Model Railroading
I started this hobby when I was 22.
Up to that time, I hadn’t been able to afford model trains and I could only be dreaming about them. But as soon as I was able to earn some extra money, I purchased an N-scale US Southern Pacific passenger car by Atlas/Rivarossi, and that started my collection.
The choice for N-scale had been because I understood that it allowed building more complex layouts than H0 on the same space, while still showing enough details to resemble real trains. The choice for Atlas/Rivarossi was because no alternatives were available in my country at that time. The choice for US trains was because they allowed more variety than European trains. And the choice for a Southern Pacific passenger car was because a few days before I had seen the movie “In the Heat of the Night”, and that car reminded me of the train in the background at the end of the movie, when Ray Charles is singing.
Later on, I realized that the true road name in the movie’s train had been different. But all the other reasons still stood, and since then I’ve kept that first car the same way that Uncle Scrooge keeps the first dime in his money bin.
