What got you started with toy trains?

[Anonymous]

At first the question seems an obvious one. But I got to thinking about what made me so "into" toy trains. I was born and raised in Chicago in 1962 and we always rode the "IC" and "L." Was it that? Or was it the "Choo Choo Charlie" commericials for Good "N" Plenty (sp?) candy. I ate so much of that stuff that I had a light blue Choo Choo Charlie sweat shirt from sending in empty boxes.

Maybe it was my older brother's Marx Happi-Time train set from Sears with the 333 engine and Pacemaker Boxcar? I still have the set today with the mouse-eaten box and all. I played with it much more than he ever did and so it became mine. Yes, that's correct. I never owned a train set that was purchased for me in my childhood.

It may be the trip we took in 1967 from Chicago to California on the Santa Fe Super Chief. I was 4 almost 5 and so I was too young to really remember the trip all that well, but from what my family tells me, I was extremely taken with the train and didn't want to get off in CA.

Could be all those things together? Maybe. But I have to say that it was the time I spent with my Mom setting up the Marx Happi-Time set that remained the draw to this day. Indeed, whenever I see my Lionel Super Chief or Marx 333, it makes me feel young again and think about all the great times I spent with my Mom and family.

What's your story? After all, THIS is why we're here--exercise your free speech this way!

[Anonymous]

I got started with toy trains in 1950 when, for Christmas, my dad bought me a Lionel O-27 set. All the kids in our Queens, NY neighborhood also had Lionel Trains and it was great fun to visit each other's layouts during Christmas time.

Dad added a few pieces to the set at each Christmas, and around 1958 we became interested in HO. We then put away the Lionel in favor of Fleischman and other HO makers.

My parents moved when I was in the Navy and when I was discharged in 1964, I asked my parents: "What happened to my Lionel Trains,?" They told me that they gave them to a kid down the block!

I got married in 1965 and began collecting and operating 3-rail O-gauge electric trains. Luckily my wife shared the joys of my hobby with me and still does after 39 years!

Bill
www.modeltrainjournal.com

[Anonymous]

I have a feeling that I was born loving trains (the 1:1 scale ones). When I was about four or five my dad bought me a Union Pacific freight set from Lionel for Christmas. I still have the entire set, and that Lionel steamer seems indestructable--except that the glass marker lights have fallen out. I still have all the tubular track, but it sure is dirty!

I volunteer at a railroad musem which hosts A Day Out With Thomas once a year. Seeing all the young kids there makes me wonder about how many will continue on the long road to becoming obsessed railfans/model railroaders. It also makes me wonder if the parents know that in ten years they may not be buying Thomas videos but instead brass models of an NYC L-2a.

See you around the forums,
Daniel

[Jim Duda]

The 1948 Sears Christmas catalog...I would go to sleep looking at the MarX 333 freight set that used O34 curves with the 5 ties. Santa came through and that Christmas is still very special to me...I still have it and run it every Christmas!

post script: We lived across the alley from my friend Jimmy Boston whose grampa, Charlie, was one of the first graduates from B.J. Palmer's Chriopractic College in Davenport, Iowa. Unlike us, they had the financial resources to afford a big LIONEL layout. Even so, I was thrilled when I got my MarX. It wouldn't be until 50 years later that I got my first Lionel...a 675 w/2466WX tender off e-bay. Still don't have a lot of trains, but I still love my MarX, and that 675 is the only Lionel I own. Both of them take top billing every Christmas...and it will be that way until I cash in...

JD

[cnw1995]

I don't know what it was. My dad had some prewar Lionel which we never really saw. My brothers and I had a HO figure 8 on the ping-pong table when we were younger, but we had to give it up when my sister was born and we needed the room. I forgot about trains for a long time. Then I discovered MR mag in our local public library in 2000 and was hooked. Read five years of back issues, and bought myself an N scale train set. Eventually I had a 3 x 5 ft. layout on folding legs I would slide behind the couch when not using it. It gradually dawned on me that the N scale was too small and fiddly for my ten thumbs. I bought myself a Ballyhoo set for this past Xmas and I was hooked. Now I subscribe to CTT and OGR. I remembered my dad's old trains. He'd had them all refurbished at Madison Hardware in the early 80s. Here I am trying to put together a layout. See some of it at http://condor.depaul.edu/~dmurphy/pictures.htm

