New comer

[Ernest Lafleur]

Hallo train lovers,
My name is Ernest Lafleur en I am 53 years of age, I have been hookd on this hobby sin I was 7 years old. I first did this hobby with my perents, My father did the bench work, layd track and did the wireing, my mother did most of the senery and made most of the buildings alongside the track, and me at 7 years of age did a lot of traindriving and help'd mom and dad wher I could.Sadely enough thay have bouth passed away, Rest ther soules.
I am married now for 33 years and have two childeren, a son whoes 27 and a douther whoe is 25 and thay have bouth given me and my wife two grand childeren,two boys who are 3 and 2 years old.My son has no interest in the hobby but my eldest grandchild dose, he is absolutely crazy about trains, so I have atleast one person who will carry on with my adiction

I have a free lance railroad but my hart lies with the BNSF and UP and my faveriot route is through the Tehachapi mountains withthe tehachapi loop, whitch I have tryed to fit in to my layout. I have a layout in the attic of our home whitch has a space of 6 by 5 meters whitch is about 19 x 16 feet and the benchwork is about the hight of a tabel. For about one year i have changed over to DCC control and have installed decoders in 8 of my 31 loc's, so I still have a wile to go.
Hope to hier from someone soon. regards Ernest Lafleur. la fle046@planet.nl

 

[jim currie]

welcome to the gauge been at this hobby since 1963.great that you and your parents and you had a bonding with the hobby

 

[TrainNut]

My grandmother gave me my first N scale engine and caboose as well and got me hooked when I was 7 years old. Been at it ever since. Here lately, I have joined a club and have found a whole new world operating on a layout of significant size. In October of last year, I visited the San Diego Model Railroad Museum where they were making progress on their Tahachapi loop. I thought you would get a kick out of seeing pictures of their loop in progress. The layout starts out on the first floor of the building and as it progresses, it eventually ends up on the second floor. We followed one train from ground to top and down again. It took 1hr 45 minutes. Quite impressive. Anyways, I ramble... see pics...

 

[Russ Bellinis]

Welcome to the Gauge. You might find some of the pics at this web site interresting www.socalrailfan.com

 

[shaygetz]

Welcome to The Gauge, Ernest

 

[RailRon]

Welcome to the Gauge, Ernest!

It's great to have another member from Europe. :thumb:

Ron

 

[Ernest Lafleur]

Thank you note

Hallo Ron,

Thank you for your respons.
As you can see Ihave had this hobby for a long time and I have learnd a lot in those years but as thy say ,"your never to lod to learn new things" and I realy want to learn a lot more.

regards Erne.:thumb:

 

[RailRon]

Ernest,

just post any question you might have - and you'll see, you will always find someone who can help you along. And all this in a friendly and cooperative atmosphere!

That is why the Gauge is simply the best model railroad forum on the net. :thumb:

Ron

 

[Ernest Lafleur]

Welcome to the Gauge. You might find some of the pics at this web site interresting www.socalrailfan.com

Hi Russ.
Thank you for the link you sent me, I have just had a quick look and there are some realy great photo's to see, It's so great I am going to make a sildshow for my self.
If you konw of any more links of the BNSF,UP,SP, and the NS, please let me know.
Till next time
Erne.:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[Ernest Lafleur]

Hi Jim,
thanks for the welcoming note,
It wasen't just a bonding but more of an absetion, once we started to work on something we would forget the time complety and beat it for two days strait, and then realise that we were getting tired. Even now I still have that problem.
It's just a great hobby, tthere's no dought about it.
PS. sorry if my spelling is wrong, but it has been a long time since I have written something in english.
Regards Erne.

 

[Ernest Lafleur]

Hi TrainNut,
It's a goed way to express the way you think about trains "TrainNut".Here in Holland we say "treingek"and that explains us to the full extent!!!
Thank you for the photo's , if only I had the room to build such a railroad.
I was at a hobby convetion and bought a video of the mahavie sub,( tehachapi route). The salesman was playing the video on his stand and it cought my eye and I said to my son ,"hoe was with me ", "I want that film". I have had it for 6 months and I think that I have seen it about 10 times. I can't get enough of it.
once again thank you for the Photo's. If you have more please shere them with me, my E'mail adress is lafle046@planet.nl
Till next time.
Erne

 

[Ralph]

"treingek"...I like that! Proud to be one.

Glad you could join us Ernest!

Ralph

 

[Glen Haasdyk]

Treingek, I'll have to remember that one. Both my parents emigrated from Holland in the late 50's.

 

[Ernest Lafleur]

Goede morgen Glen,
Or as you say goed Morning
It's now 0800 here in holland, that's why I say goed morning.
I see you have a dutch name,"Haasdyk". Where did your perents live in holland?
I live in the south of holland in the provinc Limburg by the city of Maastricht, if you ask your perents, they will know where that is.
When I was 2,1/2 years old my perents emigrated to western Australia to a place called Perth, Later we moved to the bush to a small town called Katanning,That's about 170 kilometers to the southeast of Perth, and that's where the hobby started.
My father worked on the railroad as fireman on a steam engine and on the holidays I could go with him and klimb all over the steamengine's and get as black as koal, and I loved every minute of it.
Later we moved back to Perth and after 17 Years we returned to Holland.
I am glad I found this forum, at least here I can talk about trains and nobody will think ï'm mad, addicted may be, but not mad.
Glen have a nice day and till next time.
Erne.

 

[Ernest Lafleur]

Thank's Ralph,
I hope to spend a lot of time chating with you all, I have a lot of questions and I still have a lot to learen about the hobby and American rail roading, Please send me as much information as possible
I hope to visit your country one day to see the real thing with my one eye's

Erne.

 

[belg]

Goejen Dag, Erne, tis lang geleden dat ik in het Vlaamse moost schruiven en het is heel moeilijk.
I'll change back to English or else I'll never get this done, I immigrated to the states when I was 9 and have only been back to Belgie 2x since 1970 so you can see why it would be hard. A great group of guys here and I think we are all Treingeks, if I can be of help don't be afraid to ask. Pat

 

[Glen Haasdyk]

My parents moved from Holland while they were in their teens. My Mother came from The Hague and my father came from a smaller town Ede, just a little ways away from Arnhem. I visited Holland in 1992 with my father. it was a real learning experience since I'm also a bit of a History buff. Unfortunetly I don't really speak any Dutch, my parrents used to speak it when they didn't want the kids to know what they were talking about.
This is probably the best forum on the net, if you ask a question here you probably won't have to wait any more than a day before it's answered by someone.

 

[Ernest Lafleur]

Hoi Pat,
Hoe gaat het daar in America,Alles naar wens?
Thank you for your respons, I have been on the guage for two days and I realy feel at home, The responses are great, thanks to you all.:thumb:
Yes Pat I know wat you mean with writing in an other language, even thou I learnd it in school, it has been about 30 jears since I have had to write so much in englisch,but it gets better as I go along. Sorry if something isn't spelt right, I have a dictionary next to me for if the going gets tough.
Pat have a nice day and till next time.
Erne.
train97

 

[Ernest Lafleur]

Hi Glen,
My perents did the same but after a while I could understand them but thay didn't know, until one day I gave them an answer to wat thay were talking about, then thay asked how long I could anderstand them,I said "that was for me to know and for them to findout" after that thay waited till I was out of the room.
The best forum or not , you guy's are great. Thank's for the responce.
Erne

 

[Ernest Lafleur]

Hi Guy's
A question:- How do I get a logo under my name in the left magin?I have klickt on insert image, but what do thay mean with "enter your URL???????:curse:
Erne