Do You Remember

[Anonymous]

Do You Remember . . . your first locomotive?

What railroad name did it carry?

Oval Track?

Was it a Christmas present?

3 Rail?

Do you still have it?

If not, WHY?

Other comments are welcome. Post away. [8D]

[Anonymous]

OK, I will start. [:)]

I remember when I was little I received a steam engine complete with train, transformer, and an oval track. It was 3 rail which even though I was little, I knew was not what the REAL railroads used. I was little and that was more years ago than I would like to admit to. I loved trains even when very young so one Christmas the trainset was under the tree. I can't even tell you what railroad it was, I am not even sure that I could read then. It was a steam engine, I think a switcher, the tender, a few cars and a caboose. I believe the engine quit running or perhaps the transformer went out. I was just too young to know much about it all. Where is it now. I WISH I KNEW. [:(]

[cisco1]

Jim- GOOD idea for a thread. My first was an AHM set with a U.P.MDT switcher, two freight cars and a caboose. Had a circle of 18" radius curves and a power pack , but on the back of the box-an Amazing picture of a layout with all the trimmings! Add to this a catalog showing all the items carried by AHM and you've got the makings of a GREAT starter set (circa 1970). Still have the train though the loco suffered a fall from tabletop height long ago that broke both axles. Ah, memories!

[Anonymous]

I think mine was a Barfmann cheapo F9. I still have it. Or maybe it was a LL cheapo GPsomething I have some of it left :|

[ericsp]

Mine came in a Like-Like trainset I got as a little kid from a large national toy store. It was a second generation Chessie System GP. Almout as soon as I took if out of the box the handrails started falling off, so I returned it.

My first real model locomotive was either an SP Daylight F7A, SP U28C, or UP U28C. I still have all of those, though they need work done on them, which I will get around to doing eventually.

[sparkingbolt]

Tyco F something in a Santa Fe set. Didn't last long, the dept.store replaced it with a Tyco GE freighter of some sort. It was toast pretty quick. then I discovered Athearn in a Hobby shop in '76. Bought a GP35 Lost it in a fire about 8 years ago.

[aloco]

My first loco was a COX SW1500 (same as Athearn's SW7) in Union Pacific colours. I was twelve years old at the time, and after doing some railfanning not far from where I live I decided to buy a train set and do a little railroading of my own. I eventually repainted the loco in CN colours (a horrendous hand-painted job) and I ran and ran that loco until the motor burnt out. And like most kids who break or wear out their toys, I chucked it in the garbage.

All I have left from my first train set is a 50' reefer. Many years later I decided to re-create my first train set by acquiring some used frieght cars that were the same make and paint scheme as the remaining cars in the set, and an Athearn SW7 in UP colours. A few years ago I got fed up with the SW7 stalling on switch frogs, so I replaced it with a Life-Like SW9 in UP colours. Every once in a while I'll dig out the re-creation of my first train set and run it and reminisce about the good old days.

[lupo]

My first trainset 't was 1963, my 9th birthday, and as I have my birthday a few days before christmas these " big " presents mostly were combined b-day / x-mas presents ( never figured out how santa new what parts of the gift were missing ) it was french JOUEF (LIMA ) set, a battery operated oval with a greenish french SNCF locomotive with pantographs, a "wagons lits" sleeper ( with complete and painted interior ! ) a tankcar and a hopper. the locomotive sounded like a grinder and smelled like someone was welding and made TV watching almost impossible because of interference.

later on some Fleischmann locs made the old grinder obsolete.

and I sold all at 17, because at that age other " interests " needed funding.

last year my son found a similar diner at a swap meet, so it is on his roster now, but he still refers to it as "daddy's car".

[fec153]

At age 6or 7, a windup set with a small oval of track. I can still remember where I set it up in the front hall of the apt. where we lived and having to wind up the engine every time it quit running. [:D]. That was 1940 or 41.

Phil

[mikebonellisr]

My first set was a Lionel 027 0-6-0. I still have it,and I'm having it repaired.Then in 1975, I bought my son a train set[HO $19.95 and a box top from a Polaroid film box]... I was re-bitten and having a ball ever since.

