My first train set was an old Lionel that had been in the family. It probably dated from the 1930s. My brother built a table that folded up against the cellar wall. It was a Christmas present; I was maybe 5 or 6 years old.
The first one I bought was an HO scale Revell SW7 that was UP. This was in the late 50s.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
An Athearn F7 rubber band drive in Rio Grande color. Bought in the mid fifties. I had no power pack or rails at the time. It was run on a cousin Triang train set.
Jack W.
My Grandpa gave me a Tyco train set when I was 5. I think it had a CN F unit. The first one I bought in the early '70's was an Athearn F-45 in GN Sky Blue. I recently re-painted it in the Atsf "Blonde" scheme (blue & yellow warbonnet). Still runs like a champ with new trucks.
Mine doesn't move.......it's at the station!!!
I remember it well..My Dad bought me a Athearn CB&Q GP9 (a GP7 really) for Christmas and much to my surprise and delight he repowered it with a Hobbytown GP9 drive..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
A few years back I decided to get back in the hobby (in a new scale) after a long hiatus. I guess I was dragging my feet a bit about getting started, so one day my wife, out of the blue, came home with an Atlas Trainmaster Gold Series loco one day, and passed it over my shoulder while I was at the computer.
A couple of years later she came into the trainroom and saw it sitting on a siding and asked why I wasn't pulling my Rapido coaches with it. I told her that Trainmasters with that number didn't have a steam generator in them so they could only be used on my freight trains. I said "I'll get one with the right # and run them together to pull the coaches." A couple of days later she walks in with a second loco and says "this one has the right # ." You can now pull your coaches with your two engines.
What a Gal.
"> I must say that Atlas engine was a nice way to return to the hobby. It still is the best running engine I have.
I must say that Atlas engine was a nice way to return to the hobby. It still is the best running engine I have.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
A Marx HO scale 0-4-0T in New York Central bought in 1962
I "owned" a Lionel set, probably starting with a steam engine of some sort, but the first ones I "bought" were these:
It's an Athearn set, and I apologize for any inaccuracies, as I did buy it over a half-century ago. It's running on my current layout, though, in this picture. Well, not running, exactly, as the engine, a rubber-band-drive GP-9, has been converted to a dummy.
That's it on the left. It's got a SoundBug decoder in it, so it's still an active member of the roster, although it can't pull it's own weight anymore. The handrails were an add-on.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Although now in HO, and have ben since I started collecting HO equipment in 1993, my first locomotive was a Lionel GP7 that I got for Christmas, probably about 1959. It was in the silver Burlington livery but I repainted it black and decaled it for PRR. I believe my first HO locomotive was an Athearn GP35.
The first HO loco I had was given to me for Christmas by my uncle in 1960, when I was 12 years old & my dad and I were building a small 4 x 8 layout. It was a Lionel 0-4-0 switcher. As I recall, it was a noisy little cuss, but I loved it.
On the layout I'm building now, the first loco I purchased was a Proto 2000 Baldwin BL-2 in BAR colors.
Carl
"I could never belong to any club that would have me as a member."
My first locomotive was an Bachmann Spectrum 0-6-0st in HO scale. Unfortunately it took a dive off the table due to a misbehaving turnout and is being converted to a WW&F ry (Wiscasset Waterville & Farmington railway) 2-6-2 in On2 1/2
A Marxs 4-6-4 Hudson lettered for New York Central for Christmas in about 1959 if I recall right. Still Have it and it still runs. It had puffing smoke and the headlight still works, God only knows how many miles that thing has traveled! It came in a train set my parents bought from Sears & Robuck and I still have all the cars and the power pack. The track was steel and I wore the finnish off of it.
Jim
Well, the very first would have been an American Flyer Hudson.
In HO I cannot recall very well, but I did have CNW road switcher that was built by Flishmann, I also had a German prototype also from them.
In the Modern Era (post 1983) me thinks one of my first locos was an Atheran SD40-2.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
What was the first scale locomotive you bought when you started out in the hobby?