For me, it was Hornby Train Sets.

[Ian D J]

My first "proper" train set was a BR blue Class 35 Hymek and three Inter City coaches, all on a 4 x 6 feet oval track when I was aged 9 in 1979. I've always loved trains in all shape and size, old or modern and in model or real life form.

Unfortunately, due to budget and space issues, none of my layouts never got that impressively large enough and now I don't even have a layout - but I will want to build a decent system later on down the line (see what I did there?) one way or the other.

 

[dinners]

You're the same age as me then.

It was my brother that had the Hornby 00 layout but I still enjoyed it.

I feel my Scalextric thread has led to something - lego / airfix / trains.

 

[MWHCVT]

My first "proper" train set was a BR blue Class 35 Hymek and three Inter City coaches, all on a 4 x 6 feet oval track when I was aged 9 in 1979. I've always loved trains in all shape and size, old or modern and in model or real life form.

Unfortunately, due to budget and space issues, none of my layouts never got that impressively large enough and now I don't even have a layout - but I will want to build a decent system later on down the line (see what I did there?) one way or the other.

Ian what are you doing to me by starting threads like this, I used to love my time playing with train sets...these days I'll quite often look on eBay and have come close to buying up people failed or redundant projects a few times, as they usually go really cheap which is crazy, I've more than enough space...but I just don't think I can justify another very expensive hobby, as much as I'd love too

 

[Ian D J]

Well, Phil, you have been a role model when it comes to producing threads in Out Of Focus.

See what I did there, again?

 

[Ian D J]

Ian what are you doing to me by starting threads like this, I used to love my time playing with train sets...these days I'll quite often look on eBay and have come close to buying up people failed or redundant projects a few times, as they usually go really cheap which is crazy, I've more than enough space...but I just don't think I can justify another very expensive hobby, as much as I'd love too

Hi Matthew. I will confess to having the occasional cheeky "window shopping" session in eBay for ready-made model layouts, the mouse arrow hovered over the bid/buy now button for a few moments before I had to talk myself out of it.

 

[dinners]

Well, Phil, you have been a role model when it comes to producing threads in Out Of Focus.

See what I did there, again?

My parents are due here on the 30th.

After failing in my search of the attic (as I wanted them out for my boys) I called my parents and I'm pleased to say - my big box full of 'action man' will be arriving with them.

 

[Ian D J]

My parents are due here on the 30th.

After failing in my search of the attic (as I wanted them out for my boys) I called my parents and I'm pleased to say - my big box full of 'action man' will be arriving with them.

I still have my action man, in fact he sometimes serves as a still life model for various indoors photography projects, such as this one taken last year. It is a good excuse to play with toys even though I'm all growed up.

(I stuck a dark piece of paper with a small square hole on my 1.8 50 mm primes lens and used the bokeh effect to get those background lights using LED Christmas lights and he stood in front of them).

 

[dinners]

Nice one

My action men are all old school.

Fuzzy hair - some even just with the painted hair. I think one is 'grippy hand's and 'eagle eyes' but the rest are older.

Deep sea diver with the gold helmet and metal boots, the sailor with the beard etc.

Must find out who has the train sets although I expect my brother will have flogged them.

 

[MWHCVT]

Hi Matthew. I will confess to having the occasional cheeky "window shopping" session in eBay for ready-made model layouts, the mouse arrow hovered over the bid/buy now button for a few moments before I had to talk myself out of it.

Exactly I keep looking at the really small scale, I cannot remember the gauge right now but as it's very small it would take up very little space...oh I've come very close a few times lol

 

[Ian D J]

Exactly I keep looking at the really small scale, I cannot remember the gauge right now but as it's very small it would take up very little space...oh I've come very close a few times lol

The next size down is "N" gauge, Graham Farish was - and still is - the popular brand. Then there is the ultra small Z gauge where you could fit a fully working layout inside a suitcase. I'd take that on if my eyesight and fingers could handle it.
The other end of the gauge size is "O" gauge, twice the size of "OO", often ideal as garden railway layouts.

 

[dinners]

The next size down is "N" gauge, Graham Farish was - and still is - the popular brand. Then there is the ultra small Z gauge where you could fit a fully working layout inside a suitcase. I'd take that on if my eyesight and fingers could handle it.
The other end of the gauge size is "O" gauge, twice the size of "OO", often ideal as garden railway layouts.

I'd love to do something with the tiny scale stuff.

I know it's a fiddle but with limited space it does allow you to create something 'grand'.

