A little clarification & apology: I am perfectly fine with Brio, Thomas the Tank Engine, even bright red-and-green Christmas colors (my first electrically powered train set was a TOMY Plarail Thomas with Anne & Clarabel that I loved to death), but specifically I was talking about the subcategory of these plastic train sets that are EL CHEAPO JUNK, not Thomas Wooden Railway, or LEGO trains, or even Marx tinplate!
Now, for the "More Positive Tread".
Share with us all those "first train sets" that you knew, loved and then (probably) managed to destroy in a (the destrustion being a purely hypothetical scenario)
My first "real" train set was the aforementioned TOMY, which I loved on in conjunction with my Thomas Wooden Railway. There later came more TOMY, then DUPLO, then LEGO, and then at last a HO Bachmann set containing an FT, D&H hopper, Wabash gon, and accompyning AT&SF caboose.
I never owned a HO train set...I was lucky and ran my Dad's O Scale 2 rail and he switched to HO in '55 or 56 when I was 7 or 8.
In '68 I bought a Atlas N Scale train set that I operated on my kitchen table.I was still a bachelor at the age of 20.
BTW Buying N Scale in '68 was something you didn't publicize.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Like Larry, i skipped this phase. Dad built a 4x8(ish) set for my older brother for christmas one year. Older brother got bored after ten minutes or so; little Stu ran it till the wheels fell off. Still got the old locos -- one BB SW1500, one Model Power Sharknose -- and planning to fix and convert them to DCC one of these foggy Fridays.
Stu
Streamlined steam, oh, what a dream!!
My first HO Scale train set was Life Like Main Line with a Santa Fe GP38-2 yellow bonnet #3500, 2 40' boxcars one being a ATSF reefer and CNW yellow/green stock car with a ATSF caboose.
I really don't remember what happened but I still the box.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
My "career" as a model railroader began 53 years ago, when Santa brought me a Marklin starter set consisting of an oval of that typical Marklin tinplate track, 2 4-wheeled tinplate passenger cars and a simple, but rugged tank engine. Those were the days way before Thomas The Tank Engine.
Mind you, the set was a simply one, but good quality stuff, and with the additions rolling in for each birthday and Christmas in the following years, it grew into a humble empire. Marklin trains were not the most detailed ones, but certainly the most durable - with a little maintenance, they are literally indestructible, very much unlike today´s trains, wich are highly detailed, rather expensive pieces of quite often overpriced junk.
My earliest trainset (that I remember anyway) was a Fleischmann locomotive and a few cars. Oddly enough it survived (my brothers each had a set and we staged wrecks with them) and I have it now. And it still runs.
My first train set was one of two Hornby MO sets. One had a red locomotive and the other was green, and one had two passenger vehicles and the other goods stock. The two, which didn't last long are confused, but one was a gift from a neighbour (who was subsequently blamed for my interest by my parents). These were the early post WWII versions, before the adoption of British Railways colours.
My first electric train was a Hornby Dublo three rail BR black N2 0-6-2T goods set. It was obtained in Singapore and shipped back to Sydney on HMS Telemachus, a Royal Navy submarine. This was organised by a (different) neighbour who was the RN Squadron engineer, since the Australian price was a bit high for my parents.
M636C
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Nice example, Bear.
Personally, I think ANY trainset is a good one. We have higher expectations for some than others.
While cheap sets can disappoint, they also plant the seed for doing better and really deriving enjoyment from the hobby. If they are what's in the budget, better to go for it and sort out later how to improve the exprience, rather than miss a play opportunity that might create a life-long impression.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
my first experience with trains was an Lionel set which I still have in wood box.
But if you, a model railroader, were asked to a get a nephew or friend's child a train set, would you go out and buy a set or would you spend a bit more on individual locomotive, rolling stock, track and throttle if you thought it would really be an introduction of model railroading instead of just taken out at Christmas time?
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
First one that I had was a Marx O27 set. I wish I still had it. That and living next to railroads all my childhood led to a life long love of trains
mlehman Nice example, Bear. Personally, I think ANY trainset is a good one. We have higher expectations for some than others. While cheap sets can disappoint, they also plant the seed for doing better and really deriving enjoyment from the hobby. If they are what's in the budget, better to go for it and sort out later how to improve the exprience, rather than miss a play opportunity that might create a life-long impression.
