Stories of your first Toy Train Engine!!!

[Buckeye Riveter]

My first train set was a Marx.  The set is now 53 years old and it works just as good as it did when it was new.

 

 

And of course, my favorite photo with the Marx Train running on Grandma's freezer.

 

 

At age 11, the first Lionel arrived from Western Auto.

 

 

Then we purchased a K-Line and started setting up the trains under the tree.

 

 

Then in 1999, we started planning and building the Baltimore, Ohio and Wabash Railroad.

 

 

The End.

 

 

 

[trainfan504]

 For me it was summer of 1997 and I was turning 7 years old so my mom dad and gradma went to the Hobby shop and that is were I saw my first Lionel Train set. The set contained a Steam Locomotive,flat car,box car and Cabbose.It came with regular Lionel track and a Transformer.we got the set home and set it up and I sat there and ran it for hours and hours my parents said I was falling asleep watching it run and the next day I ran it for Hours and hours again.Form that moment on I knew I was hooked!!!!!

[submmbob]

 I started out w/ an HO Tyco set from the early 70's. Dad and I got into it and we started to set up a decent sized layout, which was interesting as he was in the military and it had to be able to move. I had always admired my brother's hand me down American Flyer set though. In 1979 we came back from Germany and were visiting my grandmother in Maine for the summer. She got out the Lionel 258 set and said I could have it. Once side was fairly corroded as it had got wet or something. On the other end of the summer (and country, in CA) we went to stay at my other grandparents. My grandfather was a train nut and encouraged it in anyone who displayed interest. He had given my brother the American Flyer. He helped my get the 258 running again and clean and repaint it. It was desperately in need of new wheels though. Since the track for the set was gone he gave me an O-gauge set he picked up while in Japan during the occupation after WWII. Must have been one of the first trains produced after the war. This also gave me a train that I could run. Once I got the O-gauge my interest in HO slowly subsided. I managed at one point in my early teens to order a new set of wheels from Madison Hardware in NY (are they still around?), but it wasn't 'til I was in college that I found a repair place that could fix the problem of the wheels slipping on the new axles.

Now fast forward about 20 years. Last year I went to my grandmothers funeral, the same that had originally given me the 258. I had mentioned the train to one of my cousins who has since had children of her own. I was leery of given it to my brother's kids as they had destroyed the old HO set I had given them pretty rapidly and didn't seem that interested anyway. She thought her girls would like it so I told her I would send it along. I was kind of appropriate anyway as the train was bought originally in 1929 by a railroad man for his only daughter. She had passed it on to my dad and his brothers. Seems like we are carrying on the tradition. Taking the 258 out of wraps brought back all kinds of memories. I still have the Japanese set, but I realized it would feel kind on lonely w/o an O-gauge steam engine around. So my first postwar Lionel was a 2026 that I got just a few weeks ago. In my spare time at work (we live on site) I cleaned it up and made a few necessary repairs. Hard to describe the feeling as it rolled up and down the bench fully assembled for the first time. I remember getting nervous for a brief second when I first saw smoke coming out of the engine, and then I laughed and realized it was supposed to do that.

It's funny as I am recapturing memories, but also making new ones at the same time. This was a part of my youth but something I never developed as much as I would have liked. Plus I grew up w/ tinplate that I loved, but never really experienced the fun of post war era trains. I also finally have the space and time to make a home for a permanent layout. It's also amazing to come back to this after the start of the internet. 

P.S. the next special moment will be getting the whistling tender to make some noise, the 258 never did that either!

 

 

[ogauge]

 Bob, sounds like you need some submarine cars and if you have the same history as me, you might like the reactor and all the navy and AEC stuff Lionel has put out over the years...

[submmbob]

 Submarine cars?! I'll have to keep an eye out for those. I had wanted to be a Nuc officer on subs back in my younger days. Somehow I ended up enlisting as a reservist in the Seabees and did 6 1/2 years. But I still have a fascination for submarines. I like the sub/train combination.

Funny that you mention some of those units. I have been looking into both the Navy Yard switcher and the Army switcher. Might have to just get both eventually

As of yet I have no rolling stock other than the few 4 wheel tinplate cars of the old Japanese set, and they have a funny coupler that I've never seen before. The 2026 might be traveling light for a bit. I've told myself I need to sell some of the anitque radios to fund the trains. I've managed to repair and clean a few switches that I recently acquired w/ a bunch of track. I have some parts coming from Brasseur so hopefully I may get to set something up this next time I am back home.

[RockIsland52]

Belated Bob!

Jack

[MikeSanta]

I got my own first engine when I was 4 at Christmas 1957. It was the 627  44-tonner set. I still have it and run it in my rotation. I still have Dad's trains: the 675 and the Lackawanna trainmaster and they get run also.