 

[AJQS]

I'd love to do something with the tiny scale stuff.

I know it's a fiddle but with limited space it does allow you to create something 'grand'.

Never underestimate the fiddle! I decided that because space was limited, and that as there's naff all available off the shelf to model the Cambrian Railways I would do it in 2mm Finescale (Like N but without scale track and wheels). I built 2 wagons and laid the track and decided enough was enough! My eyes were about to fall out of my head building the teeny tiny wagon underframes.

Still got a cupboard full of my childhood Hornby (and Lima, Mainline etc), though I'm now building in EM gauge with mostly kits and scratchbuilt stuff, a few conversions of RTR 00 stuff too. My first train set was a Hornby Freight set with an Intercity Class 90, my brother had the 125 set in black to match and it grew from there!

 

[MWHCVT]

The next size down is "N" gauge, Graham Farish was - and still is - the popular brand. Then there is the ultra small Z gauge where you could fit a fully working layout inside a suitcase. I'd take that on if my eyesight and fingers could handle it.
The other end of the gauge size is "O" gauge, twice the size of "OO", often ideal as garden railway layouts.

Good information there, the one thing that would worry me about the uber small stuff is I'm a bit of a useless arse so would likely brake as much as I built

I'd love to do something with the tiny scale stuff.

I know it's a fiddle but with limited space it does allow you to create something 'grand'.

This was my thought process too

Never underestimate the fiddle! I decided that because space was limited, and that as there's naff all available off the shelf to model the Cambrian Railways I would do it in 2mm Finescale (Like N but without scale track and wheels). I built 2 wagons and laid the track and decided enough was enough! My eyes were about to fall out of my head building the teeny tiny wagon underframes.

Still got a cupboard full of my childhood Hornby (and Lima, Mainline etc), though I'm now building in EM gauge with mostly kits and scratchbuilt stuff, a few conversions of RTR 00 stuff too. My first train set was a Hornby Freight set with an Intercity Class 90, my brother had the 125 set in black to match and it grew from there!

At one point we had a couple of 125 sets running one a 8 x 4 board, it was always a lot of fun

I fear this thread could ruin me

 

[Ian D J]

I've decided that when (and it's a "when" rather than an "if") I do get back into it, it's all going to be "OO" gauge as parts and bits are quite cheap and plentiful. The model cardboard building kits made by Superquick are quite detailed and easy to put together and doesn't cost no more than a fiver.

I'd build a shed in my relatively secure back yard and do it all in there but I can imagine it would get a bit cold and draughty in the winter, especially since I live right next to the coast (probably get blown away before this winter is out).

Failing that, there are a good number of model railway simulator software for the PC.

 

[Nod]

I had an "N" gauge set as a kid, although I wasn't allowed to play with it (too young to do it properly!) and it got sold as part of a downsizing move a few years later. Relatively recently, Dad got back into it in a fairly big way, building first a single 8x4 sheet layout with a few circular routes (IIRC 2 double track loops) and several sidings followed by a 2 sheet layout which could be run either as a complete unit or as 2 separate smaller ones.

Biggest PITA was fitting the DCC decoder modules into the smaller locos and that was my job since my soldering skills were much better than Dad's (and I didn't have an essential tremor). The whole shebang went to my nephew when Dad was taken ill and I expect it's all been e-bayed by now.

Enjoyed playing trains when I visited but never really fancied the space investment that even an "N" gauge layout demands. Have seen a "Z" gauge layout that even I could find space for, although a CD jewel case doesn't give much scope for landscaping!

 

[Yv]

The house I was born in was one of a small block of four terrace houses and everyone had to be 'good friends' as we had a block of 3 shared lavatories at the end of the back yards, which were also shared, they ran right right across the rear of the houses [the yards, not the output from the toilets ] . This meant that when the guy in house next door but one started building a Hornby train set in his attic, all the fellas of the 4 houses helped, including my Dad. I was only 3 or 4 years old and have only the most vague memory of the actual set up, I do recall it had street lights and hills and a village. When I was a bit older I wanted one myself but we never really had the space or money to do it.

 

[Ian D J]

It has to be said that the best layouts are the ones done by a conglomerate what with all those different methods and ideas thrown into one melting pot - as long as it is all done to the same scale!

 

[MWHCVT]

I remember going with my dad to one of the big modeling shows at the NEC and just being in complete awe of some of the layouts with moving road traffic, and street lights and one even had a real little running river with a small ship on it that went back and forth along it, just epic....I can feel the inner 6 year old on me now getting excited

 

[King of Groove]

Never had a model railway layout but would love to have one one day! My computer desk has started the process! I've got a oouple of lengths of track on it complete with a steam locomotive and some freight wagons. Plus got some others hidden in the drawers of the desk.

