The Other Kids' Trains

[Anonymous]

The "What was your first train set?" topic inspired me to create this one. Since we've been thinking back to our childhood days with that one, how about this? What kind of trains did your friends or neighborhood kids have back then? Was there some lucky kid in town who had an enormous layout that you were jealous of? The majority of us on here grew up in the postwar era when practically every kid had a train set of some kind.

As for me, I grew up in the 90's when trains had sadly lost the popularity they once had with kids. I can think of only two friends of mine who had trains of any kind. One had a Bachmann HO CN circle set (which I believe was technically his brother's). There was an IHC four-door Milwaukee Road cattle car added on, which I thought was really cool and wanted to have (actually, I still would like one). I can also remember being at another friend's house and seeing that he had one of those Tyco turbo trains (not set up, but stashed away in the box) and also the plastic track from a battery operated train set hanging on a wall. Later, that same friend gave me the tender and two passenger cars from that set (who knows what ever became of the track I saw and the engine).

I'm sure you guys have better stories to tell, so let's hear them. I love these nostalgic reminicences!

[Dave Farquhar]

I grew up in the '80s and '90s and my experience is similar. I remember being at someone's house when I was really young (I don't even remember whose) and they had a small layout in the basement, either a Lionel or Flyer. The main thing I remember was lots of Matchbox-type cars in a town with a moving train. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. So when I found out Dad had a Lionel in the garage, I pestered him for years to set it up. He finally did, and we had a lot of fun with it. Living at the time in the middle of nowhere in Missouri, I didn't know anyone else who had a train layout of any kind. It just wasn't what the cool kids did. (Continuing school much past the 8th grade wasn't something a lot of the cool kids did either though, so I guess it's a good thing I wasn't cool.)

In high school I had a friend whose father had a small postwar Lionel collection but no layout. It was all in original boxes on a shelf.

Another friend had a good-sized HO layout. Someday I'll help him rebuild it.

[Big_Boy_4005]

Hi Mitch. When I was a kid growing up in the 60's, nobody I knew had trains. Lionel had passed it's prime. My first set was Marx with plastic knuckle couplers. Eventually I got a couple of Lionel cars and found out they didn't match up with Marx, so it was good bye Marx.

Some friends gave me a Lionel set from the late 40's, but it didn't work very well. The people across the street had a son who had lost interest in his set, which included a Burlington GP. I adopted it, and consider it my first real engine.

From the other kids perspective, I was that kid with all the trains.

[Buckeye Riveter]

I remember one kid having a layout in his basement. He couldn't run it if his dad was not at home, so I did not see it run. The layout that really caught my eye was the one at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago during a fifth grade field trip. [8D]

[tschmidt]

Nobody really had a big layout but my uncle had a cool crane car and I thought that was so neat. I was pretty lucky that my parents would buy a new car for my train every Christmas.

Tom S

[1688torpedo]

Hello Mitch! When I was a kid in the 70's, My Friend across the street from me Found a Lionel Passenger set consisting of a 249E with the 600 series red passenger cars with the master carton & individual boxes for the Engine,Tender, & all Three passenger cars in his Uncle George's attic. The set was like new and I always thought of him as one very lucky kid, However. he did not take very good care of the Train. And as a result,after a few years the boxes were Tatterd beyond repair,The train was put in a different box along with the Track ! As you can imagine The Engine and Passenger cars got all scratched up as a result. I told my friend " You had better not let your Uncle see that Train in the condition it is in now, It looks beat up " He did not seem to be concerned about it and still has it to this day. BTW - That 249E is one of the Smoothest running engines of all time. It ran great in its day.

[dk99358]

The 'other kid' was actually a friend of my fathers. Every Christmas, he set up a huge layout that was 5 layers high with trains running everywhere and loads of accessories.
His kids weren't allowed to run it unless he was there.

This was in the mid '60s when I was about 5. I got my own set in 1968 and my sister got one in the early seventies.

