What's the best train you ever received for Christmas as a kid?

[Firelock76]

There's a "Mighty Casey" commercial posted on You Tube, I just went looking for it and found it.  Looks like early '70s to me, and it was by Remco.

I've still got my Remco "Johnny Reb Cannon" from the early '60s.  Still works too!

[fifedog]

I guess it was the Mighty Casey (Remco? Late 60's-early 70's) ride-on train.

 

[handyandy]

If you are talking electric trains, I guess my favorite would have to be the only one ever got as a kid!  LOL

Christmas 1976, a Tyco HO bicentennial set...

[vsmith]

Marx Big Rail set, had lots of fun things when your 10.

[8ntruck]

I've got two.  The first is the one that started it all - the Texas Special freight set from 1958.  I was two years old at the time.  Still in running condition.  It is currently part of an exhibit in the KATY Depot Museum here in Sedalia, Mo. 

The second is the Polar Express set from 2004.  This one got me back into the hobby.  It has grown into a 6' x 9' portable layout that makes yearly appearances at the local train show and the museum's December kid's program that features the reading of The Polar Express.

[traindaddy1]

Christmas 1949.......A Rivarossi 040 "Serie Rossa" engine and four Varney car kits. (HO) Still have the engine. Thanks for asking. 

[Mononflyer]

Mine would by my first set.  An American Flyer All Aboard set I got when I was six years old.  I got it several years after Flyer went under.  I still have all the parts and panels and run it once in a while.

[Bruette]

My first train set has to be the best. A Tyco Spirit of 76 set. Not because it was anything great, but it did kick off my love for toy trains. A close second is my Lionel Polar Express set. It was my first Lionel set and it inspired me to build my first permanent layout.

[cnw1995]

A good question to ponder! I only got a Tyco HO set when I was a lad. Probably the best is when I got my dad's 248 engine and passenger cars... 

[KRM]

I have three, First set was in 58 Lionel 202 UP set Next was in 60, Marx Tales of Wells Fargo Set like Ray. And the last was in 61. It was not a set it was a 218 ABA engine set. I still have and run them all. The 202 has been rebuilt and few original parts are still there.

[stebbycentral]

As heretical as it may seem for this forum,  I have to say it was my first N-scale model trainset.  As a young child we always had a Flyer set under the tree, but they weren't really my trains, they were dad's trains.  Over the years they got old from constant play, parts broke, and then we changed homes and the space available to me for a train layout contracted significantly in size. 

So I began looking with envy at certain magazine advertisements for something called Aurora "Postage Stamp" trains.  The beginnings of N-scale. I didn't get the Aurora set, but one ChristmasI did get an Atlas N-scale set ; the double FM C-Liner consist.  I could not beleive how well detailed the little cars were (ignoring the Rapido style couplers of course.)  That was the Christmas that got me back in the hobby in a serious fashion.

[arkady]

HeftyHauler

It's that time of year when we're all flooded with memories of our favorite train sets. What was/is your favorite?

I don't even have to think about that one -- it's my Lionel 2026 and its accompanying NYC gondola, two Sunoco 2-dome tank cars and basic SP caboose that Santa brought me at Christmas, 1951.  I was three.  That set was the beginning of my lifelong interest in model trains. 

And in case anyone's wondering, the 2026 set is alive and well, and living in honored retirement on our coffee table.

 

[RockIsland52]

It was Christmas 1955 when I wasn't yet 5 years old that Santa left me the 1952 Lionel AA 2031 Rock Island Alcos with the 242X and 243X passenger cars, set up around the tree.  Santa must have had them a couple of years until Mrs. Claus felt I was old enough to play with them without electrocuting myself.  

They are still running beautifully and look good for their age and nearly 6 decades of running.  Somehow one's first train is hard to beat in one's "favorite" arena.      

[AF53]

I'm with SJ on this one.

My first set was a Marx Tales of Wells Fargo set I got in 1959 or 1960. So I grew up with that set and my fathers 1953 American Flyer Trail Blazer Passenger and Mail Train.

I still have them both and still run them once in a while.

It's a hobby for a lifetime.

 

[sir james I]

I don't have one. Got two. The first being the 1949 2025 with green/gray passenger cars. The second being the 1951 NYC F3 freight set.

[wallyworld]

American Flyer K5 Pacific freight set, complete with automatic crossing gate...I have color photos of that Christmas set under the tree in 1953. This replaced a Marx CV set I wore out. I was a broken young man to learn AF was going out of business years later as every year my family added to that set. A bridge, a tunnel, etc.  

