The train set I had but never worked. Now I want one like it.

I still have my childhood set and it is "O" so I don't need to "recreate it".  The engine is on a shelf since I run all command now, and the cars are still part of my livery.

.....

Dennis

I bought a Lionel postwar 224 that I had along with the red metal caboose. I also "created" my best friend's set that I loved...a postwar AF "S" K5 and green New Haven passenger cars. I was a Lionel kid that coveted AF.

A very close friend (and forum member) from the Trackers is also recreating his first set - a Northern Pacific GP9 set. I don't remember the specifics but he has hunt down at least some of the original Postwar cars at York and purchased an MTH Premier NP GP9 to pull them. Great little train. 

I often struggle with buying the trains of my childhood (LTI era) or continue to buy the modern stuff. 

 

I usually choose to focus on the modern since I am heavily invested in Command Control.

 

Every now and then though I am very tempted to buy a Lionel Scale Mohawk, Hudson, or the 11711 Santa Fe set from the early 90's.

Although my original childhood set was destroyed when it was stored next to a water heater that broke, Marx was making about 300,000 sets a year (I have heard) about then, so it was easy to replace with a duplicate several years ago.  It is really easy to go off on tangents and veer away from your financially rational collecting theme.  I'd

guess that many of the cars in your set had O scale equivalents then.  If you want to

jump into that with both feet, you might track down the HO cars, which I can't believe

are rare, or expensive, on the net, etc., and then use them to match to, to hunt O versions.  This, IF you remember them all....You may find a WILD price difference between an old HO Athearn F unit, and current O versions...

Scott, I know the feeling....silver SWIFT reefer, yellow ARMOUR boxcar, Pennsy crane car and tender, PRR bobber caboose.  Ah, the memories 

 

--Greg 

I took my LIONEL 2026 freight set and gave it to my first grandson.  I played with it from about 1948 and had it rehabbed twice.  Time for another child to enjoy it.

Hello guys and gals.........

 

I had the Tyco H.O. dark blue and yellow Santa Fe F-9 and red boxcar, blue hopper,green flatcar with 3 color tractors and red caboose. I ran it alot back in early 70's.  It was a good diesel and i never forgotten the number #4015,someday i would like to recreate that H.O. train.

 

the woman who loves the S.F.#5021

Tiffany

Maybe it was this one ...(3rd one down)

 

 

http://hoseeker.net/tycoinform...ocatalog1973pg06.jpg

 

 

 

I know it does not have the Virginian hopper...but Tyco was known to substitute same cars with different road names.

 

 

My wife who was my girl friend thirty years ago took me to a train show at the old Philadelphia convention center. I met Lou Palumbo of the Underground RR and CTT fame there.

I asked Lou if he could find me my first train set, a Lionel LV 44 Tonner. I gave him a check and about three weeks later I received a box with my set in it.

I then called him to find out if he had a Postwar Lionel GG1 and a Lionel Hudson in stock, he did.Well that day another check went out to the Underground RR and my two engines showed up at my door before Lou even received the check.

 

From then on I was hooked. I gravitated to more local dealers over the years but Lou's table at York is always a must stop to this day.

 

Oh yea, I still have the LV set on display and every now and then I pull it down to run it. Got to have my dose of Ozone now and then.

My sons' first train sets are stored safely. The tracks and transformers are who knows where, but the locomotives and rolling stock are safe. My original locomotive and caboose are still intact. The cars were pretty much shot, but replacements are readily available. I might pick up some off eBay just to have a complete set.

I have a ton of tyco night glow, remember the brass track blues? Just horrible frustration. I think I still have some of those cars! Remember all the dirt that would pile up on those plastic wheels. I had Mantua set as well ....ah memories.

The Cannonball. Christmas 1976, 5 years old. Greatest set ever. Found this one last spring and had to have it. One look at the box shows that it was the greatest set of all time. Kinda miss those MPC set box graphics.

And here I thought it was a thread on second thoughts for that Acela Set....

 

This hopper looked like the HO hopper I had in my original Tyco set (you can see it on the floor in the first picture). I have a really nice train collection of mostly, VA, WV roads with some tinplate thrown in. Now I find myself wanting to recreate my original set with O-Gauge trains. I found myself looking at Santa Fe F-3 locomotives this past York.

Go for it! As long as you are NOT wasting your $$ on the Tyco set!

       

True I miss those but even more I miss the ones with the paintings. Those were cool. They really played to the imagination of the kids. But they don't really make trains for kids anymore.

Nice thread Scott,

 

     Here's what's left of my childhood  HO train set. I'm pretty sure it's a Atlas 460 steam engine and it doesn't work. I also have an LGB G gauge train set that is from

1978 I think, and it works great.

 

Alex

I was born in August of 1949 and that Christmas I had my first Lionel train set. It had a 1033 transformer, gondola w/barrels, Sunoco tank car, cupola caboose, a generic steam engine and tender. I've seen pictures of it in my 1949 Lionel catalog. I've thought about trying to find it on Ebay but the nostalgia bug hasn't hit me hard enough to do that. Besides, my modern trains just do so much more!

