So what started your passion for the rails?

Apart from Trainz 2006 and the Fowler 4F, I'm really not sure what else started the passion..

However, ignoring the rather awkward start to my thread, the Fowler 4F was one of many factors that started my love with the rails, rather than books.. little odd for some, I know.

So, what started your passion for the rails? What keeps you going?

What started me? It's in my blood, I guess. My maternal grandfather and maternal great-grandfather both worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad as a civil engineer and trackman respectively in the early 1900's and late 1800's. My paternal grandfather worked for the Berwind-White Coal company in Windber, Pennsylvania in the early 1900's. I was introduced in the early 1960's as a youngster to the Budd RDC's of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in Ocean City, New Jersey. They were and remain my favorite locomotive.

Andrew

Get outta town! No way! Incredible!
Speaking of favourite engines, the Fowler 4F is my favourite engine, unless mistaken, it was the first steam engine I encounted(least on Trainz) and everything just... well.. rolled down the track.. :hehe:
(Yes I've stated this twice.. ... twice is certainly enough.. )

Grandfather worked for Southern Pacific, in the roundhouse and repair shops. Boiler and firebox repairs/inspections.
Father is the bigger influence, he loves trains and anything to do with them, primarily local stuff. He also operated VTA's light rail for a while, until retirement.

A mix of my grandparents living along the tracks, watching Thomas the Tank Engine as a kid, and finding my dad's stash of model trains (before I promptly broke them all, I was just a kid).

Matt

Grandfather was foreman of engines out of Barstow

I'd say it goes back as my time as a kid, in Waycross, Georgia I had the chance to go to rice yard and ride a CSX engine that was switching there the guy that was working there let me operate the horn and then after that came the yard tower, and just recently was the Amtrak trip to Chicago and then steam train ride I took behind none other but the big 2-10-0 decapod #1630 at the Illinois Railway museum.

My dad runs a model train company, one of his best mate's runs a railroad. Had no choice.

I was brought up in central Scotland and my ancestors were canal boatmen, quite a large family of them. Early on, before I was born, I am told they realised that railways were going to take over most of the canal busines and almost bought in to railways. I was told that the only thing they were doubtfull about was the diversity of places the railways had available for transport. This caused a change of mind and they eventually went in to road transport instead. I was also told that my father, when he was young and who was an engineer, had a particular interest in all things railway orientated and I guess it rubbed off on me. I have been on the footplate of quite a few steam locos as a boy and have never forgotten the thril of a belching steam engine.

Cheers,
Bill69

When I was 5 we moved onto a farm in Tasmania that had the rail line through the middle of it. (all gone now).
There were two trains a day each way. They were Tasmanian Government Railways M class and C class steam locos and later the X class diesels.
We used to run up to the gate across the line whenever they came and they scared the hell out of us because they blew the whistle for the nearby road.
I always wanted a train set, but as large poor farming it was just a dream, until Trainz came along.
Cheers,
Mike

S Gauge model trains round the entire dining room floor every Christmas (went up the day after Thanksgiving, and was taken down in March), and a trip to the Horseshoe Curve when I was @ 6 y/o ... then I was diagnosed with OC, (which all collectors, historians, and hobbyists suffer from) ... I probably have ADD, although I am not good at math :hehe:

Maybe growing up next to a little branch line in London that ran N2's and push-pull sets.
My favourite loco is the N2, without a doubt.
Lielestosbrat's N2 for Trainz is a gem!

Mick

I got into trains because when I was younger I went on my first train ride at TVRM during a field trip and that's what started me passion for trains

When I was around 5, we lived in Whitehorse, YT. My dad was in the Army Air Corps (no Air Force yet) so we did a lot of traveling between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, TA (Territory of Alaska -- not a state yet). The service was steam. They kept the motive power going all the time in winter to keep the water from freezing and busting crown plates. I even got to ride in an engine once around the yard.

later, I found out my grandfather used to work the Durango/Silverton (D&RGW) run as a baggage handler. I've ridden that a few times, too.

Then in 2006 or so, I got to drive a steam engine belonging to the Essex Steam Train (Connecticut) for a 21-mile run. They have a "Hand on the Throttle" program still running. Details HERE.

Bill

My late uncle was a tram driver in my city which had the largest one outside of London and several routes ran the street outside my home. We also had two local suburban rail stations and that started my love of trams and trains that has always been with me. Once as a wee lad of around 9 or 10 at a seaside resort my parents wondered where I had wondered off to and they apparently thought the same thing - the railway. Sure enough just several minutes away from the guest house as an embankment to look into and on sidings empty passenger steam trains sitting. Then while at primary school I was give a train set by a German company called Rokal (long gone) and then into my secondary school years Hornby Dublo. As a long adult I took the notion to look into the idea of rail simulators and discovered TRS. It was passable but the techy side of building was lost on me so did a broadband search and discovered trainz 06 and discovered that it a dashed lot easier to build something!

So my first attempt was to build part of the tramway system that was closed way back in the 1960's being a very large one. Didn't ever expect to do the whole city and suburbs but the 120 or so miles were eventually achieved. Now I have been working on part of GB where I went often on holiday and have just done to the whole of their railway with now an extension under way. So when health issues that I have crop up I am exceedingly glad that I found Trainz and it helps me personally an awful lot. So must thank Trainz for helping me re-live my young love of trains and trams and do something practical that others will eventually enjoy because of that!