Jason
B&O = Best & Only
RockIsland52 wrote:Don't want to get off topic, but it would be interesting if everyone replied to their own post here, listing their very first train, if that's OK with the author of this thread, Reading T-1.Jack
Don't want to get off topic, but it would be interesting if everyone replied to their own post here, listing their very first train, if that's OK with the author of this thread, Reading T-1.
Jack
I think it was 1947 when I was 9. Don't remember the exact set, but it was Lionel. I had it a few years, but at that age I had the nasty habit of taking everything apart to see what made it tick and didn't always get things back together again. I know the set still had the electromagnetic couplers on it.
Age: 58
First Train: Christmas 1957 I received a Lionel trainset powered by a 205 Missouri Pacific diesel.
I'm 49 and wondered the same about the future. I think that the collector market will dry up somewhat. I seen a lot of Tinplate on the tables at York and not much of it moving. I believe the nostalgic collectors who were born in the 1920's,30's, and early 40's are disappearing at a rate which is less than the rate of new younger collectors entering Tinplate collecting. The same will probably happen to postwar in 20 -25 years.
To help promote the hobby I joined a club, FCTT out of Rochester NY, which sets up a large three rail layout at ten to fifteen Western NY shows. We were at Spring 2007 York and combined with Liberty Hi-Railers this past York. In addition, I do an Engineering Merit Badge event for 50 - 60 Boy Scouts once or twice a year. I bring an operating display and let them get some hands on experience with TMCC while I explain how it all works. I also compare a postwar GP-7 and a modern GP-9 and explain the technology enhancements. They are interested so you may see the high tech aspect of the hobby survive. However, very few, maybe one or two have trains.
Paul
My first train was a Lionel 675 Pacific with the brown tin passenger cars, probabably purchased in '51. This was set up at Christmas time and run with the No.4 Build-a-Loco and freights ('27-'29) from my dad's youth. I still think of these, plus a NYC F3 ABA which came along soon thereafter, as the cornerstones of my collection.
'I got' train stuff for Christmas every year I remember 'till I was 11 or 12. Dabbled in HO when my kids were small because dad still had all my Christmas presents at his house for safe keeping. I got the O-guage when he moved to a retirement village. It sat in boxes for some additional years and I finally put up a layout about 10 years ago.
Give or take a few years and events, swap out the sets, and my train collecting history is probably typical of a sizeable segment of the cohort.
As for the future, I haven't seen that drop in prewar demand that's mentioned above. At the auctions I've attended the prices for prewar are at or above the guidebooks.
runtime
I am three days shy of 44. My first set was delivered by Santa Grandpa on my first Christmas; I was all of 7 months old. It was HO and DOA. The next day, Grandpa went to Sears and replaced it with a Marx O gauge set. A few years later, he delivered an early MPC Sears special and then a Remco monorail (I still have all three). A few years later came the second HO set, a dubious and tangled path that I finally escaped from (although I have some of the trains yet) in grad school when I returned to my 3-rail roots. Now, the family has a communal 0 scale, 3-rail and On30 layout--the boys and I do 3-rail, and my wife runs the NG--while I also collect (and run at CHRISTmas time) Lionel and IVES Standard Gauge.
The salient points: I am younger than this theoretical average and have never been completely "out" of trains. I suffer a strong streak of nostalgia for the trains of my youth, their contemporaries, and their derivatives. Nevertheless, I appreciate, collect, and run trains far older than those, old enough to have been my dad's in his youth (though he owned none) and even my grandfather's (sadly, I don't know whether he ever owned any). My family is involved, and my sons own their own trains--in fact, they have bought trains with their own money. My seven-year-old's latest purchase was a Lionel Lines 0-6-0 docksider steam engine, and my ten-year-old's was an Athearn HO Frisco diesel with a variety of rolling stock and a caboose--all Frisco. (Sorry to pop the bubbles of those who say today's kids ONLY want today's trains in today's liveries: these choices were made by the boys without my prompting.) I foresee a healthy hobby well into the current century at least.
I am a 'newby' at 74. 75 soon. I am doing what I dreamed of when there was NO money to put onto rails. I've been into this new wonderful world for about three years, have a modest starter layout and a wierd mix of trains. I want to stay with tinplate, but some newer stuff has crept in too. I'm in N.Calif. and there seems to be little interest that I can find here. I know of only one true train shop within 150 miles.
I think I'll post a question as to location.
I'll be 41 in June. Had HO on a 4x8 as a kid, then dabbled a little in N scale until HS. I got hooked on O when I bought a Pennsy Flyer to go under the Christmas tree for my then 3yo daughter (and me of course) in 2003.
Don
Lionel 2031 Rock Island FA diesels and the 242x series passenger cars from Santa on Christmas 1954 at the age of 3.89, still running strong. My father collected 3 HO sets, never opened because we couldn't pull ourselves away from O27, and they are packed away. Slot cars wormed their way into the mix, long gone.
______________________________________________________________
RockIsland52 wrote: I'm 57 and "officially" got into the electric train hobby Christmas 1954. I say "officially" because my father started buying trains before I was born, hence two engines I have that predate my birth. Unless, of course, it was my mother who started buying them as a closet train fanatic. My folks started giving them to me when Dad's thumb and forefinger wore out winding up the engine on some wind up train he had previously given to me.....he told me that later in life.The first "permanent" layout lasted about 20 years along with a loop around the tree at each Christmas. Then it all got packed away, the layout long since dormant, as some have said, replaced by girls, cars, and then families. As others have noted, this type of thread is very popular. On this Forum there was one survey within the past 5 months (45 average age I think). And the link Bob Nelson provided was from a 1/05 survey, no averages provided.Either some of you guys are aging slower or stopped counting . Just kidding.Don't want to get off topic, but it would be interesting if everyone replied to their own post here, listing their very first train, if that's OK with the author of this thread, Reading T-1.Jack
I'm 57 and "officially" got into the electric train hobby Christmas 1954. I say "officially" because my father started buying trains before I was born, hence two engines I have that predate my birth. Unless, of course, it was my mother who started buying them as a closet train fanatic. My folks started giving them to me when Dad's thumb and forefinger wore out winding up the engine on some wind up train he had previously given to me.....he told me that later in life.
