Do You Still Have Your First Train Set

Interesting that there's two Allstate sets already in this thread

Old childhood trains make up 25% or more of my collection.

I have train #1. The 2037

I have lil bro's #1 a 665.

My favorite cars are here. The mechanical gunfighter car, and 6650 rocket launcher.

The 175 launcher and gantry are still here.

 

 

I still have the locomotive from mine. It was a Lionel 'Rock Island Line" set from the 70s. I just looked up the model # of the loco, it was 8601. It has a 0-4-0 in O27. It's lacking the smokebox lid portion, I need to get a replacement for that eventually. I probably should put in on a shelf somewhere in the layout room, but I'm glad I've kept it all these years.

Really need to find a replacement for that smokebox lid, though. Anyone know of a source for the grey front of the smokebox for one of these?

Still have mine but it's buried in the attic. A 70s blue Santa Fe freight set. It's missing the front decal, horns, and side lights,  but still runs.  I also had to replace the transformer twice from running it so much as a kid.

Sure do.......the set I consider my 1st set was really my second.....The New Haven F3 freight set from 1958. From pictures, I later learned that in 55-56 I got a Marx Monon set that disappeared......I have since replaced it.

 

 

 

Peter

 

No wish I did thou.

I have since replaced it as it was used when gotten and in good but missing parts this one is complete ( 50 + years later) but I put this together about 3 or 4 years ago B&M 2359 space age set has satellite car, exploding boxcar, 6544 missile firing car security car, and submarine car. I have most the boxes either original or repo except set box and saw that on line in shambles and the guy wanted $400 don't think so don't think you could of made 3/4 of a box out of it even really from what he showed. Maybe you could but didn't look it.

I don't have my original set but do have a couple of photos of it in 1959. It's a Lionel Scout Set & that's a 14 year old "ME".

A couple months ago I decided to find out exactly what my first set was.  I vaguely remembered two plastic trains and thanks to the power of google, I figured out I had circa 1988 Disney playset which was this little train on a cloverleaf track and as it passed each amusement ride it would turn it on.  The other one I had was a Playskool Express which was a good sized set with a good amount of track with a crossover and a switch; it even had a little ramp with a lever to load these  grey cylinders onto the gondola.  Don't know what happened to the Disney set, but I know the Playskool set went to my cousin.  At some point I got a generic wooden Brio set that I still have. 

 

My first "real" trainset was a HO model power set headed up by a Santa Fe F3 with a silver Texaco tanker, a green Rio Grande cattle car, and a SF caboose.  My grandparents gave it to me when I was three.  My mother has since told me my it was just something my grandmother picked up because it was on sale at Filene's where she worked (or was it Macy's...).  Dad built a 4x8 table in the basement and we made building kits and paper mache tunnels together.  I sold off all my HO about 10 years ago because I was deep into O-gauge.  I did keep my original set, the first three buildings my dad and I built, and a couple nicer engines my grandmother gave me.  On my original set, the wheels don't stay on, all the couplers are broken, and I think one of the doors on the cattle car is missing, but they're in their boxes for the sentimental value.

 

When I was 8 my dad's second cousin gave me his lionel set from 1948.  It was a 2026, Sunoco tanker, nyc boxcar, and LL caboose. along with track and a 1032 transformer.  I believe that was the original set, but also included were a coal dump car, hopper, crane car, operating milk car, a gateman, and a coal loader.  They were stored in a big clothes hamper but all had the original boxes and paperwork minus the set box.

 

About that time my father revealed he had a lionel set when he was a kid.  (I've since discovered) it was a 11520 set from 1964.  Headed by the plastic 242 with slopeback tender with a 3364 log car, 6176 grey hopper, 6142 gondola, and 6059 caboose.  It was all in the original set box with transformer and track, but the engine never worked by the time I got it.  It was a cheap set but my father always said he got hours of entertainment out of it.  Since it never worked my father took it to a Greenberg show a while back and sold it and put the money towards nicer trains.  Thanks to some forum members and my good memory, I just managed to piece the set back together and I'm going to surprise him with it this Christmas

No.  My nephew has it sets it up under the tree at Christmas.

Yes.  From Christmas, 1950.

 

Yep, Christmas 1952, Lionel 2026 freight set Still runs after a half century.

 

    Bill T.

