Do You Have Your First Set Of Trains ?

I wish I did. Years ago when I got married my father and myself took down my layout carefully putting all my Lionel trains and accessories in their original boxes for storage in my parents home.

A number of years later I decided to build another layout, this time in my home together with my two sons. I called my dad to inform him I was coming for my train, and when I looked in the storage area they were gone!  My father had no idea where they were so I called my younger brother. He informed me an elderly neighbor asked if he had any old toys to get rid of, that he would take them to an outdoor flea market and make him a bunch of money. My trains were sold and my brother received $20. 00 which at that time may have been a couple tanks of gas. Sad story , however there is not much you can say. He was my only brother.

My first set consisted of my father's pre war American flyer royal blue set and my uncles 1950 681 S-2 turbine set. The following accessories  were included, a 364 log loader, AF seaboard coal loader, AF magnetic crane, AF talking station, plus other track & rolling stock.

For now all their equipment and what I collected is in storage tubs..waiting for an addition to my house that will include an extension of the basement for my permanent layout.

I ran the S-2 for the first time in 25 years last Christmas. Lubed the critical points and the engine came to life as if no time had passed.

I was pretty lucky back in 1965. My uncle was going to sell everything, my dad said no way. $75.00 changed hands & the rest is history.

Ken

I sure do and it still runs like new.

Unfortunately not. We had a S-scale AF set under the tree growing up and when I was 10 my dad gave me a HO Santa Fe F3 A-A set.   The AF set was lost to time decades ago and the HO set stopped running about 5 years ago.

-Greg

I never got a train set for Christmas. I had to buy my own when I was 44...well I bought them for my kids ,when they were young...and now i run them...lol

I do, and now my kids play with it.

As for my 1st electric train set, I still have it too.  Here is the locomotive.

It's an old MARX that my grandpa fixed up and gave me.  The tender and freight cars were all plastic, and over the years playing with it, most of them got all broken up.  I still have them, but they are in a box.  Just the locomotive is on display.  I did find some tin cars on eBay a few years ago, and put them with it as you can see.  It still runs, for a bit until it gets hot, then it slows down and stops.  Once it cools down, it'll run again.  So I don't run it often as it only takes it like 5 minutes to get to hot to run.  That and the reverser sticks, mostly in reverse.  I've had it looked at by a couple people and none have been able to keep the reverser from sticking.  It's pretty old, and I did run it into the ground as a kid.  I'll keep it until the day I die.

kmacleod posted:

 Macleod?  That's an old Michigan name I know pretty well. Any relation to the loggers? Spend time on big Breavort?. Heck, I think the Mi.-U.P. Macleods owned a railroad line at one time, lol.

Yep

 Well mostly anyhow. a 2037 and the cars that survived my rambunctious youth.

Yes. My 210 Texas Special and the 1599 set. from when I was 1 or 2. 

Virginian Set from 1966, I think dad really bought if for him (I was born in 65) and then I received a Rio Grande F3 Service Station Set for my 9th birthday in 1974

Still got em

Even though I'm still a "young" railroader by many standards, I still have and will keep my #31960 Polar Express set for many years to come. It was my Christmas gift from 2006 to a 6 year old me, and even though mine is a little rough (Broken Decorative Whistle, Broken Bell and some flickering passenger lights) it still runs like a charm after 13 years.

Yes, my first train, my first camera, my first car but not my first wife........

Yes.  A 675 that ran around one of the Christmas trees this year.  It was much more my Dad's since I was 2 or 3 when he bought it.  Still have his handwritten LIONEL inventory.

Mike23 posted:

Yes. My 210 Texas Special and the 1599 set. from when I was 1 or 2. 

I also had the 1599 as my first set from Christmas 1958. Mine came with the red Ship-it-on-Frisco box car. 

Regards,

Steve

I do! Here is my first set that Santa brought in 1954, the 682 Pennsylvania Turbine,

I still have my lionel scout set from 1950 ,engine # 1101,& it still runs great ,when i first power up the track i usually have to wait a few minutes before it will run because the e-unit sticks but once it is warmed up it works perfectly ,i even bought spare on e-bay for $ 20.00 with the intention of changing the e-unit ,but since everything in my engine is original ,i decided to leave it alone ,as long as i can get running i am HAPPY !!!!!!!!!

No,

Marx 027 set with Battery power steam engine.

yes my 2046 runs like a champ, plus a dump car, hopper and 3 dome tank car, lighted SP style caboose

Sadly no. In the midwest (Chicago Il.), many basements were dirt floor. Houses used basements and attics for storage. Lots of moisture. After the first Christmas layout my dad packed everything up in cardboard boxes and put it all down in the "dry" basement on milk cartons. We had a wet summer, lots of rain and humidity. The following Christmas season everything came up from the basement. Lots of rust and mold. Dad gave them away to the next door neighbor, a machinist by trade. He spent the following summer restoring them and then had his own train layout.

No, yes, sort of...my original train set was a #25000 Marx 3/16 set that, unfortunately, was stored in the set box on my mother's basement floor when the water heater broke.  Much of it rusted but l still have pieces of it.  My brother's similar #25249 set was up on a shelf above the flood, and l have it pristine in the box.  I have long since found a duplicate set like mine with the spoke drivers and vertical transformer.

Yes, which was a 1947 2025 set, which I received in 1976 when I turned 10. Don't run it much now, though. Need to get it running again sometime.

Yes, a Chesapeake & Ohio Flyer set from 1976.  Sounds of steam.   Works great.

