How I Started Out In Model Railroading

A few things started me on the Model Railroading path.

First, as with most, a Christmas gift of Lionel equipment was enjoyed for a number of years by my brother, my cousins, and me. And my interest in HO was kindled by some equipment my dad had; he was also a model railroader when younger.

A significant reason for my interest in HO was my discovery of a stack of Model Railroader magazines. I used to sneak into my folk’s closets when young, much to their displeasure. Sometime in the late 50s, when I was about 8 or 9, I made a wonderful discovery:  Dad's stash of old MR mags. He had a dozen of them, ranging from March 1943 to June 1947. They fascinated me - The ads from manufacturers, some no longer in existence by the time I was reading about them;  the intriguing monthly layout plans by young Linn Wescott; and the fascinating articles by Boomer Pete. I was captivated.  The many impacts of and references to the WWII war effort were especially interesting.

And I was enthralled by the possibilities of scale modeling, and of the possibilities of the HO scale, that were explored in the magazine’s pages.

One article still sticks with me - The cover story for the July 1945 issue. It was about the Orange County Model Railroad Club, in the area where I grew up. I’ve always wondered what became of the club and it’s layout, which the article says was featured in a movie short, “Author In Babyland”.  And also the various club members - A lot of them were young guys stationed at a military base in the area, and when the war ended, they'd've left the service, probably scattered to the four winds.

The final major influence was the West Anaheim Depot, the tracks and yard just west of the intersection of Broadway and Manchester. Here is a marker where the depot was located, placed by the city of Anaheim.

I grew up very near the tracks that went south from the wye, and back then, there were no barriers at all getting from our house onto the railroad property. I spent hours prowling the tracks, the yard, the equipment, the industries – Walt Taylor Lumber, Home Oil, the ice house - and around the wye with my brother and friends. Harmony Park was especially mysterious. We’d ride our bikes east on Santa Ana Street, where SP served packing houses and lumber yards. Trains still run on these tracks nowadays, though very few, and one of the wig-wags survived up until just a few months before this writing.

Over the decades, I’ve done model railroading in fits and starts. Over the years, work, family, and other activities (bicycling, playing video games with a boyhood friend, finally going to a gym, etc etc) would get in the way of my hobby. But I do have a shelf area set up to for a small switching layout, and recently – the silver lining of the COVID-19 pandemic – I’ve been putting real hours into my modelling. My interests are the SP in the OC, and for this, I attend the monthly Orange County Railway Historical Society meetings to keep abreast of current OC railroad activity and to explore their historical information for the SP in Anaheim and environs. I’ve also been involved with the NMRA, and especially the San Diego Division of the PSR, which has been swell. This hobby has so much to offer, and I feel fortunate for the early influences that started me down the Model Railroad path, so many years ago.