Did you get your first train set on Christmas morning ?

Yes, 1956.  It was a Marx RTR set with a 2-4-2 or something like that.  It was grad!

Yes, HO scale Sante Fe F3 war bonnet freight set.  Still have the engine and cars.

Christmas morning 1949. I wasn't one year old and have wondered who it was really for.

 

For years I thought Christmas was when everyone got their first train. In my neighborhood in West Virginia, that's how it was. Our kids too.

 

Looks like Santa hasn't changed his style. New Big Boy under the tree right now still in the box. Somebody else better get in here soon. Thirty + coming to eat and still in the kitchen getting the clam chowder going. 

 

Merry Christmas.

Yup, probably 1947?  Marx #25000 set with the #999 2-4-2 and 3/16 wedge tender, Pa. box car, B&O gon, silver chemical tank car, and the Reading caboose.  Marx was

usually pretty astute about correct lettered cabooses to match tenders, but not

with this set.  The tender matching NYC caboose came in later sets, such as my

brother's #25249 set, also received on Christmas morning, with an NYC boxcar, same B&O gon, but with the NYC caboose to match the tender.

It was Christmas 1957 for me.

 

Art

YEP,  Christmas 1951 Marx Santa Fe A-A four-car freight set and a simple oval of track.  

Early 50's--2020 turbine, milk car, Sunoco tanker, etc.

Thanks to my wife and local hobby shop, Gene's in Kearney, I going to get a very similar set this year but with a 781 and cars in great shape, including shipping carton. Can't wait for her to wake up so I can set it up on the carpet and lie down next to it and watch it go around.

The memories--

Scotie

Yes, 1958 or 9.

 

- Mike

Yes, Christmas 1946. A Lionel "slope back tender" 0-6-0 switcher with some freight cars and a caboose.

Oh, yes I remember it like it was yesterday. I got my first train set in 2004, a MTH NY Mets R17 R-T-R set. I still have it today and love running it.

Yes....some type of Lionel starter set in 1961.......but I went to HO not long after that because I wanted a diesel locomotives, Lionel was to costly, and I didn't like that 3 rail track!!

Funny how things change!

Yes. Christmas 1955. An American Flyer 283 Pacific with freight cars.

I was under two when Santa left us a Lionel freight set chugging around the Christmas tree.  It lived a couple more years and sadly died from rough use.  I'm sure Dad was disappointed.  Today I wonder, if the set was still around, if I could revive the steamer. 

Yes, Christmas 1968 for my old HO set. Tom got one but can't remember which it was. Gabe got his first Lionel in 1993. That poor engine has more miles on it than the space shuttle and has a new motor. He had it running last night.

I got Lionel Rock Island 0-4-0 set in 1977.  I still have the set and use the transformer to power accessories.  My memorable set was the Crescent Limited with passenger cars which I received the next year and it was on the tracks under the tree on Christmas morning.  Ken

I don't remember the year...late 60's or early 70's...but it was an American Flyer set running under the tree Christmas morning.

-Greg

Yes. In 1960. A used, but new to me 1954 American Flyer PA with aluminum passenger cars. This is a Christmas I cannot forget. My grandfather Poppy had passed away on December 15th.

 

Gilly

Yes, 1960 or 1961. Came downstairs to the living room with my sisters to start opening presents. There was a noise and several flashes of light in the dark dining room next to me. It was a hand me down 1666 set from my cousins. Along with a few new cars, 3650 and 3444, my Dad and Uncle had been up until 2am setting up and playing with it. Still have it, still run it, and will have it around the tree later.

Yes,  received this set in 1976. Santa had the track mounted on a 4'x4' sheet of plywood next to the tree. Still have the set, and I get it out every once in a while. My second favorite set, right behind dads 1948 Lionel 671 turbine set. 

YES!  Christmas morning 1947 I found that Santa left this under the tree for me and my dad.

 

A Lionel set with 2025 and three Madison cars.  The cars are gone now.

 

 

Ron

Absolutely; Christmas 1955.  I received a Lionel set no. 1527 pulled by a 1615 0-4-0 switcher with a slope back tender.  The set was rounded out with a 6462 NYC gondola, a 6560 Bucyrus Erie crane car and a 6119 Lackawanna work caboose.

