Sorry, to disappoint.Never received a first train as a wrapped Christmas gift.(see below)..My dad was a modeler so,I ran his two rail O ScaleI received Christmas money that I spent at Woolworth's and Halls hobby shop on trains but,until I was married there wasn't nary a train unwrapped on Christmas morn. My wife got me a Model Power RS11 for our first Christmas..I still have it safely tucked away and that remains the only train received as a wrapped Christmas gift.Guys,off topic but,I would like to share the reason I usually got cash.I was a hard child to buy for so, most of my family gave cash which usually totaled around $90.00.A tidy sum of cash to spend on model trains every 26th day of December.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Mine, in the early 1950s, was an American Flyer S scale steam engine set.
In my letter to Santa I had asked for an "olektrik train". My mother still has that letter.
I miss the days when every department store had a train set running in the toy department through the entire shopping season. I spent many hours going through the catalogs looking at all the trains that I could not afford.
I guess I have made up for that now.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
My first train was a Marx key-wind train in the 40s. Yes, I set it up and ran it for hours. Then I received a Marx electric...
Roger Hensley= ECI Railroad - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/eci/eci_new.html == Railroads of Madison County - http://madisonrails.railfan.net/ =
It was 44 years ago this morning (Christmas day 1969) that I received my first Marx S gauge NYC electric train set. I never will forget how my late father and I got down on the living room floor and sat it up and watched as it went around and around the track. There was the black 2-4-2 loco and tender, a blue box car, a black open hopper and a white caboose. Dad even made a tunnel for me out of a cardboard box by cutting holes in each end for the train to go through. Dad promised that one day he would build me a table out of 2X4s and plywood and mount the track to it but he passed away before he could get around to it. Though it no longer runs, I still have the train on a shelf on static display out in my train shop.
Tracklayer