Did you get your first train set on Christmas morning ?

I sure did.  Christmas, 1951 brought me a Lionel 2026, two Sunoco tank cars a NYC gondola and a very bare-bones SP caboose.  I still have all of them, and they run just fine.

 

For sure, 1947 Berkshire set.

Yes, A Lionel Nickel plate set from JcPenny in 1972 or 73 ! 

From my parents.  I was 10 or Eleven !

 

Santa brought a AM/FM radio !  A few games  (the board type) !

 

this started it all, 66 years ago,,ran it this am,,,terry

In 1944, when I was almost 3, I got a MARX wind-up set. In 1946, I got a Lionel freight set pulled bt a 224 engine. I never had a layout until I put one under the Christmas tree for my kids in 1982. For 2 years it was "HO", next 2 years "S", then in '86, a raised "O" Christmas layout, which is basically the one I have today. My first all-year layout was built in '05, mainly for my 1 year-old grandson.

My own kids never got the "train bug", and one of my grandsons was a "train nut" until about 7. Kids of friends and relatives still come over. A 3 year-old boy from Ethiopia was over 2 days ago, and loved running them.

I believe I got my first train set either right before Christmas or right after Christmas close to my birthday in January.  My dad picked it up on his way home from work and surprised me with it.  I was three, so I can't remember very much, but it immediately got set up underneath our Christmas tree.

1963 - 11341 634 Space-Prober Diesel Freight Set. Still have it, I just had the 634 diesel pulling 13 MPC Bicentennial cars and caboose.

In 1953, my father was taking $80 per week out of his die casting business, and he spent $70 on a Lionel 3-unit Santa Fe F3 freight train and another $49 on a ZW transformer.  What a thrill it was to see it under the tree on Christmas morning!  Other family members gave me Lionel accessories: a crossing flasher, crossing gate, block signal, and semaphore, plus some extra track sections.

 

I passed the entire train and additional cars and accessories (still in their original boxes -- I was a careful and organized kid) to our third son, when he gave us our first grandchild.  Then, I missed it and the next thing I new, I was ordering an MYH Santa Fe E8 with the brand-new PS2.  And it has progressed steadily from that point.

 

Only later did I realize the great sacrifice my parents went to when they provided me with the most wonderful toy of my lifetime.

Yup, a lovingly fixed up Marx locomotive and some freight cars from my grandpa in the early 80's.  I still have it to this day.

Yes, From my uncle in 1946 after returning from WW2.

1965. Cheapie Marx set with #490 engine. Long gone...

 

Mark in Oregon

Sinclair- I saw on an older thread that you were looking for a MTH Allegheny PS 1.0  steam engine. Are you still looking for one? B/c I have one I am possibly looking to sell.

1948 American Flyer #312 Pennsy. steam set. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Quoted from Tom above -

In 1953, my father was taking $80 per week out of his die casting business, and he spent $70 on a Lionel 3-unit Santa Fe F3 freight train and another $49 on a ZW transformer. 

 

Think about that for a minute. That was a serious chunk of change in those days! My dad was recently discharged from the Navy in 1946 and after a 10 day drive from San Francisco to Miami he worked for an airline as a sales rep. He couldn't afford that much for a train set but for Christmas in 1949 Santa left an American Flyer PRR K5 freight set under the tree. I was 5 1/2 and it was wonderful. Was always glad that Santa liked the 'real' 2 rail trains too!

Yep, American Flyer No 5107W Santa Fe Diesel Freight with a 19B transformer.

 

Still runs flawlessly.  

 

Little Tommy

A Lionel Scout set, Christmas 1953, Territory of Alaska.

I got this same set as a child for Christmas in 1991. Great runner and only 60 years old.

Yep, Christmas 1992 (I was 8). It was a K-Line Pennsylvania set. Still have it and it still runs. I never run it on my permanent layout, but it makes occasional appearances under one of our Christmas trees. 

Yes.......Christmas 56, a Marx Monon diesel freight set.  Christmas 58, a New Haven F3 diesel fright set.

no stills....but I do have video of christmas' 1956- 63

 

 

Peter

 

Yes, and I remember it fondly. It was December 2007, just a couple weeks until Christmas when I was looking at the trains at my local hobby shop. I saw the one I wanted badly...the Lionel Pennsylvania Flyer freight set with a 4-4-0 Atlantic steamer, boxcar, flatcar, and a caboose, it even had telephone poles and a bridge. I had to have it. Weeks later on Christmas morning, there it was. I still remember me and my dad opening it up and setting everything up on the carpet. and the first time I saw the puffing smoke, and blew the classic air whistle, it was just magical, I was hooked. I ran it all Christmas morning, then we had to leave to visit relatives, and it was hard to leave it behind. The whole time we were gone I thought about it...then when we finally got home that night, I ran to plug in the transformer and ran it all night, even all that week. I still have it, and I've built a small layout and added several new trains since then, but that was probably the best Christmas I have ever had.

