I have been a fan of model trains since I was a little kid. For awhile I gave it up. When I reached my high school years, I thought it was too childish of a hobby to continue to have. I planned on getting rid of all of my large scale train sets, but I couldn't. Instead, I put the large scale trains in storage. As a matter of fact, I had a whole box of O gauge train tracks that I didn't even know were there for another 10 years.
I actually discovered my large scale train quite by accident. I was cleaning out my closet. I had had stuff in storage at my parents house for about five years – ever since I went to college. They finally had enough of it. They were redoing the floor, and they wanted me to clean everything out of my old room. The large scale train caught me completely by surprise. I had forgotten that it was even there! Once I found out, however, I was very excited. I had seen polar express train in the theaters, and had even gone to a large scale train show recently. No matter what I had tried to do, my passion for models had not diminished. If anything, it had even grown greater over the years. I decided to try to set up my large scale train again.
A large scale train takes up a lot of room. This is not the N gauge train that you might remember from childhood. This is a seriously bulky model. I had a friend who had all of his large scale trains in cabinets, and they took up most of an entire room. For me to set up my large scale train, I would need a whole room dedicated to it.
It just so happened that I had a basement that was unfinished in my new house. My wife was not thrilled with the idea of dedicating it to my large scale train collection, but we eventually reached a compromise. I could play with my large scale train on one side and she could use the other side as a sewing room. She was a little bit unimpressed by my hobby, but nevertheless we both eventually came to an agreement. I am glad that we did. Playing with that large scale train has been a lot of fun ever since.
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