Do You Still Have Your First Train Set

I still have my original train set.  The set was a Lionel 2437 WS Super O set, and it was running around the Christmas tree on Christmas morning.  The set came with a No. 637 2-6-4 steam locomotive, no. 2046W tender, no. 6361 log car, 3330 flat car with submarine kit, 6475 Pickle vat car, and 6357 illuminated caboose.  The locomotive and the cars run fine, although I did have some work done on the locomotive a number of years ago.  I keep the locomotive and cars in an inconsistent rotation on the shelves in my train room, with the locomotive always being on display, and available for operating.

Although I wouldn't have wanted to sell the trains, my parents deserve the most credit for keeping them over time.  Once I had a place of my own, they gave me the trains -- all in their original boxes.  The set box had apparently been discarded over the years, either for space reasons, or due to wear and tear.

Yes,

Early fifties Lionel 2026 Train set.  Fixed it up around a year and a half ago and became hooked on O Gauge again after years of N Gauge at Christmas.

John

I still have Lionel's Cleartrack Special I received from Santa as a kid back in 1955. Had the 2037 locomotive refurbished a few years ago and it runs just as good now as it did when new. A couple of times a year I run it around on the layout. But since it's the only conventional train I have now, it's nice just to be able to disconnect the TMCC, which takes about 2 seconds, and it runs flawlessly. Takes more juice though. This photo is from a few years back when I had an elevated loop on the layout.

Yes...Lionel set 1591 USMC W/ 212 blue Alco....Christmas 1959.....still in OB

I have my first train set.   Not sure of the exact set but pretty sure it’s from the MPC era.  I got it when I was in first grade in the 70s. Over the years I received much nicer, diecast sets but got rid of them over the years thinking I wouldn’t get back into the hobby.

This video was taken a few weeks ago before I recently found a blue Republic flat car that was part of the original set.  It was a DC engine that I converted to AC.

My first O-gauge train set is the Santa Fe Flyer Train Set from Lionel in about 2004 or so. I still have it, though I only run the engine occasionally. The cars are a permanent part of my current 12 car mixed freight. I also still have my original HO trains from the early 90s. They may be a bit beat up and have some broken parts on the outside, but the engines still run.

No I do not, but I'm proud to say that I have my wife's original train set which was purchased Dec. 8, 1951.  It's a Lionel 2-6-2 Prairie #224 with three cars.    I got lucky and scored big-time in marriage!!!

Cheers, Dave

This the Marx 999 freight set I got for Christmas in 1950 or so.  The engine is a different one as the original has a worn gear on the motor shaft.  I still run lots of Marx on my 44 year old layout.

Charlie

Yes, I do.  I know this has been posted a while back on another thread but here it is again.
I got this when I was 10 months old (1947) for Christmas (What was my dad thinking?! LOL).
Marx freight set. with the original box. I got an extra gondola for the set just to have it.  It still runs.
Also a picture of it sitting on my O gauge layout.

Yes I do. Got it as a Christmas gift at 9 months old because I won a bet with my uncle who said if I walk before Christmas he would buy me the biggest and best Lionel Trains Set made at the time. That was in 1953 and he bought me a set of 2353 War Bonnet F Units and 4 Extruded Passengers Cars and I still have them today and with a little lube they will run. I even still have the ZW Transformer he bought to go with them and it still works but the cord has been replaced and the rollers once and due now for replacement. Based on a 1953 Lionel Catalog MSRP for everything was in the range of $175.00 a huge amount of money in 1953.

Top Christmas 1987 Jackson MS , bottom left 1958/59 Pittsburgh, PA and bottom right around 1968 to 1971 timeframe Miami FL.  The years are based on where we live at the time.

Top set in the display case under glass and LED Lights today, and it now has 2 PW B Units, both Baggage Cars(Large & Small Doors) and all four numbered cars 2530 (2) 2531 (2) 2532, 2533(2) and 2534 (hardest one for me to find).

Yes. My bother and I found this set under our Christmas tree in 1962. The picture below is 50 years later, under my Christmas tree, still going strong!

Chris

LVHR

I have my second. An HO Tyco pacific locomotive from, I think, the 50s.

Yes I do.   From 1960.  I have a 1060 engine with a 1060T tender, 6404  flatcar, 3386 giraffe car and an unnumbered SP type caboose.  Don't have the transformer or the original auto for the flatcar.

In a word, NOPE!

But here is what it looked like before I destroyed it over the ears. The engine kept on running til I sold it off.

