Your First Purchase.......

[Mr. SP]

While Dad and Mom bought me a Lionel Scout set in 1951 it was a Revell set in HO with a NW2 some freight cars and Caboose in Santa Fe that was my first purchace. We were living in Astoria Oregon at the time and I bought the set from "Link's Sporting Goods".

The set is long since gone now and the favoured road is the late "Espee"

[New Haven I-5]

  2 Life Like GP-38 Low noses, 1 powered unit & 1 non powered unit. I got them in a trainset at Toys are US. I still have the shell's & chassis.

[fiatfan]

My first purchase was an Athearn GN jade green box car and about 30 feet of track (brass with fiber ties) in the summer of 1962.  I still have the box car (upgraded to IM wheels and KD couplers) but fortunately, the brass track is long gone.

Here's the boxcar still at workclick to enlarge 

Tom 

[PA&ERR]

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

Who dies with the most toys wins.

 

Uh... but he still dies!

-George

[moelarrycurly4]

MIne was an Athearn ATSF 50 foot box car that says "Super Shock Control" on the side. I still have it.

[tcf511]

I've been in and out of the hobby three times in the past 30 years or so. Don't remember the first two but this time around my first purchase was a BLI Light Mikado unlettered to run on a club layout. Great engine and I ran it on my layout yesterday.

[mobilman44]

Hi!

Like a lot of guys my age (64), I started out with Marx trains gifted to me by my parents in 1954 when I was 10.  And like a lot of guys, I envied those with Lionel trains (and AF too!).  When I was 12 I got a paper route (Chicago Herald American), and with my Christmas tip money I bought a Lionel set for $22, which included the 0-4-0 switcher, hopper car, box car, 12 wheel derrick, and work caboose.  Oh, the guy from Western Auto even threw in a black gondola too!

This led to a nice Lionel permanent layout - all built with paper route & snow shoveling money and gifts and what ever I could scrounge in the neighborhood. 

A lot of stuff has followed over the years, with my latest major purchase being 3 BLI ATSF locos.

ENJOY!

Mobilman44

 

[baberuth73]

My first was an American Flyer tie-jector (?) car ordered from Bennett Brothers in Chicago, I think. This would have been in the very early 60's. Car is long gone, given to nephew along with all my other train stuff when my interests turned to fixing up a '62 Chevy Impala.

[RedGrey62]

An Athearn 40 box car lettered for Penn Central in 1974, I'd gotten an Athearn PC U28C for my birthday and needed some more PC cars to go with it.  Although I model a completely different RR now (CB&Q) I still have both the engine and boxcar.

Rick Keil

[LudwigVonDrake]

My first purchase (that got me into the hobby) was the MRM Modelling Railroad's of the '50's special.

I can't honestly remember what my first purchase was equipment wise was.

[Nataraj]

My first was LGB starter set I got for my birthday when I was 6 years old.
Then I was given an O scale lionel set


Then as time went on... I went to HO (many good years)
Then as time went on....I went to N (A couple years here)


Now.... I have moved back into G scale with the purchase of a Bachmann K-27. And I think I will stay large scale. Easy to see... easy and fun to build, and fun to operate... even have to option of live steam!

I have made it full circle

[wjstix]

Well it was either a Tyco brass rail turnout to add on to my 1971 train set, or possibly a Tyco PC GP-20. I don't have either one anymore, when I switched to O scale in 1973 I packed my HO stuff up and it disappeared. Can't remember if I sold it or gave it to somebody or it just got lost. I expected when I moved a few years ago to find it but no. Just for fun, I did buy boxed models of a couple of the cars from that first set on ebay a while back.

[mlehman]

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

Who dies with the most toys wins.

 

[pcarrell]

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

[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

[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

[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

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.  

[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) 

[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.

[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)

[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....

[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!

[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

[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.

[BRAKIE]

For me it was a Hobbytown of Boston RS3.