) with a War Bonnet E-series Locomotive and plastic cars. I still have all of that set, along with a couple of Lionel switches and one Lionel Sunoco Tank car.

A couple of years later I got my first HO set, again a War Bonnet set, but somehow it disappeared over the years, and I can't even remember who made it. If I had to guess I would guess Tyco, but CRS has kicked in and I don't remember.

My Father passed in 1964 and was buried on fathers day, so until my son was born that day didn't mean a whole lot to me, and now it's still bittersweet.
 
A little late as well, but my dad built my first Lionel train layout for me and my brother when I was 7 and my brother was 6. He really never liked trains all that much, but knew that me and my brother did. I'm the only one that developed a life-long interest in model railroading, all from that original layout. I've always said the having a layout keeps me sane at time, so I have my dad to thank for that. He also taught me to play bridge, another form of recreation that has stayed with me. He died in 2005 and I still miss him too.
 
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