What was your first train?

[Anonymous]

My first train (and so far only train ) was a Lionel Steamer when I was a kid of 6 years old back in the 1950's. It had two switches and a side track with an uncpupler. My mom did the layout for me on 4 x 8 plywood. It had roads and a tunnel made from paper mache.

[locomutt]

My very first train was an American Flyer S Scale, hand-me-down from my
uncle. The next best was an Athearn train set w/a hustler engine, two cars
and a caboose. This was in 1954.(could be off in years) Then, in 1975, I converted all my HO
scale stuff to O Scale, and that's where I've been since.

[tschmidt]

My first train was a Lionel #681 Pennsy Steam Turbine 6-8-6 and tender. It was bought in the early 50's. We have a picture of it around our Christmas tree in our train/family room. That engine, with all it's cars, are sitting on one of the shelves in the room.

Tom

[Buckeye Riveter]

My first train was a Marx. Steam engine, tender, tank car, hopper car and caboose made up the complete set. My grandfather put the layout on top to the freezer in my grandmother's kitchen and my favorite photo was taken.


I still have the orginal engine and the handcar that is in the photo. They both run just fine. We believe I just turned five when the photo was taken.

It was love at first sight. [:D]

My first Lionel arrived when I was ten years old. I still have it and it runs perfectly. The satelite still works like the day it arrived.

[ole1]

First train : Marx wind up handed down from older cousin. 040 engine,NYC tender, Bessimer boxcar and NYC caboose. First electric train Lionel set with 2035 engine just as pictured in the 1950 catalog. I was seven.

[Anonymous]

Hello

I first recived a Lionel Pennsylvania 2-4-0 with a chugging tender, a yellow Union Pacific flatcar, a red Southern Pacific Gondola Car, a Blue Great Norhtern Hopper Car, and a Green Penn central Caboose for graduating elementary school from my aunt.

My earliest memories of Lionel Trains is playing with her scout set at christmas. It had a 2-4-2 Columdia and Streamlined Tender, a black Lionel Lines flatcar, a Blue Bronx ZOO girafe car, and a red unlighted Lionel Lines Caboose.

This past christmas I recived a Lionel Riding the Rails Hobo Set. The 2-4-0 crashed headlong into the Hudson and jolted the motor so it wouldn't run.

Bert and Mary Poppins

[Kooljock1]

My first electric train was the LIONEL "Western Gift Pak", which came with a plastic 2-4-2 Columbia, tender, blue Bronx Zoo Giraffe car, green Sheriff & Outlaw car, #1877 flat with horses and a brown caboose.

Santa also brought a loop of O-31 track, and a Type RX 110 watt transformer.

That Christmas, after playing with it under the tree(where it was running when we came downstairs), we moved the train out to the playroom where it was integrated with Dad's pre-war stuff on the floor. He had a #238E Torpedo with three red passenger cars, a #262 with a set of four-wheel freight cars(that never make it around a curve without flipping!), a nice lithographed American Flyer station, and a three-piece bridge.

This is when I discovered coupler compatibility too!

Next Christmas I got an Operating Milk Car. That's when I discovered I needed "NEUTRAL" on my engines! Only later did I discover that I could have wired the OCS to the Accessory posts on the transformer, so I always had to remove the engine from the track to make the milk car work!

That was when I was 5 and 6(I'm 40 this week) and I still have the complete set, and the milk car is just behind my LionMaster Hudson on the layout as we speak!

Jon [8D]

[Craignor]

Ches,

Yes, I would love to see these shots, and to help you post them here. Are any of them in a digital format...Jpeg or Gif?

[Anonymous]

Craignor;

I wish I could figure out how to post pictures here. I was looking at your
pics on your site and saw your location. I have several Christmas shots
of layouts in Fire Stations around Maryland (I'm a retired Firefighter) it
would be nice to share with some of you all here. My pics go back to the
1930's.