I still have the train and it still sees some run time under the Christmas tree each year.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Curt

Yes Christmas 1945, My dad found a O gauge AF 565 set made in 1941. Still have it today and it still runs. I can remember my dad getting off a troop train at Ft Snelling in Minneapolis MN, in August of 1945 after 4 years of combat  and according to a relative I was disappointed he didn't bring me a train.  It was hard finding any train sets in those days but he found this set for me.

Yes I did. I got 1 lionel set which was the Penn Central steam set back in 76 or 77. But the rest were HO sets and the one year I got a HO racing track set. 

Yes....it was 1963 and I received from "Santa" a complete Lionel 2037 freight set.  Santa had it mounted on a 4x8 piece of plywood with an over and under track plan running under the tree that Christmas morning!!  Hey...I still believe in Santa!!

 

Alan

Yep. Don't remember the year maybe 81or 82.  It was the lionel james gang set from grandpa

My brother did but I played with it too, Christmas 1963, engine was 1060 and still runs

Mackb4,

   You bet, the 263E Tin Plate Lionel had been given to my father on his birthday,

it had been stored after WWII at my Grandfathers home. I can not exactly remember the year, about 1949 or 1950 I received that same 263E on Christmas morning, other than the Lord, it is the greatest Christmas present I have ever received.  Given to me by my Grandfather and Father, it is my most cherished Christmas gift.

PCRR/Dave

Early 2000s I got a Life-Like HO freight set with EZ-track, an oversized Union Pacific high-hood GP with a really small brown Georgia Railroad? hopper, Union Pacific stockcar, Weyhauseur all-door boxcar, red chemical tanker, and Union Pacific caboose. Still have it in a box somewhere...

Similar to, but not the same as, this Golden Thunder set.

Yes, Christmas 1954, so today is the 60th anniversary of that set. I will run it today, as I have on many Christmases before. It runs as well as the day I received it. It is always on the layout. 

Sure did. A Marx 999 freight set. I ran it so long that day it got too hot to move. Thought it was broke, not so. It ran like new after cooling off.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Yes.  I was told.  Christmas, 1950, I was one.  A 681 set with 2671W, operating NYC boxcar, red NYC gondola, illuminated LL caboose.  Oval of 0, UCS and an RW.  Still have it.

I don't remember the year either, but it was a Lionel Steam Turbine with operating milk car and operating coal car.  Mom and I started building my first layout the day after.

 

Art

Received my first set in 1950 an American Flyer 334DC freight set. I was 2 so I really don't remember it that first year.  All I know now is that it must has cost my parents a lot of money back then. Will run it this afternoon when the grandchildren are over. Merry Christmas. 

Yep, 1960.

Larry

Celebrating 50 years in trains today.  The addiction started with American Flyer.

 

Bruce

 

 

 1959 - I got a whole 6'X9' layout built by my Dad.  I still have the two trains that were running on it.

 

 

In 1955 when in the third grade I got transferred in early Fall to a different school in town. I quickly became friends with two of the kids I met there. One afternoon I was invited after school to one of their houses. We went down cellar and he had a Lionel Sante FE F3 growling around his layout. I had never seen anything like that and I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. I loved it and was really hooked. Then I went to my otherr friend's house and he had Lionel trains too. That Christmas I got my first Lionel train. It was a 2018 steamer set that I still have today. Every Christmas and birthday after that I got train related gifts. The best part of the story is that those two buddies from the third grade and I still get together frequently to "play" trains. It's been a lifelong enjoyment with these two guys that was briefly interupted when we foolishly got interested in cars and girls. Long ago we came back to our senses and gave proper priority to the trains.

 

Ed Kazarian

This was my 1st train set:

 

 

Santa delivered my first train on Christmas 1953, a Lionel Lines 2-6-4. It also had a working whistle a two dome Sunoco tank car, a NYC gondola, and an SP caboose.

 Less than an hour ago this consist ran around my layout ten times. The whole set has extensive battle damage but it ran.

Douglas