Did Any Of You Have Lionel HO Trains In The 1960's

Sure did. My first set was a Lionel Santa Fe Alco A B streamliner. The engine had a worm gear drive that could pull tree stumps (all be it HO scale ones). I just about ran the wheels off it but it kept on running. IIRC the coaches were aluminum with back lit silhouette passengers.

Bob

I had just one set of Lionel HO. I had the B&O freight set. I believe that Lionel HO was made by Athearn at that time. Lionel HO was just a novelty for me.

I had a Lionel HO 4-wheel diesel switcher which was completely gear driven.  For larger, two-truck diesels, Lionel had a kind of "hybrid" drive - rubber band from the motor shaft to a worm gear in each truck.  Lionel pictured this in their advertisements and promoted it as an advantage over other drive systems.  I also had an Illinois Central crane car with six-wheel trucks and a lighted Santa Fe-style caboose.  They appeared well-made and did look like Athearn models.

I am a cradle to the grave O-Gauger - primarily Lionel, but I do own one Lionel HO engine, probably from the mid-70’s. Actually… I inherited a second, neither of which has never been on track. It is the GS-4 Freedom Train. It is actually a rather nice model.

Yes, I did! I had all the operating cars like the  Milk car and the cop and hobo car and the rocket flat car and the Minuteman missile car and the giraffe car plus a lot of Athern rolling stock. What happened to it all? , you asked ,I traded it in for a 1/24 scale Eldon race car set. ( stupidest move I've ever made in my life ) Luckily I still have my O-gauge trains.

I received my first new train, a Lionel HO set, in 1958. I did have a hand-me- down Marx set with a plastic engine that did not run very well or at all sometimes. My dad even borrowed a Lionel train set from a friend in '57 so that I had something to run for Christmas that year. I remember being chastised for blowing the whistle when my baby brother was sleeping. 

My very own first train included an Illinois Central diesel (a Fairbanks-Morse C Liner, I think), a stock car, a small crane car, flat car, a gondola and a Reading bobber caboose.  My little brothers pushed the engine along the living room carpet and stripped the gears on the engine. I traded the engine at a fix-it shop for a Tyco engine.  I still have the cars.  The engine and cars were made for Lionel by Italian train manufacturer, Rivarossi. The detail on the cars is amazing, with sprung tucks, chains on the crane car and individual stakes on the flat car.  They accumulated millions of scale miles over the years.  I later picked up one of those Lionel rubber band engines, some kind of Alco if I recall, a red Texas Special. One of my best friends received a steam powered Lionel HO set about a year later. I remember that it had a helicopter car.   

A while back I met a vendor at the Allentown (PA) train show who specializes in Lionel HO.  He had all of components of my set. I was tempted to buy an engine to replace my old Ilinois Central engine but talked myself out of it.  These days I'm up to my ears with today's electronic O-gauge marvels, but this post brought back so many great memories.  Thanks for bringing up the subject.

Earl       

I had a couple Lionel diesel HO locomotives with the rubber band drives. I will have to pull out some photos to see exactly what models they were.

I recall that they worked OK when they were new, but they didn't stay new very long. I am sure I had other Lionel HO rolling stock, but it was mixed into the herd and lost its identity. I had plenty of rolling stock of mixed or unknown parentage back then.

did not have any Lionel back in those days but do have bunch now. The Lionel steamer 0625 had a plastic gear that always split and so does not run today. /and there are none of these gets around that I have discovered.  I like the many freight cars they made as well as the southern daylight pictured above. The Freedom train is also nice as is the C&O chassis loco. All are similar.   nice trains.

Never owned any but I worked for Kenner Toys in 1975.  Part of the Norwood facility was devoted to assembling Lionel HO scale cars.  It may have been in the building originally built for TrailMobile.  John

I did. It was a set that included track and transformer. The engine was a Texas Special A unit with the rubber band drive. I remember a couple of the cars: the satellite launching car and an exploding boxcar. I think there was also a missile launching car and maybe a flat with some extra missiles, but I can't be sure. And a caboose.

Refresh my memory here, what did Lionel use for couplers on their HO product? Did they use the standard NMRA horn hook coupler?

As an attempt to try HO, I had an uncatalogued Lionel set with a Rock Island Husky switcher, a missile launching car, an exploding boxcar and a Rock Island caboose. Likely 62 or 63.......Its quality was very poor and was destroyed by active use. I've never had any inclination to re-purchase it.....

Peter

I own one item from the Lionel H0 production from the 60's - the 0145 Gateman. It's actually fairly close to 0, and looks pretty good IMHO.

Although it wasn't "mine" my first foray into electric trains was a Lionel set from 1962 (I was born in 1966).  I still have it.  It is set #14074 Southern Pacific with the 0645W Engine and whistling tender.  I still have the original box, track, transformer, cars, billboards, etc.  I always loved that engine as a kid.  It stopped working early on in my life, I had it repaired and it died again, so I recently revived it and repaired it to run again.  Here is a video I did last month for it's first run session in about 25-30 years.

I think memories are so important in this hobby!

No lionel HO, rather Atlas and tyco.

@PLCProf posted:

Refresh my memory here, what did Lionel use for couplers on their HO product? Did they use the standard NMRA horn hook coupler?

Yes- All of my HO stuff had those couplers.

I had an HO layout before I inherited the family O gauge from my older brother when he hit his teen years and it became uncool *lol*. I had a Lionel plymouth (?) engine, and I had the HO version of the helicopter car as well as some box cars that were definitely Lionel.