[Anonymous]

Christmas 1964, Old Santa gave me my 1st train set, complete with a 4x4 platform with a loop of track and a few buildings built by my Dad. The Engine was a HO rubber band drive Lionel FA, Texas Special scheme. I still have it![:D]

[CP5415]

I don't remember the year, but it was grade 6 & I received a HO scale Model Power CN C640/636? Alco set for Christmas.
The motor died after a few years but I still have the shell somewhere.

Gordon

[cacole]

An American Flyer Royal Blue train set made by A.C.Gilbert in 1946, right after World War II metal rationing ended.

[fiatfan]

My first locomotive was a Ken Kidder 0-4-0 (the same one as shown in the John Allen topic from a few months back). It was unpainted brass.

I bought the engine separately. It was not part of a set and to this day is the only brass locomotive I've ever owned. I was about 15 at the time.

I can't remember how may hours I spent painting and repainting that engine, tryin to find a color that looked right. Also took it apart countless times trying to understand how it worked and trying to get it to run better.

Finally, I wound up throwing it away because I couldn't get it to run very well.

Tom

[Fergmiester]

I think I was 14 when aI got an Athearn Milwaukee Road U30C, At 16 I bought my 1st engine saved up all summer for it. A Rivarossi BigBoy!

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

The first set that I received was a 1976/1776 bicentenial train set. I think that it had a oval of track with one spur siding. The engine was a a GP-7/9 ? You had to install the handrails yourself, black hooks that pushed into the body. I got it for Christmas and I think that it came from J.C. Pennys Christmas catalog.

[Anonymous]

if i am not mistaken, i think i had a "fire Fox" diesel switcher and a few card that matched. It had a circle of track. I'm pretty sure it was a sears special at the time. I was about 5 years old. my first engine as a hobbiest, i believe, was an athearn trainmaster in the pennsylvania rr colors.

[Anonymous]

My first electric loco was a tiny Hornby 0-4-0 steamer - I still have it, after a fashion. It spent many years in the back of a cupboard after the chimney broke off, until I found an advert for a spares supplier listing the bodyshell and ordered one. It's also had a replacement chassis frame and a new axle gear. Everything else is original though and it still runs well. They still offer the same loco today as "Smokey Joe" though mine has an interesting red paint scheme and the name "Robbie Burns"!

[Anonymous]

My first electric train set was a Playmobil G scale train set, like this one.



My set had a yellow boxcar instead of a hopper car, but otherwise it is the same as this one. I was about 4 years old at the time. In later years, my mom has told me that my aunt found it in a toy tore that used to be in a mall in Yorkton, Sask. It was on sale for $70 regular $250 and knowing that I loved trains, she called my mom about it and then bought it. It ran on LGB G scale track. Later on, straight track, a cattle car, a caboose and more little people were added on to it. I still own the set and in recent years have added two passenger cars that I found majorly on sale, as well as little people that I've found at garage sales.

Later on, when I was about 5 or 6, I got a Bachmann HO circle set with a chrome Warbonnet F9, which I also still have.

[Anonymous]

I remember getting my first set for X-mas around 1988 I think. It was a battery operated set that I thought was truly amazing, but it didn't last more then a few weeks.

My first HO set was a Tyco Chattanooga Choo-Choo I got for my 9th b-day in 1992.
It came with an 0-8-0, about 6 cars including the "gravel wheel" boxcar, a billboard with a big black box behind it that produced a steam whistle, and a trestle set.

My dad told me to go to the trunk of the Oldsmobile and get these doll sets he picked up for a friend of mine, her B-day was a couple days after mine. Well I opened up the trunk, and like some weird kid, did indeed look for the dolls even after seeing the train. The dolls weren't there, but I wasn't going to leave that train in the trunk!

Alvie.

