Your First Purchase.......

[pcarrell]

We all started out somewhere in the hobby. 

My question to you is, what was your first model railroad related purchase (besides a magazine)?

As a side note, do you still have it, or any pictures of it?

 

Mine was an HO Tyco Spirit of '76 train set (pn. 7330) with a bicenntenial painted Alco Century 430.  It's long gone now though.

[twhite]

1956.  My buddy Rich Miller in Grass Valley was getting rid of some HO cars he built because he wanted to go into a larger scale.  I remember them.  Still have some of them.  A Varney steel boxcar--MKT, steel reefer--ART, steel flatcar-MILW, an Ulrich metal gondola-C&EI, an Athearn metal boxcar-SP and a Silver Streak wood caboose-SP.  I've still got the Varney's and the Silver Streak wood caboose.  New trucks and couplers.  Still run them, especially the caboose. 

Tom

[Cox 47]

A Blue Box SP 40 foot box car 1.98 and one 9 inch piece of Atlas brass track .25.....July 1967 at McMillian Sports in Terre Haute Indiana...They say as we get older we can't remeber what happened this morning but can remeber things that happened years ago..case in point...Cox 47

[2-8-8-0]

A 60' CSX athearn boxcar. Sold it when i switched to N, kinda wish i had kept it.

Tim

[Wikious]

A Life-Like station platform and freight house kit. I think I got it sometime around 1994. I still have it.

[gear-jammer]

Philip,

What a fun question.  Our first purchase was the MDC 2-Truck Shay pictured below.  It has had a NWSL regear kit and it still one of our favorite work horses to send to the landing.

Sue & Larry

[Packer]

My first train related purchase was some life-like train set. GP38-2 ATSF, a reefer, and a caboose; when I was three. Amazingly, I still have the reefer (fixed up as good as new, albiet weathered). Don't have the other car, and the engine has been scrapped.

My first real purchase was a P2K SD9, in BN #6232. 45 bucks, the same as that trainset. I still have this, I only got it a few months ago, but it's in need of a new hardwired decoder. (circuit board with a decoder doesn't have enough power for my LEDs; they have a minimum voltage of 3.2 volts, and a 540 ohm resistor does the trick) Afer I removed the circuit board, I found out there was a lot of room, enough for a sound system. ($31 from the local MR club)

[mlehman]

My first purchase was a HO Athearn flat car in early 1970. I'm pretty sure it was undecorated. Even if it was not, I don't recall what it was decorated. It ended up in my hand-painted fantasy road scheme, the Tonopah & Sumpter Valley. I'm not at home right now so I can't check to be sure, but I think I still have it around.

 Hey Cox47, it wasn't purchased at McMillan Sports in Terre Haute, although I can remeber dropping some bucks there a few times. I dbought the flat car in the old hobby shop that was just north of the square in Bloomington, Indiana. I sold off some Lionel stuff I'd inherited from my Uncle Billy Joe so I could afford to make the switch to HO scale when I discovered the space limitations of O27.

[hardcoalcase]

My first significant purchase was a Tyco-Mantua "Big-Six" 0-6-0 kit, which I upgraded over the years to a road locomotive by adding a 2 wheel pilot truck and replacing the slope-back tender with a scratchbuild one making a somewhat credible 2-6-0. 

The most fun was adding the valve gear... it looks like an eggbeater going down the rails.

Not my best lokie, but its still my favorite. 

Jim

[wm3798]

I had received several train related goodies early on, but the first thing I saved up for and bought for myself was a Trix 2-10-0 PRR foobie, and a set of Lima passenger cars.  The locomotive lingered around in the junk box till about 3 years ago when a guy on another forum needed it for parts, but I still have a couple of the passenger cars, now sporting their fifth or sixth paint job...

As a point of reference, I believe the whole shootin' match cost $45 or less...  This was in '78 or so.

Lee 

[trainfan1221]

Mine was the Tyco Silver Streak, I still remember how I felt having that.  Even though it's in the past and certainly wouldn't be anything great these days it's still nice to remember where it all started, and in my case a much simpler time.

[selector]

This was my very first purchase.  A BLI Hudson with QSI sound.

[BRAKIE]

For me it was a Hobbytown of Boston RS3.

[loathar]

I received a Marx steam train set when I was 5. My first actual purchase with my own money was 3 Lionel box cars to go with that set.
And yes, you guessed right! This was also my first encounter with the fact that not all couplers are created equal! I was one bummed out 5 year old! Dad bought me an adapter coupler and made it all better.

[Tjsingle]

well, my first purchase or my parents purchase was a conrail gp35 train set from bachmann, i lived right by the conrail line in norristown PA, and i was always out side watching trains go by. My first purchase of my own was, well.. My father has been into the hobby and are layout is shared, we work on most things together, my first purchase was probaly a conrail flat car with some sort of load on it, who no's were it is now

Tjsingle

[lvanhen]

Don't remember the very first, but one of the first was an Ulrich Tractor/trailer kit - actually 2 of them!!  One was a cab over, the other a Kenworth type, both with box trailers.  Soft metal kits with LOTS  of filing & fitting required!!  Still have them - will try to find & photo them!