[Craignor]

Ches,

Notice: I said "may not"[sigh]

[Anonymous]

Craignor;

There really is a Santa. I've met him. He's a cool guy!
NEVER stop believing!

[Craignor]

Folks,

My first train was a HO Tyco B&O Pacific "Royal Blue".

My parents gave it to me for Christmas in 1970, when I was 6 years old. Coincidentally, this gift is how I found out that there may not be a Santa Claus.

I really wanted to have this engine, it would be MY own engine to run on our annual holiday layout. A few days before Christmas when my parents were out, I asked my older brother if he thought I would get the Royal Blue for Christmas, then he showed me where it was hidden. Ahh! Sudden joy, and then a let down.[:D][8D][B)]

I still have it, here is a pic:

[Anonymous]

Lionel set # 2221WS ~ 646 "Baby Hudson"; 2046W tender (Lionel Lines); 6468 B&O auto car; 3469 Dump car; 3620 Searchlight car (grey/orange); 6456 Leigh Valley hopper (maroon); 6417 N5C caboose (Lionel Lines, tuscan). It apparently had been a display at my Dad's workplace. Sold to Dave Dhuyvetter of Totowa, NJ in 1971. Replaced my wife in 1988 after reviewing old slides. Currently on my 11', 042 loop.

OH, Shoot! That should read, "replaced BY my wife in 1988".
And, should anyone know the whereabouts of Mr. Dhuyvetter, I sure would like to get the original set back.

[Anonymous]

My first set was a small freight set pulled by a 2026 steam engine. I got it back in 1949 at the ripe old age of 12. My parents had to save a long while to purchase that set. It came with an unlit caboose. I remember jimmying up a copper wire to slide along the rails and attaching it to a bulb to light the caboose interior.

[NYC Fan]

My first train set was Lionel 2265WS set from Christmas 1956. The picture, from this past Christmas, shows the 736 Berkshire from my original set. The 2528WS, 5 Star General Set on the left, was given to me for Christmas 1959.

[cnw1995]

My first O gauge train was the Ballyhoo Circus Train set I bought myself for the family to give me for last Christmas! My first ever train was a Tyco HO model Burlington passenger train pulled by a powered and a dummy F unit. I had a figure-8 setup on a ping-pong table for a few years in a spare bedroom before my sister 'arrived' and needed a room. A few years ago, I got into N scale using a 3 x 5 table on folding legs - that my understanding wife let me slide behind the couch. Now that I am fortunate to have a basement with a house ontop, my son and I are laying out 027 track on foam boards placed atop our rock filled raised crawlspace - it eliminates the need for benchwork...Now I just have to get rid of all the stuff we have stored up there to make more room for track. We still have only the Ballyhoo set and my recently acquired pre-war trains of my dads' - a 248 with passenger cars, and 1942-era 2-4-2 and litho cars. See there here: http://condor.depaul.edu/~dmurphy/pictures.htm

[alton6]

pennsy_fan....Yeah, it came with that transformer. Not too long ago I picked up another PRR 8141 steamer as an upgrade. I'm still rather fond of that set, and run it sometimes. A basic pleasure.

Carl

[Anonymous]

Hey, my 48 Lionel 2026 had sliding shoes! That must have fairly common for Lionel 027, at least for a while.... I wonder if Bill's '50 2026 had sliding shoes?

[dougdagrump]

The first one that I remember and still have today was a Lionel. Wabash freight set, engine #2337 GP7. Still runs like a champ, and just as noisey today as the day I got it.

[Anonymous]

My first train was a Marx wind-up.

My first electric was also a Marx steamer with the little metal freight cars. When I wore the sliding shoes out, I wanted a Lionel with the good rollers but I got another Marx. They must have been cheap back in 48-49 . After wearing the sliding shoes out, I got my Lionel 623 switcher.

[pennsy_fan]

alton6,
Come to think of it, I think it was a republic gondola, except, mine was green.
It was a nice set, did yours come with a blue 50 watt transformer, too?

