What was your first train ?...

[Anonymous]

A browser docksider.

[Anonymous]

Mine was a John A. English Alco (FA) diesel freight (HO). The casting was heavy (white metal) but decent for 1950. I can't say the same for the drive, however. There was a neoprene tube that spanned from the front (powered) truck to the rear truck. To my shock-horror, when I first throttled the thing up, it did a 90 degree belly flop off the rails. The "tube" buckled from too much slack and torqued that heavy casting on its side. The brass gears in the white metal gear boxes never did "break-in" for smooth running. Big disappointment! Due to the Korean War, we could only buy steel flex track which was a lousy conductor so my first taste of HO was nearly my last.

[ARTHILL]

Lional circle track. My first HO was an Engish Yardbird. I'm looking to find another one now.

[Anonymous]

My father had a low-end Lionel set, but MY first train was the Mantua General 4-4-0 with the Western & Atlantic combine and coahes (2) and the four "old-time" freight cars. Christmas, 1957. I still have it and it still runs, though not particularly well. I wish I had ordered a replacement motor for it before Mantua exited the business.

[trainboyH16-44]

I'm only 15, so I missed the Lionel wagon (Or train)
I got some sort of ALCo diesel from my dad, a high hood in the later RSD series. The first train my dad got new was an athearn SD40-2 in CP colours, and the first loco I bought myself was a Kato SD90/43MAC in CP.
Trainboy

[AtlasGP9]

My brother had an American Flyer Atlantic loco, a box car, I think a Gondola and a Caboose. Don't remember it well, though I think he still has the pieces somewhere.
My first train was a Tri-Ang HO/OO "North American Series" passenger set. A close approximation of an FP7 and a couple of streamline cars. Not horribly prototypical, but it got me hooked. I don't know what happened to it-- I moved into the Tri-Ang British prototype stuff after that. Still have a few pieces of that kicking around, but I gave most of that away when I switched over to Canadian National prototype.
Checking the Tri-Ang collectors web site and wishing I hadn't given it away.

[cacole]

American Flyer Royal Blue steam engine and rolling stock in 1946.

[GMTRacing]

A.C.Gilbert American Flyer Silver Bullet, extra track and switches. Sold it when we moved to Ca. God i loved that train J.R.

[CPPedler]

At Christmas 1956 , when I was 10 , I was given a Hornby Dublo 3-rail 'Duchess of Montrose' and 2 passenger carriages and an oval of track , with a level crossing and power controller. I've since worked it out that it would have cost around £3 19s 6d , that would have been around $7 in todays U.S. money. What railway item can you buy for $7 today.?????

[randybc2003]

My FIRST??[:-^]

I was informed that first Christmas I could toddle, I attached to a pull-toy by the name of "Lokey Chug-Chug". It had big wheels that pushed rods back & forth, made rythmitic clacking sounds, and had a hammer that struck the bell as you pulled it along.

To advance - at the age of 6 I found an electric train under the Christmass Tree. No, it wasn't a Lionell. It was a MARX. The William Crooks to be exact. Woodburning American Standard.

I was persistant in my appreciation of electric trains. The opinion was expressed to me that HO was too small and expensive for youngster's toy. I still liked my trains.

Finaly, when a soph. in Highschool, My Biology teacher introduced me to Scale Model Railroading. I fell - HARD. Ultimately, I secured my first scale HO loco. AHM baloon stack, woodburning V & T GENOA. You'll notice it is a Woodburning American Standard. That I could only find a steel Santa Fe heavyweight (AHM of course) didn't matter to me much. I later obtained more correct wooden coaches. (I fell in love with AMBROID's B&M Kit - and Central Valley Trucks!) I still have all these, except "lokey".
[:I][:D][:D]

This doesn't preclude me from obtaining and runnning heavy steam & diesels at the club!!.

By the way - you can put decoders in the Riverosii 4-4-0s. [:D]

[Anonymous]

American Flyer. I think it was a GP high nose, it was orange and black stripes. Milwaukee Road maybee? That was 45 years ago!

[cwclark]

my first train was one of those wooden trains with the wooden track that you had to push..it was kind'a neat because it had wooden turnouts and a bridge the train went over...I was about three or four then....the next train was an American flyer S gauge...I don't remember it very well because it was my dad's train and he had two turnouts that made an inside and an outside oval..i remember it had a steam locomotive ...my first electric train was as a lot of folks, a lionel..it had a rock island E-7, a rocket car that had a spring to launch rockets, a ft. knox gold car, a lionel gondola, a frisco box car, and a St.L & M caboose and it was an oval track..Chuck

[TrainFreak409]

My first train was a Bachmann ROLLING THUNDER set I got for Christmas when I was five years old. I played with it endlessly, then my father took it away for unknown reasons. I found it about three years ago, in his workshop, on the shelf collecting dust. So, I ran it endlessly again, but with more cars[:D]

~[8]~ TrainFreak409 ~[8]~

[Anonymous]

There was an old set floating around the house that consisted of a heavy all metal 0-4-0 tank engine, a Kahns boxcar, Monon gondola, a flat car with 3 giant plastic pipes on it and a New York Central bobber caboose. Might have been Mantua. It seemed to always been breaking down. I still have it but its running days are long gone!

