It's that time of year when we're all flooded with memories of our favorite train sets. What was/is your favorite?
HeftyHauler It's that time of year when we're all flooded with memories of our favorite train sets. What was/is your favorite?
My favorite has to be a set pulled by a Lionel 2018 2-6-4 steam locomotive, I can't tell you what the model or name of the set was, heck, I can't even tell you what year I got it. It seems like it was always there, like the rising of the sun and the setting of the moon. It has to be at least 58 years.
Several years ago I gave the engine with some new cars, track, and transformer to my (then) 10 year old nephew. I'm not sorry I did but dammit, even with all the new stuff I've got I still missed the thing! The E-Unit buzz, the smoke smell, the memories, all that 2-6-4 stood for.
So, when I was offered a REALLY good deal on another 2018 about a year ago I jumped on it! Ah, sweet nostalgia! As a matter of fact it's got me looking for other post-war steamers.
What's that line from the TM video "Lionel Nation"? Oh, yeah: "For all the things the new Lionels have there's one thing they DON'T have, memories. The new ones will just have to make their own."
1959, I was eight years old and received an American Flyer Frontiersman. It was a Truscott set that came with the old time loco, Baggage, combine and passenger car. Additionally it had the cannon car, box car, Trestles, mountain and pass set, a station, a bag of cowboys and indians and a brownie camera. I still have it all except for the figures. Still have the instruction sheet and other promotional materials that came with it.
Lionel set 2572 my father bought it off his lawyer (Dec. 63) but it was my first Lionel set and I sold it around 1987 but since have replaced but now its complete with complete cars not missing anything small parts, but the best part of that set was the 2359 B&M GP-9
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
The only train I received for Christmas as a kid is a 2243P-C locomotive in 1955. I still have it; and it runs as smoothly as ever.
The best train I ever received for Christmas as an adult is also a 2243. My daughter managed to figure out that I wanted a 2243C to complete a 2383P-2243C-2243C-2383T ABBA set and bought me a nice example of exactly the right unit on Ebay, despite knowing nothing about trains.
Bob Nelson
A bit off topic but an article in today's Wall Street Journal by Catherine Petroski touches not only on the Christmas aspect of model trains but also on the Lionel/American Flyer preferences and the youth movement away from model trains. You might enjoy the article. You may have to copy and paste the link to your browser.
Merry Christmas everyone
swede
http://www.wsj.com/articles/catherine-petroski-model-trains-and-mixed-marriages-1419293044
After posting the above message, I copied and posted the link to my browser but when the website opened, I was required to sign/log in. If you are unable to access the article by using the link, see if you can get to it by googleing Catherine's name.
Sorry if you can't access it. I would copy and post the entire article but that may not be appropriate copyright conduct.
Swede
The best? Hmmm. That's tough. Even though there weren't a lot, it's still tough to pin down. Especially since I got my fist train set every year for the "first time" for the first 3 or 4 years of my life! lol My first set was the 3726/19437 scout set from J.C. Penney. As far as I know, it was never boxed it just always magically appeared on a carpet in front of the fireplace.
But now that I think of it, I'd have to say the one that made the most lasting impression was the 6-2317 Automatic Remote Control Drawbridge from 1980. I would have been about 10. My brother and I tried hard, but we never could get that thing to work "as advertised"! lol
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
This Christmas marks 50 years since the first and best ever train. I woke up that morning to a fully assembled American Flyer set on a 4 X 8 table. Long gone now, although I have collected a bit of AF trying to relive the thrill.
Bruce
I would say my first Lionel from Christmas 1976 since that is what got me into trains.
watch?v=icM1OQ1NtVc
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
American Flyer K5 Pacific freight set, complete with automatic crossing gate...I have color photos of that Christmas set under the tree in 1953. This replaced a Marx CV set I wore out. I was a broken young man to learn AF was going out of business years later as every year my family added to that set. A bridge, a tunnel, etc.
