At what age did you receive your first electric train?

Me and my dad got an ho train 1974 (I was 4) ,I got my first o scale in 1980 at a yard sale it was a 2338 & 621 with some cars (I was 10 ) I had both  ho & o until 2004 Thats when I went totally to o scale. 

01/01/57

First one (a 2037) was given to me by my Grandfather on my first birthday, it was a family tradition. On my second I got an Army missile launcher engine, I destroyed it before I was 5. The 2037 and many land, sea, & air cars are still alive though. My first adult purchase? A GG1.  

12/25/1972 A Lionel silver star MPC set.

First train set Christmas morning 1954, Marx Freight Set.  I still have it, and it still runs.  Never lost my love of trains.  Was able to get into the hobby in 1986.  Nothing gives me more pleasure than running three rail trains.

Many thanks,

Billy C    

I was about five years old when my Dad took me to a toy store somewhere in Union, New Jersey on Route 22. There were many Lionel train sets and he got me one with a steam engine. and the work car, cities service tanker and an Allis Chambers car.

Alan Graziano

I received my Lionel set when I was 4 month's old for Christmas. I quit playing with it at about 13/14 yrs. old and got back into it at 40 yrs. old.

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Dennis

I was 58 and purchased my 1st train. But, I have sure as heck been buying them since that 1st one. Some would say I been trying to catch up probably to fast. I sure enjoy the hobby.

I made sure my sons got one at a very young age as well as my grandson.My excuse for starting so late would be I just did not have the time or money during those years with a family. I know for sure my Dad and Mom didn't with me.

Received my first train set when I was 7 (1961),

Left the hobby sometime in my teens

Re-entered the hobby in 1992 when my son became interested in Thomas

Steve

It was my birthday in 1946, my 9th. The WWII had been over for a year and an uncle who had been living in Pearl Harbor was able to liquidate his property there . He came over to Edmonton, Alberta to see my dad and suggested I should have a LIONEL TRAIN.  The set had a Berkshire #726 with the Atomic Motor. and some freight cars, transformer and an oval of "O" gauge track. (Wish I still had it)

Age 7 years, it was a Marx/ Allstate #666.   Smoke unit worked good, everything else sucked giant canal water!  First chooch I could be proud of....twelve years; and a trusty Lionel 2023 UP yellow Alco, in Excellent + shape. 027 has never had it so good since!

Christmas 1960 at age 3. An American Flyer PA passenger (1954 vintage used, but I never knew). The same year I lost my grandfather Poppy. These are two very vivid memories of that year.

Gilly

Santa brought me my first electric train in 1956 when I was 5. I was not allowed to run it by myself. Two years later Santa brought me another set. I have been running trains since then.

Got my first on Christmas day 1962  - a Lionel C&O GP7 set with space cars including the balloon launcher. Dad ended up selling the GP in about 1967 for $20, bought a Lego set with the money (which got a LOT of use). In 1969 we hit the jackpot - woman selling a garage full of postwar for $100, and that got me and my dad back into toy trains in a big way.

Jim

"Santa" brought me an American Flyer freight set complete with Ringling Bros. whistling billboard and Plasticville buildings on a layout when I was four. All that was assembled Christmas Eve while I was fast asleep. Santa then continued setting it up on Christmas Eve and added a new feature each year thereafter until I was old enough to assist "Santa" in setting it up during the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

Kenn

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First set was the 1971 Lionel Allegheny (Ford Autolite version) with the Mighty Sound of Steam.  Still have the set.

This whole thread does pretty well confirm the standard timeline for many who are in this hobby:

First train comes at a young age, and some interest develops.

Other concerns in life intervene in the early teen years and folks put the hobby aside for a while...sometimes a pretty long while.

Interest is sparked again once the individual is pretty well settled in life.  That often, but not always, happens around the mid-life years, but sometimes earlier if one has a family and a strong bond to nostalgic times in the past, particularly around the holiday season.

This is pretty much the way it unfolds for people in all scales, with most having developed an initial interest early-on via a toy train of some type.  Thus, the true importance of starter sets in this hobby.

Lionel starter set when I was 3.5 years old.......have never left the hobby.....switched scales a number of times...O, HO, N, HO and O again. I have added other hobbies....did the photography thing during the 35mm film era, Classic muscle cars in late teens and plastic models. I consider trains my #1 hobby now. If I could only keep one hobby....trains....easy.

I think I was about 5, I got a Marx set, and also inherited my brother's 2016 starter set. Picture attached.

Got my first train set when I was 1 and 1/2.

Never stopped liking model trains and never will. One fear of mine is that college will interfere with my trains (and for good reason)....but I know what Chistmas and summer breaks will be filled of.....