And then I got a new Tyco set for christmas one year (late 1970s) with a GP-something engine painted orange and white with "Comin' Round the Mountain" painted on it.

[Anonymous]

I got my trains when my granfather died when I was five, he had them since about '75. Bot are D12 swithchers form atheran and a tyco bicntenienial and I ahve them and they run like a top. love the older stuff.

[mondotrains]

Oh, what a great memory....it was Christmas, 1953....I was 5 years old and I received an American Flyer set, which included a C&NW steam engine with tender, 4 freight cars and a fantastic caboose. I'm looking at it right now, mounted up on the wall of my train room, where I now model in HO.

I ran that American Flyer train for years on a 4' by 8' layout in the basement. I didn't have the funds back then to really add to it or embellish it, except for some simple scenery. That probably is why I'm enjoying my HO modeling so much now, since I've been able to afford all kinds of great stuff.

Happy Railroading. Wouldn't the world be a better place if more guys got into model railroading?

Mondo

[MidlandPacific]

A Tyco bicentennial train set: a C428 and caboose painted in bicentennial colors, with the usual stuff. Still have a lot of it, although the C428 is falling apart and will need some restoration.

[duck69a]

As a kid, Hornby OO British Rail Deltic and A different British Rail Diesel Passenger Loco. My 1st engine purchase was a British Rail Shunter (switcher).

As an Adult, Bachmann HO Chessie System DCC on board EMD GP40

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SpaceMouse

In the house a Hogwart's Express. For me it was Lil Guy.

did i see in a nother post you said that "lil guy" was in your signiture[?]

[bikerraypa]

A Tyco Santa Fe set, in the brown and white box, which ran on the living room floor in about 1979. Then it broke or something and I found other things to do for twenty years or so. I wish I still had it. [sigh]

[Anonymous]

The first trains I had for myself were an Athearn BN F45 and a Tyco Bicentennial set (U--boat and caboose) purchased at a swap-meet in Oregon. They went along with the 4x6 layout my dad built me the summer after I turned 7. The U-boat is long gone, but the caboose still lives (albeit with a horiffic repainted off white roof by Rust-Oleum), and the F45, wiith a new shell, still pulls like a tractor.

-dave

[Don Gibson]

AMERICAN FLYER O guage EMC E-1, UP City of LA with 4 rail track (Whistle).

[Anonymous]

It was a Mantua die-cast boiler 4-6-2 Pacific with about 5 cars and caboose in HO scale. I still have the engine which had to have new side rods and axle bushings from lots of miles logged. I'm waiting on a repower unit I ordered so it can be converted to DCC. I still have some of the cars. One peculiarity is the train set was sold as Tyco, but one of the cars is stamped Gilbert and another is Varney.

[Anonymous]

Bachmann Santa Fe set with a F unit with a blindingly tacky crome finish.

Soon grew onto greater things.

[Anonymous]

A Life Like set w/ a Santa Fe engine.

[bswing]

An O guage Burlington Zephyr all shiny and silver in about 1940. I am impatiently waiting for my HO Con Cor Burlington Zephyr set.

[countershot]

When I moved in there was a layout in the base ment on a 4x8 sheet so I went out with my birth day money and bought a GP38-2 and 10 freight cars. you can say i had a good start. hehehe

[IRONROOSTER]

It was a Fleischmann set, 2 of my brothers and I each had one. We used to set them on the floor with a crossing and see if we could cra***hem into each other. They were well made and survived the abuse. I lost track of them as I got older. They got put away and I suspect my youngest brother wound up with them for a while and then my mother gave them away.
Enjoy
Paul

[bgrossman]

In the late 40's-early 50's my older brother and I had an American Flyer layout on a piece of 4x8 plywood in the basement. It had a log dumping car as well as a really neat cattle car that unloaded and loaded the cattle onto a pen. You would press a button and a magnetic vibrator moved the critters. There was also a mail car that would snatch a small mail bag off a stanchion as the train moved past.

The loco, a steamer, kept failing, and after awhile, the train was put away.

Interestingly, both my brother and I are still into trains.

Bernie