Yes, I do:

 

 

 

This set was given to me by my grandfather for Christmas in 1974.  It was the set he bought in the late 1930's to put around his Christmas tree after he married my grandmother.

 

I also have his 773 passenger set from the early 50's, and the MPC era Empire State Express freight and Southern Crescent sets that my dad bought for us in the 70's.

 

Andy

I got the 2026 freight set for Christmas 1948.  It still runs after a major rehab in 1998.  It's going to the only grandson that loves trains.

I didn't have mine until a year ago.  My trains were passed on to two cousins, when I hit my teenage years, and had lost interest in trains.  My original layout was 8'x16', with an upper level (mountain across the rear of layout), and the 3472 milk car, 3656 cattle car, 2020/2020W & 2056/2046W locos.  I had switches and crossovers in the layout.  I took it all down, packed it away, and my mother decided I should pass it on to my cousins.

 

I was contacted by my youngest cousin a little over a year ago, and he asked if I would like to have my trains back....ARE YOU KIDDING, OF COURSE!!!  My original trains were returned, along with my original "ZW-275" and a lot more from what my uncle had purchased for his two sons.  In the bargain return of my trains, he gave me his other stuff, which included the X-648 Uncatalogued Set (minus the set box), and a train that I never saw before, a "Hoge 900 Shovelnose Streamline", which after sorting through the boxes of stuff he gave me, I realized I had the complete set (of course minus the set box), but it included a Hoge 950 transformer, five (5) RAIL track (This is the only train that requires 5 rail, two extra copper rails for a bell on one rail, and a buzzer on the other rail.  Enough five rail track for a complete oval, and the original Hoge 5 rail lock-on.  It needed a motor rewire and a good cleaning, but it runs fantastic.

Absolutely,  a Lionel 2026 steam freight set from I think 1948.   Have the engine sitting in a display case.   It was my dads...............

 

Mark

Well...........Sort of!!!

We had a Marx set back in the 60's

have a picture of my Dad setting it up under the

tree. It's long since been GONE!

so a few years back I took that picture and I could make out

the Loco and cars. Marx 1666 with smoke.

went on Ebay and found all the cars and the Loco.

now have the same train we use to have when we were kids.

The best car of the bunch is the Marx Southern 51100 AutoLoader.

Found several of those and have a string of about 7 cars.

purchased some Plasticville cars to go on the AutoLoaders,

Makes for an impressive train.

This topic is awesome. I love all the trips down memory lane. I don't have my original N gauge set I received when I was 8, it disappeared at some point. I do have my first O gauge set from like the 2006 time frame.

 

Here is the Lionel picture of my first set.

No, but I have replaced it - my father won the Halloween General set through a contest at a local pharmacy. I remember we had it set up for a few years in the basement at Christmas but then (gasp) my father sold it to get into HO. I have the LCCA version which helps ease the "pain"

I still have the engines my father bought me in the fifties. The cars I sold when they started to make scale cars. But I kept a few cars.................Paul

i'm pretty sure my dad never bought an actual set, but this comes close...

 

i didn't arrive for another 2 years, but i still have all the components of this train.

 

Christmas 1952* and it looks like the Scout has already been demoted with a few pieces sitting in front of the layout...

 

the train on track was likely one of our two PA turbines and apparently the automatic milk car proved to be a better attraction than the do-nothing Scout cars.  my 3 year old brother and 9 month old sister seem to be enjoying MY trains!! 

 

my brother still has some of the O trains, but i finally talked him into giving up the Scout set a while back.

 

cheers...gary

 

*[Edit... rethinking the timeline, i changed the year of this photo from 1951 to Christmas 1952 (my sister is only 14 months older than i am).  i know some people like to use photo evidence to date things so i just wanted to be as accurate as possible.  cheers...gary]

I forgot to include my other first train.

 

Not sure what scale it is. 

As a child I probably thought this was a 4-6-4 hudson with 2426 tender.

 

 These cars snap together like the snaps on childrens clothing.

A precursor to the magnets used on Brio type trains today

 

You got your 4 bay scale hopper, Madison style coach, and the rounded boxcar.

 

A single dome 8000 gal tank car and a N5C caboose without a smoke unit.  Both pieces came without the handrails for safety reasons I am sure

And some ambidextrous switch tracks.  Both right and left hand switch built into one piece.

 

Anybody know who made these and when they were made ?