I'm interested in the real stuff both modern and steam. I travel up and down the UK visiting steam railways. They all have to be done in the day which can mean a real early start. Hoping, in the next couple of years, to visit a steam railway in Keith, Scotland. This will be done in a day and will involve flying to Aberdeen then train to Keith, do the steam railway then all in reverse in the same day!!!!

 

[the black fox]

ye gods takes me back ,my first one was a hornby-dublo three rail duchess of sutherland set in maroon livery ,the engine was die cast (metal not plastic ) and it started me on many many model layouts and a interest in model making in general and eventually to a job in special effects for MGM film studios ,until my first wife decided she couldn't take london life and we moved out into the country .
built and eventually sold on quiet a few layouts in the intervening years as well as boat models both static and sailing even got a metre long flower class corvette on the shelf above my head ready for restoration

 

[andya700]

ye gods takes me back ,my first one was a hornby-dublo three rail duchess of sutherland set in maroon livery ,the engine was die cast (metal not plastic ) and it started me on many many model layouts and a interest in model making in general and eventually to a job in special effects for MGM film studios ,until my first wife decided she couldn't take london life and we moved out into the country .

It must have been around 1973/74, that I first had a proper train set - secondhand for Christmas, and I was over the moon. In amongst all the odds and sods, it had a Hornby Albert Hall class loco and a Hornby Dublo cast Deltic Diesel engine, plus half a dozen pullman coaches. Those were the days when you could go down a local market or into a second hand shop, and pick up more coaches for 50p each. I even managed to buy an Airfix slot car (Porsche 904 I think ) for £1

 

[Deleted member 21335]

I've always thought that I'd have some sort of train set when I get a little bit older and this thread has given me an idea! My current computer room set up for editing etc would lend itself well I think if I extended my desk into an 'L' shape along another wall and ran a setup on that desk up to where I work. Hmmmmm.

 

[Ian D J]

I've always thought that I'd have some sort of train set when I get a little bit older and this thread has given me an idea! My current computer room set up for editing etc would lend itself well I think if I extended my desk into an 'L' shape along another wall and ran a setup on that desk up to where I work. Hmmmmm.

Use it to transport stuff such as pens, memory cards, etc from one end of the desk to the other.

Actually . . . that would be quite awesome if I could pull that off.

 

[ancient_mariner]

I did have trains a little, but they never did more than go round & round at a pedestrian rate, so of relatively little interest to a growing boy with a desire for thrills.

My father OTOH built a layout on a board that fitted into an alcove beside the fireplace in our livingroom, probably around 8' X 3'6", and lowered using an electric winch system so that it could be stored out of sight in the alcove when not in use. It was all based on N gauge, and he had acquired quite a large collection of rolling stock and some quite complicated locos including a replica Swiss Crocodile with motors in both tractor sections. Sadly he broke it to pieces out of frustration from trying to cope with my Grandfather, who was still living with my parents while suffering dementia and being fairly deaf. The board was never rebuilt, and after he died all the rolling stock etc was sold.

 

[Ian D J]

I did have trains a little, but they never did more than go round & round at a pedestrian rate, so of relatively little interest to a growing boy with a desire for thrills.

My father OTOH built a layout on a board that fitted into an alcove beside the fireplace in our livingroom, probably around 8' X 3'6", and lowered using an electric winch system so that it could be stored out of sight in the alcove when not in use. It was all based on N gauge, and he had acquired quite a large collection of rolling stock and some quite complicated locos including a replica Swiss Crocodile with motors in both tractor sections. Sadly he broke it to pieces out of frustration from trying to cope with my Grandfather, who was still living with my parents while suffering dementia and being fairly deaf. The board was never rebuilt, and after he died all the rolling stock etc was sold.

Awww, that's a sad ending in all respects - but speaking as a home carer looking after an elderly mother suffering with short term memory loss (need to determine whether it is Alzheimer's), that is a feeling I know all too well.

 

[Flightphoto]

I'm also a huge trains fan, funnily enough I'll be listing around 40 odd N Gauge model trains today that I have spare! I started off when i was around 4 with 00 but since having a job etc I preferred N due to the dexterity and size, although it's double the cost of 00! I was also keen on T gauge but it suffers loss of detail vs the larger scales

 

[Flightphoto]

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/huge-n-gauge-train-collection.573156/