[Anonymous]

We bought a Lionel starter set for my son a few years back and now we ahve a 4 X 8 layout in the gargage, which we built together. I got hooked along the way.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cnw1995

I don't know what it was. My dad had some prewar Lionel which we never really saw. My brothers and I had a HO figure 8 on the ping-pong table when we were younger, but we had to give it up when my sister was born and we needed the room. I forgot about trains for a long time. Then I discovered MR mag in our local public library in 2000 and was hooked. Read five years of back issues, and bought myself an N scale train set. Eventually I had a 3 x 5 ft. layout on folding legs I would slide behind the couch when not using it. It gradually dawned on me that the N scale was too small and fiddly for my ten thumbs. I bought myself a Ballyhoo set for this past Xmas and I was hooked. Now I subscribe to CTT and OGR. I remembered my dad's old trains. He'd had them all refurbished at Madison Hardware in the early 80s. Here I am trying to put together a layout. See some of it at http://condor.depaul.edu/~dmurphy/pictures.htm

Doug, I sent you an email about the sidings I see in the photos you linked.

[Anonymous]

I grew up with my Grandfather's standard gauge oval around the Christmas Tree. It was a 38 with some passenger and freight cars, most of which my Father had painted when he was a little kid. The train was alwasy put up around the tree until I moved out after I got out of college, after that it sat in its big wooden storage box in the attic. Well a decade later I settled down and then had a couple kids. I thought it would be cool to get the old train out again at Christmas so I did. Well for a couple years I would get it out and then remember that a couple pieces of the track were damaged and the train would derail, so each year I would go to the local Lionel shop and ask if they had any standard track and they would say no its not made anymore, but sometimes we get used stuff. This went on for a couple years and then a couple things happened. The first was the opportunity to buy my parents house since they were moving into a smaller one, the house I owned was a very small house, for a family of 4 on a busy street, my parents house was alot bigger and on a nice dead end street, it was a no brainer. So we moved in and that is when the second thing happened. I knew about ebay but had never gone to its site. Well after the first Christmas in the new house and my annual pilgramage to the train store looking for track which failed again, I was surfing around one day and decided to check out ebay. Imagine my surprise at seeing a ton of standard track and everything else. Keep in mind my only exposure to trains to this point was a simple oval. Well I was bitten, I bought enough track to go around the house 20 times!! I also promptly took over the whole basement, my Wife didn't realize the potential(to her detriment I might add) That was pretty much the jump start that got me going. I started with standard gauge but realized soon after that o was the one that had all the goodies like operating accessories and command control. I still have a standard loop on the layout but my main focus is o now. Maybe some other time I'll relate my early experiences in o. There were some hard lessons learned.

[Anonymous]

Well, my love of toy trains comes from my love of real trains. I think that I was a railfan in the womb! My parents tell me that I was obsessed with trains for as long as they could remember. When I was very little, they would always have to take me out driving to go look for trains. I was too young to remember it now, but from what I hear, they must have used up an awful lot of gas on those early railfanning expeditions! When I was little, I did have some kid's toy trains, but that wasn't enough for me. I would love to spend my time lining everything (literally everything!) up all over the house to make trains. There are pictures of very long trains I made from shoes, boxes, stuffed animals and other things that went all over the house. In fact, one Christmas I didn't want to open any of the presents, but rather line them all up to make a train!

My first real train came when I was about 4 years old. It was a Playmobil G scale circle set with a diesel switcher, gondola car and boxcar that my aunt had found on sale at a toy store and told my mom about. I loved that set! Very soon after, more track, a cattle car, a caboose and other accessories were added on. I actually found two Playmobil passenger cars just a few years ago for only $10 each at a toy store that was closing out and bought them.

Later on, I got an HO train set. It was a Bachmann circle set with a Santa Fe Warbonnet F7. My HO collection grew very rapidly and I soon had a large variety of engines and cars. Before my dad built my first layout in grade 2, I had a piece of plywood with astro turf on it that I would set up my trains on.

