I was never much into trains. Not as a kid. But my older brother had a nice set of Lionel HO scale trains when I was in elementary school.
I do fondly recall enjoying the smell of electricity.
It was a seasonal thing. He'd erect his set in the basement sometime after Thanksgiving and it would stay up through the New Year. Over time it became quite elaborate - tracks were permanently adhere to sheets of plywood - and then the wood track was then placed on saw horses.
As the youngest, it usually was my job to crawl under the set-up and plug the necessary cords into the wall.
I'm not really sure what ever happened to them. My guess is that my mom unloaded them onto him in one of her classic purge-shit-from-the-basement moments.
We my boys came along, there was a brief flirtation with He Who Cannot Be Named, but thankfully that was short lived.
I do, on the other hand, find trains to be incredibly photogenic...
