I received a Lionel train set from a family freind when I was 1 year old and my father mounted it on a peice of plywood and then forbid anyone from using it unless he was around (due to his job, not often) and in the mood (also not often), which meant that if I wanted to watch trains, it had to be the real thing.
I started walking before I was 2 years old and, as Cranbrook (My home town) was/is a sub division point on the Canadian Pacific's Kootenay Division, I would give my mother (May her soul rest in peace) a major case of the fits every time I decided to "go for a walk".
My dad finaly relented, and when I became 10, he allowed me to operate the Lionel set and over the next few years, we added a few more peices of rolling stock and track.
When I was 13 years old, I received a Tri ang/Hornby set for christmas and over the next 3 years I added to it and even built a 4x8 layout.
In 1972 (I was 16), my dad bought a mobile home (the first house we ever owned) and my layout became too large for my space so I decided to trade it with a freind, who had started in the hobby a couple of years earlier with something called "N Scale".
I spent a year trying to persue the hobby, however, something (Girls) else (Ladies) was grabbing (Females) my attention and I dropped out in late 1973 and sold off my model railroad.
After school, I joined the navy and in 1979 I bought an N Scale starter set, some extra track, a few how-to books and some extra rolling stock and have never looked back (well there was that 3 year period when the Horribly Oversize crowd attempted to seduce me over to the "Dark Side"), and, all told, I have about 29 years in this great hobby.
At age 45 (almost 46) I guess I qualify as an old duck "Quack".
Happy modeling.
Cheers.
Terry