Yup, 1956 Lionel headed by 2243 AB.

Going with me when I go.  My family has instructions to load my ashes on board and run me around again.  I wonder if they will work in my coal loader?

Chris S.

Yep!   2065 hudson steamer/tender, automatic milk car, NYC Pacemaker boxcar with brakeman that slides back the door, automatic log car, and Sunoco triple dome tank car, with a Lionel Lines caboose and 1033 transformer.  Everything runs/works except the log car.   Got it new from Santa in 1957.  Love it!!  

I've got a few of my trains from my 2.9 yr old Christmas present of 1963. I still have my Lionel 2020 Steam Engine and 623 Switcher. They both still run. I've got the 336155 log car and 3456 N&W Coal Car and both still work. I am in the process of restoring my 164 Log Loader.

Yes.  Still have a complete 2026 steam set, a Union Pacific twin diesel passenger set in the original set box and a 626 switcher that I received as a birthday present.  Still have a scale milk car, crane car and searchlight car, water tower, freight station and KW transformer.  All in the original boxes.

Not exactly. My first train set was a Marx from the mid 60's. I had it for about a year and a half before moving on to a Lionel set that my parents bought from the people across the street. Those I still have.

perhaps others have experienced the same thing, but apparently "the trains" were bought for my older brother... you know, ... the one who keeps "those dirty things" in a closet across the country and last brought them out over a decade ago.

so, yes, i have my first train... the one i bought for myself shortly after i graduated college.

My first train no - it was an Tyco HO set that was Union Pacific.  i remember going with my parents in what was likely Christmas 1970 or 1971 to Toys R Us.  They had an entire aisle of toy trains and my parents said pick what set you like and we can ask Santa for it.

Fast forward that to the 1998.  My parents are selling their old house and all the stuff I never took with me when I moved out arrives at my house.  I decide to build a lionel train layout with the wood I have.  I went to a hobby shop and bought a Santa Fe GP9 some cars and track in what was called a set.  I still have that set.

Yes. And a forum member helped me recently with getting the yellow car that has been missing for years.

To anyone who's seen any of my other work, you know I'm a weathering nut.  However!  I made a point of leaving my very first train set pristine.  It still runs and smokes as good as it did on Christmas morning when I was 5.  Maybe a little battered from when I played with it but I always loved it and still do.  

Hey Forumites,  I still have my original Lionel train set.  I got the set when I was 2 years old for Christmas, it is a Lionel Wabash F3 AB, which I converted to a Wabash ABBA with about 5 or 6 aluminum passenger cars.  When I rediscovered it, it hadn't run in over 50 something years.  I connected it to some old track and it ran about 2 feet, so I took it to Trainland in Long Island for a service and now it runs like new.  I can only attach one picture right now because I'm at work and don't have many train photos here, but nonetheless here she is. 

Yes and No!!!

First the Yes. I have the same set that my Dad bought for us back in the middle 1960s.

Then the NO, It is not the original set that he first bought for us.

I have a picture of my Dad setting up the set under the Christmas tree. I can see in the pic all the rolling stock

and locomotive and tender. I wrote down the numbers, went on Ebay and purchased all the same cars and loco and tender.

The original set ended up in the trash years ago.

MARX 1666 w/ new York central slope back tender

51100 double decker autoloader.( I replaced the original Marx cars on the autoloader with plasticville cars).

X-246 chemical rocket fuel tank car

21429 LV Hopper Car

18326 NYC Caboose

Yes, set 2183ws with no boxes

MIKE23, that's a nice layout with your original Texas special FA. Cool video.

might you be able to post or send me the layout plan for it. Even a rough sketch would help, I can't entirely figure it out, I know it is multi leveled with return loops. I might want to make the same one for my grand daughter or even incorporate it in my being built PW layout.

my email is in my member  listing under Leroof.

thanks for posting the video.

MARSHELANGELO! One picture worth a thousand thoughts. The WABASH F3 was on my childhood wish lists. Never got one but Santa Fe and NYC  units were obtained as an adult. Your photo brings back memories.  Awesome front end photo! Thanks. 

I thought I had posted in this thread, but as it turned out, it was a similar thread from 2014, which I found with a google image search, and pulled up the original upload via hunting through the post's source code (no need to upload it again, I would think):

So, here be my first Lionel set, a 6-1661 Rock Island Line set, similar to what P51 described:

Acquired as a Christmas present in 1976, here it is posed upon my test track yard. It still runs, but ol' 8601 is in need of a driver transplant--its driver gears are worn to the point of slippage even when running by itself (it has already had its pinion gear replaced way back in the early 1980's). I have some drivers that could be installed in it, but I have to make a trip to Ridgefield Hobby, who is the closest shop I know of with the necessary presses to install them accurately.

I did once acquire a duplicate of this locomotive to act as a wheel donor, but found its wheels had plastic centers--mine are metal all the way through, so the donor simply joined the collection as it was otherwise complete.  

---PCJ

(Edit 3/1/2020: In February 2019 the 8601 has been resurrected, courtesy of Ridgefield Hobby. Within it's shell beats not just replacement drivers, but an entire MPC motor unit that was to serve as a parts donor. Even the driver centers were painted to match the original, and the loco now sports a headlight, as well as an E-unit).

PCJ I picked up two engines like that at an estate sale last fall. Both ran like new. Sold them on the for sale forum.

Still have the first locomotive I got for Christmas 1993 when I was 8 years old.

Nope, sold all mine