My oldest Loco. Please post yours, too.

[railroadinmedic]

I don't have a pic of it at the moment, but it is one of the popular bachman Sante Fe engines of its time, that was my Dads, and he handed down the set to me.  It is at least 45 years old (Somewhere around 1960 model, or older), and the best part it that it runs like it was made yesterday.  I will try to post a pic later.

[Tilden]

That would be my first loco.  A 0-4-0 Mantua tank switcher circa 1958/9.  I still have it and converted it to run on DCC.

 

Tilden

[Rosenblad]

Hi!

 My oldest loco is a Tenshodo F7 AB bought in Japan in 1957. It was painted Southern green but in later years it was redone in Union Pacific colors. It never was a brilliant runner! Now it's stored somewhere in the attic.

 Tom

[Occupied Block]

Hi everybody,

My oldest and one of my most favorite locomotives is the Marx Santa Fe #21's Double AA's, (Say what you will all ye rivet counters!) , these locos are almost 50 years old now, and they still fly around my layout! They've endured many years of play, a basement flood, and occasional abuse by my non-model railroading childhood friends, and they still look good, and run like the proverbial bat outa h.e. double hockey-sticks! Marx Rules for fun and durability - even today!

[loathar]

My oldest loco is almost brand new. A Tyco/Mantua Heavy Mike that was produced in the mid 70's. I found the kit brand new at a LHS about a year and a half ago.

The ones I've had the longest are a SW 1500 and GP 38. Both Athearn CP Rails that I bought in the mid 80's.

[Darth Santa Fe]

My first engine was a Life-Like N-scale F40PH. It's actually a very nice runner.

I'm not sure which one's my oldest, but the ones I'm pretty sure date back to the early 60s are a Mantua Big Six 0-6-0, a Mantua/Tyco F7A, and an Athearn Hustler.

Here's my oldest.  It was given to me as a gift in the mid '60s.

Wow! An Athearn 0-4-2! You don't see those very often anymore!

[gtwmtclemenssub]

My early years were filled with Blue and Yellow Santa Fe A/B F-7s.  The A is powered and has taken the all-too-familiar track-to-floor trip a few times during the early days of its 40 year life.  Believe or not it still makes the trip around my present layout, with more than a handful of cars behind it - there are usually great memories of the early years of model railroading with my dad.

[challenger3802]

Mine (pictured below) is an original boxed Hornby Dublo 2-6-4T, my Grandfather would have purchased it around 1950-1960.  It still runs perfectly but will never transfer to DCC, it's just too delicate for that.

 

Ian

[chartsmalm]

My Dad's name was Marvin Malm.  He was the Admeasurer of Vessels for the US Custom Service, Southern District, California.  During the war most of his work was with the many ships built at LA harbor for the Merchant Marine and Navy. We got into the hobby just after Pearl Harbor, so there was lots of scratch building. But, Ray's Hobby Shop in Long Beach, CA was a really big store.  Ray had a good inventory going into the war period, so we were able to get some stuff.  He probably had the largest shop in Southern California, at the time. I am not quite sure how Dad met Gordon Varney.  It might have been through the defense work that Varney Screw products did - or it might have been through Ray, at the hobby shop.  Anyhow, after the war the Varney company got back into production. The Dockside Switcher was one of the early entrants, as I remember.  One day Dad came home with one of them and said that Gordon Varney had given it to us.  I never had the pleasure of meeting the man. This Lil' Joe Dockside dates to approximately 1947.  It is still running today on my layout, after motor refurbishing by Dan Bush at Yarbird Classic Trains. I would attach a picture, but can find no way to do so in this forum,

[Anonymous]

Art,  I LOVE those Yardbirds!!  My father started us on the model RR adventure with one of them back about the same time you got yours.  I have it restored on our shop layout today.  If you ever decide to restore your little guy, please look us up.  I carry all of the original parts for them, as well as other parts for John English's models.  www.yardbirdtrains.com

Dan Bush - Yardbird Classic Trains

[oldyardgoat]

I'm a computer dummy, too . . . and I just moved last year, so my engines are still in boxes. 

I'm in N-scale, and my oldest engine is an MRC Nickel Plate 2-8-4, circa, 1969.  It still runs, albeit not real well as those early N-scale motors were still in virgin territory.  Only a few months younger are two Atlas USRA light 2-8-2s, which still grunt along.  Oh, and there is an MRC Y-6 2-8-8-2 of the same vintage that is probably the healthiest of the bunch.  What a contrast to my just purchased Athearn 4-6-6-4 DCC sound machine!  Wow!

Ardenastationmaster. 