Dale

[tcripe]

Every (late 1950's) Christmas my friend's dad set up a huge 8' by 8' Christmas layout featuring 2 circles of 072 track with Christmas tree in the middle. Since this was on a raised platform in front of their front picture window, I could look at it from across the street. Headlights, and lights from accessories and passenger cars winked and blinked in enticing fashion. When I was finally invited to see this wonder - Wow! A steam engine pulled a wrecker train, a Santa Fe AA pulling an aluminum passenger set and the twin motor Virginian hauling a long freight consist, and the Lionel trolley zipped back and forth between two lighted bumpers. All of this was powered by the mighty ZW. When I returned home, my 3' by 6' Lionel Scout figure eight layout never looked the same. I took some comfort in that I had several accessories that he didn't - the section gang car, oil derrick, and highway flasher. I still think of that layout !
- Terry

[Anonymous]

I grew-up in the 50's (born in 1942). None of my freinds had a "real" layout, but most had trains. My best freind had AF, and I liked it because it had passenger cars. Another had a Lionel switcher loco, and I liked it because the tender had a light. Guess "the grass is always greener....". Joe

[csxt30]

Growing up in the 50s' also, my best friend had an American Flyer & I remember wanting to play with it more than him ! It was on a board on saw horses & he still has it all. I had a couple Lionels in freight, but another friend had a passenger train & all I remember is it was silver and how badly I wish I could get one ! Thanks, John

[pbjwilson]

In my youth slot cars were all the rage. Most of my friends had some sort of race track set up in there basements. We would spend hours tearing apart, cleaning, and racing our H.O. slot cars. Really great smell associated with those cars too.

I do recall when I was a kid seeing my family doctors train layout. He had an office in his house and he showed me his train layout on a not to pleasant visit.. It was a Marklin setup with multiple trains running fully automated. He just turned it on and the trains sped around , stopped at stations, nearly hitting at crossings and switches. Really cool.

[Anonymous]

All of my friends from my growing-up days had American Flyer. I was the only kid in the neighborhood or surrounding area with a Lionel layout. My layout, the tables of which were custom-made by the folks who owned and operated a local hobby shop (Amer's Hobby Shop, in Youngstown, Ohio), was by far the largest layout in the neighborhood, and could easily operate several trains simultaneously.

My friends would often come over to "play trains" at my home, and I would just as often go to their homes to play trains there. We used to engage in good-natured debates concerning the relative merits of Lionel or American Flyer (FAR more good natured than the on-line brand wars debates of today), but we thoroughly enjoyed the trains regardless of whether they were three-rail O gauge or two-rail S gauge.

One of my boyhood friends later became my brother-in-law. He still has most of his original Flyer stuff, but he's a big time Large Scale enthusiast these days (as am I).

[Jumijo]

I didn't have any peers that had toy trains as a child. I'm not even sure how I got interested in them. I remember a few HO sets I got for Christmas back in the late 60's, but they never did much for me. I finally got a Lionel set in the early 70's, and my brothers and I had a great time with it. Wish I still had it.

Part of the reason (a large part) I'm back into O gauge now is my children. I want them to know wholesome fun. The kind that comes from using their imagination to build and operate a layout, run the trains, and to enjoy each other's company in the process. I honestly don't think they can get that from endless hours of television or video games. My dad was never around when I was a kid. I don't really have any memories of time spent with him. That's not going to happen to my kids, and toy trains are one way I intend to make that so. My daughter is five, and she loves to help me build and paint structures. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to do things like that together. As my 2 boys get older, they will also chip in, if they so choose. And who knows, when their friends come over and see our layout, it might bring another family into the hobby

Jim

[lynbrookyankee]

Growing up in apartments in NYC none of my friends or I had permanent layouts - traditional Christmas floor layouts. Since my father enjoyed the trains as much as me my "layout" kept growing until it occupied the whole living room floor (2 trains, 2 switches, trestles, bridge, accessories). My mother let me keep the layout up for a month!!! I still dont know how she managed to vacuum and clean up (although I do remember derailments due to people or our dog tripping on tracks). Since I had the biggest layout all my friends wanted to come to my house to "play trains." I remember that most of them had Lionel like me and would often bring their engines over to run. I remember trying to convince 1 friend to leave his Santa Fe F3 with me since he had another one at home - I never knew that it was a dummy unit. Like typical kids we always admired the other guy's trains & wished we had them too. Lionel was definitely the preferred product. Recently I saw a cousin and he reminded me that he had American Flyer & that we used to discuss whose were better but always enjoyed running either set.

[Tom1947]

Three of us had trains in our neighborhood. Dale had lienol nice layout in the basement I think a 5 X 9 with lots of accesorys. George had a HO layout in his basment which his father and uncle built. His father was a salesman for various hobby supply houses and sold Flyer, Lionel, and HO trains along with models ect. I had American Flyer a 5 X 9 layout in the basement. The one thing that I do remember is that our brothers never bothered the layouts. The layouts were up all year which was nice and got a lot of use from the three of us. I do not remember any arguments over 3 rail virses 2 rail. Christmas was always the best time as we all had new accesorys or cars to run.