My Early Interest in Trains – Part 1

I had planned to write blog entries when notable achievements were made on the train layout, mixed in with entries about my early interest in trains and previous progress on the layout. I decided (with input from Sami, my wife), to instead start from the beginning and catch up to where I am at now, and not jump back and forth. I think that will make the blog more readable and understandable.

I have always had a strong interest in trains, both real and model. I’ve always been intrigued by mechanical things and things with wheels in general. That is why my career was spent in tooling and manufacturing engineering with Freightliner, a manufacturer of large trucks.

Real trains are marvelous mighty things. They are big, long, powerful, noisy, and colorful. They are made up of locomotives and cars that can be coupled and uncoupled and rearranged. They can be made to switch tracks. They can leave cars at stations and industries. They can haul different kinds of loads (products and people), which results in an interesting variety of cars. Locomotives used to be steam, and are now diesel and electric. I especially loved the caboose, a rolling office, which sadly is no longer used. 

One of my earliest memories is watching trains along the edge of Klamath Lake on fishing trips with my dad. A train track hugged the lake shore, and I could see the track for a long distance both ways. I watched for that first glimpse of a distant steam engine headlight. It would take a while for the train to reach us and thunder pass, just a few feet away. The anticipation was enormous, as well as the experience of the passing train. Toy trains can, with imagination, create a similar experience, especially by getting down to train track level.

We lived in Ashland, Oregon, which although a small town, in the early 1950’s had a very active railroad operation. Our house was on a hill with a great view of the train yard. I spent many hours watching the action in the yard using binoculars. I also watched the scheduled northbound train leave every evening around 6:00 pm. I could see the train from our porch as it left town, and hear the steam whistle as it approached crossings. It was always exciting. 

On Sunday afternoons my dad would occasionally give in to my pleas and take me to the train yard so I could see the action close up. He would nap in the car while I watched.

When I was about five years old I was given a simple wind-up train. Wow! That opened my eyes to toy trains. It had a steam engine and several stamped tin cars. The track pieces could be made in to a figure eight. With that I enjoyed many hours of play. 

When I was old enough to read, or at least look at the pictures, my brother Sam let me borrow his model train magazines, which I devoured. I have some of those issues dating back to 1950, purchased in my adult years in hobby shops (they often have boxes of old back issues at reasonable prices). I have since purchased a set of DVDs of the first 75 years of Model Railroader magazine. I also have an extensive physical collection of model train magazines, collected over the years, which I read over and over again.

One other memory I have from my childhood is putting together a jigsaw puzzle of a Union Pacific Big Boy steam locomotive pulling a long string of cars. I loved that puzzle, and taped it together to preserve it. The puzzle is lost to time, but with Google’s help I was recently able to find the image on the internet. It’s Union Pacific locomotive 4019, known as a Big Boy, on Sherman Hill in Wyoming. Here’s my puzzle’s image.

I have more early memories to share, and will do that in the next blog entry.