[Jacktal]

My first purchase was a N scale Life-Like GP38-2 (Conrail 7941),a power supply and a few feet of Atlas track to create an oval.Since I later joined a club who ran DCC,I started buying DCC ready Kato's and Atlas's so this loco has seen very little running.I still have it in like new condition (it ran nice then) along with the PS and I don't believe I'll ever attempt to convert it.However,I couldn't tell what my second purchase was....

[tomikawaTT]

My very first was a Mantua Shifter kit, which was the latest and greatest at the time.

I still have it, and it still runs.

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[HEdward]

Hmmmm.....got most of my early stuff as a young person so whatever I paid for myself had to be after 1976...Probably that handful of UP box cars and (laughing not permitted) a cheap UP F7 loco.  Was that in 1980?  My personal secretary has the receipt filed away but she's been busy counting rivits and bolts on the NS line between Reading and Harrisburg, PA.

[CSXDixieLine]

Mine was an HO Tyco Spirit of '76 train set (pn. 7330) with a bicenntenial painted Alco Century 430.  It's long gone now though.

Wow, mine was the very same item!!! Well, I can't verify what the exact loco was, but it was definitely a Tyco Spirit of '76 set. I can also remember it was purchased from the Service Merchandise in North Charleston, SC, which was part of the chain that went bust in the mid 1990's and was actually called Sam Soloman, Inc. in the 1970's at the time of the purchase.

The second purchase was the (Life-Like or Tyco) crossing gate set, the same one that my LHS has a dozen in stock today. Two other early purchases were the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant model and a Hershey chocolate boxcar that wobbled badly and had serious issues with staying on the track. I have an old Polaroid snapshot of that 4x8 layout somewhere with the KFC prominently displayed; will try to dig it up and scan. Jamie

EDIT: Mine are also long gone as well, along with my disaster movie jigsaw puzzle collection (Towering Inferno, Jaws, Midway, etc) 

[rolleiman]

My first..

and yes, I still have it.

1978, the hobby shop (the name escapes me right now) in Ferndale Michigan that had the 55' crossbuck in front of it. I think the crossbuck is still there but the hobby shop is long gone. It began a several year birthday tradition and going to this place was (for awhile) a once per year outing.  

[g. gage]

My first model purchase was a Tru-Scale and Globe SP flat car and UP box car. I can't remember which car was from which company. They both had Tru-Scale couplers, they looked like Kadee's but were mechanical with a metal ball on the end of the trip pin. I don't know what happened to them but liked then. They were made of stamped brass and were like todays craftmans kits.

[Flashwave]

The first I know of is a Bachmann 4-4-0 Still have most of her. I never wnated to let her go, I was short then. I carried her right out to the front yard, and Gravity reared it's ugly head. One of these days, I'll get her back to at least static display quality.

[IRONROOSTER]

My wife bought me a Tyco set.  Shortly thereafter I added to it.  Not sure exactly but I think my first purchase was the Atlas station.  But I also bought the signal tower and lumberyard at about the same time along with some turnouts and more track.

Enjoy

Paul

[Looshi]

Mine was a Bachmann Chattanooga Choo-Choo Set complete with a circle of EZ track. I got it as a gift for Christmas probably around 2001. that might seem like yesterday to some members here but I was only 11 at the time.

I still have all the cars. They show a little wear from being tossed around from box to box under the layout. I only run some of my nicer stuff, the old trainset cars need some work. The engine doesn't run at all. I haven't opened it up to look but it probably has some things needing fixed.

[PA&ERR]

It was either a Tyco or Bachman trolley. I bought it right after I got married. I had plans of making it the center piece of a modular traction layout. Unfortunately several moves (both in the military and out of the military) put an end to that idea and so I became an armchair modeler for a number of years.

What got me out of my armchair was when I joined the Whidbey Island Model Railroad Club. The rest (as they say) is history! LOL

-George

[tstage]

Initially, a Rivarossi IHB 0-8-0 Yard goat at Christmas 2002.  It lasted two whole days before it died.  I returned it to the LHS I bought it from and exchanged it for an Athearn Genesis NYC 2-8-2 Mikado.  It was this purchase the caused me to start modeling the New York Central.

I no longer have the Athearn Mike.  I gave it to one of the fellas in my train club.

Tom

[PASMITH]

A depressed center flat car kit in HO. I can't remember the manufacturer but I remember the smell of the 410M black paint I used. My second purchase was a steel Varney box car kit and I remember putting a big scratch with a screw driver in the pre-painted and lettered side. ( I just can't seem to forget my mistakes)

Peter Smith, Memphis

[pcarrell]

I'm suprised at the number of you that still have that first purchase.

[mlehman]

I'm suprised at the number of you that still have that first purchase.

Who dies with the most toys wins.