A.C Gilbert going out of business!? Impossible!
I suppose it was then I first learned nothing lasted forever.
Certainly, it was a simpler time. Perhaps even a better time and place to be a kid.
For that I remain thankful and always will be. More than a half century later, I am still in the hobby.
Other facets of my life have come and gone, but the trains have, and will remain close by.
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
I don't have one. Got two. The first being the 1949 2025 with green/gray passenger cars. The second being the 1951 NYC F3 freight set.
"IT's GOOD TO BE THE KING",by Mel Brooks
Charter Member- Tardis Train Crew (TTC) - Detroit3railers- Detroit Historical society Glancy Modular trains- Charter member BTTS
I'm with SJ on this one.
My first set was a Marx Tales of Wells Fargo set I got in 1959 or 1960. So I grew up with that set and my fathers 1953 American Flyer Trail Blazer Passenger and Mail Train.
I still have them both and still run them once in a while.
It's a hobby for a lifetime.
Ray
Bayville, NJ
Life is what happens to youWhile you're busy making other plans - John Lennon
It was Christmas 1955 when I wasn't yet 5 years old that Santa left me the 1952 Lionel AA 2031 Rock Island Alcos with the 242X and 243X passenger cars, set up around the tree. Santa must have had them a couple of years until Mrs. Claus felt I was old enough to play with them without electrocuting myself.
They are still running beautifully and look good for their age and nearly 6 decades of running. Somehow one's first train is hard to beat in one's "favorite" arena.
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
I don't even have to think about that one -- it's my Lionel 2026 and its accompanying NYC gondola, two Sunoco 2-dome tank cars and basic SP caboose that Santa brought me at Christmas, 1951. I was three. That set was the beginning of my lifelong interest in model trains.
And in case anyone's wondering, the 2026 set is alive and well, and living in honored retirement on our coffee table.
As heretical as it may seem for this forum, I have to say it was my first N-scale model trainset. As a young child we always had a Flyer set under the tree, but they weren't really my trains, they were dad's trains. Over the years they got old from constant play, parts broke, and then we changed homes and the space available to me for a train layout contracted significantly in size.
So I began looking with envy at certain magazine advertisements for something called Aurora "Postage Stamp" trains. The beginnings of N-scale. I didn't get the Aurora set, but one ChristmasI did get an Atlas N-scale set ; the double FM C-Liner consist. I could not beleive how well detailed the little cars were (ignoring the Rapido style couplers of course.) That was the Christmas that got me back in the hobby in a serious fashion.
I have figured out what is wrong with my brain! On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!
I have three, First set was in 58 Lionel 202 UP set Next was in 60, Marx Tales of Wells Fargo Set like Ray. And the last was in 61. It was not a set it was a 218 ABA engine set. I still have and run them all. The 202 has been rebuilt and few original parts are still there.
Joined 1-21-2011 TCA 13-68614
Kev, From The North Bluff Above Marseilles IL.
A good question to ponder! I only got a Tyco HO set when I was a lad. Probably the best is when I got my dad's 248 engine and passenger cars...
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
Mine would by my first set. An American Flyer All Aboard set I got when I was six years old. I got it several years after Flyer went under. I still have all the parts and panels and run it once in a while.
Christmas 1949.......A Rivarossi 040 "Serie Rossa" engine and four Varney car kits. (HO) Still have the engine. Thanks for asking.
I've got two. The first is the one that started it all - the Texas Special freight set from 1958. I was two years old at the time. Still in running condition. It is currently part of an exhibit in the KATY Depot Museum here in Sedalia, Mo.
The second is the Polar Express set from 2004. This one got me back into the hobby. It has grown into a 6' x 9' portable layout that makes yearly appearances at the local train show and the museum's December kid's program that features the reading of The Polar Express.
Have fun with your trains
If you are talking electric trains, I guess my favorite would have to be the only one ever got as a kid! LOL
Christmas 1976, a Tyco HO bicentennial set...
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