trainfan1221 wrote:Autobus, The ironic thing now is that some of our original Tyco products might be "Collectible". But it was fun back then. My brother had the Spirit of 76 engine, I still have the shell some place and my Silver Streak I believe, sadly I was ignorant at the time and used some for paint or detail test beds. I guess many of us got a similar start in this hobby, just went on from there.
Autobus,
The ironic thing now is that some of our original Tyco products might be "Collectible". But it was fun back then. My brother had the Spirit of 76 engine, I still have the shell some place and my Silver Streak I believe, sadly I was ignorant at the time and used some for paint or detail test beds.
I guess many of us got a similar start in this hobby, just went on from there.
31 years ago. My parents found a lionel set in the attic and set it up on the floor. I came home from my friends house and they had just finished setting it up and let me run the train. Although they seemed huge at the time, but it was a SW 7 or 1200 ect.. an open hopper, 2 boxcars and a caboose. The set disappeared after that. But then I got my first HO set that Christmas.
I cannot however remember what happened last week.
trainfan1221 wrote:My first was the Tyco Silver Streak, I used to leave it out at night to watch the glow in the dark things on it while in bed. It wasn't much but I had arrived. The rest, of course, is history.
1976 christmas, received a new tyco spirit of 76 set. 6 axel no less. 5 cars ?? 1 caboose. Set it up on the floor. ran it for everyone. Thats when I learned my paternal grandfather worked for a ralroad ( dont remember which road, but ould have been in stl) he was a carpenter which made him awesome to me but when i learned about the RR, he became a God!
thats when tyco was tyco and still made a good product ( for tyco that is) my mom worked at a major discount retailer,since gone out of business (Venture) so we also got a bunch more cars and engines that were returned by customers, and were too expensive to ship back to the vendor, so she got destroy orders (but didnt destroy them) my dad also got interested and bought a bunch of cars and turnouts on fridays. then he would have us set up the track on saturdays and he would watch us run it. he had trouble understanding that we had to many cars and needed more track but when we could run the engine into the caboose he would buy more track.
Sadly, some time later my matrnal grandmother made a snide comment to my dad about finally showing interest and that was the end of that.
then my older half brother sold the set for drug money, mid 1980"s was the last i saw that set. We had about 7 engines and 50 cars, track, turnouts. he got about $20
would love to have that set now, have seen some spirit engines but not in good shape. have the good memories that outweigh the bad, evidentaly so cause im still a model RRer
(when asked why i have a model RR I say its because my wife wont let me have a real RR)
Iwas 11 years old and me and my father set up a little 3X6 layout in the garage. It wasn't much but we had alot fun with it. Still got it today. The train that is.
4x8 are fun too!!! RussellRail
This is some great stuff here, I can feel the excitement reading the posts of everyones experiances, and the video link to the Christmas Train is a must see, and good old Wayne Newton opening with that song brought back a lot of good memories. not about Christmas as I have celebrated my first one this past December because we now have grandkids who are from mixed parents, the father is 1/2 Mexican and Anglo so we wanted to show them both Christmas and the Native celebration of the Winter Gathering, it was great and I will be celebrating Christmas with them every year after this one, to see the excitement in their faces was priceless.
The Wayne Newton song brought back memories of my Mother who liked him and Elvis, she use to have a big heavy Elvis bust that we used to hold open the door, now that was scary to see watching me at night as I tried to fall asleep, I use to throw a blanket over his head
A lot of peoples first experiances were at the Christmas day celebration and that is cool.
I love the one about the Grandfathers scary basement, I can't stop laughing over that image
So many good stories!
Thanks for brightening up my day, they are all wonderful.
My brother had a train set in the basement which, of course, I was not allowed to touch. Not counting a battery operated something I had when really young my first experience running was my friends' HO models, usually thrown together on his picnic table in the backyard before he had a layout. It was enough, though. My first was the Tyco Silver Streak, I used to leave it out at night to watch the glow in the dark things on it while in bed. It wasn't much but I had arrived. The rest, of course, is history.