A.C Gilbert going out of business!? Impossible!

I suppose it was then I first learned nothing lasted forever.

Certainly, it was a simpler time. Perhaps even a better time and place to be a kid.

For that I remain thankful and always will be. More than a half century later, I am still in the hobby.

Other facets of my life have come and gone, but the trains have, and will remain close by.

[chatanuga]

I would say my first Lionel from Christmas 1976 since that is what got me into trains.

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Kevin

[Plate Rail]

This Christmas marks 50 years since the first and best ever train.  I woke up that morning to a fully assembled American Flyer set on a 4 X 8 table.  Long gone now, although I have collected a bit of AF trying to relive the thrill.

Bruce

[Penny Trains]

The best?  Hmmm.  That's tough.  Even though there weren't a lot, it's still tough to pin down.  Especially since I got my fist train set every year for the "first time" for the first 3 or 4 years of my life!  lol  My first set was the 3726/19437 scout set from J.C. Penney.  As far as I know, it was never boxed it just always magically appeared on a carpet in front of the fireplace.

But now that I think of it, I'd have to say the one that made the most lasting impression was the 6-2317 Automatic Remote Control Drawbridge from 1980.  I would have been about 10.  My brother and I tried hard, but we never could get that thing to work "as advertised"!  lol

Becky

[Rob412]

Mine would be the 8101 Alton limited from 1981. I still remember going to the train store to get it. It was on a shelf along with the Chessie special above it and the Southern Crescent below. I think I spent an hour trying to decide which one I wanted. In the end the 2224W tender and 6 wheel trucks gave the train a more hefty look and won me over. This set along with my first starter set from 72 which my parents got at Sears hold a special place. No other set has quite the same sounds and smells as the two that made annual appearances under our tree. The modern trains are great with their detail and sounds but some things can't be replaced.

[Rob412]

Mine would have to be the 81

[thesiding]

Well my first set for Christmas that I Liked was a Lionel 2065 from 1956 My mother got it at a thrift shop for 12.00 (was the mid seventies) and pieces were missing but it still was fun had the brakeman car would b years till I got it to work and in 1985 my dad got me my favorite F-3 The Southern still have them

[bridgeengineer]

Christmas 1955 -- a Lionel freight set pulled by the 2328 Burlington GP7. Mom bought it from Montgomery Ward in Chicago, and had them substitute a box car for the hopper car originally specified. The $40 price was tough for my dad. I learned many years later that my grandfather, who came over on Christmas Eve to watch me unpack it, had actually paid for half. The train is on a shelf in my train room (now with about a hundred others), and runs fine if needed. Still my favorite.

[lionelsoni]

"catherine petroski trains" in Google (without quotes) did the job for me.

[rrswede]

After posting the above message, I copied and posted the link to my browser but when the website opened, I was required to sign/log in. If you are unable to access the article by using the link, see if you can get to it by googleing Catherine's name.

Sorry if you can't access it. I would copy and post the entire article but that may not be appropriate copyright conduct.

Swede

[rrswede]

A bit off topic but an article in today's Wall Street Journal by Catherine Petroski touches not only on the Christmas aspect of model trains but also on the Lionel/American Flyer preferences and the youth movement away from model trains. You might enjoy the article. You may have to copy and paste the link to your browser.

Merry Christmas everyone 

swede

 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/catherine-petroski-model-trains-and-mixed-marriages-1419293044

[lionelsoni]

The only train I received for Christmas as a kid is a 2243P-C locomotive in 1955.  I still have it; and it runs as smoothly as ever.

The best train I ever received for Christmas as an adult is also a 2243.  My daughter managed to figure out that I wanted a 2243C to complete a 2383P-2243C-2243C-2383T ABBA set and bought me a nice example of exactly the right unit on Ebay, despite knowing nothing about trains.

[rtraincollector]

Lionel set 2572 my father bought it off his lawyer (Dec. 63) but it was my first Lionel set and I sold it around 1987 but since have replaced but now its complete with complete cars not missing anything small parts, but the best part of that set was the 2359 B&M GP-9 

[Major]

1959, I was eight years old and received an American Flyer Frontiersman. It was a Truscott set that came with the old time loco, Baggage, combine and passenger car. Additionally it had the cannon car, box car, Trestles, mountain and pass set, a station, a bag of cowboys and indians and a brownie camera. I still have it all except for the figures. Still have the instruction sheet and other promotional materials that came with it.