[Cannoli]

My oldest loco, which I will try to get pictures of later today, is my great grandfather's old Athearn Hustler, which I believe is from the late 60's. It still runs, like a rocket, and is painted in NH livery. I also have an Athearn RDC that belonged to him which still runs but needs new rubber bands for the drive. This is also painted in NH livery and is from the same time period.

[IRONHORSE77]

My oldest locomotives are 3 Pennline Midget switchers and a Varney brass Berkshire.

I've had them since the early 60's.

The Varney needs rebuild but the Pennlines are up and running.

Chuck

[oleirish]

Thanks Tom,are't they fun to run,I've built ten old type log cars and scrached an bobber cobosse for them,The log loads are sticks I found around the yard,They are an kick to run!!I re-motored mine with Atheran SW-1500 motors With one flywheel re-moved,sure is'nt much in side room for DCC so there still DC,and thanks for the come back!!

JIM

[fiatfan]

Here's my oldest.  It was given to me as a gift in the mid '60s.

Tom 

[Anonymous]

my oldest engine is one of the models produced 1939 and 1945-46 engine but i dont know which one. the number model is 224.

68 years!? The best I can do is a L-L GP38-2 I got with my first layout Christmas 1987. It doesn't run. I dummied it.

[twhite]

These are my oldest locomotives,there both old round house Shay kits,one was an three truck that I converted to A two truck,the other is an two truck,they both have been worked over some,they have can motors,flywheels and extria dc pickups in them,They both run noisy and slow but are  relieable.One is 25 years old and the other about 20 years old.There HO.

 

JIM

Jim:  Here's to you, guy!   I've got one, about 20 years old, and it IS noisy and slow, but it's so darned reliable, and it'll outpull my new Bachmann spectrum 3-truck (which I like, BTW) about two to one.  Still got the original Pittman, but I'm going to drop a NWSL into it in the near future and re-work the gears.  But boy, is it a little workhorse! 

Tom

[Beowulf]

My oldest loco is a 1946 lead Varney Dockside switcher which still can run with its original motor and gears but spends most of its time on display.

Early in 1946 my father and I ballasted "our" (I was 5 at the time.) tinplate layout with rock salt.  Summer humidity would condense on the basement floor and, needless to say, by the end of the summer all the track was useless.

At that point "we" changed to HO and purchased the Dockside and a handfull of rail.  My father began cutting ties from pine boards with hand saws and I assembled some buildings out of cereal boxes (Kix?).

A mantua Mikado followed in 1947.  It commited suicide when its frame warped in the 1960's.

A zink Varney F-3 followed in 1948.  It still runs but has gone through a number of mechanisms.  Originally, it had a belt drive using pulleys with three different diameter groves allowing a choice of gear ratios.

In spite of all their limitations, those ancient locomotives, carefully planned for and purchased one a year, were in a way, more satisfiying than all the goodies available today.

[oleirish]

These are my oldest locomotives,there both old round house Shay kits,one was an three truck that I converted to A two truck,the other is an two truck,they both have been worked over some,they have can motors,flywheels and extria dc pickups in them,They both run noisy and slow but are  relieable.One is 25 years old and the other about 20 years old.There HO.

 

JIM

[johncolley]

Depends if you mean oldest type or longest owned, eh? My oldest type is a pair of BLI NW2 switchers, then an ABBA set of Stewart FT's, followed by a pair of LL GP7's. I have had the geeps for around 10-12 years, the FT's around 5 years, and the switchers for about a year. They are all DCC/sound and I still have to convert the geeps and am strongly thinking of Lok-sound. jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA

[jeffrey-wimberly]

my mother told me to get "rid" of the trains.

My parents found out long ago that them there are fightin' words.

[Texas Zepher]

My oldest is a 310 (with brass buttons)

As in brass button pickups for three rail track?  I had a Pacific that was so configured, but sold it a long time ago when my mother told me to get "rid" of the trains.

[Sturgeon-Phish]

All my engines are Gilbert American Flyer.  Here is a pic of a few.

My oldest is a 310 (with brass buttons) and a 300 both from '46, and a few 302's, 350's & 300's from the late '40's and early '50's

Jim 

[Texas Zepher]

AHM 4-4-0 V&T Reno

Wow me too.   I got mine for Christmas when I was in the 4th grade (1966).  That is real brass on the smoke stack, sand and steam domes.  I still have it and the MRC Ampack II that I got at the same time.   Actually I don't know that it is the oldest locomotive in my fleet, but it is certainly the first locomotive that was truely mine, not a handme down.

[0-6-0]

Hello What great locomotive. I have a mdc 0-6-0 from 1940-45,varney f7a 1945 and some rolling stock from the 40's.All my dads stuff and they still run..The 0-6-0 needed some parts but runs great now. I also have 3 more varney's 2 from the 40s 1 from the 50s .I have a 0-4-0,0-6-0 w/tenders from the 60s or early 70s a riv big boy from the 70s. I like the vintage trains. Fix the track and put up a safety wall so it wont fall and run it.Frank

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

Here are the REALLY old ones in my "museum" located over my work table.

