General Discussion (Model Railroader)

I still have my first train set, an LGB 20401 starter set.  It was my Christmas present back in 1983. 

Although it's kept in the box and hasn't run in several years, at least I still have it.

We model the D&RGW in G scale now, so this German train is mostly sentimental:

I have some of it. My first train was a c.1961 American Flyer "S" set which had a 4-4-0 and tender, gondola, boxcar and caboose with an oval of scale-type S track (it wasn't tinplate, by then Flyer had track that looked like Atlas Snap-track.)

I still have the gondola and the 4-4-0, which unfortunately I painted in my early teens for some reason (actually, it looks pretty good for handpainting, but eventually I'm going to bite the bullet and try stripping the paint off). The caboose and boxcar might still be around and one or two pieces of track. I moved a few years ago so not sure where everything is.

Sad part with the 4-4-0 is it quit working when I was a kid, so I didn't have trains from about age 7 or 8 until I went into HO at 13. Years later I opened up the 4-4-0 and found out all that had happened was a wire had come unsoldered in the tender, it could have easily been fixed and kept working. Who knows, maybe instead of going into HO...then O...then back to HO, I might have been an S-guy my whole life !!

I had two, but actually 1 and half.  I'll explain.

I got a Playschool set when I was 3 or 4.  I about the equivalent of G scale.  It was battery operated and came with 2 cars and a caboose.  It also had a figure 8 of track.  I though it was so cool to have a green headlight.  My mother has kept in the garage stowed away in a box.  My sister and I used to play with it for hours.

When I was 9, we moved to a bigger house and I had my own room.  I remember we didn't have furniture in our living room yet, so that truned into a play room for about a year.  I got a Life-Like set when I was 10.  I still have.  I had buildings and collected about 20 cars.  I remember my dad came home with an Amtrak engine and two cars.  Some of you may remember those LL Amtrak engines could pull down a house.  Whenever my twin,  7 year old cousins come over to visit, they want to play with it. 

My first train set was a battery powered toy thing.  Long time ago..but my first official train set was the Tyco Silver Streak.  I still have bits and pieces of it.

My very first train set, Lionel lithographed metal with sheet-metal hook couplers, went to a cousin when I was upgraded to Lionel's brand new (at the time) knuckle coupler set.  That set vanished (presumably to another of the cousins I've got by the dozens - or did at the time.  I've outlived most of them) about the time I was given my first HO equipment.

That Mantua Booster, a fairly accurate model of a PRR A-5a, is now pretending to be the only locomotive in Japan with a Belpaire firebox.  It's the designated power for my snow plow.  Currently residing in a cassette, it's fully operational - current hog Pittman motor and all.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

 no yeh no yeh no, well. as a kid played with 0-27. I gave up on it went to HO, first HO pretty much the AHM 0-4-0 Dockside, now in bad shape. Laying in a box, probably go somewhere on a rip track or repair track or something. Early HO stuff I still have but I am now more selective how I model, old C&NW E8 AHM used to run, motor got probs, its laying in a box still. O-27 stuff is laying around here and there tho, but building new layout, just today built another module.

My dad and brother started with Flyer in 1951, SF PA passenger set, which my widowed sister-in-law still has.  I got a NYC Hudson freight set for Christmas in 1953, or whenever they came out with the knuckle couplers.  We converted the old set to knuckles about the same time.  The layout table  in the basement was about 11' x 22', which I rebuilt several times until 1963 (off to college).