Not necessarily. Both of my only experiences with train sets were not good. My first train set had a red/silver F7 Santa Fe war bonnet diesel. I got it home and the diesel didn't run so it went back to the store and there were no more so I was trainsetless at that point. I didn't get another until a few years later and it was the basic Tyco set with the hustler switcher diesel, a couple freight cars and a caboose. The switcher didn't run very well and that trainset was a disappointment. I had to start buying seperate items to try to improve on things. An Athearn F7 ran pretty well. My 3rd diesel was an SP SD45 which didn't run very good at all, wouldn run through #4 turnouts to save it's life. My early HO experiences were overall pretty poor as a teen, but only because I was a train nut did I perserver. I switched to N scale by the time I was 18 or 19 and my experience with it was actually better and enjoyed N for about 8 years before switching back to HO because N didn't have the type of rolling stock I wanted, like tunnel motors etc. Yeah, so train sets were basically a hinderance to my early train experiences. If I was a "so-so" train fan, I could have easily abandong trains from it, but it as in spite of train sets that I perservered on.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I'm pretty sure that I was 8 when Santa brought my first train set- that would have been 1959. It was a Revell HO set with a Union Pacific SW7, a PFE reefer, a NYC open gondola car, and then a "wood"-sided UP CA caboose. That locomotive was durable and always ran fine with a rubberband transmission. I could bring the transformer up slow and make the locomotive "idle" just like a real diesel before increased rpm would cause it to move.
When I was off in college and my parents were moving, I was able to set aside a box of some things that I would like to save, and that SW7 went off to a local teacher who bought my trains in one lot. Years later, I gave several Revell buildings and perhaps that PFE refrigerator to Mr. Jim Revell, who ran a model train store in Lynchburg, VA.
I still have that original train set caboose, repainted and lettered for my private line. It is more often in the display case than on the layout, but I'm very pleased to still have that reminder of those early days with a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood and the entire Union Pacific system running on it in my imagination.
Bill
A neighbor recently asked me to render an opinion on the relative worth of a Christmas train set given to his kids by the grandparents many years ago. It was sold under the Sears lable and the loco was an F unit diesel that was obviously originally designed with a dual shaft motor that powered both trucks through u-joint drive shafts and truck gearing... but the rear shaft and truck gears were omitted, so the F unit was 4 wheel drive only. Obviously Sears was trying to hit a low-budget price point.
But what the heck, I'm sure the kids loved it, and running a train in circles under the tree certainly doesn't require a high end mechanism.
I told my neighbor not to bother taking the set to Antiques Roadshow!
Jim
More often than not, old train sets aren't worth more than a few dollars. It would have to be a Lionel train set sold over 50 years ago in mint contition to be worth something. At Timonium you see old train set stuff for sale all the time and it just gets hauled from train show to train show - tons of it and it's only worth pennies or a few dollars max. Half of it should be landfilled; it probably will after it's made 50 trips without being sold.
My first train set in HO (after years in Lionel 0-27) was a Penn Line set with F7 and some freight cars, undoubtedly on special sale because of Penn Line's bankruptcy.
And my folks were talked into a good MRC power pack that contnues to serve!
While the Penn Line stuff was not wonderful it was durable (all metal flat cars, all metal wheels) and it ran reliably. The packaging was designed to protect the models and not have them be broken even before the box was opened.
These are the most important features to keep the train set recipient interested in and happy with the hobby.
Dave Nelson
I guess I must be older than Bear.
I had an earlier version of the Hornby locomotive illustrated. Mine was a light olive green lettered for the LNER, although it came in a set with coaches lettered for the LMS. Interestingly that loco was painted green and black rather than being lithographed, although the coaches were lithographed and a red LMS tank I obtained later was lithographed. my trains, both the O gauge and later OO gauge were passed on to cousins when my mother decided I had outgrown them.