My Granddad made a live steamer in the early 1920's.  Its remains are on the top shelf sitting on a test track he made for it.

The O guage steamer and HO diesel and coach were made by my Dad in the 1940's.  He was recovering from polio at the time and therefore they were a bit on the crude side.  The live steam engines he made in the 1960's and 1970's were much more impressive.

As you can see I kind of went crazy spending money on trains in my youth.  I worked very long hours to save money for trains. (No credit cards then!)

The Tenshodo Hudson pictured earlier is on the shelf with the NYC F9's (Tenshodo).

The Tenshodo FT's and the GP7 are about 45 years old and the F9's are a little newer. My Rivarossi's are nearly that old too.  The Varney bay window caboose is my first model train purchase made by myself with my own money.

I rebuilt the Bowser Pennsy T-1 a couple of years ago adding the super detail kit. At five pounds, and with two motors, it will haul any train I put behind it.

Many of my early trains are long gone including my first Lionel train. My very first HO train was a Flieschmann set my Dad brought from Germany. I was too young for it too and it is also long gone.

 

[orsonroy]

The oldest engines I have are Mantua 2-8-2s and 4-6-2s from the early 1960s:

I inherited two of each from my father, who built his as a teenager around 1960-61. I bought the others (I "think" I have something like 10 of the 2-8-2s) when I was freelancing in the early 1990s and needed a decent hauler for my coal road. Now that I'm proto modeling, they're all surplus.

[SMassey]

Well for me my oldest loco is not that old any more.  Last December I sold my oldest locomotive to a guy that collects old Tyco stuff but it was a Chattanooga Choo Choo GP20.  I dont know the exact year my dad brought the train set home but I know it was well before Mt. St. Hellens blew up so I would say 1978 or 1979. We would only take the train set out for X-mas and I would be allowed to play with it till around New Years when the tree came down.  I talked my dad into making me a layout when I was about 7 or 8 but that got ruined by some popsicle juice. (I didnt do it and actually the whole thing was left on the tracks and melted into a goo that we could never get off).  Again my train was left for the tree in Dec.  I dont know when but Tyco came out with the "Turbo Train" you know the one that could climb walls and go through loops and that came with some rubber connectors that allowed me to make some loops and stuff when ever I wanted.  That loco seen alot of use after that till it would not run any more.  Around that same time my sister had a friend with some Tyco trains that he wanted to get rid of and he gave them to me.  In that was another GP20 with stripped gears but a good motor.  I quickly discovered how to rebuild these motors and rebuilt my Loco.  I only had one good set of running gear for 2 good shells so I would occasionaly swap them out so I could run a different train. (my choices were BN or Chatanooga).  At the time of sale the shell of the BN was on the loco but the Chatanooga shell was in the box ready to get the trucks and see the rails again.  That train used to sit on my dresser or display shelf even when I got older and moved away from trains.  I put it there because I always wanted to build a railroad of my own and that was my inspiration and reminder to me not to lose that dream.  Now that I am older and a father of 3  I hope to inspire my kids with the trains just as my dad did for me.  Since I sold that engine my next oldest loco is only 4 years old, it is an Athearn BB SD40-2 painted in CSX colors.  This loco will be in my fleet for a long time to come and maybe 20 or 30 years from now I will be posting about it just as I have my old Tyco train.

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

The white loco in this pic is my oldest. It's a Bachmann GP40 that I bought in Germany in 1977. Recently I ripped out the old open frame motor and shoe-horned in a a PPW can motor and fitted a new GP40 shell. As of February it has been in my possesion for thirty years.

Okay, let me see if I understand; this is your oldest locomotive but it doesn't have the original motor or shell.  Hum, have you ever heard the joke about Abraham Lincoln's ax?

The shell you see on it in this pic is the original one. Most of the handrails are gone along with the glass from the cab windows. Also the headlight lenses are long gone. Withe the new shell came new handrails, window glass and lenses, as well as some detail, which the original seriously lacked. It was enough for the 70's but was pretty campy by today's standards.

[rayw46]

The white loco in this pic is my oldest. It's a Bachmann GP40 that I bought in Germany in 1977. Recently I ripped out the old open frame motor and shoe-horned in a a PPW can motor and fitted a new GP40 shell. As of February it has been in my possesion for thirty years.

Okay, let me see if I understand; this is your oldest locomotive but it doesn't have the original motor or shell.  Hum, have you ever heard the joke about Abraham Lincoln's ax?