Grandpa Bills Train Town

I can appreciate the time, effort, money and passion Grandpa Bill put into this. Having been into HO-scale trains in my younger days I can see that this must have been the undertaking of several years at least.

Thanks for the train ride!
 
I just read that it took 15 years to build that thing - now, that is patience!!!! :eek:

Hubby needs a hobby like that; he can never ​find enough to do.
 

Anne said:
I just read that it took 15 years to build that thing - now, that is patience!!!! :eek:

Hubby needs a hobby like that; he can never ​find enough to do.
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I gave it up, in part, because it was too easy to spend an entire day working on it. I wasn't even that crazy about trains at that point, but they were an excuse to build the scale-model structures - the buildings, scenery, etc. - that went with them.

I started off with the cheap plastic snap-together kits, graduated to the more involved glue-together kits, and finally moved up to the so-called "craftsman" models - usually made of wood and metal, requiring some micro-woodworking skills and costing what to me at the time was a King's ransom - about $50. But oh, they were so detailed and so beautiful when they were done!

wood-model-kit.gif

Now those same $50 kits run closer to $250. You could blow your pension AND your Social Security payments every month on just ONE nice locomotive in HO scale -

locomotive.jpg
This one is $279 and is just a low-medium range example.


But if you have the time, the space and most importantly the money you can create an entire world that will take up whatever time you choose to give to it. Someday I'd like to get back into it - maybe if my son gives me a grandchild I'll finally have an excuse. :playful:
 
I was lucky enough when I was married to have an excuse to frequently bring the kids to Roadside America, which was only a twenty-minute drive from our house. It started off as a small model railroad set-up and grew over the years to a massive size - 8,000 square feet. Everything is in "O" scale, which means the size of the old Lionel trains that used to run around the Christmas tree.

roadside-america.jpg

The kids were suitably impressed, but I always ended up acting like a jackass, pushing people aside to see a little plastic kid flying a plastic kite or a scale airplane doing circles near the ceiling. They sold model trains there as well, at twice the price you could get them at the local hobby shop, and the kids always clamored for one. I firmly told them they could get one at the hobby shop tomorrow, but by then I knew they would be onto some new hobby. :D

Now it isn't just "play with the trains" anymore - now it's computer-controlled engines, locomotive cams (like in the video) and high-tech everything, to the point where it's become like Halloween - aimed at adults and overly expensive.
 
Pappy said:
If memory serves me right, I believe there is a nice set up in Strousburg, PA. They also have a huge museum of retired trains and just about everything related. One of our family trips to Lancaster, we visited the museum.
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I remember that one. My "middle" brother (next oldest from me) loved the Lancaster area, so that's how I discovered it. We went on the train a few times - really nice.

Just up the road from me, in Scranton, there's Steamtown, a National Registry museum that also offers occasional live-steam rides. Been there a few times as well.

I guess I AM just a little boy at heart. :eek:
 

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