This was the same friend who one day uttered the fateful words.. "Let's go watch the real trains for a while". I said yes,okay. Life would never be the same again.
Red Horse wrote: Too chatanuga, I tried to access the link you posted and I got a notice saying that the video was no longer available...Bummer, I was looking forward to seeing the stills.
Too chatanuga, I tried to access the link you posted and I got a notice saying that the video was no longer available...Bummer, I was looking forward to seeing the stills.
Got the link (http://youtube.com/watch?v=pOuzDM6EGCw) corrected.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
Tracklayer wrote: It was probably in the late 1960s for me when I was about five years old and had gotten a three rail NYC set for Christmas made by Marx. I recall my dad (rest his soul) setting it all up for me and showing me how to turn the knob on the power pack to make it go forwards and backwards, and telling me not to run it too fast. I've still got the train though it no longer works. I restored it and put it on static display on a shelf in my train room.Tracklayer
It was probably in the late 1960s for me when I was about five years old and had gotten a three rail NYC set for Christmas made by Marx. I recall my dad (rest his soul) setting it all up for me and showing me how to turn the knob on the power pack to make it go forwards and backwards, and telling me not to run it too fast. I've still got the train though it no longer works. I restored it and put it on static display on a shelf in my train room.
Tracklayer
I was 8, I think, and lo! and behold! set up next to the tree was an oval of a 3 rail Marx O27 set!!! It had a 2-4-2 steamer...and a gondola.....and a caboose... and a flat car with "model" plastic cars on it...and a box car.... and a water tower... and a manual switch for a siding...and a bumper for the siding...and telephone poles....and...and...I ran it round and round and round and round...until I was told to go to bed ! Oh My!
And for the following Easter that silly rabbit brought us a Marx Yard Switcher set!!!
Yippee!!! That was how I got started with trains then. Then by age 19, there were other things to do. I got back into the hobby here 2 1/2 years ago after a local auction house featured trains of all types. I didn't see any I liked, but got out my old N scale from my teen years, and decided I wanted the HO I always wanted, so into HO I went...and I'm now running trains round and round and round and round again! Oh My!
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
I'll have to correct the link when I get home. The link is from my front page of my site that I put up in December (since it's a Christmas video), and during the rest of the year, like the rest of my YouTube videos, I have the embedding disabled, which is probably why that's happening. If you're on YouTube, look for the username chatanugadotorg.
lvanhen wrote:... he wouldn't even look at the TV for more than 5 minutes. ...
Geez, I wish all my kids had that "problem"!
(Back to the original subject...)
I don't remember exactly the first time I saw my Lionel train move, but I do remember being the first one awake on Christmas morning of 1959. I walked into the living room and the Christmas tree was all lit up, wrapped presents everywhere, etc., but I especially noticed this one BIG box that had my name on it. I got that sense that this would be Something Special, no ordinary present, and ran into my parents bedroom to wake them up and they kept telling me to "be patient". Fast-forward to later that day: The track was laid on a 4x8 piece of plywood straddling two sawhorses, and it had a flashing crossbuck and a signal mast that would shine either green or red - both of them way oversized, but I didn't care - and that's about all that I ever thought about or talked about for the next 6 months! I would always daydream about that green signal light and look forward to getting back down to the basement.
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
The very first time I saw model trains (beside the departmant store window displays at Christmas) was my late uncle's Lionel layout in the early 60's. I might have been 3 years old.
The layout was in the basement of my grandmother's house, (a scary place itself) and the layout had not been run for several years. That thing scared the bejeezus out of me! Sparks everywhere, noise, smoke, etc.
I went upstairs until it quit!
I got my first trains for Christmas when I was about 4. American Flyer HO 0-6-0, Gilbert diesel switcher, Marx rolling stock, and Atlas track. I really don't remember the first time I ran those, but I played with that layout until about 1970, when I rebuilt it to basically the same 4x8 layout I have today as part of my new layout.
