Your First Train Set

[artyoung]

1952: a Lionel 2025 steamer, NYC gondola, Sunoco 2-dome tanker, Santa Fe animated box car, and SP style caboose. Still got it, still run it, and wish Lionel hadn't destroyed the dies for the 2025/675 engine a couple of years ago-the new scale K-4s can't compare.

[Jim Duda]

...still my favorite and I run it for hours every Christmas...!
(click to enlarge)

[Anonymous]

My first trzain set was a lionel santa fe steamer set. It was around 1977 when it got it. I just had an oval loop. I ran it for a year and then it went to the attic. I moved and never saw that set again.

[Anonymous]

This is my first post but couldn't resist relaying the memories that are still in my head. Around Christmas 1952, my younger brother and I woke up early to see an electric train set up in the living room. I am sure we paid little attention to the rest of our gifts - Santa had know what we wanted. I can remember the steam engine's headlight shinning as it raced around the track when we turned off all the lights and put our faces as close to the track as possible without getting hit.
I don't know the make of the train. It was not as large as my cousin's Lionel but did have three rails. I have always been a modeler, airpalnes, boats, bird carving but since retirement my mind has gone back to the trains. At the moment I don't own any trains but am seriously considering entering the hobby,

[Anonymous]

Hello All: My first set was an inherited gift from my uncle in 1966, It was Texas special A powered & A non-powered complete with a Lehigh Valley hopper, BOSCO orange boxcar, 2 red flatcars,blue gondola with container's & a brown caboose. I Passed it on to my cousin 7 years later, 15 years later it came right back to me. I still have it,complete with the original 4 X 8 board with 1 large oval with 2 switches to the inner oval. It just goes to prove it's not the monetary value it's the life stories that go with it. Kind Regards Steve

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tschmidt

My first train was a Lionel #681 Pennsy Steam Turbine 6-8-6 and tender. It was bought in the early 50's. We have a picture of it around our Christmas tree in our train/family room. That engine, with all it's cars, are sitting on one of the shelves in the room. There's the barrel car, searchlight, GN boxcar, Sunoco tank car, Pennsy caboose, working cattle car, working trailer loader and a few others.

Tom

[ben10ben]

My first was a Bachmann G gauge battery powered Big Hauler(with a remote control) that I got for my first Christmas. I aquired a few more in HO and N after that, and finally a Lionel Seaboard Freight set in 1994.

[Kooljock1]

The LIONEL "Western Gift Pack" set was my first. It has a plastic 2-4-2 with smoke and headlight, 1130T tender, Sheriff & Outlaw car, Bronx Zoo Giraffe car, #1877 flat with fences and horses, and a brown "plain-jane" SP caboose.

I also recieved a Type RX transformer and four straight and eight curved O-31 tracks.

The next year I got the Operating Milk car. That was cool too!

I still run everything I got!

Jon [8D]

[Anonymous]

A Lionel Scout in 1951. I worked on a milk route, for 50 cents a day, and eventually saved up the 12.95 to buy it. I still have it and it's still in good shape.

My second set is the Lionel Southern Diesel Freight set, my kids got me for Christmas in 2003.
They got tired of listen to me whine about never getting a train for Christmas. Now they don't have any problems with what to get him for Christmas. This year it was a 4-6-4 Union Pacific engine.


I know the voices aren't real, but they do have some good ideas.....

Bob

[Anonymous]

My first electric train was a Playmobil G scale set with with a red diesel switcher when I was about 4. Later on, when I was 5 or 6, I got into HO with a Bachmann Santa Fe Warbonnet F9 circle set. The HO empire continued to grow after that. I finally got my first O gauge set when I was 10 years old. It was a boxed Marx 4-wheel plastic set with a 490 0-4-0, NYC tender, NYC gondola car and NYC caboose, plus a Lackawanna 6" tinplate hopper car. I got another boxed Marx 4-wheel plastic set for my 11th birthday and I've been into vintage O gauge ever since.

[Anonymous]

My father had O gauge that he had gotten as a kid--a postwar Texas Special F7 (or F3) and a prewar cast steamer (2-4-2 I think). We loved playing with them until they got banged up and he wouldn't get them out.

The first set I remember getting as a kid was an HO Amtrak set--Bachmann I think. I also have fond memories of a UP SW-9 Athern switcher and a Bachman Golden Eagle GP diesel.

