Was your first train a Christmas gift?

Yes, a 1950 or 1951 American Flyer Chief set. I received it in 1960 but at age three I had no clue it was "used". It was the Christmas I lost my Grandfather "Poppy" to a massive heart attack. Despite my age, I remember that Christmas vividly.

Many thanks to my good friend Adrian for repairing it for me back in 2007. It was broken in 1967 and repairing "toys" was never a family priority. Broken toys stayed broken. Thankfully it survived for 40 years wrapped in newspaper in a cardboard box in my parent's basement.

Absolutely!  Dad got me a used AF layout on a 4 X 8' table.  51 years ago this Christmas.

Bruce

Yes.  Circa 1950.  It still runs but is a shelf queen.  I like the new command control stuff.

.....

Dennis

My Mom & Dad got me a brand new Wabash F3 passenger train set in 1956 for Christmas, however I guess a 2 yr. old can't fathom whats in front of him at that age; I don't think I really started to look forward to seeing them until I was about 4-5 years old.  I still have the set operational today

Absolutely!! Grandparents ate plenty of oatmeal!!

Yes!  My first electric train was the Lionel Blue Streak Freight for Christmas 1973.  To this day I still love hearing the Mighty Sound of Steam, chuffing and puffing in perfect sync to the motion of the drive rods.

What made it really great is that my Dad built a whole village for the train to run around. On a landscaped board were two stations, signal bridges, watchman's shack and crossing shanty, a church and a farm.  Reportedly the glue was still drying Christmas morning!  Tiny cardboard houses borrowed from the Manger scene added to the bustling village.  I was four, what an Awesome gift!  The only thing that made it better was when my brother got his own train the following year 

For the first several years, Electric trains only came out at Christmas.  But I enjoyed playing with floor trains the rest of the year.  Great topic!

Mid 70's it was a Bachmann HO set with a SF F3. My dad donated what was left of his Athern UP set that was a A/B and freight cars. Guess they got the hint when I would pull his set out and just run track as far as I could get it pushing trains back and forth on it lol. It must have been late 70s after add-ons and such, I got the tyco Chattanooga with the steamer and the baby ruth box car that had the roller full of sand or something to make the chug chug sound. Don't know what happened to the whistle billboard though. One day it worked, next it didn't.  Think my step mom "disabled" it for some reason that Christmas before I got back home with it. It never worked again. Lots of track and buildings set up on a 4x8 kept me occupied with adding lego and die cast cars to the mix and I quickly ran out of room on that sheet of plywood. Wish my mom had gotten pictures of all that during those times.

Yes....Marx Monon set in 56. Lionel New Haven F3 set in 58. Still have both.....

1959: 3361 log car and 3435 Aquarium car. Still have both and they work, too!.

1960: 128 animated News Stand....on my home layout right now.

Peter

Was born in October and I received my first train set in December of that year. This is the set that I still have to this day.

Lionel Train Set 2167WS O Gauge 4 Car Freight Set with Smoke and Built-in Whistle Contents
1 - 681 Locomotive     
1 - 2671W Tender with Built-in Whistle
1 - 6462 Super Length Gondola with Barrels     
1 - 3464 Remote Control Operating Box Car
1 - 6457 Illuminated Southern Pacific Caboose     
8 - OC Curved Track
5 - OS Straight Track     
1 - UCS Remote Control Track Set

I was finally allowed to play with it when I turned 8 but Dad always let me watch.

Christmas 1948, I was the only boy in the batch of boomers born in our family.  So naturally, pop got me a Lionel train set.  The 2026 freight set, which I still have, has been rehabbed once.  It still runs like you would expect a PW Lionel set to run.  Thanks, dad

Of course it was.  1951 Christmas.  I was 3.  Was it really for me?

I was born 3/42. Got a Marx wind-up freight set Christmas '44, and a set of Lionel 224 plus freight cars Christmas '47. Unfortunatly, I didn't get my preferred passenger set until I was 38 years old (a AF postwar K5 pulling green NH cars). To me, the idea of going somewhere had more appeal than shipping something.

I received my first train for Christmas 1957. I was 5 years old and I got a Berkshire Super O set with a ZW Transformer. I still have it.

My first train was actually a gift for my 8th birthday. But my first Christmas train, that was special. A nice Marx set from the 1950's, a Lionel 685, and a lot of track. I am in process of restoring the 495 mechanically at the moment. 5 overhauls in 5 years, but she is nearly finished.

Yes, Christmas 1944.

Yes, 1956, LV 44 ton #627, a stamped metal flat car with 3 pipes, a gondola with 4 canisters, a caboose, later an operating box car.  Still have the set mostly intact except for a chipped roof on the caboose.

No.  Was a birthday present.  A wind-up set, possibly O-gauge, possibly imported, incredibly rugged.

First electric train was.  An AF passenger set.  Green New Haven type baggage and two coaches led by a 290 Pacific.

Pete

Yup. Christmas 1985, got an HO Life-Like freight set with an 0-2-0 steam engine.  Don't remember much about it (there was a Montgomery Ward boxcar, beyond that I don't remember any particular cars).  I'm sure it's been disposed of with most of my cheaper HO stuff from multiple moves (Though I do have some of my nicer HO things in a box somewhere).  Definitely got me interested in trains. 

The interest was re-kindled a year ago when I saw the PE Streamlined Diesel set and decided to buy it for a "family" gift for around our tree (my wife & I got married several weeks before, so it was the first time it was "our" tree).  The rest is history.

Don't for sure on the first ever train, but my first electric train came at Christmas...

Mine, too. I got the O27 Lionel "Rock Island Line" set for Christmas I think when I was 7... I still have the loco from that set.

Yeah, Christmas 1953 I think. Marx tinplate.

You Betcha! Christmas morning 1947 I received a Lionel #40 Std Gauge Set. Which I still have to this day.