What was your first train set (or locomotive)? I was four or five when I got my first train set, which included a wooden steam locomotive with four or five cars that ran on wooden track. When I was nine, I got my first HO electric Snap-Track set with a Varney F3 diesel and a […]
Meet actor and model railroader Michael Gross. While he was in Milwaukee, Wisc., for Trainfest 2022, he carved out some time to talk with us about his family’s storied history in railroading and how he became a modeler. Michael also shares with us how Trains.com features like the magazine archive and video streaming have provided […]
Meet Jerry Dziedzic What was your first train set (or locomotive)? How about three, in different scales? Like so many youngsters, a Lionel circle around the tree greeted me one Christmas morning. I suppose this was in 1956 or 1957. My dad had fun, too. He used two sheets of plywood to build an 8 […]
Tom Piccirillo started building scale models at age 12 after discovering a copy of the April 1964 issue of Model Railroader magazine at a local corner store. After receiving his degree in mechanical engineering in 1974, he pursued a management career in well-known industries, such as Burroughs Corp. and Ohaus Scale, and holds patents on […]
What are some of your favorite parts of the hobby? Community is the best part of this hobby. I’ve been active in three California clubs, and now, in New England, I’m helping out with Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine garden railways. In 2007, after 10 years helping northern Californians build garden railways through my business, […]
Meet Dick Christianson What was your first train set (or locomotive)? I didn’t fully realize until recently (I’m 78) that my dad was a model railroader. Let me explain. I got my original Lionel train set (No. 675 Pacific with smoke and a whistling tender, a flatcar, a Lehigh Valley hopper, and a Southern Pacific-style […]
Meet Jack Burgess What was the best decision you made regarding model railroading? In the late 1960s I built a freelance layout. I soon met a modeler who was photographing freight cars in the local SPRR yard and scratchbuilding models of them. I thus got hooked on modeling prototype equipment rather than freelancing. I decided […]
Meet Jim Providenza What was your first train set (or locomotive)? Our family had a Lionel train set that we set up around the Christmas tree each year. At about age 10, it moved onto a sheet of plywood on the floor of the “playroom” on a semi-permanent basis. In 7th grade my parents agreed […]
See this interview with Eric White, Editor of Model Railroader magazine. Trains.com Unlimited Members can see the video in the Trains.com Video section. Steve Sweeney: Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Q&A with the Editors. And today, our special guest is Eric White, editor of Model Railroader magazine. Eric, welcome. Eric White: Thank you. […]
Meet Cody Grivno How did you get started in the hobby? My journey to model railroading isn’t the one you often read about in the pages of Model Railroader. There wasn’t a Lionel set under the Christmas tree. Though my dad, Steve, dabbled with model trains as a kid, he was more into military modeling. […]
Meet Gerry Leone How did you get started in the hobby? Although my dad had a Lionel layout in our basement, I was not involved with it. I just played with the loop around the Christmas tree. At one point, he traded his Lionel stuff for a Tyco HO starter set and bought an older […]
Meet James Kottkamp How did you get started in the hobby? My interest in model trains came from the real thing. After church on Sundays, Dad would park the car next to the Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks in Kirkwood, Mo. Kirkwood was the crest of the hill; westbound from St. Louis and eastbound from Valley […]