[alton6]

Pennsy_Fan....That's the one, except that my set has a red 9103 CN hopper and a blue 9136 Republic gondola. A former owner had added an orange Rio Grande 9705 boxcar and a red 9700 Southern boxcar. Incidently, I replaced the plastic truck pins on the PC caboose with machine screws and fender washers. You don't see them and the car tracks much better.

A nice, if somewhat humble, train.

Carl

[Jim Duda]

MarX 333 freight set...

Got this for Christmas in 1948 from the Sears Christmas catalog- I was the happiest 6 year old on the planet! Still have it and run it every Christmas season...runs better now than when it was new - 56 years of breaking it in seems to agree with it! It originally came with one Pacemaker boxcar, but several years ago I thought I had lost it so I scoped out e-Bay and found another one. Shortly after that, I found the original! Read my profile for more info about it. Still have the original track, which is O27 size, but the curves are the 5 tie, O34 I think. It is a non-smoker so I used to put the conical shaped incense sticks in the stack...sure smelled good...! No air whistle, either, so I used the Lionel whistle shack.

Jim Duda

[IRONROOSTER]

The first set, I think was an American Flyer for my first Chrsitmas. I don't remember the train at all, but years later I remember seeing the the piece of plywood with an oval of track and one passing siding tacked on it.

The first train I remember was a Fleischmann HO trainset, German prototype that I got when I was 8 or 9. We were living in Germany at the time (my father was career Army). My two brothers also got a set each. We used to try to cra***hem together. Those trains were well made and kept on running inspite of our destructive efforts.

But the set that got me started in the hobby was given to me by my wife. When she was pregnant with our first child, I told her I was getting a trainset for his/her first Christmas. Well, she beat me by a year with a Tyco set. I have been hooked ever since for 32 years.

Enjoy
Paul

[Frank in Steam]

Mine is the Lackawanna FM Trainmaster freight set from 1954 that I received for Christmas in 1957. It still runs well today and looks great with either freight or passenger consists. Still have the individual boxes and the outer set box. The next Christmas, the baby Hudson arrived, starting me on my love of steam locomotives.

[Anonymous]

My first trains were Postwar hand me downs form my Mom's younger brothers. I have a 2046 Hudson, a 2035 K-4 Pacific, an assortment of frieght cars, a KW and a ZW. Amazingly enough I still have most of it. When I was a teenager one of my uncles asked for the set back. My mom refused saying, "Dad gave them to me for my boys." Besides, she knew my uncle just wanted to sell them at a flea market. Way to go Mom!

[M636C]

Guys,

Being from somewhere else, it was different! I started with a Hornby O gauge clockwork M1 set with either a red 0-4-0 locomotive or a green locomotive, and either two Pullman cars or two open wagons. Why the confusion? I was very young and I got both in quick succession. One probably the first, was a present from neighbours (who were probably never forgiven by my parents!

Since then I've mainly had HO, but I've collected two Lionel locomotives, a reproduction 700E Hudson and a scale S-2 Turbine, and two Atlas F-9s.

Peter

[pennsy_fan]

My first train was the lionel silver star MPC 027 set. (Probably the same set that alton6 mentioned earlier in this topic.)It had a pennsylvania 2-4-2 loco with tender. It boasted " the mighty sound of steam", but no whistle. It also had a blue G.N. hopper, burlington gondola up flatcar & a penn central caboose.I received that set on christmas morning in '72.Unfortunately, we moved quite a few times & all I have left is the PC caboose.But , thats o.k. because in '78 my grandparents got me the "general" 4-4-0 w/ cars. Best christmas ever IMHO.

[Anonymous]

My first train was a Lionel Freight set headed by a Lionel 2026. Back in 1950.
Check out our new O-Gauge Web Site at:
www.modeltrainjournal.com
Bill

[Anonymous]

My first o-gauge I got was a Lionel Lines set about ten years
ago, I was 40 when I received this set. My first train set was a
HO by Tyco. That was 40 years ago.
O-Well better late than never.[:D]
Thanks
Keith