Mine also started at a young age in the early 50's, but I do know that they were my dad's trains. I remember that he would set them up just before Christmas and that we could not see them until he had them set up. He had a #253 pre-war passenger set, a Penna. 671 and a Seaboard 6250. It was in the early 60's when he let me play them. I guess I took them over since I was the oldest of 4 boys and they never played with them.

The first train that I purchased was a CN 8031 in 1971.

But I have never lost interest in trains, I think that I maybe fine as long as I never grow up.

Age 8, for Chrtistmas. Never gave it up. Even had a loop of track in my dorm room in college.

Here is the same train, this past Christmas, 50 years later!

Chris

LVHR

Age ten. New Haven EP5 train set.

7; 15; 52

Unlike the majority of you who received a train at an early age I had to wait until I was 52 before I got my first train.

It was a Lionel NYC Freight Starter Set that my wife purchased for me as a Chanukah gift. My wife thought this gift to be a "WOM" or waste of money but it turned out to be a life changing hobby for the both of us. 

We started to go to local train shows where we bought scenery, people, buildings, track and a lot of other railroad related items which gave us the incentive to actually start to build a layout. Our small 4'x8' layout led us to more building and eventually we used up all of the available space in our finished basement when the layout expanded to 8'x16' leaving just enough room for a TV and one comfortable chair.

Steve Tapper

Christmas 1948. I was two years old. The set was a American Flyer #312 Pennsylvania K-4 freight set. Thanks mom and dad. 

at the age of minus two months. i was born in february of 1938 and my father purchased a 253 engine, track, and transformer for me at christmas time of 1937. somehow he figured i would be a boy. i still have the engine.

I had my Dad's postwar 2358 & 616 when I was born.  We had them running on a 4x8 at my Grandmother's house.  I got MY own set when I was 10 & we  made a layout in a bedroom in our house.  I kind of lost interest when I was 20 or so.  I got back into them after my Dad passed away in 2007, when I was 30

I was one.  Dad bought me a 681 led Lionel set for Christmas, 1950.  He bought it at Troxell's Merchantile in Blandburg, PA.  An oval of '0', RW and a UCS.  $60  I still have it, minus the boxes.

It got set up and added to just about every Christmas.

Never outgrew it, but didn't find out about Lionel collectability until 1972, at ABC Hobbies in Evansville, IN.  Got bit bad there and got my first GG1, a 2340 green from Darryl Cato.

 In 1975 when I was 6 years old.

 I still have the Lionel set I got for Christmas that year 

8;  16;  56

          paul m.

1949 - Lionel 2135WS Freight Set.  My father got a Type Z transformer from my uncle to go with it.  The first time he let me run it I turned the knob up to full power and when the train hit the 0-31 curve it kept going straight at full speed.  The fact I remember that probably means that it was quite an event.  I didn't get to run it anymore that Christmas.

I was about three months short of being 2.

I was three.  Christmas of '55'  Freight set headed up by 2056 steamer.  Mom much later told me she bought it on sale for $45.00.

First train was a wind up train from Marx around 1952 when I was 6 years old. It has been gone for many but not in my heart.

Three years old for **** 1952 I got a Marx set,followed in 1953 by a Lionel 1505WS set.  Still have them both

Since you said "received" - I was 6 months old.  Born in July and first train at Christmas that year.

I got my first train at age 7, a Marx M10005 and a Lionel Merchandiser set at 10. At about 16, I couldn’t decide which I liked better, Fast trains, fast cars or fast woman. After a brush with slot cars I got into HO gauge at age 23. I returned to O gauge at age 51.
I still have my childhood trains.

Electric trains in my family pre-date me by about 3 years.  All HO

I received my first electric train, the TYCO Silver Streak at 13 years old.  I also had a Mattel HotLine battery powered train at 7 and a wind-up HO set at 10.

I bought my first O gauge train, the Lionel Cannonball Express at age 23.  These photos were taken 20 years later.

I also rewarded myself with my first standard gauge train, Lionel Commodore Vanderbilt when I was 40, and bought my own house.

I can't say I ever lost interest in model or toy trains, but there were plenty of times I was caught up in other interests.  

I got my first train when I was 10 years old.It was 1974,and my dad bought me a tyco ho santa fe set that christmas.We put it on a board together,and I'll never forget turning off the lights and watching that engine go round and around!We got a TCR racr set about 2 months later,and ran the race set up on trestles around the train.I never really knew what a train was until I bought an old Lionel 1666 at a garage sale 11 years ago,the rest is history,ever spare dollar I get I spend on old lionels now!