I love trains, too. I do not what exactly I like about them but just playing, riding, or looking at trains give me tranquility in life. Although watching real trains pass by on a rail track is really noisy but it kind of gives me peace. It is like watching the sunset on a cook beach for me. I fell in love with them. I have been into them ever since I was a kid since my siblings were quite playing with them a lot, too.
For those who may interested in train simulators, Microsoft Train Simulator is very hard to get. There are others such a Railworks, Rail Simulator, Trainz. A visit to Trainsim.com will reveal where to purchase them. There is a new group called Open Rails who are developing an open source simulator that will run Microsoft Train Simulator routes and rolling stock. Presently they have a rudimentary control system, but Open Rails shows great promise. Microsoft Train Simulator is very CPU dependent.which kills frame rates on detailed routes and stock, whereas Open Rails is GPU dependent which allows much better detail and operation
This thread was started so long ago that I'd forgotten about it. And I now have a daughter working for the BNSF Railways in their Ft. Worth headquarters. And way back there, in this thread, I mentioned having some things I inherited from an uncle who died in 1943 when he worked for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. I have since donated all that to the B&O Railroad museum in Baltimore
My dad has been into N gauge trains as far back as I can remember. He has quite the set up and collection and he's been trying to get my husband into it. I think it's interesting and it's great that he has a hobby, but I just don't have the patience for it.
I never collected any trains as a child, but my grandpa did and he had quite a lay out every Christmas. A beautiful German train garden that he built a platform for as well. I think it was probably 8 ft. by 5 ft. something like that. Anyways, to this day I love them. The fall foliage train rides in the Shenandoah Valley are beautiful but you have to plan ahead (they are usually booked a year in advance).
I started collecting HO cars and a few locomotives 7-8 years ago with the expectation of building a layout. Then two years ago we decided to sell our house and everything went into boxes where it still is. We still haven't sold our house and the way the economy is it may not sell for quite some time so a train layout may be just a daydream.