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I have seen posts about people trying to put together a train set like they had as a child, or their dad had, etc.  I got to wondering how many people still have their original train set.  Our family train set and my baseball cards were my most prized possessions as a child and young adult.  I made sure that during moves that they were protected and accounted for.  I had a freight set 2153WS, a ZW, a 132 station and a 3472 milk car that were purchased after Christmas for 50% off plus my grandmother's 15% employee discount at Vandever's Dept Store.
 

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So 30 years ago my wife asked me about my train set and wanted to see it operate.  It had been boxed up for 23 years.  So began my first carpet layout shown below.  Everything worked perfectly right out of the packing boxes.  

 

I did not know that Lionel made anything other than my train set.  I had never seen any catalogs.  So we traveled to Dallas to a large LHS to get more track.  As you can imagine I was dumbfounded by the range and variety of trains that Lionel had made between 1949 and 1985.

 

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That one mistake by my wife led to the long journey of 30 years; from knowing of only one train to owning slightly more than one train.  Sadly, I don't know of any childhood pictures of me operating or playing with my trains (other than the one shown above as a 36 year old child).

 

Do you still have your original train set or at least some pictures to share of you with your trains?

 

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Yes.

 

2055 Hudson, and set, plus. Got a layout, 4X8, Christmas morning, 1955. On a table in a corner of the dining room. Oval, 1 passing siding, 2 spur tracks. Uncoupling tracks. Control panel. My father built it all (and some scale-ish buildings). He wasn't a "train guy", as such - but he liked all kinds of machinery.

 

I still have every bit of it, except the layout table itself. There is even a bit of 8mm footage of me running it, 1960 (I was 12, by then).

Yes.  I don't recall the exact year; but, I do have my Dad's hand written "inventory" and all of the items listed except for the track clips which I donated to a forum member earlier this year.

 

 

Dad's Train List 001

And they are all in their OB's except for the transformer.  Ran them last Christmas for the first time in 10+ years.

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Does my Skaneateles wooden push train count?  If so.....YES!!!!

 

Then my Lionel Scout set.......YES!

 

Then my 2343 Santa Fe freight set.....YES!

 

Then my 623 Santa Fe switcher.....YES!

 

etc., etc., etc.....UNTIL..

 

Along about age 12 I ventured into HO.  For the most part, the answer to your question then becomes....No, all gone.  The HO trains just didn't seem worth hanging on to as I left for college.  The Varney diesel set, the Mantua Mikado kit I built, the Athearn Hi-F (a.k.a. rubber band) drive RDC's, the Globe Santa Fe F7's, etc., etc., etc....gone......with no regrets.  No wonder HO stands for How Ordinary!  (Kidding, of course....)

 

And, I still have Dad's one and only train set....a 366W Standard Gauge set.  He received it from his parents in the mid 1930's...when he was a 'kid' of about 27 years old!!!

 

Of course, the rest of these 70+ years is another story.....

 

 

Last edited by dkdkrd

Yes, I have our family's original Standard gauge set with an engine,#318E, and 3 passengers cars bought used by my Dad. Everything  we got was "used". Still runs. I have a Lionel 027  2018 I bought in 1956 to replace the Scout  1011 that I burned up. My nephew still has the Scout freight cars from the set which I gave them in 1957 when I was drafted. Still have the 6411 flatcar from the set, though.

Yes I do...I'm missing the original Lionel Steam engine/tender (Pennsylvania 2-4-0 with the "rock tumbler tender....would like to buy one btw,,,), but still have the 4X8 sheet.  Since then, (and with the help of this forum) I've greatly expanded my O gauge empire.  I bought a second 4X10 layout fully built this spring for me and the kids to run.

 

They like to run their "Kitty Kat" train (Chessie system diesels), I prefer my UPRR and Wisconsin Central....

 

Last edited by Bermuda Ken

I have my original 1951 set my father gave me......2035 with it's freight cars, 1033 transformer, track etc. And every car and motorized unit (Tie-jector, Gang Car), semaphores, every Plasticville building I had (though I no longer use them on the layout). As a tribute to my father, I have his original 4x6 plywood layout board in the center of my current layout. All my stuff sat in my attic and basement until 7 years ago, when I got back into trains (after a 40 year absence). I have added a considerable amount of stuff to my collection (Postwar and modern), but everything I had from my original trains, runs like a top.   Whether my modern command stuff will be running after that kind of time span, I highly doubt.

 

Roger

Yes, an American Flyer Reading Lines 300AC set plus AF handcar, and Ringling Bros. whistling billboard. And not only does it still run but soot covered and immersed in water at that time nearly 26 years ago, it survived the destruction of my home by a massive house fire. Only childhood memory saved from that catastrophe.

Yes, a Marx #15765 set:  NYC #490 0-4-0 (cracked pilot) w/slope-backed tender, red Pennsy gon, blue Erie log dump car (logs gone, alas!), white Pacemaker caboose, all with Type F trucks and plastic slant-fork couplers.  Some of the track, including the activation track for the dump car (without the trip) remain, and the transformer still works.  I run it every Christmas; got it the day AFTER Christmas 1964.  I was 7 months old.

My first was an HO set when I was only three or four. My parents divorced and had money problems (and others) so my grandparents took me in. That HO set is long gone. My first O set, though, I still have. It was a hand-me-down from my uncle (who raised me most of my life) that he had received when he was a kid. It and my girlfriend's dad's train this past Christmas are what got me back into the hobby nine months ago.

Yes. My first train was an actual complete Lionel Display layout with scenery on a six by four foot board. It featured a Milwaukee Road GP-7, Lehigh Valley hopper, orange flat car carrying three sets of train trucks, work crane and DL&W work caboose. What amazes me to this day is how my father, an immigrant WW2 Displaced Person working as a machinist was able to- 1. Purchase this entire layout, 2.Get this layout up into a second floor Brooklyn railroad flat apartment, 3. Hide it in my Grandparents bedroom without any of us, my older brother and younger sister knowing. Santa Claus had to have helped!

The board and track and buildings stayed up for about three weeks. They are long gone. The train, although not being run any longer spent a couple of years being played with along with my toy soldiers eventually making its way into storage and then forgotten.

Twenty seven years ago, my wife bought me an inexpensive  Lionel train set on sale from her company. I went back to my Father's and found the engine and rolling stock which weren't in the best of shape. I purchased the Greenberg Lionel Repair Manual and was able to get the GP-7 running again and fixed up the rolling stock.

That was the start of my re-kindled love of Toy Trains which continues today!

 

Sure do.  A Marx Allstate set sold at Sears.  I got it for Christmas 1958 (I was 4).  My mother claimed that my dad and her father bought it for themselves.   I think she had their number.  

 

Here's old Sparky...

 

 

 

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It came with a transformer, a bunch of Marx O34 track, and some accessories (non-electrical).  It had a lot of play value and many happy memories.

 

George

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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