[IRONROOSTER]

My first loco must have been an American Flyer when I was 8 months old bought at Christmas. I know this because years later we still had the plywood with the track mounted. The first one I remember was a Fleischmann tank engine that I got when I was 9 - we lived in Germany at the time. I don't know what happen to it.
Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

My first train was a Christmas gift. I was able to put a 4x8 piece of plywood and two wooden horese beside my bed. I only had a couple buildings and the track just ran aound the outer part of the plywood. I was happy as one could be. The engine was a Athearn Lil Hustler and a few cars which included two lionel (ho) cattle cars with animals heads bobbing in the open windows. I do not have these items any longer which I was sad about when my mother gave them away when I was in the Navy. That is one box I wish she would not have found when cleaning the attic.

[rexhea]

Searching through the cob webs, I believe my first train was the Christmas of 1952. It was a Lionel, New York or Illinois Central (I think), about 4 cars, and an oval track. At first I had to connect the track up on the hard wood floors each time I wanted to use it, but Dad finally gave in to buying a piece of plywood a few months later (I think mostly to protect the floors, ha!). I could then store it under my bed in one piece. The following September (Birthday) I got a figure 8 crossing and a train station that had a built it whistle. WoW! Real sound. After a few years of hard service, train derailments, and rail crossing accidents, it was retired to the bone yard.[:(]

I can still smell the ozone created from all the sparking.[:D]

[Anonymous]

Hey Rexhea, as soon as you mentioned the ozone from the sparking, that wonderful smell filled my head!

My first was a 3-rail Lionel steamer ...... a 4-6-4 Hudson #2046. Operating headlight and smoke. Big, heavy thing. Coupled via drawbar with a whistling tender (spinning armature). Sometimes I hear it referred to as a "Santa Fe style" Hudson, other times as a "New York Central style."

I don't think it was a kit, but with it I got a Sunoco tank car, a coach, and a UP box car and caboose.

My Grandfather bought it all new in 1952, and saved it unused until it was given to me in the early 1960's.

You bet I still have it.

Jim

[Anonymous]

If we're talking "real locos" my first one was an Athearn GP60. That loco has been through hell and high water and it's still my smoothest, strongest HO loco. Just about the only part that hasn't been replaced is the underframe, but all the damage is from learning experiences [;)] The body shell taught me that less is more with plastic cement [:p] The motor taught me what happens to a DC motor when you apply AC current...

The loco is currently being repaired and detailed...

I too reminisce when I smell ozone (non modelers must think we're nuts that a burning motor can make us happy) [;)]

[Anonymous]

now that is going back quite a ways.. my dad had been into ho trains before i was around but had gotten out of the hobby due to lack of time. so early early on i played with his D&H pa's and NYC streamline. d hudson (grey). but my first trainset was a lionel O Coke set.. with a Coca Cola SW7 and Fanta, Tab, Pibb cars and a coke caboose. too funny

[rf16a]

My first locomotive was an HO scale AHM 0-8-0 switcher, Indiana Harbor Belt, that arrived as part of an AHM train set under the Christmas tree when I was 3 years old.
I still have that engine. It's a little beat up after 32 years but it still runs!

[Ziggy]

I was 5 years old, Christmas of 1970. Got a big rail work train by Marx, 3 rail 0-27. loop of track. I think it is 2-4-2 Pennsy... with orange box car, brown self dumping log car and green caboose. I still have all the train and original track and transformer and it still runs well, although the center copper wiper under the engine has a groove worn in it... many many miles. Usually put it under the tree around christmas...

[Anonymous]

My first trains were / are actually my father's. He bought most of these trains shortly after his discharge from WWII. They are Lionel O gauge on three rail tracks. He has the Santa Fe with two A units and the B unit along with all of the passanger cars (complete set). We also have a Locomotive with smoke. From what I remember, (haven't seen them in quite some time) she's a 4-6-4, I think. I do remember that she has 671 on the side of the cab. We have various passenger and freight rolling stock, many electric accessories, the old ZW transformer. All of these trains are still in their original Lionel boxes. One of these days, when I get the ca***ogether to fini***hat huge room over the garage, I'd love to make a permanent layout for these old fellas. I only hope that it can come to reality while I still have my Dad with me!!!!

[Anonymous]

Someone said this was a walk down memory lane. I have to agree. [;)]

There have been some interesting replies. It has jogged some memories about smoke and smells.

Anyone else want to . . . walk down memory lane. [:)]