Let’s see your first train!

@prrhorseshoecurve this was also my first set. I still have it today, and it still runs great! My brothers and I ran the heck out of it when we were kids. After school and college, I left home for the Army, and my mother kept it stored for me until I retired over 20 years later. I have it stored now, in a temperature controlled room. I run it from time to time, and it always puts a big smile on my face. I have a lot of higher end, scale detailed stuff now, with all the bells and whistles, but none of them holds a place in my heart like this little Marx set.

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Its been gone for a LONG time but here are photos from an auction of what was once mine....

My first S scale train, I just finished the passenger cars today. About to make it's maiden voyage once I get the parts to fix the front pilot truck wheels.

In just a few days, it will be 45 years ago when I received my first train set for Christmas.  I was 2 years old in 1975.  My Nana and Grandpop gave me a huge bundle of boxes that were individually wrapped & tied together with a bow.  Can you guess which train it was?  If there is a winner...I'll reveal more of the story about that special night as that is where "it ALL began" and share more pictures with you!

Christmas 1957. My folks got this train at Polk Brothers in Chicago on Cottage Grove Avenue.  They bought new furniture and got a free train. The helicopter and giraffe cars were added in 1958. It still runs well.

MY first set was given to me by my Uncle for my third birthday, in 1955. It was a new 1953 vintage set comprising the following: 2046 steamer, 3462 milk car, black NYC long gondola, blue B & O double door box car, Sunoco triple dome tank car and illuminated SP style caboose, all powere by the included 1033 90 watt transformer. It’s beat up but I still have it.

Rubin

If you haven't figured it out yet, it was the "Spirit of '76" complete set!

Full disclaimer: I do not remember this night at ALL...I only know of this story from the pictures and as it was told by my parents and grandparents.

As each item of the Spirit of '76 was individually sold, my Nana had to "scout" for different places to locate all of the boxcars as the local hobby store didn't have all of them.  She found what she could not acquire at the hobby store at a toy store! 

As I unwrapped each piece of the set, I would shout "IT'S A TRAIN!"...opened another box, "IT'S ANOTHER TRAIN!"...I did this 15 times = 13 boxcars, 1 engine, and 1 caboose!

That was only HALF of the surprise.  A month or two prior, my dad was secretly building a small layout in a spare bedroom.  Not only for the purpose of running my new train set, but also to run my Dad's trains from when he was a kid!  His first set was the 2245WS Five-Car Freight Set, he had also acquired a #2359 Boston & Maine GP-9 and a #218 Santa Fe Alco set.  As you can see in the pictures, my train rode on the elevated track while his trains ran below.

It seems so "right" to take the time to reminisce about this night since Christmas will be spent so differently for many of us this year.  Writing this has given me time to reflect on how lucky I was to receive this gift and have loving parents and grandparents who kindled inside of me a love for toy trains and watched me grow into the hobby throughout my childhood and adolescence.

Thank you, Nana and Grandpop for buying me this train.  This colorful and historical symbol of love has always been a staple of every layout that was built.  I often think of you both when I am running it and imagine the joy you must have experienced watching me unwrap each piece of the set.  Thank you Mom and Dad for "tolerating" my excitement to have trains.  Thank you Dad for your countless hours of setting up a layout ever year for Christmas and then entrusting me with your trains.  I know you often rolled your eyes at my enthusiasm for the hobby, but I am sure deep down you were happy because I was happy.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Greg, great story!  Great photos!

My early Lionels are all gone.   But I have been replacing each one over recent years.  I still have to find my early photos, but my PW Lionel replacements are front and center over today's RR.

All my other PW Lionel trains have been replaced piece by piece with present day scale renditions.

My first Lionel, from Christmas of 1976, and posed on my present-day 'test track'

SInce this pic was taken, the locomotive has had a motor swap (ever since the 1990's the original drivers suffered worn gears that had started to slip) courtesy of Ridgefield Hobbies. In doing so, the unit acquired an E-unit and headlight. This pic has appeared elsewhere on the Forum in similar threads, where I may have elaborated more on it.

---PCJ

I've had this little guy and several cars (crane car, gondola and caboose - not sure which came originally and which were added) since circa 1955.  How it survived all the years and six younger brothers I'll never understand.