However, there was still I train that I didn't have and really needed-a Lionel train! My uncle on my mom's side had a Lionel Scout set when he was a kid and there is an old black and white photo showing him with my mom and her twin sister running it. From the first time I saw that picture, I wanted that train! Unfortunately, my grandpa had sold the train many, many years ago. At that time, I had been told that Lionel trains and three-rail track were a thing of the past and something that is a rare antique now. When I was mabye 3 years old my parents ended up taking me to an antique store and there was a Lionel (although it could have been Marx or AF) set. I was quite young and the train was very expensive, so my parents didn't buy it and I cried and screamed and made a really big fuss.

But finally my wish woud come true. In the city of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, they have an annual "Farm Toy and Collectable Show". When I was 10 years old, my parents took me to it. I met Bill Dixon, a collector of vintage toys who is still a very good friend of mine today. He had a Marx 4-wheel plastic set consisting of a 490, NYC tender, NYC gondola, NYC caboose and a DL&W 6" hopper car added on. It was in the box and there was also a whole pile of extra O27 track with it. I got the train and was thrilled with it. I had never heard of Marx before this. My next O27 set was another Marx 4-wheel plastic set that I got for my 11th birthday.

I did eventually get my first Lionel set that year. It had a 600 M-K-T NW-2 switcher with the grey base and yellow handrails. Then for my 12th birthday I got a Lionel set with a Rio Grande Alco.

My collection has kept growing ever since at an ever-increasing rate and I've learned a great deal since I got that first Marx set!

[daan]

I was raised in switserland for the first 9 years of my life. At the other side of the valley where our house was there was a very huge stone arc bridge and every sunday a steam express crossed the bridge. That fascinated me. Later when we had moved to Holland, I started to model the swiss mountains in h0, 'till we found a very old gauge 0 Bing lokomotive on the attic at my grandmothers. I still have that one. Since then I started collecting gauge 0. I have 5 locomotives made by JEP and Bing, and also made a layout in my room when I was young.
In the mean time I moved to my own place and started with a h0 dutch layout, but it bored me within the building already. I switched to gauge N,'till I found the F3's for sale at the internet from someone in Germany..
Now, since a few months, I started to clean the attic and build a quick layout on the floor to get the huge machines to work. It's getting addictive..

[4kitties]

When I was 1 year old and living in South Bend, Indiana, my family moved to a neighborhood with a 2-track GTW spur behind our house. They used to switch local industries in the wee hours of the night, and I often got up to watch. My mother used to tell how I ran to her all excited one day (I don't know how old I was, maybe 2 or 3) and saying, "There's a train that runs right down our alley!" I received my first train set, a Lionel Scout set that I still have and run, when I was 5.

[FJ and G]

In the early 60s; people were actually throwing out their Lionel sets, believe it or not. I scavanged mine; I can't recall exactly where, but it might have been in some garbage can in the Bronx. We used to pull the metal lids off the cans and fight other kids with sticks or bricks, using the lid as a sort of Roman shield. I may have spotted the set in there; perhaps among the rats.

Dave Vergun

[Anonymous]

I, like most young boys got into trains when my parents bought me a Lionel starter set. I then got into HO too and when I hit my teens, got out of it all together! I got married in my early 30's and started thinking about trains again, so I built a beautiful 4x10 HO layout and at that time, "hated" the thought of toy trains! We went to a Christmas show that featured lots of trains both HO and O scale. I was somewhat intrigued by the nastalgia of the toy trains and entered a contest to win a Lionel train set. One day I was at work and my wife called me up and said "guess what" you won the train set. Went and picked it up, it was a Pennsy Flyer starter set and fell in love with O scale!!Still having (and liking the HO layout) I built a large "toy" train layout and the rest is history! I like the HO layout for prototypical switching etc. but I still favor the O scale!!

[Dave Farquhar]

My dad had a Lionel setup growing up. From what I can tell, he started off with a Scout set with an 1110 locomotive, I'm guessing its vitnage at about 1949, and then at some point either got another set or some other postwar stuff, because he also had a 2026 and 2037 locomotive and some rolling stock with operating knuckle couplers. He also had a set of Marx switches and a mixture of Lionel and Marx track.

