If you grew up in the 1950s, 60s, or 70s, there’s a good chance you might have had toy train set. Model trains were a popular item back in the day and still are for many collectors.
A garage sale find got Ron Davis back into the hobby that he had once enjoyed as a kid.
“A guy was selling his whole collection of HO stuff off for $500-- boxes and boxes of it, so I went out there and bought it and drug it home and it caught again. The fever,” Ron says.
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Davis, who has an RV repair business, says he’s always been good at fixing things and was soon putting his skills to working getting old trains, some of them over 70 years old, up and running again.
“So, I started fixing them and working on them and I realized this might make an interesting thing to make YouTube videos about,” he says.
And that’s how his YouTube Channel class “Classic Model Trains” was born. From his small studio in Lockwood, he produces videos explaining the history of many old trains and how to get them running again.
“There are some videos where I have had some very badly neglected trains, so I will go into them blindly, strip them apart, clean them, reassemble them and show guys what I’m doing and I’m kind of learning with everybody else as we are doing them,” he says.
Davis interjects some humor into his videos as well as some slick production skills.
While the hobby of model railroading may not be as popular as it once was, Davis seems to have found a niche.
“Classic Model Trains” has more than 16,000 followers on YouTube and he regularly hears from other enthusiasts all around the world.
“Guys in Australia and guys in Germany, in France, UK you know. They communicate; they'll leave messages on the video. And to get to know them all around the world, it's really interesting,” he says.
Proof that there’s still a lot of interest in these old trains and bringing them back from the dead.
“It’s just so much fun to bring them back to life and get them going again—that and the people that I get to meet and talk to who are also enjoying this hobby,” Ron says.
Click here to check out Ron’s channel “Classic Model Trains” on YouTube.
