Why Do You Collect The Trains You Do?

I quite fancy the idea of having this as a thread myself Trackmaster-Rail-Yard.

Well, my collecting days were very far and young, predating even HiT Toys TrackMaster line; I had been a big fan of Wooden Railway growing up, and that collection is fairly large if I do say so myself. I remember my first actual additions to my TAKARA TOMY Plarail/TrackMaster collection were a TOMY USA(Plarail equivalent) Harvey, Emily, Murdoch, Arthur, Skarloey, Neville, and a rare TOMY UK Oliver; Arthur and Murdoch have survived the remarkable test of time, being a few of the oldest engines in my Sudrian fleet at 10 years old this very year! Unfortunately, Harvey, Emily, and Skarloey did not fare so well with the tests of time; both found parts failing, particularly the motors, and this was before I had ever discovered replaceable couplings on eBay. My first Oliver also suffered a fairly nasty fate at the hands of a careless neighbour asking to take a look at the engine; that prompted me to quickly purchase another to replace him before it was too late. As for Neville, he's still around without his face as an original character of my own known as Stephen the Q1; remarkably, he's still one of the fastest and strongest engines in my fleet to this day, being 10 years old.

I think my collection really began to take of in early or mid 2007 when TOMY USA was being replaced with HiT Toys TrackMaster; the very first HiT Toys "engine" I ever added was Hector with the maroon branch line coach, and the stock standard Thomas. That was very early 2007, and I had not taken much of an interest in the product line until I had stumbled across Season 12's episode, "Heave-Ho, Thomas!" which brought about one of my most favourite engines and characters to this day-- it's really a no-brainer that it was Hank; that sparked my interest in collecting all Hank the American Engine paraphernalia at that very instant after watching the episode he came in. His TrackMaster model came to me in November of 2009 as a birthday present from my father when he went on a business trip; that set off the large spark to my collecting when I discovered the Scottish Twins were being released in addition to engines previously available in the U.K. I worked hard to add engines that were readily available, including rolling stock from their "Truck and Track" packs; I purchased one of each first before taking a massive interest in the Sodor Power Plant Trucks and Track pack. I've bought about 7 or 8 of those already simply for the rolling stock.

It was at that time that early 2010 found HiT Toys being slowly replaced with Fisher-Price TrackMaster, and I had thought I would lose an interest in collecting as Fisher-Price was now taking over; with new movies, and new characters, there were new models to collect of standard gauge engines, and how could I resist? I had begun an interest in the Plarail Thomas & Friends range around the same time, and had begun to purchase the Plarail engines to replace some of the lower quality Fisher-Price TrackMaster engine counterparts, which had met their fate on eBay.com. Even so, some of Fisher-Price's engines left me very impressed, such as their first Ferdinand model; it's probably one reason that 5 minute and some odd second review has the most hits on my channel.

As the years slowly went by, I think it was mid-2012 or early 2013 that I began an interest in the Plarail range of real life engines; the first ones to come to me were the DD14 and DE10 following a 50 year of Plarail special set. GerisPlarail1 and I have that Maintenance of Way train repair set, so I think he knows what I'm talking about; the AmTrak F7 EMD A-Unit with its coaches came sometime after that train set. Shortly after those two, the DD14 and DE10, came the C57; courtesy of ucwepn's unboxing and review video, I had been "persuaded" to purchase the beautiful lady new in box after seeing just how gorgeous it really is running along the line. Can't say I'm struggling to keep it in its box and not display it with one of my other engines right now.

Although my collection is predominantly Thomas & Friends engines, standard gauge, I have enjoyed bringing in real life engines and rolling stock to the collection; not only that, but I know a lot of my subscribers enjoy seeing my collection and having their questions answered in reviews regarding the topic under my inspection. I've collected for years now, and don't think I'll stop; I've plans to build a layout when I've a place to call my own and, of course, I'll film on it to my heart's content just for the fun of it! Nothing's more beautiful than seeing your engines trundling, snorting, or simply dancing down the line with whatever is in tow behind them; that, and some of them are simply just beautiful or gorgeous all on their own as well!

I thought this would make a good thread idea!
I started liking Thomas when I was about 2, I had just been givin the Thomas And The Magic Railroad VHS, and I was just in love with it! I was going through Wal-Mart, I had gone through the toys, and there it was! A Tomy Thomas Starter Set! I got it, and set it up on a old table in the upstairs guest room with my dad and mom. I loved it! It was the coal and water loader set if I recall! I stayed up there for hours at a time! A week later, my granny showed up at our house with a few surprises for me! She and my parents came up to my room, with 3 strange boxes wrapped in Thomas wrapping paper. Curiously, I opened the smallest one, it was Tomy Percy with 2 trucks! I jumped for joy! I opened the second one, and found James with some cars as well! The last one was huge to me at the time, I opened it to find the Thomas and Bertie Race set! I was so happy! This started it all! I spent a lot of time in that room trying to combine the tracks, mainly because I was very young and didn't really understand the main points yet! My mom and dad helped me, and eventually I had a much larger set than before! I always got new sets or trains to add on, and espicially loved Christmas! So did the layout, LOL. By the time I was 7, I had a set that reached from the top table to the huge area in my room, where it ran in a spiral and a large area where I made yards and sheds. I loved it! That's when Trackmaster came! I was very skeptical at first, and didn't really think I would like it. Well, every time I went to my granny's, I got a new train or maybe a small set to add on to my set. I had to go there for the weekend. I arrived, said hi to my granny and bye to my parents, and as they left, my granny told me to look in me and my sisters extra room that they had for us whenever we went there, I went in to find the James at Boulder Moutain Loop set, with a face changing james! I opened it up and was shocked at how the set was! It was so fun! It came with adapters to tomy track, and I curiously combined the 2, I had started making huge sets revolving around it! From then on, I collected tomy and trackmaster. Eventually, tomy thomas died off in the USA, and I was left with trackmaster, and since then have loved them and collected them! How did you're guy's love for collecting trains start?

Nice story dude! I agree with thomas collecting, and how some don't survive the test of time and how some trains just die off, nice story my friend!