The track sat on pieces of plywood in the garage for most of my childhood. I asked him what it was and he said it was for his train. I visited some distant cousin and he had either a Lionel or Flyer in his basement, accessorized with Plasticville and tons of Matchbox cars. That only made me want to see Dad's train all the more. Finally, when I was about 12, I got Dad to get out his old trains. We set them up on the floor in the basement. The Marx switches didn't work, and the 2037 was completely dead and the 2026 and 1110 didn't work well. After a lot of fooling around we got them working. We moved a couple more times but eventually the trains would come back out, until about 10 years ago when Dad died suddenly.

The trains went back in the boxes and sat, first in my mom's basement, and then after I got my first house, the trains were among the mass of boxes my mom had hauled over to my house and I put in my basement. This past Christmas, I remembered the train and wondered what a Lionel going around my tree would look like. It was all in terrible, terrible shape but I got it working. There's a small Lionel dealer a few miles from where I live, so I stopped in a few days later seeking some rolling stock and advice on getting the 2037 and 2026 working. I've been pretty much hooked ever since. The circle around the Christmas tree has grown into a layout made on two 4x8s in my basement. I buy junkers on eBay and fix them up, and I've scratchbuilt some of my own buildings and rolling stock.

Part of it is a fascination with trains, but I think it goes a lot deeper than that. I like stuff that's older than me, period, and Dad's Lionels qualify. It gives me a connection with my Dad, because most of it was his stuff in the first place. And it gives me a creative outlet.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Take a good look at the photo below of me with my first Marx trainset over 50 years ago. This is where it all started. I still have the engine and the handcar pictured in the photo. The tender busted early in the game and I have since replaced it. The engine and the handcar both work



In the early 60's I received my first Lionel for Christmas. It was a Western Auto Special set. What a surprise to find out some 40 years later that one of those un-cataloged cars was worth over $150. I bet the whole set didn't sell much over $30.00

[Anonymous]

I, too, started with my own first Marx set. It was/is a windup. Still have it.
Two years later I got a Lionel SW1 switcher and freight set. Still have it.
Always had trains around the house as my Dad had prewar stuff that
was passed to him by his Dad. He also had an Uncle who had a large
prewar layout (I remember seeing it when I was young.) and he, too,
gave some of it to my Dad as well as my Dad's brother. We always had
trains at Christmas. I still do today.

I also was exposed to the real thing growing up as my Dad and I used
to go see many real railroads operate (B&O, PRR,Washington Terminal
Company, etc.) My Dad also worked for Capitol Transit/DC Transit when
they still had streetcars (He was a civil engineer on staff, in charge of
right-of-way & structures.) and thus had a system-side pass. Got to ride
most of the system that existed until they quit in 1962.

Many good memories of Christmas,and the new layouts that Dad would
design and build each year. Again, I continue this tradition today as does
other members of my family. Back then trains were things that involved
the entire family. I still have and use scenery that was constructed by my
Mom, the original train table built by my Dad was incorporated into my new
train tables at my house, street lights and houses from my GrandDad and
Great Uncle are on my layout along with locos and rolling stock. Truly a
family enterprise.

[Anonymous]

I got started when I was about 5 years old, and my father bought me an Athearn Little Husler HO set (rubber band driven). Stayed in HO all these years, until about 4 years ago I got the ebay bug and started to purchase large amounts of Lionel. I now have lots of Lionel (over 50 engines), all my original HO, and now some N scale to see what the little stuff is like. My older brother had a Lionel 2328 Burlington GP-7 back in the late 50's, early 60's, but I sold all of his Lionel to expand my HO empire[}:)][:0][xx(]

[Anonymous]

i got started when my grandfather began building a 500'+ layout when i was 8 yrs, old and he was getting too old to be climbing under and over the table to wire and troubleshoot all that track, almost 30 switches, 20 or more powered lionel accessories, and loads of light post and other lighted thingys. it was SOOO COOL as an 8yr. old kid to get to solder and cut and assemble, fix, break and "play" with electricity and everything!! i went to York with him a few times and never felt like i had enough time to see everything i wanted to. ( i haven't been to York for over 24 years) i loved it! i loved him! and i've inherited his trains and table. i had a 4x8' layout for a few years with a few lionel MPC era trains but getting ready to run all his old postwar war stuff is exciting for me.

i also have 2 nephews and 2 daughters that i'm looking forward to "playing trains" with.
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