The first "permanent" layout lasted about 20 years along with a loop around the tree at each Christmas. Then it all got packed away, the layout long since dormant, as some have said, replaced by girls, cars, and then families.
As others have noted, this type of thread is very popular. On this Forum there was one survey within the past 5 months (45 average age I think). And the link Bob Nelson provided was from a 1/05 survey, no averages provided.
Either some of you guys are aging slower or stopped counting . Just kidding.
IF IT WON'T COME LOOSE BY TAPPING ON IT, DON'T TRY TO FORCE IT. USE A BIGGER HAMMER.
Donna Pass wrote:Reading this delightfully informative thread, it is understandable why train shows don't give "senior discounts."
If we were as great looking as you, we would get in for free.
Donna Pass wrote:traindaddy, I think I'm in love!
I'm 54 and have been in it I guess the whole life. The trainset was there from my earliest memory, though it took a hiatus from about 1973-1979. There was a flirtation with HO in 1970-71 that didn't go anywhere really (mainly getting the track laid right and it just flopped).
This last statement leads to a question that I have: I have always felt that HO and smaller scales are much more difficult for the child to work with, but O-gauge has that simplicity of stick it together and go, and imagination for your kids. O-gauge is ideally suited for this age group. This is what I think held my interest and got me back when I reached age 25. So do any of you think that the real hope is to get this scale into the hands of 6-10 year olds and 45 years from now they will be the 52 year-olds that will play with them again?
No matter what fun toys and ecreation are developed there is no disputing that a toy train is a singular unique train that is peerless?
Donna, this one does:
http://centramod.org/show2008.htm
It's only a dollar; and you have to be 65. Last year I was in the ticket line intending to claim it, when a member of their club who obviously hadn't sold his quota offered me a deeper discount, so I took it.
Bob Nelson
I am 52 and bought my first train 8 years ago. We could not afford trains when I was a kid.
Jim
I'm 65 years old and retired in Northern Michigan. Just stating a layout for the first time in years ( have more time now). Love it in the north, I'm on the east side of the state and watch the sunrise very morning, its great!!!
Lew
My first train is shown in my avatar, but in all honesty I don't even remember what it was. The next one, which still makes an occaissional museum run is my Wabash GP7, #2337, as well as the cars and transformer that came with the set circa 1956/57. Like a lot of others I was away from it for a very long while but returned to the hobby as a reult of helping out at a company sponsored kids Chritmas party. I was to help set up his trains as he was recovering from a back issue, everything went fine for the first couple of hours but slowly attrition was taking a toll on his locos. When the last one died just before lunch I came and dug out the Geep that hadn't seen the light of day in Lord knows how many years. Did a quick clean and lube and she ran for the next four hours with just a few stops for wheel cleans, didn't take to well to nickle-silver track.
Been having a ball with it ever since, especially after joining the SD3Railers. With a few exceptions I feel like a forum elder. As far as the hobby future maybe it skips a generation, our daughter could care less about the trains but my grandson is a bigger train nut than grampa.
Remember the Veterans. Past, present and future.
www.sd3r.org
Proud New Member Of The NRA
"No childhood should be without a train!"
Give me steam locomotives or give me DEATH!
Berkshire Junction, bringing fourth the cry of the Iron Horse since 1900.
If you guys must know I am 50 and will be 51 by the end of May. Got into O gauge trains first then some S gauge and I liked the S gauge for being more realistic by having only two rail track. Got into H.O. in the last ten years or so, not as impressed with H.O. as I thought that I might be, the track size for curves is not that small, 027 track can have smaller curve radius than H.O. track.
I have two pre war O gauge sets that are my dad's. He don't care much about them anymore but he knows I will keep them running and maintaned well.
The only thing H.O. that I really like are my Aroura race(Thunderjet 500's, pre AFX) cars, even have some antigue H.O. race cars.
Lee F.
I'm 50.
But I'm working hard to get my young nephews hooked on O-gauge trains. I grew up with my fathers Marx and Lionel, why not them. They love to come over to see the trains run on the layout, but better yet, they have more fun running the Marx on a simple loop on the floor.
A conflict between brothers? Those trains of yesteryears can take it, until an adult steps in and brings order to the railroad.
We need youth, turn them loose with some less than desirables, and educate them as we were. The future is there, let's cultivate it.
Rod l.
I'm 191 and I came to this planet against my will. I figure since I'm here, I might as well do something fun until my ride comes back --- so I build layouts. Once my sci-fi layout is finished in about 15 years, I'll start looking to the sky for a family sign.
Just kidding. I'm 47 going on 10 !!
jefelectric wrote: RockIsland52 wrote:Don't want to get off topic, but it would be interesting if everyone replied to their own post here, listing their very first train, if that's OK with the author of this thread, Reading T-1.Jack I think it was 1947 when I was 9. Don't remember the exact set, but it was Lionel. I had it a few years, but at that age I had the nasty habit of taking everything apart to see what made it tick and didn't always get things back together again. I know the set still had the electromagnetic couplers on it.
Now I don't feel so bad. My first train was a Lionel scout set. I want to say 1947. I just had to see what made it "tick". Found what what made Dad tick!!
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Get the Classic Toy Trains newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month