I do remember the first time I fired that layout up, though. There was a real sense of pride when my trains made the first laps on the layout that I had built all by myself at 11 or 12 years old!
Rotor
Jake: How often does the train go by? Elwood: So often you won't even notice ...
These are some wonderful memories, some of you are like the original scale Train operators in the history of model rail roading and I'm humbled to be in your company.
Keep up the good stories folks, I just love reading them as I'm sure others will also.
It is funny that some of you can't recall the details but still remember what kind of train it was, now that says a lot about the attraction that people have to model trains.
If there are any pics of you as a child with your trains PLEASE feel free to post them here.
Thank you all so much for sharing your first time with us.
Respectfully, Jesse Red Horse.
I actually have home movies of my Lionel when I got it for Christmas 1976. There's a couple still images of it in my Christmas video that I made (http://youtube.com/watch?v=pOuzDM6EGCw) a couple years ago. Once I get my laptop working, I'll be able to use the DVD ripper on it to get the video.
As far as my current layout, the first train consisted of a single loco and three auto racks once I got the first of the two mainlines running. Occurred at around 2:30AM. The next day, the second main was finished, and I got two trains running. One derailed on the first trip around. Problem was an over tightened truck. It came off on a curve and stringlined several cars off the track.
It was over 50 years ago ... I was less than five years old; that much I can recall. I have an old black and white photo of me, about then, running my father's Lionel standard gauge engine and cars around the Christmas tree. Where those things went the rest of the year, I don't recall, but not on Dad's standard gauge layout ... I thought it was incredible, but verboten to touch. In the 1980's, I sold all of that standard gauge equipment (plus the Lionel that he eventually bought for me) to make the downpayment on my first house (and then some).
Jim
The first time I ran a train was my friends Hornby 00 Intercity 125 set about 30 years ago and I remember thinking it was so cool and also feeling really jealous. As far as US models go, it was only last March and my first thought was "Wow it's got lights" and for that price too! I haven't looked back since. I only wish I'd started running US, HO trains years ago!
George
My memory doesn't really go back far enough. However, I had my first train set (Lionel O) for Christmas at age 6 months. Doubt I was running it then. My dad, a 50 year Santa Fe engineer and I built an O gauge empire in the attic. My guess is I got to handle the throttle about age 3 or so. I am 72 now, so I have had a lot of throttles in my hand. Our empire included the full scale Lionel Hudson, which still sits on a shelf on the fireplace in the train room. It is extremely hard to reach for obvious reasons. I have had some really wild offers to buy it. I went to HO in the late 50's when I left home and went to college. Never been without a layout since.
Bob
It was more than 50 years ago.
The memory details have long ago been consigned to the shredder of life.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Long long ago, when I was so young I could count my age on the fingers of one hand...
Nope. Can't remember.
Go here for my rail shots! http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=9296
Building the CPR Kootenay division in N scale, blog here: http://kootenaymodelrailway.wordpress.com/
OK, Here is the idea behind this thread,
Some of you may have to think pretty far back but can you recall the very first time you were ready to run your first train.
This can be on your own layout or some one else's BUT you had to be at the controls, this should be very interesting.
I'll open with my story.
It was late in the afternoon on a hot and muggy July day, my two grandsons were over for a few days helping me set down the first tracks so our train could make a complete circle.
Because the boys enjoyed helping out so much (ages 6 & 8) I let them run the train first and after they were done , well actually after I couldn't wait any longer I sat at the controls.
As my HO Santa Fe War Bonnet pulled away and made its way down the track I felt all the past aggravation melt away and I knew that every step was well worth it, and that I was hooked for life.
It was a moment that my Grandsons and I will never forget, and I love the fact that they will remember, that because of their hard work, they were rewarded with the very first run, and oh you should have seen their faces....I did document the moment after they were done with their first train experience with a few snap shots.
I couldn't have planned that day together any better than how it happened, So my first drive was shared with "Bam Bam" and "Too Tall", my Grandsons.
Happy Rails and please share your first time with us so that we may relive the joy of your first run down the tracks through your eyes.