What was your first locomotive?

[Southgate]

That's a funny and accurate description of the ol Hustler! It made slot cars of the day look slow.

My first? Tyco train set F-7 piece of junk, replaced by  Tyco train set U-B-something piece of junk from same dept store as first. That was replaced at a visit to a real hobby shop by an Athearn GP-35. I'd still be running it if it wasn't lost in a fire. It did, however, keep me from giving up on the hobby as a young'n. Dan

[CP5415]

My first loco into this hobby was a Model Power CN C630m I received for Christmas.

The first loco I bought when I got back into the hobby as an Athearn BB SD40-2, CP Rail 5415.

No longer have the Model Power, but the BB will always be near the tracks unless it's on them.

Gordon

[TMarsh]

An AHM S-2 in a train set I received as Christmas gift in '70 nor '71. I still have it and yes, it still runs.

[RMax1]

I still have a couple of my first HO loco's, an SD-24 and an Alco diesel.  Both from Tyco.  They have been long retired.  I also have several Bachmann F7's that I bought for $3 a piece new back in the 80's.  Michaels craft stores would from time to time have dump bins full of them and I would buy 1 or 2 a week.  I still have a BN F unit that was wired backwards for some reason???

RMax

[Train Guy 3]

I'm pretty sure my first locomotive was a HO Bachmann F7 I got as a Christmas present. Complete with boxcar, gondola, and a caboose.

[charlieB]

As a baby my father bought me a Lionel  Berkshire locomotive(which I still have).The first loco I bought on my own was a Varney Dockside

[wjstix]

My first "scale" engine...well technically American Flyer "S" scale was scale size, so the 4-4-0 engine in the train set I got as a little kid would count. That would be around 1962. When I was 13 I wanted to get into model railroading and got a Tyco train set with a U.P. 4-6-2. I ended up having trouble with HO (in retrospect, probably because of the brass track) and bought a friend's old Lionel set with a 2-6-4. I was in O for about 15 years, and when I went back to HO at age 30, my first engine was a little CNW 0-6-0 switcher by Rivarossi. I still have it but it doesn't run very well; I'm hoping to maybe remotor it in the future for old times sake. The second HO engine I got was a GN Bachmann Spectrum GP-30, which I've been using continously since I got it in 1989 or 1990.

[Texas Zepher]

Southgate

That's a funny and accurate description of the ol Hustler! It made slot cars of the day look slow.

You should see the ones that we re-worked for my children's "great locomotive race'.  They made the old Hustler's look slow.

[rrinker]

 First loco that was 'mine'? A Tyco Santa Fe F unit in the blue and yellow scheme, got a train set when I was 6 or 7 as a present. We already had a train layout we set up every year around the holidays, but those were all my dad's trains. The F unit and cars that came with it were truly mine.

              --Randy

 

[barrok]

It was a Tyco Silver Streak!  It was awesome!  (Remember, I was 10 or so).

Chuck

[rws1225]

All these replies and only one Hustler!  Mine is still in a box with a lot of the other early locos mentioned in this discussion.  The Lionel I got for my first birthday doesn't count because my dad didn't let us kids play with it too much.  Modern locos are so much better the old stuff is just for display now.

[PARTSGUY]

Hi RWS1225, Funny you should mention the Athearn Hustler being mentioned only once. Let me be the "first" to "second" that thought. This was my 2nd Athearn engine, the first being a Burlington F7 in the silver color. And the year was 1958, my senior year of H.S. Jeez, you learned to love or hate those things with their high F rubber band drive system.

Never had them on any kind of layout except my bedroom floor. Apartment living was what it is. The F7 pulled 4 or 5 cheapie Rivarossi passenger cars around my small two track oval. The Hustler was best left to run by itself. It never would pull anything.   Bill Lester from NW Indiana