Yes, first set in 1948, I was 3. Yeah, really for my dad who always wanted a train. Born in 1903. 726 set plus extra cars. O-gauge track still on 2 -  4x6 plywood sheets to make 8x6 that slid together at xmas. Cut so they could go down basement stairs. VW transformer. 2 auto switches; milk platform; cattle platform (all still mounted). Made an oval with interior in and out siding for accessories.  I have everything including boxes, nothing sold or given away, all near perfect.

Added SF 2333 next year with 3 passengers. Added to every year until 1963 and off to college (stored in basement).

Have original catalogs from 1945 on.

Started buying again at train shows in 1991. First was maroon Lackawanna hopper for $7. Tried to fill in my wish list from old catalogs. I now have over 240 cars, engines and accessories - virtually all from train shows.

Now still set something up every xmas (nothing permanent).

Hielsie

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

In a word, NOPE!

But here is what it looked like before I destroyed it over the ears. The engine kept on running til I sold it off.

still have mine played with it for hours

Yes, I still have the Lionel, 1527 set, my parents gave me in 1955. The set runs good, but the boxes for the set are long gone.

I almost forgot it, but if it counts, I also have a wooden train set you push around the floor. I am guessing my parents got it for me when I was 1 or 2 years old. It is packed from our recent move, so no photos.

Jeff

I also have my first set from 1957, plus the track and 1033 transformer.  No boxes at all, as I have a pic of that Christmas morning with the train sitting on a straight section of track next to the tree.  I think my folks may have gotten it second hand as we were not that flush with funds.  The only switch I ever had for it until I was an adult, was one I found in the dirt of my friends back yard, along with a Sunoco tank car, abandoned and forgotten as they left to move to Brazil.  It is one thing for your best childhood friend to move across town, but Brazil??

I have the set my parents bought for me. We used a standard gage transformer (type T I think) with a separate whistle control.

2237WS From 1955:
665 Hudson Locomotive
6026W tender
6464-275 State of Maine Boxcar Variation A
6415 Sunoco Tanker
3562-50 Yellow Barrel car
6417 PRR N5c Caboose

I still have the set box and all the car and loco boxes, some in pretty rough shape and others like new. The outfit is on my current layout along with other items my parents purchased in later years. Back then, the trains were only used at Christmas time, then stored for use the next year.

I have mine from 1977, the Chesapeake Flyer set and have my Dad's American Flyer O Gauge Zephyr from 1934, the three car set.  Run my Dad's more than mine. 

Yup, at the age of 7, from 1954.  #2055, LV hopper, Sunoco tank, black gondola with barrels, Lionel Lines port hole caboose, 1033 transformer, passing siding and uncouple/unload track. 154, 151, and 153 signals. A few Plasticville buildings. Green paint and sawdust. I once looked up the set number, but have forgotten it.  The 2055 still runs and has never been in the shop, not even for brushes. It has approximately 9 billion scale miles on it. Paid for by my single Mom (a week's salary), delivered by S. Claus, and assembled by two guys in the neighborhood, Mr. Bud Dennis, cabinet maker, and Mr. D. Harries Young, electrician. Years later, when I was a teenager and able to thank them, they told me that they had fun assembling the layout and were impressed with the quality of the trains.

I have my original 224 engine and all the cars that was my Christmas present in 1949.  The engine has been rebuilt several times and it still runs strong on level track, no magnatraction.  I also have my 2373 CP F3 and all the Lionel Lines passenger cars (parents passed on the CP cars) which was my 1957 Christmas present

I have my original HO engine!

Which first train set? I've actually had 2.

First one was back in 1956 or 57 (attached picture). Yes, I know the filename says 1955, but it was 56 or 57:

That train set was run until mid-60s. Then I went into the USAF for 24 years. When I got out it was never ran again. Eventually sold it.

Then I started over in 2009. 6-30123 - Boy Scouts of America® 0-8-0 Freight Set (0-8-0 Steam Loco 1910). Unfortunately I do not have any pics of the train, but here's the box which I still have with the trains inside:

Here's a pic of the train on a layout sometime later with some of the additional rolling stock issued within a couple years after 2009:

Yes, I still have my first train! It was a Santa Claus present I received for Christmas, 1956.
It’s the Lionel 1615 switcher set from 1956 and included the Wheel Car, Crane Car, and Work Caboose. I have loved it for all these years, and it still runs.
I love it.

I don't have pictures available as everything is packed away in NJ.  Flying back next month to break them out and run them.  I can't remember which came first, the 601 Seaboard, the 736 Berk, the 2350 NH (which a friend dual motored for me), or the 2373 Canadian Pacific set, which apparently my dad supposedly bought for me when I was five (doesn't everyone have a similar story).  I doubt I was allowed to run the 2373 by myself for several years.