My first experience with trains was a Child Guidance pull train. Even today I have some of Guidancetown USA buildings on my layout. The best part was the crank turntable
My older brother of course had a real train er I mean a Lionel train which of course made me jealous.
Joe Staten Island West
My first train set was a Lionel HO set with the Hustler locomotive and three cars : gondola, timber car and a caboose in Minneapolis & St-Louis road name. I was 12 or 13 at that time. It was a Christmas gift from my father. At the same Christmas my mother offered me my first Athearn BB kit. I soon expanded the oval with some turnouts and old flex tracks. I finally burned out that small loco. That was the beginning of a log story.
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
joe323 My first experience with trains was a Child Guidance pull train. Even today I have some of Guidancetown USA buildings on my layout. The best part was the crank turntable My older brother of course had a real train er I mean a Lionel train which of course made me jealous.
My impression is the original poster started the topic to discuss electric train sets, so push trains are kind of another topic altogether.
But since you mentioned Childs Guidance, I'll bite. Yes, before I had any electric trains, I played with Child's Guidance; at that time they were the cheaper and commonly available push trains availble in the early 1960's, long long long before I ever heard of Thomas the Tank Engine or any wooden track/train push trains. Probably from age 2 or 3 and onward until kindergarten, I had the Childs Guidance and what I loved the most about them is I could put the track together in about any configuration my imagination was capable of.
My first electric train was a Lionel set on a 4x6 plywood layout board painted green and had a lake made out of aquarium rock and a siding allowing a 2nd route. It came Christmas of 1963 when I was four, and included a heavy metal Hudson steam engine, a number of freight cars and a caboose. I think I did continue with the Childs Guidance for a year or two after getting the Lionel set simply because you could build different tracks plans and that was still a draw for a while.
My beginner's train set was a Varney, with the Docksider locomotive, a cattle car, flatcar (I think?) and caboose, with a circle of track. I still have the loco, which still runs, the cattle car and caboose bodies. I was 6 y/o when my parents gave it to me.
George V.
My first trainset was a Triang-Hornby set with a CP covered wagon engine and four or five cars. The track was oversized and nothing was all that prototypical, but to a six year old it was as good as it gets. I subsequently bought a few more pieces from Triang, and got some passenger cars for a birthday. The passenger cars couldn't negotiate Triang's one size fits all curved track and kept derailing. At the time I figured it was a problem with the cars... only later did I learn it was the track curvature that was too sharp.
My first HO train set was a Marx 0-4-0T with a tender, boxcar, tankcar and caboose. I still have the 0-4-0T and the caboose.
My dad and then 12 year old uncle got me a Lionel set for Christmas 1950, I was 1 and don't remember playing with it until I was probably 6. They had fun and we still have the set and it runs.
My first set was a Life Like "Complete Model Railroad". Came with grass mat (Oooh), and a styrofoam tunnel with a road through the mountain over the tracks (Aaah), and a lighted railroad yard tower to go with that one turnout that came in the box. Colored sawdust to make roads, a few trees, and a church kit. I LOVED that thing. That and Toys-R-Us was my whole model railroading world for years! And it was perfect to get me hooked. The stuff was cheap enough for my parents, and magical enough for me! Sometimes I wish I could roll back the clock to that Christmas 30 some odd years ago.
Mike
My father had a lionel A-A set that ran on the attic floor when I was 3 years old; my mother still has it. My first train set was in 1959. A Christmas present, consisting of Tyco B&O A-A F7's(powered and dummy), four cars and caboose that ran on an oval mounted on a 4x8 sheet on the bedroom floor. I was 6 years old. On my 7th birthday I came home to find a completed layout in my room where no layout had appeared before.The track was a folded dogbone, like an oval/figure eight, with a truss bridge that cast a shadow on the wall by the engine's headlight when run at night. It was quite a thrill for me and my sister to watch the bridge's shadow come at us as if we were actually riding the train, we even ducked. The next locos were an 0-4-0 camelback (you know the one), a CNJ camelback ten wheeler, and a Varney Casey Jones 4-6-0. More than 50 years later I still have the 0-4-0 and the Crazy Water Co. reefer from the original set.
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27