 

You bet I do.  For Christmas 1951, Santa brought me a 2026 set, with NYC gondola, 2-dome tank car and a bare-bones SP caboose.  I still have them all, and still run them.  The locomotive and a couple of vintage 027 passenger cars spends the year on our coffee table when it's not being run.

 

The 1033 transformer works as well as ever, too, though it could use another cord replacement.

 

I can't find the oldest photos to scan but here's my childhood layout around 1974-75 that I built as a teen.

NO  sold it off to a friend that had an appreciation for post war. It was just sitting in my attic

 

Here's a few pictures from winter 71-72 or 72-73.

My bedroom...4th floor of an apartment building in the northeast Bronx....I was in my 1st or 2nd year at Manhattan College.

 

 

 

 

Peter

My guess is that these trains were manufactured by either Skaneateles Handicrafters or Jack Built Toys.

Yes, a Lionel 19244 set: Christmas 1966.  I was 4.  The following Christmas, I wanted a "train that goes backwards" (according to dad).  That got me a 626 44 tonner.  These are my most treasured items...

 

... followed closely by a lot of other "stuff".

Still have my very first train of Christmas 1956.  Is an AF steam tender baggage and 3 passenger cars.  Runs great and still have and use the 15B transformer.  

Think of my loving folks each time I see it...

This is a photo of the four-door metal PRR box car I previously referred to in above post.

 

 

 

Ron

my first trains set was a Tyco HO set, long gone. But I do have my Dad;s first trains. He gave some other Prewar stuff to my Uncle Jim when they were growing up, and those will be coming to me.

Sadly no. I do have components of it. The problem was the plastic 2-4-0. It just didn't hold up. The body cracked over time and became useless. It's okay though, I have lots of good toys now.

 

Love this thread! Just sayin'!!

 

Unfortunately, no.  Some great stories in this thread. My family had no sense of history!  I did have a Lionel set under the Christmas tree but I don't even remember what engine it was.  Like all brilliant teenagers I sold it off for $30 to a friend so I could go into HO in the mid 60s.  He got a train, an oval of track, two manual switches and the lumber loader #264!!!  Plus a flashing crossing light and crossing gate!   I'm still kicking myself.

Yes, and the 73-year old freight cars and caboose still run regularly in consists.  The 224 loco doesn't run regularly because I couldn't convert it to DCS, but it and its consist run under the Christmas tree annually.

I am not a very nostalgic person, but I love looking at these pictures and hearing the stories, both the "I still have it" and the "no I don'ts". 

I envy those who grew up near trains and the large hobby shops or Lionel showrooms.  I have seen some of the film clips and you can easily see the wonderment and awe in the faces of the children, probably much like us as children.

 

I am not to sure that awe doesn't creep up on my face now and again when watching live train layouts or the film clips of those on the forum.  Thanks again to all.

Aussteve, agree that this is a great thread. The photos make it wonderful. Thanks everyone for sharing.

My first train set was a Mattel Putt Putt Railroad from the early 1970's.   I still had it until  a few years ago.   But this and a lot of my other childhood toys were sold when my Dad sold the house I grew up in.

 

 (not my photo -  found on the web)

 

I still have my first electric train.  The Lionel cannonball set from 1973.

 

In a way I do, I have my fathers Lionel set from 1949.  It was the first "hobby grade" train I played with as a child when visiting my grandparents house. Thats my earliest memory of train sets, it was the following Christmas I got not one but 3 Tyco HO sets, but they didnt last the 3 months between that Christmas and my birthday in March.  So they went away and I got my own Lionel MPC era sets.  I didnt get the 1949 set till I was 12 and deemed ready to properly care for it by my grandfather.  He passed the following summer. That set has never left my possesion and never will.  Its set up every year at Christmas and will soon have a more permanent layout to run on.  The set is a simple 1655 2-4-2 starter set, what became a Scout set a few years later, although the engine and its internals are of much higher quality than what came in sets that got called Scout sets later on in the 50's   Mike

Yes, still have mine: from 1952, a 2025 K-4 Steamer, 027 SF Animated boxcar, NYC Gondola w/ wooden barrels, two-dome Sunoco Tanker, and SP type Caboose. Looks and runs in better shape than I do.

Yes - 1953 - A 2046 Hudson steamer - and cars - Plus have the master set box and boxes for the cars (some are in rough shape).  The 0-27 track is gone.