I received my first model train set when I was just 11 years old. It came at Christmas and was set up around the tree like a silver train track wreath. There were two engines (although if I remember correctly one was just for show), five boxcars, two flatbeds and a caboose. The engines were old black CN locomotives with that bold red CN logo on the sides, while the boxcars were nondescript brown and black. The Caboose, now that was a deep rich red, as they should, be and was my favourite car of them all. To me, that Christmas will always be remembered for that red caboose.
Of course youd think that at that moment I began to love trains and became a model train enthusiast. Well not exactly. I played with that oval track and those model trains for a good while, but as all thing in childhood, I moved on to, to me, bigger and better thing: my new bike, the pogo stick, girls, and of course cars.
It wasnt until I had my own kids that the memories of that HO train set came flooding back to me. How I would sit there and watch it go round that oval click track! How my father seemed to always be there, sitting and watching my fun! How I felt as I pretended to be the...