Yo, World!

[hevans1944]

I just now discovered this forum, which looks like it might be pretty interesting. I am a semi-retired electrical engineer who started off "messin' 'round" with electricity and electronics at about the age of six. Dad brought home a Lionel electric train set for Christmas that year. I didn't learn until much later (when I became a dad) that fathers really buy electric trains for themselves. The child is just there to avoid the embarassment.of a grown man playing with kids toys.

Anyway, I plan to lurk here every once in awhile and help out if I can.

Hop

 

[davenn]

greetings and welcome to the forums

gee, I havent been to Dayton, OH since 2006, seems like a lifetime ago

cheers
Dave

 

[CocaCola]

I didn't learn until much later (when I became a dad) that fathers really buy electric trains for themselves. The child is just there to avoid the embarassment.of a grown man playing with kids toys.

No embarrassment here, from my fond memories of trains as a child with my uncle I have been purchasing N gauge trains since the birth of my daughter so that I can share the experiences... Once she gets to an age to appreciate and handle them I hope to have a fun long time father daughter build going on...

BTW: I chose N gauge as it was what I was most exposed to as a child so it holds a special place, and also for the simple reason that I won't need to dedicate an entire building to a full fledged layout, instead I can do a whole lot in a single room

 

[hevans1944]

<snip>

BTW: I chose N gauge as it was what I was most exposed to as a child so it holds a special place, and also for the simple reason that I won't need to dedicate an entire building to a full fledged layout, instead I can do a whole lot in a single room

You can easily see the progression from where I am sitting. My dad purchased Lionel "O" gauge, three-rail, AC operated trains in the late 1940s and early 1950s because this is what was readily available. HO scale was there, but quite expensive at the time.

I bought my first-born son an HO scale train set in the late 1970s and we put it together on a sheet of 4' x 8' plywood. I entertained ideas of landscaping it and installing more than one level of track, but couldn't get either of my two sons interested in doing this. So eventually, as they grew older and the space became more valuable, what with adding two daughters to the mix, the set got disassembled and put away.

If I were to do the same thing today in the 2010s for my grandchildren (and I may!) it would be N scale, and it would feature beau coup high-tech locomotives with microprocessors, variable-phase speed-control of the motor conduction (probably use variable reluctance motors) and similar gee-whiz stuff that was unavailable in my day, much less in my father's day. And it would all fold up and fit nicely inside of a small suitcase. I can just imagine the look on their faces when grandpa shows up on their door steps with his suitcase full of model trains.

Or maybe everyone will be into virtual reality headsets by then and won't be interested.

<sigh>

Hop