We built a new house and moved in 1964, and I was too lazy/disinterested to dismantle the layout.  The buyers had an 11 year old son, so they had no complaints.  Don't know when the layout disappeared.  All I kept was the loco, which I still have.  When I was about 13-14, I tired of the trailing truck ALWAYS derailing in reverse, so I removed it, shortened the boiler by about 1.5", and glued it back together with that newfangled epoxy (anybody remember the white stuff?).  That probably rendered the loco about worthless, but it ran much better.  It's a strange looking 10-wheeler, no longer in running order, and missing a couple side rod screws, and taking up space in a shop drawer.  Gary

 My original set was HO scale, and I still have some of the cars and the track. However, I moved to N scla esoon thereafter because of space, and bought an Iron Duke trainset. I may still have some of the track, the tender of the 0-6-0, and a few pieces of the ATSF caboose. Otherwise, I've moved up to better/higher quality products

Do I still have my original train set?  No.  And yes.  The explanation follows:

Dad bought Lionel trains for my older brother before I was born.  Brother wasn't all that interested in the trains, but I grew up with them.  In the mid-1950's, I was the Christmas recipient of a Lionel switch engine and two passenger cars, thereby making ALL the Lionel equipment MINE!  (Such is the mind-set of a pre-teen!  LOL)

In the late '50's or early '60's, I discovered HO scale.  I lobbied for months before I got my first set of HO equipment.  Don't remember if it was a train set, or individual pieces, but it was all mine from the start.  Rubber band drive and all!

The Lionel stuff?  Relegated to storage in boxes.

All the trains sat in the basement train room after I went off to college.  When my Dad retired and the folks decided to move to the Midwest, Mom called and asked me what she should do with the trains and my old comic book collection.  I told her to keep the HO stuff for me and give the Lionel stuff to someone who wanted it.  Donate the comic books to the local library or church.

So I don't have the "original" Lionel stuff anymore, but the HO trains are in storage cases in a basement closet right now.  Sans rubber bands, but the motor still runs!  LOL

Why are they stored?  Because in the late '60's, I got bit by the N scale bug.  Out on my own, working full time, part-time student and studio apartment (read that as ONE room with private bath!  LOL).  Found N scale at a LHS and bought an Arnold B&O engine and 4 passenger cars, along with some track.  Set up a little 2x4 oval on a piece of ceiling tile as I recall.  I still have them.  (The trains, but not the ceiling tile!)  The Arnold engine is still one of the most reliable running locos I have.  The passenger cars need some attention, but are still in good condition after 40 years!

Here's the Arnold engine on my current layout, along with the first N scale steam engine I bought:

<a href="http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a392/dgwinup/?action=view&current=oldlocos002.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a392/dgwinup/oldlocos002.jpg" border="0" alt="oldest locomotives"></a>

I often wish I still had the Lionel equipment, but I know it went to someone who could appreciate them as much as I did.  The comic books?  Well, that's a story for another time.....

Darrell, quiet...for now

No, I dont' have my first train set, but I still have the fire it lit in me.

 Yes. Lionel 2332  GG1 (Black/Silver) w/ Pennsylvania caboose.

Display only.

My parents bought me a Model Power set when i was 10 in 1978.

It had a CN Alco C628 in it I think, cheap cars & caboose. they worked for a while

The locomotive died a while ago, but the cars lasted until the early part of this century before I sold them.

 Gordon

Mine ended up in the garbage, probably after I wrecked them. 

My first set (at age 6 in 1958) was a Varney with a docksider locomotive, flatcar, gondola and caboose. I still have the loco and it runs with a bit of a grind.  Actually, it always had a bit of a grind....  It's survived a few trips to the concrete, is missing a step and a corner of the cab.  The original brass wipers that provide power pickup on one side have been replaced several times by piano wire.   I have the caboose also but no trucks on it.  They were the kind with real springs - all that's left are bolsters and one sideframe and I never bothered to replace them.  It also got a bad repaint when I was a teenager.   

I also still have several other cars from the early days.  My father set up a 4x6 layout in my bedroom. I've been in the hobby ever since except for about 8 years after college - 6 year Navy stint and first couple of years of marriage.  My parents sent the box of trains from their garage and I was off and at it again. 

George V.

 When we visited in 1961 our relatives in Western Germany the Wall was built. And we didn't return to Thuringia. All was left behind, so my childhood railroad. I've only a picture:

Wolfgang