It was Christmas of 1958.  I received a Marx Allstate Freight Set, 333 steamer, So. Auto Carrier, Operating Milk Car/platform, Searchlight Car, Crane/searchlight & Work Caboose.  Still have it and it runs and smokes great!!

 

Paul Edgar

Christmas of 1947 was and is a very special one.  That was the year that Santa brought me an electric train.  My memories are so vivid.  I was awakened that morning by the sound of a horn.  I woke Ted up and told him, “All that Santa has brought us was a horn.”  And we scurried down the stairs to the tree.  And there it was – In a darkened room – lit only by the lights of the tree – it was running – Santa had left it running – there was a tunnel and the headlight on the engine was darkened as it passed through the tunnel – and there was a beacon – that turned with a red and green glow – an un-coupler that really worked, and a horn that blew when you pushed a button on the transformer – and a work shed that had a little man that came out and waved his lantern when the train passed.  Wow, what more could one ever wish for – an electric train.  Five cars, an engine, a coal car, a silver tanker, a flat car and a red caboose. 

That afternoon Bill, Jack and Paul came to see the train and the lined the track up- put all the straight track together and was playing – the rain ran off the track hit the wall and the headlight never worked again.  Through the years the brass electric pick-ups under the engine would wear out and my Grandfather Sojourner would take the train to the mill and re solder the worn places and off we would go again.  When the train was over fifty years old I took it to Leyland’s in Hildebrand and had some work done on it.  The headlight was fixed, and Leyland said, “Oh! By the way, I fixed the light in the caboose, the bulb had not been snapped into place.”  A lighted caboose, I had had a lighted caboose and for over fifty years had never known it.

Sure did! I'm not sure if it was Christmas 1957 or 1958, but I received a Lionel set #725... the Union Pacific Alco with white Frisco box car, blue gondola with 4 canisters, grey flat car with 3 logs, and a brown SP style caboose. Still have the train and the box it came in.

 

Yup! Quaker Oats/Lionel promotional set from 1961. I still have it, it doesn't run but it's not going anywhere.

 

Update! Tossed it on the Grand Hardwood Central and it ran like a top! Noisy old thing, but it ran!! 

It all started for me, on my first Christmas in 1977, my grandparents got me a Tyco Ho Scale Chattanooga Diesel Train Set.

Late 40's, my older brother bought  a 2018 & some freight cars for me. I later changed to HO & gave the Lionel set to my brother's sons in the early 60's. I got back into 3-rail in the late 90's.

I got my first train set on my first Christmas. I was born on Thanksgiving Day in 1949 and got my first train on Christmas 1949. I was about a month old. I still run that train under the tree.

Yes! Christmas 1962. The set arrived in a large orange box. After my bother and I unwrapped everything, my Dad said "Why don't you two go down to the basement?" We had been banished from there for over a month. When we went down the stairs, a 5x9 or so table greeted us with a an over/under figure 8 of O27 track, just waiting for our new train. Dad had obviously been quite busy. So the train and a Marx Cape Canaveral play set which also happened to arrive quickly made it down and on to the table. We spent many an hour just having fun running that train. I still have it. The shot below is that train, 50 years later (2012), still running strong beneath my Christmas tree.

 

Chris

LVHR

 

I got a 6-1865 Chesapeake Flyer for Christmas 1981.  I still remember opening it!

I have a K-Line Allegheny, so I'm good for now, thanks.  Also, it's best to not hijack threads with things like this, email would be better.

I feel young. 2004 Pennsylvania Flyer Set. Don't even remember the model number

Christmas 1941 I received the Marx set. My brother received the Marx Super Circus Christmas 1951.

Yes, the 675 freight set showed up on Christmas morning 1951 or so, and my Dad kept an inventory, hand written, of what he'd purchased:

 

 

And the train is still going strong; video from this week:

 

https://ogrforum.com/t...06#39441156070734706

 

The 3472 milk car was left in its OB due to train length.

Yes, Christmas 1938.

A New York Central Marx wind-up. Old shoe and cereal boxes served as tunnels and buildings[tunnel portal had to be large enough to accommodate the winding key].

Short runs at warp speed prevailed.