I also still have my father's pride & joy which was the prewar 752 Union Pacific M10000.  That is a great piece to run as long as there aren't any grades. 

Good memories and all still operate like the day they were new, although showing some age/usage!

I still have my first Lionel set I received from Santa in 1956.  I still have the entire set headed by the 2065 steam locomotive.  The cars included in the  set are the Sunoco 3 dome tank car, NYC Pacemaker operating boxcar,  operating log dump car, operating milk car and Lionel Lines porthole caboose ( with one coupler only )  Here are some photos of the 2065 locomotive on my current  layout.  I changed out the pellet smoke unit for a liquid smoke unit.  The engine is in working order and runs fine! I don't have photos of the entire train and will try to take those/post them soon.  

Isn't it amazing how these old engines just keep running and running? Those of us with Lionel engines from the early 50's, are running equipment that is over 60 years old, almost 70 years old. I would bet that today's trains, with all the electronics, will not be running in 65 or 70 years.

Jeff

My first train set was actually my Fathers Lionel 261 (circa 1930's) that is still running on my layout today. In a 1968 Christmas photo that train and my first very own American Flyer train are running around our Christmas Tree. Over the years I collected many Lionel Trains and when we moved I decided I had to get rid of some of my trains. Unfortunately I sold the American Flyer, I shouldn't have....I miss them! This photo is all I have left of my first train...                                                                                                                                                                                I restored all the Lionel cars but the 261 Engine is original and runs like a top.

Here is my first train set, #11560, running on my layout. I'm just starting to add scenery to the layout.

@mowingman posted:

Isn't it amazing how these old engines just keep running and running? Those of us with Lionel engines from the early 50's, are running equipment that is over 60 years old, almost 70 years old. I would bet that today's trains, with all the electronics, will not be running in 65 or 70 years.

Jeff

I still run my switcher ( A.T.& S.F.  # 6220 ) boxcar , searchlight car , gondola and work caboose from 1956 on occasion.   

   I had to replace the reverse mechanism in the switcher and some wiring and replace couplers on a couple of the cars.   The transformer is in a box .....started smoking really bad and the wire is very brittle.

You could be right about the new stuff  " not be running in 65 or 70 years "..............I'm pretty sure WE won't have to be worried about it.

Kinda-sorta two first trains… since I’ve become a command control snob, they are now shelf queens, but I still have all the cars , no boxes , and I even have a few original smoke pellets in the original bottle and some of the “fuel pellets” for the boat (but I am missing the nozzle for the end of the tube coming out of the boat). The lower shelf in the two picks below is my first set from 1962 or 63. The upper shelf is my brother’s first set from a year or two before mine.

My wife’s uncle sent us his first train set plus accessories. A 2025 from 1954. My first set was a TYCO from 1970’s.

@Apples55 posted:

Kinda-sorta two first trains… since I’ve become a command control snob, they are now shelf queens, but I still have all the cars , no boxes , and I even have a few original smoke pellets in the original bottle and some of the “fuel pellets” for the boat (but I am missing the nozzle for the end of the tube coming out of the boat). The lower shelf in the two picks below is my first set from 1962 or 63. The upper shelf is my brother’s first set from a year or two before mine.

That is one creative use of space. Thanks for sharing that special part of your room.

Yes, I still have most of the train set.  A Lionel 1503WS set made in 1954 and I got it for Christmas in 1956. BUT as a teenager I repainted most of the cars and engine ( I made train cars and engines that were not painted worth more).

Other cars that got the paint..

Box cars #3665 and #6470

Flat cars #6844 and #6816

Crane #6460-25

I was a bad teenager

Also switch engine #614 got painted to a black Santa Fe.

Yes, it is a Lionel 1631WS steam freight with the 243 2-4-2 engine with smoke and operating headlight. I still have it.

It was a gift from my Aunt Marie to me and my brothers for Christmas in 1961. She bought the set at Montgomery Wards.

I certainly do - 1949 Christmas in New Orleans. Probably a used American Flyer set with PRR K5 No 310 and three freight cars. Still have the cars but they are in poor condition. At the time was glad that Santa liked the 2 rail track.

My Marx set, Christmas, 1939 (I was five). Got my first Lionel set two years later. My mom subsequently donated the Marx set to a WWII scrap metal drive. Pictured is an identical set I purchased from a new England party about twenty years ago. Runs well after 83 years.