I still have my first set, so no need to recreate it.

 

My grandpa and his brothers received a used Lionel 2055 hudson from their Uncle one Christmas in the 1950's along with a 1033 transformer to add on to their 1513S freight powered by a 2037 steamer.  They didn't get any cars with that locomotive, so I bought the cars to recreate a 1953 1503WS freight set.  Great fun trying to hunt all the cars down at decent prices.  My dad also added a second 2055 to the collection as well when we found one like new with it's original boxes on Ebay.  I retrofitted (not permanent) a front coupler to that one so we can doublehead them which is very fun.

WOW Scott, you gave me a scare. It took some reading but I was afraid you were going to say you were going to (gulp) H.O.!

 

My first train was an American Flyer Santa Fe PA/B w/ three aluminum passenger cars. For quite a while I have been thinking long and hard about doing the same thing. Reproduce it in O. Still holding off as there are several N&W Steamers on my get-list.

 

Under the circumstances, I'd say "go for it" (unless there is still a must-have N&W steamer not currently on your roster).

 

Just my $0.02

 

Gilly

Brr,     I bought the same set for my son in 1976.   Nice set.   He never liked trains so when he didn't play with them I HAD to.

Same set, same Christmas, same age!  Agree... easily the greatest set of all time.  Lucky enough to still have mine... sans the box, track, & the yellow stakes on the flatcar... been meaning to get some new stakes.   

Scott,

I received my first set for my 9th birthday, so that would be 1973. It was a Tyco set, as yours appears to be, and included a green Penn Central F9 (just what every kid in Oklahoma wanted!~), that silver Virginian hopper, a green WM flat with three pipe load segments, ATST El Capitan boxcar, and red steel PC caboose (kid down the street had the same ATSF set Tiffany had. That was the one I always wanted) Still have it. Still run it. Can post pics if you want...

 

redrockbill

I tried to recreate my original set however my then young son who never met a train he didn't like ripped open the boxes and eventually broke most of the cars. I gave up thereafter as that really wasn't were my focus was for trains.

 

You can find out more about your set and what it contained here.

 

http://tycotrain.tripod.com/tycotrains/

 

Steve

Steve, Thanks for the link---here is a picture of the set I had.

 

 

In the long history of toy and model trains, I don't believe any manufacture for the general market has made better built, more reliable, and more quiet running trains, than LGB.  Marklin comes darn close, but in the mass consumer market I still think the gold goes to LGB.

Here is my first train set the Sears Lionel Santa Fe space and military set I received Christmas 1962. I still remember my mom telling not to rip the boxes which was almost impossible. My favorite was the missile launching car. Great fun! 

When I did get back into trains in the early 1980's I also bought the same LGB passenger set.

 

franktrain

 

Scott, I say go for it.  Re-creating that train in O sounds like it would be a fun project.  You can research the likely candidates for the rolling stock in the next few months (you should have no problem finding a Santa Fe engine), and then begin the hunt next York (and in hobby shops you may happen to visit in the mean time).  Once completed, you can finally get the satisfaction of seeing the set run like it should.

 

I'm lucky in that I still have my first set.  Don't know if it still runs or not, though (may need some servicing after 35+ years since it last ran).

 

Andy

I think I have that tyco set in the basement.   And I know I have the american flyer passenger set..........

I have a Blue and Yellow Tyco,  Sante Fe AA units in the same brown Tyco boxes you posted in your pic.

Those 2 engines and a Burlington Geep and some freight cars managed to survive the theft of over $10,000 worth of MTH trains, buildings and other stuff from my former house in TX.

Thank good my 2 Lionel sets my Dad bought me in the early 60's were not taken as well.

I don't understand why anyone would want a train set that doesn't work.

 

Pete

Nice thread you've started, Scott.  Yes, I have filled in with items to recreate two sets.  Then a 3rd one fell into my lap.

 

My wife's co-worker had bought an old house, and found a Marx set within:  one my sister had had in the fifties.  She gave it to me.  It did need some attention, having by near a large amount of, perhaps, mouse droppings.

 

 

I still have the Lionel Hudson that my grandfather gave me in 1954.  He bought it separately along with a separate hopper, gondola, tank car and caboose.  I still have all of them.  I recently had the Hudson cleaned, serviced and re-painted.  It is now the Brisbane & Bushong Railroad Hudson #106.  Here is a pic of it pulling my Polar Express passenger cars around the Christmas tree.  It still runs like a champ!

The Consolidated Foods era of the 1970s of Tyco was a disaster, You can find the items on ebay or at train meets for a reasonable price. I still have some of the TYCO Bicentennial trains packed away but let the rest of my HO go except some I had as a child. I still have my Lionel 520 set which I got for Christmas 1957 at age 4 but want to recreate a Lionel Scout set I had later with a 1060 locomotive.