My return to O gauge occured when I pulled my dad's old steamer out of the attic and fixed it up as his Christmas present one year. It was in pretty bad shape, but I managed to find replacements for the leading and trailing trucks and a little cleaning did the trick. He loved running it for his then newly arrived granddaughter who adored it as well. He passed away a year and a half later.

After fixing that engine, I was hooked on O gauge. My first set was either the Hershey's work train by K-line or the Sante Fe Golden State Arrow by Lionel.

[LEEJO114]

My first rain set was an American flyer that ran on "O" gauge three rail track. The engine was an Electric type,a post office car, a passenger car, and an observation car. All were painted a green color similar to a pullman car. The transformer allowed four forward speeds. I got the set in 1928, and still have it. Much of the run time when I was younger was by batteries because much of the farm country didn't have electricity. Now I have "N" and "G" gauge trains.

[sanman0516]

my first set was cannonball express. It was a DC set. i got it a few years a go

[guilfordrr]

The cheapie Safari Adventure starter set from the late 90's.

[krapug1]

1973 Lionel/MPC "Blue Streak Freight", albiet with a non-working Mighty Sound of Steam and Smoke, traded by the dealer (Two Guys) for the 8206 NYC 4-6-4 with better Freight cars and some Xmas Money thrown is. I still have and use the 8206.

Ken

[cnw1995]

An HO Burlington streamlines passenger set by Tyco

[laz 57]

Pennsy flyer set.
laz57

[Anonymous]

Hey Colin,

My first train was some HO equipment, butthats not important. My first O Guage set was a 1970 something Thunderer or Thunderbolt Express. It had an 8500 2-4-0 Steam Locomotive and a Pennsylvainia Sounds of Steam Tender. There was also a yellow Union Pacific Flatcar, a Red Southern Pacific Gondola, a blue Great Northern Hopper, and a Green Penn Central caboose.

I got this for graduating Elementary school after 5th grade. I loved my elementary school, and that was a very depressing summer, so my parents alowed me to buy extra track and stuff and build a termporary layout on the dining room table.

Also, originally, there was an oval of worn and dirty 0-27 Track, and a red Transformer.

This christmas, I recived a Brand New Lionel Riding the Rails "Hobo" Train Set.
Note 2004 was also the last year Lionel Cataloged that item.

Note: If there are any HO scale buffs out there reading this. I am selling all my HO eqipment To buy a Lionel Polar Express train set. Everything runs, includes 2 transformers, lots of track, 2 switches, and 3 locomotives, an Atlantic Coast Line Diner, and a bunch of freight cars. They all have Bachmann E-Z mate couplers, and the dining cars has compatible couplers.
Every thin tabulates to about $400 or up. I might have made a mistake. Will retabulate and post right price later. This is a big lot of trains. If anybody is interested, please e-mail me.

Bert and Mary Poppins aka Nick

[3railguy]

Mine was a Lionel NP 44 tonner set I got in 1963. I destroyed it over the years and eventually replaced in my adult life. Of course I tell people it is the engine I had as a kid.

[Anonymous]

A Lionel 2026 Steam Loco with a NYC gondola, Lehigh Valley Hopper, Sunoco tank car, and a Caboose.

[iguanaman3]

Mine was a 1957 Lionel Missouri Pacific Alco AA freight set. Set up every Christmas for 5 years. It's what hooked me on the Pulmor growl. I still run it today to hear it and smell the ozone.
Neil

[Anonymous]

My first train set was a HO guage Penn line 0-4-0 diesel switcher with a piggyback flat car w/trailer, a box car, cannot remember the road name and a Pennsylvania red caboose. This was a christmas present in 1955. Beleive it or not I still have the switcher, runs great, and the caboose.

Robert N. Bowman
Selah,WA

[Anonymous]

I got the cheapie Texas Special with the 1055 engine and an oval of track. I bought some used 027 straight and made two long straights- one for the 1055 and the other for my brothers steamer. Then I'd have a drag race into a pillow on the other end. John

[tschmidt]

My first train was a Lionel #681 Pennsy Steam Turbine 6-8-6 and tender. It was bought in the early 50's. We have a picture of it around our Christmas tree in our train/family room. That engine, with all it's cars, are sitting on one of the shelves in the room. There's the barrel car, searchlight, GN boxcar, Sunoco tank car, Pennsy caboose, working cattle car, working trailer loader and a few others.

Tom

[Anonymous]

What was the first train set you started with?

My HO one was when I was 4 and It was a Santa Fe one. I forget the name.

My O gauge one was in December and It was the Pennsylvania Flyer.