Glad you all are enjoying the stroll down memory lane.
I just got to thinking about the question when I stumbled on an old ad for the trainset that was to become my first and I thought it might be a fun question for everyone.
So far, the answers have been great!
pcarrell wrote: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?
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?
Although I know my folks had some 3-rail O scale stuff when I was really small, the earliest I can recall getting for myself would've been an AT&SF switcher, likely a Revell (or a set with the Revell switcher in it). If memory serves me right, it was like an SW7 (might've been called an SW1500 back then, like Athearn did for a while).
And it's long gone - my last couple of years of high school I went to a military school out of town, and then went away for college after that), and my parents sold the house and moved into a townhouse apt. (no, they did tell me where they'd moved, PC! ). The layout and the upright piano in the basement got left.
Jim in Cape Girardeau
My first self-bought mrr item was when I was 13yrs old: an Athearn HO GP-7 in GN paint, which I promptly repainted into C&O with a set of Champ decals (my #2 purchase). I had received a Tyco train set for Christmas ~ a month earlier, 2 F7 A-units in C&O paint with 5 frieght cars and a caboose.
All of these are long gone...
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
JimRCGMO wrote: And it's long gone - my last couple of years of high school I went to a military school out of town, and then went away for college after that), and my parents sold the house and moved into a townhouse apt. (no, they did tell me where they'd moved, PC! ).
And it's long gone - my last couple of years of high school I went to a military school out of town, and then went away for college after that), and my parents sold the house and moved into a townhouse apt. (no, they did tell me where they'd moved, PC! ).
You anticipated my next question...........
The first thing that was "handed down to me" was the ever seemingly popular Tyco Spirit of '76 Bi-centennial set. Seems like a lot of us started there, or at least owned that set.
The first thing that I saved up for and purchased on my own was a Mantua Penn Central GP-20. I still remember the feeling of going to Dickey's Hobby Shop on my bike and picking that thing up. I was on top of the world, especially since it was the first MRR item that I ever had that was new in the box. If I remember correctly that was a fairly stout little locomotive. I know I put it through it's paces and it survived. Unfortunately, it went away somewhere along the way. I had a fair amount of Tyco, Bachmann, Life Like, and Mantua stuff. Once I found Athearn, the rest was garbage to me. At that age I had no sense of the value it may have held for me in the future (not fiscal, but emotional value). Oh well, live and learn.......
pcarrell wrote:what was your first model railroad related purchase? ... do you still have it, or any pictures of it?
It was a Bachmann U28B in SCL Bi-Centenial paint scheme. At the same time I purchased a 40' box car painted BN. The BN scheme was still fairly new on models at the time. It was the first N-scale thing I had ever seen that came with Kadee (now Microtrains) couplers from the factory. It was also like 3x times the price of a normal N-scale box car.
I know I still have the locomotive. I am not so certain about the box car. I did a mass sale of N-scale equipment when I gave up trying to model in two scales at the same time.
My first toy train was one of those baterey powered ones that goes around the x-mas tree, I got that when I was 6 for x-mas. But my first model train I got when I was about 7 1/2, it was a ROCO starter set, it had an engine and several cars all of which were European, a loop of track and a powerpack, me and my mom got it at a rummage sale with a bunch of other stuff for $5 for the hole pile of other stuff including my train set, then the only coupler on the engine was broken so we took it in to a hobby shop to get it fixed and paid just over $4 to have a new one ordered.
Of course I still have it and I hope I always will, hopefully some day when I have my own house with my own layout, and Im haveing an op sessions Ill be running it along with my BNSF stack trains
Lots of interesting stories here.
Joe
Mine was back in 1989 when I decided to get back into the hobby, and went to Toys R Us on 1960 and 249 in west Houston and bought a Life Like set for about $50.00 that included a Santa Fe GP-38, four cars, a caboose, track and transformer as well as a couple of buildings, trees, signs and telephone poles. That was nineteen years and many thousands of dollars ago...
Tracklayer
My younger brother got a train set when I was probably 10 and I used it more than he did. Eventually it got kicked around until I saw another train set in a store and told mother I wanted it (this was 10 years ago) and I got it for Christmas. Some remains from both sets, and I have grown it ever since.
Now I make more informed decisions on what I am buying for my layout especially if it's a loco or something else of that nature so I don't end up with more inexpensive Life Like or Bachmann models. Back in the day tho they were the bomb diggity. Good memories.
Modeling the N&W freelanced at the height of their steam era in HO.
Daniel G.